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The Presidential Years
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![Chronology](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/title_chronology.gif)
THE PRESIDENTIAL YEARS
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![George Washington Addressing Congress](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_photo_presidenti.jpg) |
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George Washington Addressing Congress
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association
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![1788](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1788.gif) |
After ratification by the ninth state, a federal government is born. Electors from every state unanimously chose Washington to be the first President.
In a letter to a friend he writes: In confidence I can assure youwith the world, it would obtain little creditthat my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to his place of execution.
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![1790](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1790.gif) |
Congress moves the capital from New York to Philadelphia for ten years. After that, the federal government is to move to a permanent site on the Potomac River selected by Washington, who is trusted by both North and South. |
![1791](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1791.gif) |
Washington proclaims that the new capital will be along the Potomac, from Georgetown, MD, to the north and Alexandria, VA, to the south. A Maryland newspaper promptly calls the proposed capital The City of Washington.
Washington commissions a French engineer, Major Pierre L'Enfant, to design the city.
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![Plan for the city of Washington, 1793](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_photo_pres2.gif) |
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Plan for the city of Washington, 1793
Library of Congress
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![1792](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1792.gif) |
Washington is unanimously reelected to a second term. |
![1794](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1794.gif) |
Washington marshals an armed Federal force to put down the Whiskey Rebelliona revolt, centered in Pennsylvania, against a tax on a major state export. He sees his action as a key test of the executive branchs right to back federal laws with force.
If the laws are to be trampled upon with impunity, he writes, and a minority (a small one too) is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put, at one stroke, to republican government.
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![1795](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1795.gif) |
Washington, in a rare political battle, fights successfully for Senate ratification of Jays Treaty, which is aimed at settling post-Revolution issues between America and England and asserting U.S. neutrality in conflict between England and revolutionary France. |
![1796](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1796.gif) |
Washington, who declined a third term, writes his Farewell Address, urging his fellow citizensNorthern and Southern, Atlantic and Westernto properly estimate the immense value of your national Union. |
![1799](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109065227im_/http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/images/washington_bio1799.gif) |
After less than three years of retirement in his beloved Mount Vernon, Washington dies there on December 14 of a throat infection. His last words are Tis well. In his will, he frees his slaves, numbering about 300, upon Marthas death. |
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