145 Fun Facts About George Washington

What was George Washington's role during the Constitutional Convention of 1787?

Presiding officer: Robert Morris moved his nomination on May 25, 1787 and the vote was unanimous, though Washington had needed persuading even to attend the convention.

By which nickname is George Washington most widely known?

Father of His Country was in print as early as 1778, when a Pennsylvania German almanac hailed him as 'Des Landes Vater' while the war he was leading was still far from won.

Which New Jersey town did Washington's army storm the morning after Christmas 1776, capturing most of its Hessian garrison?

Trenton: on December 26, 1776 Washington's men captured almost two-thirds of the Hessian garrison with minimal losses, a win that lifted the army's sinking morale and spurred re-enlistments.

Washington's retirement after two terms set a custom that which president was the first to break?

Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term in 1940 and a fourth in 1944; the 22nd Amendment of 1951 then turned Washington's two-term custom into law.

In the famous legend, what does young George Washington confess to damaging with his hatchet?

A cherry tree: the tale, with its line about not telling a lie, turned up only in the fifth edition of a posthumous biography in 1806 and is generally regarded as an invention.

What were Washington's dentures actually made of?

Ivory and human teeth, set in metal with springs, made up his dentures; none were wooden, and by his 1789 inauguration he had a single natural tooth left.

Who did George Washington marry in 1759?

Martha Dandridge Custis was a 27-year-old widow when they wed on January 6, 1759; her share of the Custis estate made Washington one of the wealthiest men in Virginia.

What did Washington famously cross on Christmas night, 1776?

The Delaware: Washington planned three separate crossings that night, but the icy river stopped the other two, and his own column of about 2,400 men marched on alone to attack that morning.

What key warning did Washington include in his Farewell Address of 1796?

Partisanship and foreign influence, along with sectional rivalry, were the dangers he named; the address was never delivered as a speech but ran in a Philadelphia newspaper on September 19, 1796.

Which battle effectively ended the Revolutionary War with Cornwallis's surrender?

The Siege of Yorktown ended on October 19, 1781 with Cornwallis absent: he sent his deputy with the sword, so Washington directed him to his own second-in-command, Benjamin Lincoln.

Which form of address for Washington as chief executive won out in the 1789 debate over titles?

Mr. President won out when the Senate, after debating grander styles such as 'His Highness' and 'Protector of Their Liberties', gave way to the House's plain form, which Washington accepted.

Which body, in its first-ever vote, unanimously chose Washington as president in 1789?

The Electoral College's 69 electors each gave Washington one of their two votes; he had official word only on April 14, when the secretary of Congress rode up to Mount Vernon with the letter.

Baron von Steuben, who drilled Washington's army into shape in 1778, was an officer from which European state?

Prussia: Steuben had risen only to captain in Frederick the Great's army, but Benjamin Franklin's letters from France presented him as a lieutenant general, and Washington handed him the army's training.

Where was George Washington inaugurated as the first president?

New York City, then the capital: Washington took the oath on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street on April 30, 1789, then read his inaugural address in the Senate Chamber.

Which 1754 assignment brought the 22-year-old Washington into his first clash with French forces?

The Ohio Valley expedition: Lieutenant Colonel Washington led Virginia troops toward the forks of the Ohio, where a May ambush and a July surrender set Britain and France on the road to war.

Washington's Potomac estate was renamed Mount Vernon by his half-brother in honor of whom?

A British vice admiral: Edward Vernon had commanded Washington's half-brother in the War of Jenkins' Ear, and the veteran gave his old commander's name to the estate until then called Little Hunting Creek.

Who served as Washington's first Secretary of the Treasury?

Alexander Hamilton served as the first Secretary of the Treasury from 1789 to 1795, establishing the national bank, federal tax system, and the foundation of American financial policy.

Who served as Washington's first Secretary of State?

Thomas Jefferson took up the post in March 1790 and held it until the last day of 1793; his feud with the Treasury chief over the bank and France split the government into the first two parties.

How did George Washington die in December 1799?

A throat infection closed his airway within two days of a ride through snow and sleet; his doctors bled him four times, drawing about five pints of blood, and nothing they tried eased his breathing.

What domestic uprising in 1794 did Washington personally lead troops to suppress?

The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 erupted in western Pennsylvania over a federal excise tax on distilled spirits. Washington led 13,000 militia to quell the uprising, marking the first time a sitting president commanded troops in the field.

What was the harsh winter encampment of 1777-1778 where Washington's army endured severe hardship?

Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the Continental Army's brutal winter camp of 1777-78, where disease, cold and hunger ravaged the troops; the army emerged stronger after Steuben's training that spring.

How many children did George and Martha Washington have together?

No children: the couple had none together, though they raised Martha's two children from her first marriage and, later, two of her grandchildren.

What did Washington issue in April 1793 when revolutionary France went to war with Britain?

Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793 declared that the United States would remain impartial in the conflict between France and Great Britain, establishing an early precedent for American non-interventionism.

Whose 1800 life of Washington launched legends like the boy and the hatchet?

Mason Locke Weems, a travelling parson and bookseller, wrote it to sell: the book was an instant bestseller, and he kept adding stories to later editions that no record of Washington's life supports.

What title did the Continental Congress vote Washington in June 1775?

Commander-in-Chief: Congress elected him unanimously, partly for his military experience and partly in the belief that choosing a Virginian would bind the colonies together.

Which 1794 agreement, negotiated by the Chief Justice, resolved issues with Britain and averted a second war?

The Jay Treaty got Britain to hand over the frontier forts it had promised to leave in 1783; it proved unpopular, and even Washington did not think it favorable, but it kept the peace.

What did Washington's will direct for the enslaved people he owned outright?

Freed on Martha's death: that was the will's term for the 123 people he owned; uneasy among people whose freedom waited on her dying, Martha released them early, on January 1, 1801.

Which early profession did Washington pursue as a teenager before his military career?

Land surveyor: Washington got a surveyor's license from the College of William & Mary in 1749 and took his first county surveyor post at 17; by 1752 he had bought almost 1,500 acres in the Shenandoah Valley.

Which French general marched 5,000 troops with Washington to trap Cornwallis in 1781?

Rochambeau landed at Newport with 5,000 veteran troops in 1780 and talked Washington out of attacking New York in favor of Virginia. New to siege warfare, Washington often deferred to him, yet Rochambeau never challenged his command.

What unprecedented act did Washington perform after the Revolutionary War ended in 1783?

He resigned his commission to Congress at Annapolis on December 23, 1783 and went home; George III later told the painter Benjamin West that giving up power had made Washington the most distinguished man alive.

What was the officers' plot over unpaid wages that Washington defused with a speech in March 1783 called?

The Newburgh Conspiracy collapsed when Washington, fumbling for his new spectacles, told the officers he had grown gray and almost blind in his country's service; some of them wept.

Benedict Arnold, given command of a Hudson River stronghold by Washington, plotted in 1780 to sell which fort to the British?

West Point was saved when Arnold's British contact, John Andre, was captured with the plans and later executed; Arnold narrowly escaped and spent the rest of the war in a British uniform.

Which city served as the U.S. capital for most of Washington's presidency?

Philadelphia was the seat of government from 1790 to 1800, covering most of Washington's two terms, while the permanent capital on the Potomac was under construction.

What crop did Washington switch to at Mount Vernon after finding tobacco was depleting his soil?

Wheat replaced tobacco as Mount Vernon's cash crop in the mid-1760s, and Washington went on to mill it himself, building a gristmill that turned his grain into flour for market.

Which older half-brother mentored young George Washington, introduced him to Virginia's elite and owned the Mount Vernon he later inherited?

Lawrence Washington had married into the powerful Fairfax family, whose patronage he shared with his teenage half-brother; after Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1752, George at first leased Mount Vernon from the widow.

Which 1851 Emanuel Leutze painting shows Washington standing in a boat on an icy river?

Emanuel Leutze's famous 1851 painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" depicts the Christmas 1776 crossing, though it contains many historical inaccuracies including the wrong type of boat and flag.

What honorary military rank was Washington posthumously awarded by Congress in 1976?

In 1976, Congress posthumously promoted Washington to "General of the Armies of the United States," ensuring no U.S. military officer could ever outrank him.

Who was Washington's Vice President during both of his terms?

John Adams served as Vice President for both of Washington's terms (1789-1797). Under the original rules, the runner-up in the presidential contest became Vice President.

Which monarch's 1785 gift of a stud donkey, which Washington named Royal Gift, launched his mule-breeding at Mount Vernon?

Charles III of Spain had to give his personal leave, because exporting Spain's prized jack donkeys without royal consent was forbidden; Washington believed mules would transform American farming.

In May 1782, Colonel Lewis Nicola wrote to Washington proposing that he take what title?

King of the United States: Nicola argued the title might suit a new mixed government; Washington replied the same day that no event of the war had given him more painful feelings.

As a schoolboy, Washington copied out 110 rules on which subject?

Good manners: the 'Rules of Civility' he wrote out at about 14 were not his own maxims but a copying exercise, taken from an English translation of a French guide of the late 1500s.

Which French aristocrat became one of Washington's closest aides and almost a surrogate son?

The Marquis de Lafayette was commissioned a major general at 19 and bonded with Washington soon after they met in 1777; two years later he named his only son Georges Washington.

According to a family legend, which Philadelphia upholsterer sewed the first Stars and Stripes at Washington's request?

Betsy Ross's story surfaced only in 1870, when her grandson presented it to a historical society; historians have found nothing from the time to confirm it, though she did sew flags for Pennsylvania's navy.

Which opposition party formed in the early 1790s to fight Washington's financial program?

The Democratic-Republicans rarely used that name: they called themselves Republicans, and they formed around opposition to the Treasury's bank and debt plans, which Washington had signed into law.

Which state did Washington make a special presidential tour of in 1790, right after it ratified the Constitution?

Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen to ratify, in May 1790; Washington's 1789 tour of New England had left it out, so that August he made a separate trip to Newport and Providence.

Which Washington venture at Mount Vernon was among America's largest of its kind by 1799?

A whiskey distillery: farm manager James Anderson persuaded him to build it in 1797, and by 1799 it was turning out nearly 11,000 gallons a year, one of the estate's most profitable ventures.

What was Washington's personal religious denomination?

Anglican: baptized into the Church of England and for years a parish vestryman, he nonetheless regularly left services before communion, a habit that still feeds debate over his private beliefs.

Which horse, calm under gunfire, was Washington's favorite mount in the Revolutionary War?

Nelson, a gift in 1778 from Virginia's Thomas Nelson, stayed steady under cannon fire, while Washington's grey, Blueskin, shied from it, so Nelson was the horse he rode into battle.

What was the alleged 1777-78 plot by officers to undermine Washington's command called?

The Conway Cabal ended badly for its namesake: Thomas Conway resigned, was shot in the mouth in a duel with one of Washington's supporters, and wrote the general an apology.

On his deathbed, what did Washington instruct Tobias Lear to do before laying him in the family vault?

Wait three days: Washington dreaded being buried alive and asked that his body not go into the vault any sooner; he died on December 14, 1799, and the funeral was held on the 18th.

Which relic of the French Revolution did Washington receive in 1790 and put on show at Mount Vernon?

The key to the Bastille was sent by an old comrade in France and crossed the Atlantic by a chain of couriers; from 1797 it had a place of honor in the first-floor passage at Mount Vernon.

What leisure activity was Washington passionate about and frequently pursued as a Virginia gentleman?

Fox hunting: most of the dogs at Mount Vernon were hounds, and the American Kennel Club credits Washington with helping to develop the American Foxhound from English, French and local stock.

Who drafted a farewell address for Washington in 1792, when he first considered retiring after one term?

James Madison drafted a valedictory address in 1792, shelved when Washington agreed to stay on; four years later the text was heavily rewritten by another adviser before Washington made the final edits.

On which date in 1732 was George Washington born?

February 22 is the new-calendar date: he was born on February 11, 1731 under the Julian calendar, and his birthday moved a year and eleven days when Britain changed calendars in 1752.

Which part of Washington's government is nowhere in the Constitution?

The cabinet: the 1787 convention turned down proposals for such a council, so Washington improvised one, first gathering all his department heads together on November 26, 1791.

Washington left the North American mainland only once, sailing in 1751 with his ailing half-brother to which island?

Barbados was chosen in hope its climate would ease his half-brother's tuberculosis; instead George caught smallpox there, which left him lightly scarred but immune for life.

What controversial order did Washington give in 1777 to protect the Continental Army from smallpox?

Mass inoculation of the troops followed Washington's judgment that smallpox was a greater threat than 'the Sword of the Enemy'; recruits were sent to be given a mild case before they joined the army.

Which tribute did Henry Lee pay Washington in his 1799 eulogy?

First in the hearts of his countrymen ended the line that began 'first in war, first in peace'; John Marshall's biography printed it as 'fellow-citizens', but Lee's wording is the one that stuck.

Which Roman farmer-general, a byword for civic virtue, was Washington often likened to?

Cincinnatus, in the Roman story, left his plow standing in the field to lead the city as dictator and went back to it once the enemy was beaten; Cincinnati takes its name, by way of a veterans' society, from him.

How did Washington save his army after it was trapped at Brooklyn in August 1776?

A night evacuation to Manhattan: on August 29-30, 1776, boats ferried the whole trapped force of some 9,000 across the East River under cover of darkness and a dawn fog, without the loss of a single life.

At which Virginia plantation was George Washington born in 1732?

Popes Creek, on the Potomac, belonged to a nephew when the house where Washington was born was lost to fire in 1779; it was never rebuilt, and a memorial house was later put up near the site.

Washington's 1754 ambush of a French patrol fired the opening shots of which war?

The French and Indian War opened with that skirmish in the Pennsylvania woods, where the French commander Jumonville was killed; within two years it had widened into the worldwide Seven Years' War.

In 1755 Washington served as an aide to which British general on the march to Fort Duquesne?

Edward Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Native fighters shattered his column near the Monongahela; Washington wrote home that two horses had been shot under him and four bullets had torn his coat.

What password did Washington choose for his army's surprise attack on the morning of December 26, 1776?

Victory or Death was the countersign he chose for the night; with enlistments about to expire and his army melting away, Washington was staking nearly everything on one attack.

Which New York chancellor, later a negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase, administered Washington's first oath as president?

Robert R. Livingston, New York's senior judge, gave the oath because the federal courts had not yet been created; he then cried 'Long live George Washington, President of the United States!'

To which colonial legislature was Washington first elected in 1758?

The House of Burgesses seated him for Frederick County in 1758, three years after a failed first bid; like other candidates of the day, he paid for the food and drink that voters enjoyed at the polls.

Thomas Pinckney's 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain guaranteed Americans navigation rights on which river flowing to the Gulf of Mexico?

Spain held New Orleans, so western farmers could reach the sea only with its leave; the treaty guaranteed American navigation of the Mississippi River and settled the border.

Conotocaurius, the name Iroquois leaders gave Washington in 1753, is usually translated how?

Town Destroyer was first given to his great-grandfather John Washington, who fought Native peoples in the late 1600s; the Iroquois who met young George in 1753 passed the old name on to him.

Washington's mother, Mary, was born with which surname?

Ball: Mary Ball was orphaned by the age of twelve and widowed in 1743; she never remarried, and lived just long enough to see her eldest son become president, dying in August 1789.

Which property near Fredericksburg did Washington inherit when his father died in 1743?

Ferry Farm was George's on paper from the age of 11, but his mother went on living there until 1772, when he bought her a house in Fredericksburg; he sold the farm two years later.

Washington's step-grandson built which mansion as a memorial to him?

Arlington House passed from its builder to his daughter, who married Robert E. Lee; during the Civil War the Army seized the estate and turned its grounds into a national cemetery.

Whose pamphlet, opening 'These are the times that try men's souls', was read to Washington's troops in December 1776?

Thomas Paine's 'The American Crisis' came off the press on December 19, 1776, with the army in retreat and enlistments running out; a week later the same soldiers went back on the attack.

Where did Washington surrender to a French force in July 1754?

Fort Necessity: the surrender paper was in French, and through a poor translation Washington unwittingly signed an admission that a French officer had been 'assassinated', a line France made much of.

Which general did Washington have court-martialed after the retreat at Monmouth in 1778?

Charles Lee, Washington's second-in-command, ordered a retreat at Monmouth on June 28, 1778, was berated by Washington on the field, demanded a court-martial and was suspended from command for a year.

With whom did Washington draft the 1774 Fairfax County resolves that urged ending the slave trade?

George Mason, his Fairfax County neighbor, wrote most of the resolves; the two stayed friends until the late 1780s, when Mason refused to sign the Constitution and they finally broke over it.

Washington forced the British out of Boston in March 1776 by fortifying which high ground?

Dorchester Heights was fortified in a single night with cannon Henry Knox had hauled from Fort Ticonderoga; with his fleet and the harbor under those guns, General Howe gave up the city on March 17, 1776.

In 1778 Washington had Major Benjamin Tallmadge set up which spy network to watch the British in occupied New York?

The Culper Ring's chief agents were Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend, a merchant who posed as a Loyalist and wrote society news; both signed their reports with the alias 'Samuel Culper'.

What award did Washington create in August 1782, the forerunner of the Purple Heart?

The Badge of Military Merit, a purple cloth heart, was meant for ordinary soldiers at a time when European armies honored only high officers; just three sergeants are known to have received it.

Where did Washington bid farewell to his officers in December 1783?

Fraunces Tavern in New York hosted the farewell in its Long Room on December 4, 1783, nine days after the last British troops left the city they had held for seven years.

Which 1783 agreement saw Britain acknowledge the independence of the United States?

The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783; when the last British troops sailed from New York that November, Washington led his army back into the city he had lost seven years before.

How many justices sat on the Supreme Court created by the Judiciary Act of 1789?

Six: the Judiciary Act of 1789 created a chief justice and five associate justices; Washington appointed the entire first bench, naming John Jay chief justice.

Which 1790 law fixed the permanent U.S. capital on the banks of the Potomac River?

The Residence Act came out of a dinner-table bargain that traded the capital's site for federal assumption of state debts; it left the exact spot on the river for Washington himself to choose.

Which was the first new state admitted to the Union during Washington's presidency?

Vermont had governed itself as an independent republic for 14 years, kept out of the Union by New York's claim to its land; once that was settled for $30,000, it joined as the 14th state in March 1791.

What drew the first presidential veto in U.S. history, cast by Washington in 1792?

A congressional apportionment act was vetoed on April 5, 1792, the first use of the power; within five days Congress had passed a different formula, which Washington signed on April 14.

Who administered the oath at Washington's second inauguration in 1793?

Associate Justice William Cushing administered the oath on March 4, 1793 in the Senate Chamber of Congress Hall, Philadelphia; Washington's second inaugural address ran just 135 words.

Which French minister did Washington demand that France recall in 1793?

Edmond-Charles Genêt had been arming privateers in American ports against Washington's express wishes; when a new regime at home ordered his arrest, Washington let him stay, and he never went back.

Why did President Washington rotate his enslaved servants out of Pennsylvania every few months?

State law would have freed them: slaves held in Pennsylvania for six months could claim their freedom, so Washington sent his household home in turns under a pretext meant, he wrote, to 'deceive both them and the Public'.

Which enslaved valet served at Washington's side throughout the Revolutionary War?

William Lee had been bought by Washington in 1768; the will singled him out, praising 'his faithful services during the Revolutionary War' and leaving him $30 a year for life.

Which enslaved chef escaped from the Washingtons' household in 1797 and was never recaptured?

Hercules Posey slipped away from Mount Vernon on Washington's 65th birthday; research published in 2019 traced him to New York City, where he lived free until his death in 1812.

What did Martha Washington do with her husband's letters to her shortly before she died?

Burned them: in her last years Martha destroyed forty years of correspondence with her husband, seemingly to protect their privacy, which is why so little of the couple's own voice survives.

What 1830 incident confirmed the need for the new family tomb at Mount Vernon?

An attempt to steal his skull: in 1830 a disgruntled former employee broke into the old vault and took a skull, which proved to be a Blackburn in-law's; George and Martha were moved to the new tomb in 1831.

What gilded figure tops the cupola of the Mount Vernon mansion?

A dove of peace with an olive branch in its beak: Washington ordered the gilded weathervane from a Philadelphia craftsman in the summer of 1787 and specified the design himself.

Which structure ended the D.C. obelisk's reign as the world's tallest in 1889?

The Eiffel Tower took the record after only five years; the obelisk itself had taken 36 years to finish, standing as a 152-foot stump for more than two decades after the money ran out in 1854.

The 1884 capstone of the D.C. obelisk honoring Washington was tipped with which then-costly metal?

Aluminum: the 100-ounce pyramid was the largest piece of the metal yet cast, made when aluminum was still a costly rarity; two years later a new smelting process sent its price tumbling.

Washington had belonged to which fraternal order since 1752?

The Bible at Washington's first inauguration belonged to the Freemasons, and members of his Masonic lodge performed a ceremony at his funeral; he had joined in 1752.

George Washington remains the only U.S. president never to have formally joined what kind of organization?

A political party never claimed Washington, even as two rival factions took shape among his own advisers. Every later president has been formally affiliated with one.

Which artist painted the unfinished 1796 portrait of George Washington that became the model for the one-dollar bill?

Gilbert Stuart never delivered the canvas to Washington. He kept it unfinished for the rest of his life, using it as the model for copies that he sold for $100 each.

Which disease killed some 5,000 people in the national capital in 1793, sending President Washington back to his estate?

Yellow fever emptied the city: about 20,000 residents fled within weeks, federal officials among them. Doctors of the day had no idea that mosquitoes spread it.

Which document, ratified under President Washington, grew from twelve proposals that Congress sent to the states?

The Bill of Rights began as twelve proposed amendments, of which the states approved ten at the time. One leftover, on congressional pay, finally became the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992.

Which building's cornerstone did President George Washington lay in the new federal city in 1793?

The Capitol was then known as the Congress House, and Washington set its first stone in person. Its exact location was lost during two centuries of attack and rebuilding.

On the balcony of which building, then home to Congress, did George Washington take his first presidential oath?

Federal Hall was a converted city hall, and Washington stepped out to its second-floor balcony to be sworn in. The building was demolished in 1812; a statue of him stands on the site.

What was notable about the dark brown suit George Washington chose to wear at his first presidential inauguration?

It was American-made, and Washington wore it with white silk stockings, silver shoe buckles and a steel-hilted sword. A dark red overcoat went over the top.

Which institution did President Washington charter in 1791, despite advisers' doubts that it was constitutional?

A national bank was the centerpiece of his Treasury Secretary's financial plan, and Washington signed the bill only once he was convinced the Constitution allowed it. The twenty-year charter ran out in 1811.

Which engineer did President Washington appoint in 1791 to plan the new federal capital city on the Potomac?

Pierre L'Enfant had served on Washington's wartime staff before drawing the capital's broad avenues. His plan later inspired the layouts of Brasília, New Delhi and Canberra.

What did George Washington suspect about the first national census of 1790, which put the population at 3.9 million?

It missed many people, Washington believed: he and his Secretary of State both thought the official total of 3,929,214 was too low.

Which state joined the Union in 1792 as the 15th, four years before neighboring Tennessee, under President Washington?

Kentucky was admitted on unusual terms: Congress passed the act letting it in before the new state had even drafted a constitution.

What supplied the vast majority of federal revenue in the 1790s, when George Washington's government had no income tax?

Duties on imports brought in more than 87 percent of the government's income through the decade. The tariff law behind them was the first major act the new Congress passed.

Which institution, created by a 1792 law Washington signed, was first directed by the scientist David Rittenhouse?

The United States Mint arrived in the same law that created the dollar, and it began life inside the State Department. Its first home was the first building the federal government raised under the Constitution.

Which former Boston bookseller, George Washington's wartime artillery chief, served as his first Secretary of War?

Henry Knox simply stayed in the job he had held since 1785 under the old Confederation Congress. At 25 he had hauled captured British cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston.

What did President Washington sign for the first time in 1790, issued to Samuel Hopkins for his work with potash?

A federal patent, the first ever issued, also carried the signatures of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State. Washington had signed the patent law itself only that April.

In the 1790 dinner-table bargain that put the capital on the Potomac, what did the Treasury Secretary win in exchange?

Paying off state debts through the national government was the heart of his financial plan, and it had twice failed in the House. The South got the capital in return.

Attacks on American ships by pirates from which North African state led Washington to sign the Naval Act of 1794?

Algiers had captured eleven more American ships in 1793, so Congress ordered a squadron of frigates. The act promised to stop building them if peace came, yet Washington later pressed Congress to finish three.

Which lawyer served as George Washington's first Attorney General and later took over as his second Secretary of State?

Edmund Randolph had introduced the plan for a new national government at the Constitutional Convention, then became one of only three delegates present at the end who refused to sign the result.

Which 1794 battle, won by General Anthony Wayne, ended the Northwest Indian War during George Washington's presidency?

Fallen Timbers came after a disastrous American defeat, when Washington recalled Wayne from civilian life to rebuild the army. The Miami chief Little Turtle called him the chief who never sleeps.

Through which medium did George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address first reach the public?

A daily newspaper, Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, printed the letter about ten weeks before the presidential electors voted. Papers around the country reprinted it almost at once.

Which body marks George Washington's birthday each year by having one member read his Farewell Address aloud?

The Senate has alternated the reading between the two parties since 1896, and each reader then signs a black leather-bound journal. The House gave up the same custom in 1984.

Which 1949 pact broke with Washington's Farewell Address advice by tying the United States to a permanent alliance?

NATO, created by the North Atlantic Treaty, came more than 150 years after the address urged Americans to steer clear of permanent alliances.

Which burden did Washington's Farewell Address urge Americans to clear quickly in peacetime, sparing later generations?

The national debt, he wrote, should be kept down by avoiding war and needless borrowing. He allowed, though, that spending on preparation can head off a far costlier conflict.

Which institution did Washington's Farewell Address call a threat to republican liberty if it grew too large?

The military, if overgrown, struck the old general as a danger to liberty, and he argued that the security of a united country would make a large force unnecessary.

Which two things did Washington's Farewell Address name as essential supports of the nation's political prosperity?

Religion and morality could not be separated, he argued: the address cautions against supposing a nation can stay moral without faith. It also calls for spreading knowledge among the people.

By which means alone did George Washington's Farewell Address say Americans should alter the powers of their government?

Constitutional amendments were the only proper route, he wrote, never force. He added a caution: changes should wait until time and thought have shown they are truly necessary.

Which Southern politician read out Washington's Farewell Address during his marathon 1957 civil rights filibuster?

Strom Thurmond held the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes, reciting along the way the election laws of every state and a string of Supreme Court decisions.

Which president was the first to win a third term, breaking the tradition George Washington began by retiring?

Franklin Roosevelt went on to win a fourth as well. Decades earlier, talk of a third term for Ulysses S. Grant had evaporated in the face of public and congressional opposition.

Which holiday did George Washington first proclaim as a national day, decades before it became a yearly fixture in 1863?

Thanksgiving came about after Congressman Elias Boudinot of New Jersey proposed that both houses jointly ask the president to name a day of thanks. Washington named the day that October.

Which borrowed object did George Washington swear on at his first inauguration, starting a lasting presidential custom?

A Bible has been the convention ever since, with presidents resting the left hand on one. Washington's was opened at random to Genesis, and he kissed it afterwards.

Which record is held by the inaugural address George Washington gave at the start of his second term in 1793?

Shortest ever given: the whole address ran to just 135 words, and Washington delivered it indoors at Congress Hall rather than before a crowd in the street.

Which yearly message did George Washington deliver to Congress in person, a custom dropped in 1801 and revived in 1913?

The State of the Union struck the third president as too much like a king's speech from the throne, so he sent his in writing. Woodrow Wilson brought back the spoken version.

Which 1951 addition to the Constitution turned the retirement tradition begun by George Washington into binding law?

The 22nd Amendment cleared Congress in 1947 and took effect once 36 of the then 48 states had ratified it. Until then the limit had rested on custom alone.

Which enslaved woman fled the President's House in 1796 and eluded George Washington's efforts to recapture her?

Ona Judge reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by ship and settled nearby. She was never freed, so in law she was a fugitive when she died there 52 years later.

Which presidential power did George Washington assert in 1796 by refusing the House papers on a treaty with Britain?

Executive privilege was his answer to the demand: since the House has no part in approving treaties, he reasoned, it had no legitimate claim to the negotiating papers.

What did the first Supreme Court decline to give President Washington, saying it would violate the separation of powers?

An advisory opinion was off limits, the Chief Justice replied by letter: a president who wants legal advice should turn to his Attorney General and department heads instead.

Since 1971, the federal holiday for George Washington's Birthday has always been held on which day of the week?

Monday was fixed by a 1968 law meant to give federal workers three-day weekends. Because it must be the third one of the month, the holiday can never land on his real birthday.

By what popular name, never adopted in federal law, is the Washington's Birthday holiday widely known?

Presidents' Day was written into an early draft of the 1968 holiday bill, but the idea failed in committee and the federal name never changed. Nearly half the states have since renamed their own observances.

Which president, born in 1809, do many states honor together with George Washington on a combined winter holiday?

Abraham Lincoln's own birthday was never a federal holiday, so states such as Utah, Colorado and Minnesota fold the two men into a single observance.

Which coin has carried George Washington's portrait since 1932, when it marked the 200th anniversary of his birth?

The quarter was not the first choice: the bicentennial committee set up by Congress had wanted a Washington half dollar. The new silver coins entered circulation that August.

Which calendar, used by Britain and its colonies into the 1750s, was in force when George Washington was born?

Julian dating remained the rule across the British Empire, which had not followed Catholic Europe's change of 1582. By the 1730s the two systems had drifted well over a week apart.

After Britain's colonies switched calendars in 1752, what did the 20-year-old George Washington do with his birthday?

He moved it eleven days, the gap between the old calendar and the new. Americans born before the switch are generally dated the same way.

The 1752 calendar reform relabeled George Washington's birth from 1731 to 1732 by moving which annual occasion?

New Year's Day had been March 25 in England and its colonies, so a birth earlier in the year belonged to the old one. From 1752 the year began on January 1.

Which Texas border city's giant Washington's Birthday Celebration, held since 1898, now includes a Jalapeño Festival?

Laredo's festival runs for almost a month, with two parades, an air show and a colonial pageant. Each year a prominent local man and woman play George and Martha Washington.

Which term do historians attach to dates such as George Washington's 1731 birth date, recorded before the 1752 reform?

Old Style, often shortened to O.S., flags a date from the earlier calendar, while New Style marks its modern equivalent.

Which month of 1752 was cut short in Britain's colonies by the calendar switch that shifted Washington's birthday?

September simply skipped ahead: under the act of Parliament, Wednesday the 2nd was followed directly by Thursday the 14th.

What did George Washington have to do in order to afford the journey to his own first inauguration?

Borrow money he did, just to make the trip, which ended aboard a small barge crewed by 13 pilots.

During which war did Congress first read Washington's Farewell Address aloud to mark the anniversary of his birth?

The Civil War was in its first winter when citizens petitioned Congress to mark the 130th anniversary of Washington's birth with a reading. The House heard it first.

Why was George Washington not sworn in until April 30, eight weeks after his first term officially began?

Congress lacked a quorum when it first met on March 4, so the electoral votes could not be counted. The House mustered enough members on April 1 and the other chamber on April 6.

Which Irish-American architect, whom Washington met in Charleston, won the 1792 contest to design the White House?

James Hoban reworked his winning design under Washington's influence, and at the president's insistence the whole mansion was faced with stone.