George Washington
American military leader George Washington commanded the forces in the Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, presided over the Constitutional convention of 1787, served from 1789 as elected president of the fledgling country, the United States, shunned partisan politics, and in his farewell address of 1796 warned against foreign involvement.
Washington relieved Artemas Ward of the command and drove the British from the city of Boston in 1776.
Othmar Hermann Ammann in 1931 designed the bridge in the city of New York that bears his name.
In a planter family, he learned the requisite morals, manners, and body of knowledge for an 18th century gentleman of Virginia.
He pursued two intertwined interests: arts and western expansion. At 16 years of age in 1738, he helped to survey lands of Shenandoah for Thomas, Lord Fairfax.
Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of the French and Indian War. In the next year as an aide to Edward Braddock, general, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat, and people shot two horses.
From 1759, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the House of Burgesses of Virginia to the outbreak. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, he devoted to a busy and happy life. British merchants exploited and regulations hampered Washington like his fellow planters. As the acute quarrel with the mother, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.
The second Continental congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775 and then elected Washington of the delegates of Virginia as chief of the continental Army. On 3 July 1775 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took his ill-trained troops and embarked to six last grueling years.
He recognized early the best strategy to harass the British. He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly and then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies, he received the surrender of Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. Nevertheless, he quickly recognized that the nation under its Articles of Confederation functioned not well and so moved in the prime steps to Philadelphia in 1787. With the new ratification, the Electoral College then unanimously elected Washington.
He infringed not upon the policy making powers of Congress. Nevertheless, the determination of policy preponderantly concerned him. Washington then refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either pro-French Thomas Jefferson or pro-British Alexander Hamilton at Treasury. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until able strength.
To his disappointment, two developed before the end of his first term. Wearied and old, he retired at the end of his second term. He urged his men to forswear excessive spirit and geographical distinctions. In affairs, he opposed long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection. For months, the nation mourned him.
“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
“99% percent of failures are the ones who make excuses.”
“A man ought not to value himself of his achievements or rare qualities of wit, much less of his riches, virtue or kindred.”
“Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precepts.”
“Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature; and in all cases of passion admit reason to govern.”
“A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”
“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction - to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”
“George Washington famously warned against ... 'ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear”
“No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the united States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency”
“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.”
“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”
“Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.”
“It is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.”
“if to please the people,we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of God.”
“It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.”
“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”
“Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations; The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government; the free cultivation of Letters, the unbounded extension of Commerce, the progressive refinement of Manners, the growing liberality of sentiment... have had a meliorating influence on mankind and increased the blessings of Society. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.[Circular to the States, 8 June 1783 - Writings 26:484--89]”
“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all”
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society.”
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. ”
“Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession. ”
“To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished, that the conduct of every member of the fraternity, as well as those publications, that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race.[Letter to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, January 1793]”
“Saya harap, saya selalu memiliki cukup keteguhan dan cukup kebajikan untuk memelihara gelar yang saya anggap paling mengagumkan, yaitu watak sebagai orang jujur.”
“A bad war is fought with a good mind.”
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation. ”
“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”
“In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.”
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”
“Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.”
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
“To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny”
“Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.- March 15, 1783”
“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
“The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”
“Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”