What Were George Washington's Contributions to His Country?

George Washington's Contributions When George Washington died on December 14, 1799, he was hailed as America's "savior" and the "father of liberty" (Petri pp). Today, he is referred to as the father of this country. Delivering Washington's eulogy, John Marshall said, "The hero, the sage, the patriot of America, the man on whom in times of danger every eye was turned and all hopes were placed, lives now only in his own great actions, and in the hearts of an affectionate and afflicted people" (Petri pp).

Washington was not only a great general, leader, and politician, he was the epitome of a great American and an extraordinary human being. As Commander in Chief of the colonial forces, Washington transformed an untrained army into a disciplined military force, despite the lack of supplies and equipment and in spite of the continuous political bickering (Petri pp).

Remaining focused and determined, Washington led the colonies to victory and independence and when faced with demands to become king, he rejected the invitation and voluntarily resigned his commission, thus, "establishing the precedent of civilian rule" (Petri pp). As the country's first elected leader, Washington's high standards of personal discipline and his impeccable integrity set a precedent for American leadership (Petri pp). Parson Weem's biography of Washington was one of Abraham Lincoln's most treasured books to which he often referred as a role model for his own life (Petri pp).

Even Simon Bolivar, liberator of Latin America, was so influenced by Washington that whenever he appeared in public he wore a medal of Washington (Petri pp). Daniel Webster once said, "American has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind" (Petri pp). Among his many talents, Washington was also an architect.

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger said of Washington's beloved home, "Mount Vernon appears, quite startlingly, to be the most influential eighteenth-century house in America, and one of the greatest .. Washington created a building that asserts the democratic idea so powerfully that it can only be called radical" (Petri pp). An exhibit by the American Architectural Foundation states that "Washington used the symbolic power of architecture to create not only a personal image among his peers and countrymen, but more significantly, an inspiring and enduring national identity" (Petri pp).

Although it is Thomas Jefferson who is generally noted for submitting the designs for the nation's capital, it was Washington who appointed the architects and who made the final decisions for the President's House, the Capitol and the Executive Branch offices (Petri pp). He appointed Pierre L'Enfant to design the Federal City and Dr. William Thornton as the architect of the Capital (Petri pp). Washington realized that the architecture must be as fresh and democratic as the country's politics (Petri pp).

Washington was a scientific farmer of conservationist practices (Petri pp). Realizing the ruinous quality of tobacco crops, he urged his fellow farmers to change to a diversified system of agriculture (Petri pp). Washington also developed a unique sixteen-sided threshing barn that made threshing possible is bad weather and also assured "thorough collection and safeguarding of grain obtained during the threshing process" (Petri pp). And although most believe that conservation is a modern issue, Washington was an avid practitioner (Petri pp).

He incorporated farmyard refuse with animal manure to develop fertilizer (Petri pp). In 1796, he instructed his workmen to "rake, and scrape up all the trash, of every sort and kind about the houses, and in the holes and corners, and throw it into the Stercory" (Petri pp). This dung repository became a successful and important development in his conservation system (Petri pp).

In his last annual address, Washington urged Congress for the appropriation of funds to develop a National Board of Agriculture for the purpose of collecting and distributing agricultural information, a goal not realized until 1862 during the administration of Abraham Lincoln (Petri pp). When Washington received the news that he had been elected president, he said that he was "much affected by this fresh proof of my country's esteem and confidence" (Byrd pp).

Washington played a key role concerning the adoption of the Constitution and his political philosophy actively shaped the constitutional tradition (Phelps pp). According to Glenn Phelps, Washington's political thought profoundly influenced the principles that formed the federal government and believes Washington to be the greatest political leader the United States has ever produced and the greatest leader in the entire experience of constitutional democracy (Phelps pp). James Flexner writes in "Washington: The Indispensable Man" that perhaps "no American is more completely misunderstood than George Washington ..

no other President of the United States before Andrew Jackson was a much shaped by the wilderness as Washington" (Flexner 3). This is echoed in Joseph Ellis' book "His Excellency: George Washington." Washington gained notoriety long before his glory days of the Revolution, when in 1753, he carried a letter from Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia to the commander of French troops in the Ohio Country at Preque Isle (Ellis 3).

At Dinwiddie's urging Washington published the accounts of his adventures in "The Journal of Major George Washington," which appeared in many colonial newspapers and was reprinted in England and Scotland (Ellis 4). These accounts provided readers with a firsthand report of the mountains, rivers, and the exotic indigenous people of the interior regions of the continent (Ellis 4).

Richard Smith writes in "The Surprising George Washington," that "In a nation that as yet existed on paper only, without the bonding agents of tradition, class structure, or state religion, Washington was his country's greatest asset and its only glue" (Smith pp). When making appointments to the Supreme Court and other departments, Washington was careful to include "candidates from across the geographical and ideological spectrum," and on his own initiative he established the cabinet to serve as a type of privy council (Smith pp).

Given the bickering politics of the time, Washington proved more visionary than his subordinates and it can be said that his entire presidency can be seen as an exercise in patience (Smith pp). He reasoned that it was advantageous for America to stay out of European quarrels and that "given twenty or thirty years of peaceful development, the United States would be in a position to defy any power on earth," even though the majority of Americans disagreed (Smith pp).

A strong leader of a weak nation, Washington's vision of the young republic can be seen as an extension.