Eight primary documents from 1787 to 1799. Washington's own letters and addresses. A fellow delegate's account of why his presence mattered. The words of two other founders after his death. The archive holds both his voice and theirs.
Washington did not want to attend the Constitutional Convention. He had resigned his military commission, returned to Mount Vernon, and had no desire to re-enter public life. He was also concerned about the Society of the Cincinnati — a fraternal organization of Revolutionary War officers — and whether attending the Convention would appear self-serving, since the Society was meeting in Philadelphia at the same time. He wrote Madison on March 31, 1787 about his reservations. Three days before this letter, he had quietly written Governor Randolph agreeing to attend if his health permitted — but that agreement does not appear in this letter. The letter is at Founders Online.
That it is necessary to revise and amend the articles of Confederation, I entertain no doubt; but what may be the consequences of such an attempt is doubtful. Yet something must be done, or the fabrick must fall, for it certainly is tottering... I have yielded, however reluctantly, to what appeared to be the earnest wish of many friends, and the Epistles of others, and shall attend the Convention.
On May 25, 1787, the Convention's first day of business, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania nominated Washington for the Convention presidency. The vote was unanimous. Washington presided for four months. He spoke from the chair once — on September 17, the final day, to support a minor motion to increase House representation. His Convention diary records where he dined and who he met. It almost never records what was said in debate. Washington kept his counsel and let the delegates work.
It is now a child of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others. What will be the General opinion on, or the reception of it, is more than I can decide.
Gouverneur Morris — who wrote the Constitution's final text — wrote Washington six weeks after the Convention ended about what Washington's presence had meant to the outcome.
I am convinced that if you had not attended the Convention, and the same Paper had been handed out to the World, it would have met with a colder Reception, with fewer and weaker Advocates, and with more and more strenuous opponents. As it is, should the Idea prevail that you would not accept of the Presidency it would prove fatal in many Parts.
Washington won the first presidential election unanimously — every electoral vote cast went to him. He was inaugurated on April 30, 1789 in New York City, the temporary capital. He delivered the first inaugural address. In it he described his reluctance to leave retirement, asked Congress to recommend constitutional amendments, and appealed for guidance from "the Almighty Being who rules the universe." The full text is at Yale Avalon and the National Archives.
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years.
In August 1790, President Washington toured New England. In Newport, Rhode Island, Moses Seixas, warden of the Hebrew Congregation, presented a letter of welcome. Seixas had used the phrase "to bigotry gives no sanction." Washington's reply returned it and extended it.
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, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
Washington had first considered retiring after his first term. He asked Madison to draft a farewell address in 1792. He was persuaded to serve a second term. When his second term ended, he published the Farewell Address — announcing his decision not to seek a third term — in Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796. Hamilton helped draft it. It was the first formal statement that the American presidency had a voluntary term limit. No law required Washington to leave. He chose to.
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable... I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer makes the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
Washington drafted his last will and testament on July 9, 1799 — five months before his death at age 67. He was the only founding-era president to include a provision freeing the people he enslaved. At the time of his death he owned or controlled 317 enslaved people at Mount Vernon. Of those, 123 were his personal property. The remaining 194 were part of the dower estate of his wife Martha — legally belonging to the Custis estate, which Washington did not have the authority to free.
Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will and desire that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom... And I do moreover most pointedly, and most solemnly enjoin it upon my Executors hereafter named... to see that this clause respecting Slaves, and every part thereof be religiously fulfilled at the Epoch at which it is directed to take place; without evasion, neglect or delay.
Martha Washington freed the 123 enslaved people named in George's will in January 1801 — a year after his death. The 194 people of the dower estate passed to the Custis heirs and were not freed. Both facts are documented at the Mount Vernon research archive.
Washington died at Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799. He was 67 years old. The primary record holds what other founders said about him — in official documents, in congressional addresses, and in private correspondence.
"The letter herewith transmitted will inform you that it has pleased Divine Providence to remove from this life our excellent fellow-citizen, George Washington, by the purity of his character and a long series of services to his country rendered illustrious through the world. It remains for an affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he can never die, to pay suitable honors to his memory."
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting."
"The Death of Washington, diffused a general Grief. The Old Tories, the Hyperfederalists, the Speculators, Sett up a general Howl... not that they loved Washington, but to keep in Countenance the Funding & Banking Systems; And to cast into the Background and the Shade all others who had been concerned in the Service of their Country in the Revolution."
"Give me leave, My dear General, to present you With a picture of the Bastille just as it looked a few days after I Had ordered its demolition, with the Main Key of that fortress of despotism — it is a tribute Which I owe as A Son to My Adoptive father, as an aid de Camp to My General, as a Missionary of liberty to its patriarch. Adieu, My Beloved General."
Henry Lee's eulogy is the source of "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen" — the phrase by which Washington has been described ever since. It was delivered in the House of Representatives on December 26, 1799 — twelve days after Washington's death. Lee had served under Washington during the Revolution. The full eulogy is in the Annals of Congress at the Library of Congress. Adams's private letter to Jefferson — written seventeen years later — documents the political reaction to Washington's death as Adams observed it from the outside.