George Washington’s Administration

The first president of the United States was George Washington. Today he is known as the father of our country. I think that this was because the way that you look at your father is normally someone to learn from to do what they did and not make the same mistakes. Since Washington had no history to refer to, he really does deserve this title. Being the start of something that's would been going for over 200 years now. Let alone the challenges of being the first to lead the country.

One of the first things that he thought about was what traditions or precedents he would be setting for the rest of America’s presidents to come. The reason why he was chosen for the job was because there was no doubt that he lead America’s victory in the Revolution. Some of the people that President George Washington chose for the first cabinet were considered some of the best chosen in history. He established the first executive and judicial branches of the U.S. federal government. For the executive branch, he and Congress established the cabinet. These were 3 positions that were the secretary of state, secretary of treasure, and secretary of war. There was also an attorney general. For the Judiciary Branch there was the Judiciary Act of 1789 which established the federal court system and John Jay as the first chief of justice of the United States.

Another challenge that George Washington had was to stop the Whiskey Rebellion. This was a large group of farmers in Pennsylvania that were rebelling against the taxes on whiskey. Instead of trying to reason with them though, he sent troops to put a stop to it right away. But, this was after a battle that was much harder to win. The battle started because of the raids in the northwest. They lost many battles to Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh. After Little Turtle was defeated, Blue Jacket tried to run their forces but eventually they were defeated. America finally won at The Battle of Fallen Timbers where the Indians were outnumbered 2 to 1. After which they had to sign the Treaty of Greenville.

The next obstacle in history was when France was at war with Britain. Although the U.S. remained neutral as much as it could, Edward-Charles Genet tried to get many Americans to join the British until Washington issued the Proclamation of Neutrality. Although since America didn’t pay off the debts to Britain when they wanted them, they began to use impression on the ships that traded with France. So Washington sent John Jay to London to negotiate Jay's Treaty. This pleased both sides because it stopped, conflict, increased trade, and got the British out of western forts.

Then later towards the end of his career he sent Thomas Pinckney to Spain to negotiate the terms of what would later be known as Pinckney's Treaty. Signed on October 20 1785. This guaranteed the navigation rights on the Mississippi River to the United States. After doing this George Washington at the end of his 2nd term of presidency and refused to have a third. This became a precedent that most presidents would only serve for two terms. So for all that he did as president I'd say that his administration was pretty impressive for the first one.