George Washington's Farewell Address

Known as “The Father of His Country,” George Washington was the single most important figure in the founding of the United States. He led the Continental Army through years of hardship until victory at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown sealed American independence. He then presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and even though many delegates to the Convention feared a powerful presidency was too similar to a monarchy, they ultimately agreed to a powerful executive in the expectation that Washington would be first and could be trusted to set the right precedent for the office.

Despite his enormous stature (literally and figuratively—at six feet, he was very tall for the era), Washington’s presidency proved highly contentious. The role of the president is not fully delineated in the Constitution, so its precise purview was unclear when Washington was first inaugurated in 1789. As a result, several of Washington’s policies were challenged as not merely unwise but outside the bounds of his constitutional power. For example, by declaring neutrality amid the Anglo-French warfare, Washington unilaterally voided a treaty obligation to France that the Continental Congress had ratified in 1778. In 1794, he personally led an army to suppress an uprising against a tax on whiskey, raising the question of what kind of protest was covered under First Amendment protections of speech, petition, and assembly.