Washington is located near the Atlantic Ocean at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers between Maryland and Virginia, and is accessible by small ocean vessels. The official name is "Washington, D.C.". It was named in honor of Washington and Columbus. The area of the city is 178 square kilometers, and the total area of the District is 6,094 square kilometers, with a population of about 550,000 people. The population is approximately 550,000, of which 60-70% are black. Residents are mainly federal government officials, employees and their families; handymen account for a few 30% (mostly black). Proposed by the first President Washington, the city was designated as the capital in 1790 (moved from Philadelphia in 1800), and was occupied by the British in 1812, with the Congress and the Presidential Palace destroyed. Since the twentieth century, it has been built as a modern city and become the center of American politics, culture and education, with the U.S. Congress (Capitol), the Presidential Palace (White House), the State Department, the Department of Defense (Pentagon), etc., and the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Art, the old National Art Museum, the new National Art Museum, as well as the Georgetown University (built in 1789), George Washington University (founded in 1812) and other institutions of culture and education. Famous memorial buildings include the Washington Memorial Tower and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Tourism and related service industries are the main economic sectors.
Washington was originally a scrubland, with only a few village houses scattered around. 1789, the United States federal government was formally established, and George Washington was elected as the first president. When Congress convened its first session in New York, the issue of where to build the capital was hotly contested, with legislators from both the North and South wanting to locate the capital within their own borders. Congress finally reached a compromise, by President Washington selected the natural demarcation line between the north and the south - the Potomac River area of 16 kilometers in length and width as the capital address, and asked the French engineer Pierre Charles Langfang to preside over the capital of the overall planning and design. Before the new capital was completed, Washington died in 1799. In his honor, the new capital was named Washington when it was completed the following year.
Washington is the political center of the United States, home to the White House, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and most government agencies. The Capitol Building (pictured right), built on the highest point in the city, known as Capitol Hill, is the symbol of Washington. The cream-colored building has a domed main shaft and two interconnected east and west wings, which house both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The White House is a white marble circular building, is Washington after the U.S. presidents office and residential place. The Oval Office of the President of the United States is located in the West Wing of the White House, outside the south window is the famous "Rose Garden". White House building south of the South Lawn is the "President's Garden", the President of the United States is often held here to welcome the ceremony of VIPs. Between the Capitol and the White House is the "Federal Triangle" complex, which includes federal government agencies and the National Gallery, the National Archives, the Pan American Union, the Smithsonian National Museum and the Federal Reserve Building. The largest building in Washington is the Pentagon, the seat of the U.S. Department of Defense, located on the banks of the Potomac River.
Washington has many monumental buildings. Not far from the Capitol, the Washington Monument, 169 meters high, all made of white marble, take the elevator to the top of the city's scenery can be seen. Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial are also famous American monumental buildings.
Washington is also one of the cultural centers of the United States. The city has nine institutions of higher learning, including Georgetown and George Washington. The Library of Congress, founded in 1800, is a world-renowned cultural facility, and the Washington Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center for the Arts are all famous cultural institutions in the United States. There are a considerable number of museums in the area, the International Museum of Women in the Arts being one of them. Washington is also home to the National Museum of American Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Astronautical Museum and many other famous museums.
The shape of Washington's coat of arms looks like an eagle spreading its wings, with the Washington Monument in the near view and Capitol Hill and the Potomac River in the distance. Washington's city tree is the American oak, the city flower is the azalea, the city bird is the red-tailed finch, the city song is "young hometown of Washington".
On May 15, 1984, Washington and Beijing became sister cities.
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George? George Washington (1732-1799), the founding president of the United States. In his early years, he worked as a land surveyor. In the American War of Independence, he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and made great contributions to the independence of the U.S. He was elected President in 1789 and re-elected in 1793. Because of his contribution to the fight for American independence, the development of the United States economy, the construction of the democratic legal system and the consolidation of the basis of the federal, by the Americans honored as the "Father of the Nation". 1797 after the expiration of the two terms, Washington refused to participate in the election, retired to his hometown. This move created a paradigm in the history of the United States to abandon the presidential system for life and the peaceful transfer of power.
Classic Quotes
Our surest guarantor is our own wisdom.
Explanation of the Quote
Steady: firm and secure. Wisdom is the crystallization of past experience, the wealth unique to each individual; it teaches us what to do and what to say; it teaches us to win our own life and freedom. Other people's wisdom cannot help us become wise. Therefore, one's own wisdom is the most reliable.
George Washington was born in 1732 at Wakefield Hall in Virginia, USA. He was the son of a wealthy plantation owner, and at the age of twenty, he inherited a sizable fortune. 1753 to 1758, Washington served in the army, actively participated in the war between the French and the Indians, and thus gained military experience and prestige; in 1758, he was discharged from the armor and returned to Virginia, and soon afterward, he was married to a rich widow with four children --- Martha Dandelijou. -Martha Dandelijou Custis (he had no natural children).
Washington showed remarkable talent in running his family's fortune over the next fifteen years, and by the time he was chosen as one of Virginia's delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774, he had become one of the richest men in the American colonies. Washington was not a pioneer advocate of independence, but the Second Continental Congress of June 1775, to which he was a delegate, unanimously elected him to head the Continental forces. His military experience and wealth were well known; his handsome appearance, robust physique (at 6'2"), commanding ability, and above all, his tenacity made him a natural choice for commander-in-chief. Throughout the war he served faithfully, without a cent, and with exemplary integrity.
Washington's most meaningful contributions were made during the period from June 1775, when he assumed command of the Continental Army, to the expiration of his second term as President in March 1797, when he died at his home in December 1799 at Wynne's Hill, Virginia, after a long illness.
First, he was a successful military leader in the American Revolutionary War. But the fact is that he was by no means a military genius, and certainly by no means comparable to generals like Alexander and Julius Caesar. At least half of his success was due to the surprising incompetence of the British generals who fought against him, and the other half was due to his own talents. But it should be remembered that several other American generals were badly defeated, while Washington won the war despite a few minor defeats.
Second, Washington was the President of the Constitutional Convention. Although his ideas did not play a significant role in the formation of the U.S. Constitution, his supporters and his popularity played a major role in the ratification of the Constitution by the states. There was a strong force opposing the new Constitution, and but for Washington's influence, it is difficult to say that this Constitution would have been practiced.
Then again, Washington was the first President of the United States. The United States is fortunate to have a man of Washington's virtues as its first president. Looking at the history of countries in South America and Africa, we can see how easy it is for even a new country that begins with a democratic constitution to degenerate into a military dictatorship. Washington was a determined leader who kept the country united, but had no ambition to hold power forever, neither as king nor as dictator. He set the precedent of voluntarily ceding power - a precedent that is still practiced in the United States today. Compared to other American leaders of the time, such as Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826), James Madison (,March 16, 1751 - June 28, 1836), and Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1757 - July 12, 1804), George Washington lacked innovative spirit and deep thought. But he was far more important than all these eloquent figures, and played a vital role in executive leadership, both in war and peace, without which no political movement would have achieved its purpose. To the formation of the United States, Madison's contribution was significant, while Washington's was almost indispensable.
George Washington's place in this volume depends in large part on how one recognizes the historical significance he brought to America. It is naturally difficult to ask an American of today to make an unbiased assessment of that historical significance.
Although the United States in the mid-twentieth century had greater military power and political influence than even the Roman Empire at its height, its regime may not have lasted as long as the Roman Empire. On the other hand, it seems clear that several of the technological achievements of the United States will be recognized as significant by other peoples in the future. The invention of the airplane and the landing of man on the moon, for example, represent achievements that have been dreamed of for generations; it is hard to imagine that the invention of nuclear weapons will be seen as an insignificant achievement in the future.
Since George Washington is roughly comparable to Augustus Caesar in Rome, it seems not unreasonable to rank him close to Augustus in this volume. If Washington is ranked slightly lower, it is largely because he led for a much shorter time than Augustus, and many others such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were also instrumental in the formation of the United States. But Washington ranks higher than figures like Alexander the Great and Napoleon because his credit is more indelible than theirs. Washington, the founder of the United States of America
As you know, the capital of the United States is Washington, which is located on the banks of the Potomac River on the Atlantic coast. In fact, before 1800, the United States did not have such a city, it is the American people to commemorate the founding fathers of the United States - George Washington and the establishment of a special, which can be seen in the minds of the American people is how noble.
February 22, 1732, George Washington was born in Virginia, a plantation owner family. He lost his father when he was a child, and inherited only a small amount of property and 10 black slaves. 16 years old, he went to the west as a land surveyor, and later in the Ohio River Valley collar as a land sale, relying on their own hard work, Washington became a locally renowned large plantation owners. At that time, Britain and France for the North American colonies for a protracted war, the British for the victory over France, trying to win the support of the North American plantation owners, in 1754, the Governor of Virginia promised to give 200,000 acres of land to the rich to participate in the war against the French, Washington actively participated in the British side of the war against the French, commanding the local armed forces of Virginia fought heroically and repeatedly won battles to assist the British army to the French forces out of North America. The British army drove the French out of North America. But after the end of the war, Britain immediately turned the other cheek and declared the western land as the private property of the Crown, not allowed to settle. This ban made Washington lost more than 30,000 acres of land at once, and from then on, he became a resolute opponent of British colonial policy.
On April 19, 1775, the people of Boston were in Lexington (on the evening of April 18, 1775, British troops stationed in the North American colonies quietly departed from Boston to collect the North American militia's collection of weapons. North American militia scouts discovered this and immediately rode to report the news to the militia along the route. (The militia quickly ambushed and prepared for battle.) Fired the first shot against British colonial rule, the people of the North American states have responded, the sensational American War of Independence broke out.
In June 1775, the 13 British colonies in North America in Philadelphia held a "Continental Congress", Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. At this time, the Boston Volunteers and the British army there, Washington immediately rode off, arrived in Boston on July 3, he personally commanded the front line of the battle, to the British army to a serious blow.
At the beginning of the war, the U.S. Army fought very hard, most of them are temporary recruited farmers, ragged clothes, no weapons, no formal military training, not at all like an army, on the other hand, the U.S. Army's logistical supply is also extremely difficult, the soldiers often do not have enough to eat, wear warm, sometimes for five or six days in a row can not eat the bread, only to eat the horse feed in the cold winter. In the cold winter, many soldiers had to march barefoot.
On the contrary, their rivals, the British army is well equipped, well trained, and well supplied with logistics.
The American army was defeated again and again, and New York and other fortresses were lost, and in September 1777, even the capital city of Philadelphia was captured by the British, and some of the generals who were not strong-willed surrendered their troops to the British army.
In the extremely severe situation, Washington has always been loyal to the cause of independence of the North American people, never wavered. His extraordinary talent, the original free, loose, lack of organizational discipline and unity of command of the United States Army organized, in the battle to exercise growth, and gradually established a strong regular army. He encouraged the American soldiers and called them to fight for freedom, pointing out that: Americans are free, or slaves; our fields should belong to ourselves, or be robbed and destroyed; two roads, one of which is to bravely resist, and the other is to be tamed, are in front of the generals of the Independence Army.
He endeavored to unite and link the states **** fighting together, and in October 1777, the American army defeated the British at Saratoga, thus reversing the whole situation of the War of Independence. At the same time, in order to isolate the British, the United States launched diplomatic activities to seek the assistance of France and other countries. 1778 June, French warships sailed into the United States, the British army was forced to retreat from Philadelphia, the main direction of the attack turned to the south. 1780, the British army shifted its main force to the southern port city of Yorktown. The French and American armies advanced on both sides and pushed right up to Yorktown. The French blocked the harbor with their navy, cut off the British sea supply line, and cut off the retreat of the British army, while Washington led a fierce attack from the front.
In September 1781, British commander-in-chief Cornwallis led 7,000 British troops to surrender to Washington at Yorktown, and the American War of Independence was finally won. This ended the military confrontation phase of the American War of Independence, and in 1783, Britain and the United States signed the Peace of Paris, which formally recognized the independence of the United States.
After the victory of the War of Independence, Washington returned to Virginia to continue to operate his own plantation, enjoying a quiet life under the shade of vines and fig trees. 1787, Washington again, presided over the Constitutional Convention, the world's first bourgeois constitution. 1789 April, Washington was elected as the first president of the United States.
When he served as President of the United States for eight years, he vowed not to be re-elected, and resolutely returned to Mount Vernon to live a civilian life.
On December 14, 1799, Washington died after a long illness.
The truly great statesman - Washington
"The pure statesman should respect and cherish religion and morality as much as the pious man."
If this statement had come from the mouth of Zhang San or Li Si, it might have elicited laughter.
For in the general mind, politics means playing with and trampling on morality, and it is only when it comes to deceiving people that grand moral phrases slip out of the politician's mouth.
Fortunately, however, the man who said this has spent his life practicing it as physically as possible.
He was Washington, one of America's Founding Fathers. It was this rare character in a politician that made me feel I should put Washington at the top of the list when I wanted to write some essays about great men.
As the years go by, the more we can feel the impact of Washington's political legacy in the development of world history.
Unfortunately, we have heard more than a few words about Washington, and most of our knowledge remains at the level of high school textbooks. What we have witnessed is the image of Kangxi's private visit, Yongzheng's divine and wise. Sitting in front of the TV, we still seem to be the people of the Qing Empire.
In order to stop losing our way in the jungle of politics, we should eliminate the beams in our own eyes. Because the world has too many wonderful things to enjoy.
Washington is not from a family of bells and whistles, he lost his father at a young age, and began to earn his own living at the age of 17. The education he received was not even as good as Abraham Lincoln's, and at best, it was only at the elementary school level. He also had the miraculous experience of being seemingly invulnerable, becoming commander-in-chief of Virginia at the age of 22, and instantly becoming a celebrated hero. From 21 to 26, he was fighting the French and Indians. But for the next 16 years was nothing more than an ordinary Virginia plantation owner.
It was the times that once again brought him to the forefront of history. 1775 Washington was elected Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He was appointed in a time of great danger, when the colonists were faced with the great question of freedom or slavery, and when the enemy was at hand, it seemed appropriate to subordinate the small to the great and to move forward under the leadership of a godlike figure.
But we do not see on the American continent what is commonplace in history.
America's quest for independence and freedom has always been accompanied by a wariness of tyranny and a distrust of power. Even John Adams, who facilitated Washington's election as Commander-in-Chief, felt rattled because he feared that in setting up the symbolic figure for the cause of creating an independent nation, the experience of history had made him realize that the risks were extraordinary: "All powerful men do not fail to make every effort to seize all the power they can possibly acquire."
The course of the War of Independence is what today would seem to many of us to be an incredible political alternative. But it is what still seems impossible to us today that was practiced at the time. Short-term military service made Washington's troops change like running water, and in order to build a fighting army, Washington requested in 1776 that soldiers serve for three years, while the delegates to the Continental Congress, despite the great enemy, still feared that an overly internally organized army often risked becoming a tool in the hands of a tyrant. In the end the proposal was accepted, but with the stipulation that the states had the right to commission officers for their own units. They did not want to begin with the struggle for liberty and end with the acquisition of tyranny. For they knew that the blood of martyrs might also be exchanged for tyranny, and then in the name of blood they demanded respect for tyranny. And what is the point of shedding blood just for the sake of exchanging a slaver?
Typically, war is always inevitably burned and killed, but Washington always believed in the political value of morality. Not even the bare feet of his soldiers leaving bloody footprints in the snow could motivate him to collect munitions with bayonets. He fought a people's war. Washington is not the only one who has done this throughout the ages, if only for that matter.
But it was also on this issue that Washington's actions eclipsed those of any man who wore a crown, or any emperor who did not have an imperial name. At that time, the War of Independence was going on hard and fast. This is how one doctor portrayed the soldier: "Shoes so tattered as to show his toes, and tattered stockings that did not cover his bare legs. His pants were so torn that they barely covered his shame, and his shirt was torn into shreds. ......" It was such a group of men who were fighting for the freedom and independence of the United States. And the country is not giving them the rewards they deserve. Demobilized soldiers, for example, even the Continental Congress did not pay their salaries, which had been in arrears for "four, five, maybe six years". They have devoted their years to the cause of freedom and independence, but what they have received is abject poverty and ingratitude, "they are heavily indebted and penniless, and do not even have the money to pay for their journey home". Washington was aghast at this. The military is also full of grievances.
But in the soldier's dissatisfaction, he saw a threat to freedom, not the opportunity to seize power.
When Colonel Lewis Nicolay wrote in 1782 to urge Washington to take on the responsibilities of King of the United States
he wrote back, "Nothing has pained me more during the whole course of the war than to have in the army such ideas as those of which you speak. ...... I detest and strongly condemn such extremely pernicious "ideas" as will destroy my country. In 1783, Hamilton also persuaded Washington, with much rhetoric, to utilize the bayonet power of a disgruntled army, and Washington replied that he could not lead an operation that would "cause civil commotion and end in bloodshed".
I do not know whether Washington had a private thought. Because in those days there was no precedent for the people to govern themselves; the great nations of the time were ruled by kings, and history can be said to be essentially a history of kingship. Much less had the world ever created a **** and government in a large country. Montesquieu, for one, believed that **** and government were only appropriate for small countries, while large countries were better governed by despots, and in Europe it was widely believed that having the people themselves govern the country would only eventually lead to anarchy and chaos. But in any case, Washington did not add one more crown to the world by following the trend of the time. The world, however, would be left with a president who would make the crown dull and even hard to hold.
On March 15, 1783, he convened an officers' conference to determine the direction of American history, calling on the officers not to "open the floodgates of civil strife," but to "give your children and grandchildren reason to say of your glorious example to mankind, 'The world could never have seen the performance of man to such a state of excellence, without this day. goodness and beauty of human performance." The people seemed unmoved. Toward the end of his speech he took a pair of eyeglasses out of his pocket. He said, "Allow me to put on my glasses. For the sake of this country, I have not only whitened my hair, but almost blinded my eyes." The clankers shed tears. The dark clouds of tyranny and civil unrest dissolved in a moment. The American people fought for freedom and got it, free from the usual tragedy of revolutions in history: starting with the fight for freedom and ending with the exercise of tyranny.
The American War of Independence was the only revolution in the history of the world that kept its promise, and the Declaration of Independence of 1776 solemnly proclaimed to the world: "We hold the truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is to secure these rights that men have instituted governments among themselves, and that the proper powers of government are delegated by the consent of the governed." These heartfelt words were not, as in many revolutions, mere propaganda concocted to recruit troops, and then a dead letter when power was seized. The history of the United States is the history of the fulfillment of those promises.
That is why the German musician Schubert said that in America, thirteen "golden doors are open to the victims of intolerance and authoritarian politics." And the Irish nationalist leader Henry Gratton prodded his countrymen: "Until you are sure of the feasibility of slavery, always look toward America."
From 1775, when he became commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, to 1783, when he issued a decree declaring "a truce between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Great Britain," Washington fought for freedom and independence for eight years. Penn enthusiastically said: "The sun never shone more brightly on a more laudable cause", and Washington was the greatest warrior for this cause. Independence created a generation of great men, gave Washington a prestige and reputation that no one could match, and he was a unique icon in the hearts of the American people. However, not only did he not have insatiable ambitions for absolute power, but he did not want to hold any public office at the time. Washington never made the North American continent millions of corpses and thousands of miles of bloodshed - without the splendor of many generals in Chinese history! -Washington showed the world for the first time that human beings can transcend the logic of fighting and sitting on a mountain. They were fighting for independence and freedom, not for power and the chair. This was the unprecedented contribution of the American War of Independence to the world.
All he needed was the reward of being able to enjoy the shade and coolness of his own vineyards and fig trees, and the relief of saying goodbye to power. In a letter to Lafayette, he said, "I am at last an ordinary citizen on the Potomac."
It was his unrivaled political personality that made it possible for future generations to write his political biography without the need to write, with regret, the following sentence: If he returned to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve when he had reached the end of his days, he was one of the greatest figures in American history, and his life can be said to be full of divine splendor. Washington didn't need quacks to make such assumptions after the fact.
Despite later returning to politics, he did not have a record of clinging to power in the name of having to spend his life fighting for the cause of the American people.
Washington was elected the first president of the United States in 1789 as the only candidate, but he
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