If you ask anyone on the street who is the first president of United States, they’ll give you the same answer. George Washington. It’s the easiest trivia question in history. But honestly? The answer is a bit more complicated than the one-sentence version we all learned in third grade.
Depending on how you define "President," there’s a whole list of guys who technically held the title before Washington ever set foot in New York for his inauguration.
We’re talking about the "Presidents of the Continental Congress." Men like Peyton Randolph or John Hancock. Even John Hanson, who some folks claim was the "real" first president under the Articles of Confederation. But let’s be real. When people ask the question, they want the man on the dollar bill. They want the guy who actually had the power to run the country, not just the guy who chaired a rowdy meeting of delegates.
George Washington wasn't just a figurehead. He was the prototype.
The Man Who Didn't Want the Job
You’ve probably heard the stories about the cherry tree or the wooden teeth. Both are fake, by the way. Washington actually had dentures made of ivory, gold, and—sadly—teeth taken from enslaved people. He didn't chop down a cherry tree to prove he couldn't tell a lie. That was a story made up by a biographer named Mason Locke Weems to make him look like a saint.
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The truth is way more interesting. Washington was kind of a reluctant leader.
After the Revolutionary War, he just wanted to go home to Mount Vernon and look after his farms. He was tired. His eyes were failing. He famously had to put on glasses during a speech to his officers, saying, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to don my spectacles, for I have grown not only gray but nearly blind in the service of my country."
But the country was a mess. The Articles of Confederation were failing. The states were bickering. Everyone knew that if this "United States" thing was going to work, they needed a person everyone trusted.
Who Is the First President of United States Under the Constitution?
In 1789, the Electoral College made it official. Washington is still the only president to be elected unanimously. Twice.
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When he took office on April 30, 1789, there was no "manual." He had to figure out everything from scratch. What do you call him? "Your Highness?" "Your Majesty?" Washington insisted on "Mr. President." It was a huge deal because it signaled he wasn't a king. He was a citizen.
Setting the Precedents
Almost everything a president does today started with Washington. He created the Cabinet because he realized he couldn't do everything himself. He picked people who actually disagreed with each other—like Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson—just to hear different sides of an argument. Can you imagine a politician doing that today?
- The Two-Term Limit: He stepped down after eight years, even though people would have let him stay until he died. He wanted to show that the office was bigger than the man.
- The Farewell Address: He warned against political parties and getting tangled up in foreign wars. (We didn't exactly listen to that part).
- Executive Privilege: He was the first to argue that the President doesn't have to show Congress every single piece of paper if it hurts national security.
The Controversy We Don't Talk About Enough
It’s impossible to talk about the first president without talking about slavery. Washington was a man of his time, but that doesn't make the facts any less heavy. He owned hundreds of people. While he grew to hate the institution of slavery privately, he never used his power as president to stop it.
He even moved enslaved people back and forth between Philadelphia and Virginia to circumvent Pennsylvania's laws that would have set them free after six months of residency.
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It’s a massive contradiction. The man who led a war for "liberty" held people in bondage. He did provide for their manumission (freedom) in his will, but only after his wife Martha passed away. It’s the part of the "first president" story that is often glossed over in the textbooks, but it’s essential to understanding the real man.
Why Washington Still Matters
The reason George Washington is considered the "first" in the hearts of Americans isn't just because he was first on the list. It’s because he didn't seize power when he could have. After the war, he gave up his sword. After the presidency, he gave up the chair.
In a world of kings and dictators, that was a miracle.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the life of the man who shaped the office, here are a few things you can actually do:
- Visit Mount Vernon: If you're ever near D.C., go see his estate. It gives you a much better sense of his daily life and the scale of the operations he managed.
- Read the Farewell Address: It’s not that long, and it’s eerily relevant to today’s political climate.
- Check out the "Hamilton" connection: Watch or listen to the musical to see how his relationship with Alexander Hamilton shaped the U.S. financial system.
Basically, Washington wasn't a "marble statue." He was a guy trying to keep a brand-new country from falling apart while his own teeth were falling out. He made mistakes, he had massive blind spots, but he held the whole thing together by sheer force of character.