The Life of President George Washington

Gilbert Stuart's unfinished 1796 painting of
 George Washington is also known as  
The Athenaeum, his most celebrated
 and famous work.

       George Washington(1732-1799), an American soldier and statesman, the hero of American independence, and the first President of the nation which he helped to establish. There are two Americans of the generations now past who have won the undying love and reverence of their countrymen - Washington and Lincoln.

       Though they are equally honored, the one as founder and the other as preserver of the American nation, they are thought of as totally different types. Lincoln, so much nearer our own time, is by far the more human figure. His humanity, his rugged appearance, his humor and his kindliness are remembered as the characteristics of a very real man. Washington is more or less of a mythical personage. The idealized portrait painted by Charles Stuart, reproduced right, is in a way symbolic of the impression that Americans cherish of the "Father of His Country." He seems to them a lofty figure somewhat detached from everyday life; a great man, but one aloof from his fellowmen; a strong man, but without fire and vigor. The complete record of his life refutes these ideas. There is every reason to believe that if he were alive to-day he would be a virile and influential figure in American political affairs, a personality as vivid as in his own time. 

• The Ancestry and Youth of George Washington
• The Early Military Career of Washington
• At Mount Vernon
• The Revolutionary War
• The Constitution and First Administration
• President Washington's Second Term
• The End of Washington's Story

Artifacts About President George Washington:

1. Questions and Answers About George Washington
2. President Washington's Receptions
3. Farewell, Address To His Officers
4. Tribute To Washington
5. Ode For Washington's Birthday
6. Washington's Birthday by William Cullen Bryant
7. Welcome to Lafayette by Edward Everett
8. The Twenty-Second of February by Webster
9. True Heroism
10. Under The Washington Elm, Cambridge
11. Provocation: Abraham Lincoln and Cabin Building

More Online Resources:

• White House biography
• United States Congress. "George Washington (id: W000178)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• George Washington's Mount Vernon
• American President: George Washington (1732–1799) at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
• George Washington: A Resource Guide at the Library of Congress
• George Washington Resources at the University of Virginia Library
• Original Digitized Letters of George Washington Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• The Papers of George Washington at the Avalon Project
• The Papers of George Washington, subset of Founders Online from the National Archives
• George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Virginia from the National Park Service
• Copies of the wills of General George Washington: the first president of the United States and of Martha Washington, his wife (1904), edited by E. R. Holbrook
• "What Made George Washington a Good Military Leader?". EDSITEment: Lesson Plans. National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Works by George Washington at Project Gutenberg
• George Washington Personal Manuscripts

Our Presidents

OUR PRESIDENTS

(To the tune of "Yankee Doodle.")

George Washington is number one,

With whom begins the story;

John Adams then doth follow on

To share him in the glory.

Thomas Jefferson comes next,

A good old man was he.

James Madison is number four.

Twice President to be.

Chorus:

Our Presidents, hurrah! hurrah!
We'll give them three times three,
And may their memories ever live
In our hearts so brave and free.

Dear James Monroe was next in line.

Twice also did he rule us,

John Quincey Adams served us next.

And not once did he fool us.

Then Andrew Jackson came along,

So famous as a soldier,

Martin Van Buren took his place

To act as office holder.

And William Henry Harrison

Came next in the procession.

He died, and then John Tyler came,

Of the chair to take possession.

James K. Polk is on the roll,

He was an upright man.

Zachary Taylor followed him,

A dozen now we scan.

Millard Fillmore then was called

To rule o'er all our nation:

And after him one Franklin Pierce

Was called to fill the station.

James Buchanan was the next

Our President to be;

Then came Abe Lincoln, brave and true,

A mighty man was he.

Andrew Johnson's name is next

In the song which we are singing;

Then comes the name of U. S. Grant,

Let's set the rafters ringing;

And now we've got to R. B. Hayes,

The nineteenth name of all;

And James A. Garfield is the next

To answer to the call.

Chester Allen Arthur then

Comes forth to take his place;

And Grover Cleveland follows him.

The next one in the race.

Harrison in eighty-eight

Was called to fill the chair.

And Cleveland then again was called

To rule our Country fair.

The Life of President Abraham Lincoln

"That this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom, and that govern-
ment of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not parish from the earth."
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
clip art from Christian Clip Art Review

        Lincoln, ling'kun, Abra- ham (1809-1865), the sixteenth President of the United States, and one of the best loved of American statesmen. Today his countrymen honor him as the man who saved the American republic from disunion, and gave the black man his freedom. More than this, he stands as the supreme type of the democratic statesman, and the ideals which he expressed by voice and in his daily life are treasured as the greatest spiritual possessions of the American nation. By birth and by training Lincoln was in a literal sense a man of the common people. Born in a log cabin and with his entire schooling covering not more than a year, he could make no claim to aristocratic blood, to scholarship or to social prestige. He was what he was by virtue of inborn greatness. 

• The Ancestry and Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln's Early Career
• Time Line for Lincoln's Administration 1861-65
• Lincoln As President
• Lincoln Becomes A National Figure
• President Abraham Lincoln's Death

Artifacts About President Abraham Lincoln:

1. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
2. Lincoln (poem)
3. Abraham Lincoln by James Russel Lowell
4. Questions and Answers About Lincoln
5. Lincoln's Birthday by Ida Vose Woodbury
6. Sayings About Lincoln
7. Lincoln by Nancy Byrd Turner
8. Emancipation Proclamation
9. Provocation: Abraham Lincoln and Cabin Building

More Online Resources:

• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
• White House biography
• Abraham Lincoln Association
• Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation
• United States Congress. "Abraham Lincoln (id: L000313)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• "Life Portrait of Abraham Lincoln", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 28, 1999
• "Writings of Abraham Lincoln" from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History
• Abraham Lincoln: Original Letters and Manuscripts – Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Lincoln/Net: Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
• Teaching Abraham Lincoln – National Endowment for the Humanities
• In Popular Song:Our Noble Chief Has Passed Away by Cooper/Thomas