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George Washington Presidential $1 Coin — First President, 1789-1797
• Born: 22 February 1732
• Birthplace: Westmoreland County, Virginia
• Died: 14 December 1799
• Best Known As: The first President of the United States
George Washington is called "the father of his country" for his crucial role in fighting for, creating and leading the United States of America in its earliest days. Washington was a surveyor, farmer and soldier who rose to command the Colonial forces in the Revolutionary War. He held the ragtag Continental Army together -- most famously during a frigid encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania during the winter of 1777-78 -- and eventually led them to victory over the British.
His success in the war made him a tremendously popular figure in America even after he retired to his farm at Mount Vernon in 1783. He was the natural choice to serve as the country's first president in 1789 after the new United States Constitution was ratified.
He served two terms, refused a third, and returned to his Virginia farm. In 1798 he was again commissioned as Commander in Chief of the Army, a title he held until his death 18 months later.
George Washington Presidential $1 Coin — First President, 1789-1797
Following the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, the Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington to serve as the United States’ first President. The former General and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army served two terms as president, holding the office from 1789 to 1797.
On June 1, 1789, President George Washington signed the country’s first Act of Congress, concerning the administration of oaths. In 1791, President Washington presided over the Nation’s first recorded Cabinet meeting, which included Alexander Hamilton as the United States’ first Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas Jefferson as the first Secretary of State.
President Washington himself laid the cornerstone for the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 1793.
Washington also laid the groundwork for the United States’ earliest foreign policy stance when he issued his Declaration of Neutrality in 1793, a direct response to the emerging conflict between England and France.