First President of USA
To defend human equality, right to have human slaves is essential.
George Washington (1732–1799) became the first President of the United States of America on April 30, 1789. Washington's inauguration as President, launched the constitutional republic.
The first national elections were held between December 1 788 and January 1789. George Washington won unanimous electoral votes for president. John Adams became vice president with the second-highest electoral total. Washington was elected unanimously again in 1792. No other U.S. president has ever achieved this.
The first Congress quickly passed the Bill of Rights as promised. These first ten amendments protected fundamental freedoms like speech, religion, and due process.
Washington established crucial precedents during his presidency. He voluntarily stepped down after two terms. His Farewell Address warned against partisan divisions and foreign entanglements.
In 1794 farmers in western Pennsylvania violently opposed a federal excise tax, Washington personally led about 13,000 militiamen toward the area. This show of force ended the rebellion without a battle and affirmed federal authority to levy tax. Washington remains the only sitting U.S. president to command troops in the field, ever.
Washington was tall and imposing. With the height of about 6'2”, he was unusually tall for the era and used his physical presence to command respect.
Washington's Warning Against Empire
“ The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.” - George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
There exists perhaps no greater irony in the story of America's accidental empire. It unequivocally abandoned its founding father’s most prescient warning. Washington, in his farewell address to the nation, laid out a vision of American foreign policy that reads today like a manifesto from the Non-Aligned Movement or India's doctrine of Strategic Autonomy. Yet his name appears nowhere in the chronicles of America's imperial critics, his wisdom buried beneath two centuries of interventionist rhetoric.
The Prophet's Vision
Washington's farewell address was not merely ceremonial; it was a desperate attempt to inoculate the young republic against the very disease that would eventually consume it. Having witnessed first-hand how European powers manipulated American domestic politics during his presidency, Washington understood that entangling alliances were the pathway to imperial corruption.
“ Why forgo the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, Rival-ship, Interest, Humour or Caprice?”
These words, written in 1796, could have been spoken by Jawaharlal Nehru at the Bandung Conference in 1955, or by Narendra Modi explaining India's position on Ukraine in 2022. Washington envisioned America as a continental power focused on commerce, not conquest; trading with all, entangled with none.
Feared Economic Empire
Washington specifically warned against the corrupting influence of “passionate attachments” to foreign nations, understanding intuitively what modern economists call amoral hazard. When a nation becomes emotionally or strategically invested in another's fate, it loses the ability to make rational calculations about its own interests.
“ So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils... It leads also to concessions to the favourite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions.”
This reads like a manifesto against the dollar privilege system. America's “passionate attachment” to its own currency supremacy has led it to grant itself privileges denied to others. It can print money without consequence, to impose sanctions unilaterally, to weaponize the global financial system. Washington saw clearly that such arrangements would “doubly injure” the nation making the concessions by corrupting both its economy and its character.
Domestic Corruption
Perhaps most prophetically, Washington understood that foreign entanglements would inevitably corrupt domestic governance. He warned that foreign influence would “tamper with domestic factions, to practice the art of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public Councils.”
Today's America, with its military-industrial complex, its revolving door between government and defence contractors, its foreign policy establishment that profits from perpetual conflict, validates Washington's darkest fears. The “Deep State” that modern critics identify is precisely the domestic corruption Washington predicted would flow from foreign entanglements.
Strategic Autonomy
The supreme irony is that India, Britain 's former “crown jewel,” dismissed by American foreign policy elites as unreliable, has become the truest embodiment of Washington's original vision. India's Strategic Autonomy doctrine mirrors Washington's foreign policy blueprint with stunning precision:
Commercial relations without political entanglement : India trades with Russia, Iran, and China while maintaining strategic partnerships with the US and Europe
Avoiding passionate attachments : India refuses to choose sides in the Ukraine conflict, just as Washington urged neutrality in European wars
Domestic decision-making independence : India's foreign policy serves Indian interests, not alliance obligations
Skepticism of permanent alliances : India maintains partnerships but avoids the binding commitments that compromise sovereignty
The Abandoned Path
Washington's America was to be a ** commercial republic, not a military empire.** He envisioned a nation that would grow wealthy through trade, secure through geography, and respected through example rather than force. The Bretton Woods system, with its dollar dominance and enforced global trade flows, represents the opposite of Washington's vision. America is using its economic power to create the very “artificial ties” he warned against.
Had America followed Washington's blueprint, it might have avoided the imperial overstretch that now threatens its domestic stability. Instead of maintaining 800+ military bases worldwide, it could have focused on continental development. Instead of fighting endless wars for dubious strategic gains, it could have built the infrastructure and institutions necessary for long-term prosperity.
Look at the memoirs of Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices, in which she proudly gives details of her worldwide travels like an Empress resolving the disputes and solving the problems of subject nations. Merely calling it leadership does not change the reality.
Final Rest
On September 17, 1796 Washington published his Farewell Address (actually an open letter, not a spoken speech) in Philadelphia’s * American Daily Advertiser* , announcing he would not seek a third term. This was voluntary. At that time, there was no legal bar for third term. He set a tradition that every president followed until Franklin D. Roosevelt broke it in the 20th century. The custom became law with the 22nd Amendment (1951).
In November 1796, a Presidential election was held and John Adams was elected as his successor. When nations changed rulers by heredity, coup, or revolution, Washington voluntarily surrendered authority in a functioning republic. On March 4, 1797 he formally handed over the office to John Adams, his successor, at Congress Hall in Philadelphia. It was something George III of Britain is reported to have called “the greatest act of any man.”
After leaving office, he operated one of the largest whiskey distilleries in America at Mount Vernon. He bred hunting hounds and gave them whimsical names like “Sweet Lips,” “Drunkard,” and “Tipsy.”
Washington's death on December 14, 1799, revealed his true character, once again. He caught a throat infection after riding in harsh weather. Doctors made everything worse by draining five pints of blood in twelve hours. Washington faced death with complete calm. His last words after reviewing his will were simply “'Tis well.” The nation mourned like never before. Even Napoleon ordered ten days of mourning in France.
Washington died, not as a power-hungry ruler, but as a private citizen on his farm. This perfectly captured what the new republic stood for. His composed death cemented his legacy as America's essential founding father. He showed that true leadership means knowing when to step away from power.
George Washington, champion of liberty and equality, the first President of the United States, did indeed own slaves. At the time of his death in 1799, it is recorded that he had approximately 304 enslaved people under his ownership or control at Mount Vernon and other properties. This fact has been a point of historical contention as Washington's legacy includes being an advocate for liberty while simultaneously owning slaves himself.
The Forgotten Wisdom
Washington's warnings ring with particular urgency in 2025. His prediction that passionate foreign attachments would lead to “frequent collisions, obstinate envenomed and bloody contests” describes perfectly America's entanglement in Middle Eastern conflicts, its proxy wars, its inability to extricate itself from commitments that no longer serve its interests.
Meanwhile, nations following Washington's original principles of strategic autonomy, commercial relations over political entanglements, domestic priorities over foreign adventures, are ascending while America struggles with imperial overstretch.
George Washington deserves recognition not just as America's first president, but as the prophet of a foreign policy doctrine that America abandoned and the rest of the world kept trying to adopt. His farewell address reads today like a foreign policy manual for rising powers seeking to avoid the imperial trap that ensnared his own country. His foreign policy got a name in 2025 as ** Strategic Autonomy** and was the most used word in diplomacy circles, in recent past.
The tragedy is not in America's transformation into an empire. This was perhaps unavoidable due to its geographic advantages and dominant position after the war. However, a deeper tragedy is that America completely disregarded George Washington's fear of foreign entanglements. Consequently, it established exactly what he feared: a republic weakened by imperial desires. This will also explain why the domestic governance became tainted with these international commitments and their consequences were borne solely by the American people who had no say in them.
In the end, Washington's vision lives on, not in the country he founded, but in the nations that learned from his wisdom while America forgot it. But the matter does not rest here. The newly found republic of America abandoned another major principle almost immediately which was meddling of religion into politics an governance. We will read about it, in the next chapter.
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