Presidency of George Washington

George Washington's tenure as the inaugural president of the United States began on April 30, 1789, the day of his first inauguration, and ended on March 4, 1797. Washington took office after he was elected unanimously by the Electoral College in the 1788–1789 presidential election, the nation's first quadrennial presidential election. Washington was re-elected unanimously in 1792 and chose to retire after two terms. He was succeeded by his vice president, John Adams of the Federalist Party.

Washington, who had established his preeminence among the new nation's Founding Fathers through his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as president of the 1787 constitutional convention, was widely expected to become the first president of the United States under the new Constitution, though he desired to retire from public life. In his first inaugural address, Washington expressed both his reluctance to accept the presidency and his inexperience with the duties of civil administration, though he proved an able leader.

He presided over the establishment of the new federal government, appointing all of the high-ranking officials in the executive and judicial branches, shaping numerous political practices, and establishing the site of the permanent capital of the United States. He supported Alexander Hamilton's economic policies whereby the federal government assumed the debts of the state governments and established the First Bank of the United States, the United States Mint, and the United States Customs Service. Congress passed the Tariff of 1789, the Tariff of 1790, and an excise tax on whiskey to fund the government and, in the case of the tariffs, address the trade imbalance with Britain.

Washington personally led federalized soldiers in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion, which arose in opposition to the administration's taxation policies.