President Washington in Philadelphia
Washington had a household staff of about 24, plus an office staff of 4 or 5, all of whom lived and worked in the house. His wife Martha and two of her grandchildren, "Wash" Custis and Nelly Custis, were part of the First Family. The house was too small for the 30-plus occupants, so the President made additions:
"...a large two-story bow to be added to south side of the main house making the rooms at the rear thirty-four feet in length, a long one-story servants' hall to be built on the east side of the kitchen ell, the bathtubs to be removed from the bath house's second floor and the bathingroom turned into the President's private office, additional servant rooms to be constructed, and an expansion of the stables."
Although Pennsylvania had begun an abolition of slavery in 1780, it permitted slaveholders from other states to hold slaves in the state for up to six months. After that time, slaves would gain their freedom. Members of Congress were exempt from Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act, but not officers of the executive and judicial branches. Washington and other slaveholders rotated their slaves out of the state to prevent the slaves from establishing the 6-month residency needed to qualify for manumission. His slave Oney Judge escaped from captivity in Philadelphia, and he gradually replaced most of his slaves in Philadelphia with indentured servants who were German immigrants. Hercules, a cook who had worked in Philadelphia, escaped from Mount Vernon on February 22, 1797 and made his way to Philadelphia; later he lived in New York City. He was listed among the slaves Washington owned and freed in his will of 1801; the fugitive Hercules may never have learned that he was legally free.
Major acts as President:
- Oversaw the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights.
- Oversaw the establishment, location and planning of the future District of Columbia.
- Quashed the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
Read more about this topic: President's House (Philadelphia)
Famous quotes containing the words president, washington and/or philadelphia:
“I am not liked as a President by the politicians in office, in the press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide the judgment—the sober second thought—of the people.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what does he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man’s parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.”
—Cleveland Amory (b. 1917)