This is a speech outline done for a speech class about the biography of our first president, George Washington.

Sameer Bhavnani

Period 3 Speech Com. 1

Mr. Borden

11-11-03

Speech to Inform

General Speech Purpose: To Inform

Specific Speech Purpose: to inform audience about the life

Introduction

I.Ello Ello, how many people here know about George Washington? But how many of you really know about him, besides the fact he was our first president.

II.Who is George Washington, and what has he done for us?

III.His way of living, and what made him rise above the rest.

IV.Today I would like to introduce you to the fascinating "History of George Washington!"

Body

I.We know the exact place and time George Washington came into existence.

A.George Washington was born in 1732 in a Virginia Planter Family.

1.He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion.

2.At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax.

B.Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War.

1.The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.

2.From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life.

3.But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations.

II.As the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.

A.When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

1.On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years.

B.He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British.

1.He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn."

2.(Play Tape of Washington saying quoted text above.)

C.Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly.

1.Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

D.Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon.

1.But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787.

2.When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.

III.He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress.

A.But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern.

1.When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British.

2.Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.

B.To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term.

IV.Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second.

A.In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.

B.Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799.

1.Fold all the pieces backwards, concealing them to the back of the logo.

2.For months the Nation mourned him.

Conclusion

I.Today you can visit the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.

II.On a survey I took at El Camino College, many students say that they would elect George Washington today if he were still alive and could run for President.

List of Sources

1.Biography of George Washington Website. www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html. (1999).

2.Encyclopedia, D. S. Freeman (7 vol., 1948--57; abr. ed. 1968).

3.Encyclopedia ,Portraits of Washington (3 vol., 1932).

4.J. E. Ferling, The First of Men (1988).

List of Materials

1. Picture of Washington.

2. Audio Cassette of Washington.