George Corbin Washington

George Corbin Washington (August 20, 1789 – July 17, 1854) was a United States representative from the third and fifth districts of Maryland, serving four terms from 1827 to 1833, and 1835 to 1837. A member of the Anti-Jacksonian Party during part of his congressional career, he participated in the legislative process at a formative period in the nation’s political development, representing Maryland constituencies in both the Twentieth through Twenty-second Congresses and the Twenty-fourth Congress.

Washington was born at Haywood Farms near Oak Grove in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was the son of William Augustine Washington and his first wife, Jane Washington, and was closely connected to one of the most prominent families in early American history. He was a grandnephew of President George Washington, being the grandson of George Washington’s half-brother Augustine Washington Jr. on his father’s side and the grandson of George Washington’s brother John Washington on his mother’s side. These family ties placed him within the extended Washington lineage that remained influential in Virginia and the broader mid-Atlantic region in the early republic.

In his youth, Washington received a formal education that reflected his family’s social standing. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, one of the leading preparatory schools of the era, and subsequently studied at Harvard University. He pursued the study of law but ultimately chose not to practice as an attorney, instead devoting himself primarily to agricultural pursuits. He managed and worked his plantation interests in Maryland, aligning himself with the agrarian economic base that characterized much of the region’s political leadership in the early nineteenth century.

Washington’s public career began at the state level. He resided for the most part at Dumbarton Heights in the Georgetown neighborhood of what is now Washington, D.C., and from there became active in Maryland politics. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1816 to 1819, participating in state legislative affairs during the post–War of 1812 period, when Maryland and the nation were adjusting to new economic and political realities. His service in the House of Delegates helped establish his reputation as a public figure and prepared him for subsequent national office.

Washington was elected as a United States representative from Maryland to the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses, serving three consecutive terms from March 4, 1827, until March 3, 1833. During this initial period in Congress, he represented first the third and then the fifth districts of Maryland, reflecting changes in districting and political alignments. As a member of the Anti-Jacksonian opposition to President Andrew Jackson, he contributed to the legislative process at a time of intense national debate over issues such as federal power, internal improvements, and the role of the executive branch. In the Twenty-second Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, giving him a central role in legislation affecting the governance and development of the national capital. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1832 and left Congress at the expiration of his term in March 1833.

Two years later, Washington returned to national office. He was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress and served one additional term from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1837, again representing Maryland in the House of Representatives. This brought his total service in Congress to four terms, spanning the years 1827 to 1833 and 1835 to 1837. Throughout this period he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Maryland constituents during a significant era in American political history marked by the rise of the second party system. After the conclusion of his final term, he was not a candidate for renomination and withdrew from further pursuit of elective federal office.

In the years following his congressional service, Washington remained active in public and quasi-public affairs. He became president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, an important internal improvement enterprise aimed at linking the Potomac River region with the western territories and enhancing commerce and transportation. His leadership of the company placed him at the center of one of the major infrastructure projects of the period. In 1844, President John Tyler appointed him as a commissioner to adjust and settle claims arising under the 1835 treaty with the Treaty faction of the Cherokee Nation, involving the complex and often contentious process of implementing federal Indian policy and treaty obligations.

Washington also figured briefly in national electoral politics in the early 1850s. In 1852, he was nominated by the nativist Know Nothing movement as a candidate for vice president on a ticket headed by Daniel Webster. The effort was short-lived; Webster died nine days before the election, and the ticket was subsequently replaced by Jacob Broom and Reynell Coates. Although this candidacy did not result in office, it reflected Washington’s continued prominence and the willingness of emerging political movements to associate themselves with his name and reputation.

George Corbin Washington died on July 17, 1854, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he had long resided at Dumbarton Heights. He was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, a burial ground that became the resting place for many notable figures of the capital region. His life and career linked the founding generation, through his family connections, to the evolving political landscape of the antebellum United States, and his service in both state and national office marked him as a significant, if relatively understated, participant in the public life of his era.