George Washington
Created | Updated Oct 20, 2010
<p><img src="http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/6234/files/Geo'Wash.jpg" alt="1st in War, 1st in Peace, 1st in Line for Dessert" align=right border=0>General Washington (1732-1799) was, in many respects, the perfect 18th Century gentleman. He was magnanimous and snooty, cultured and provincial, prosperous and indebted, cosmopolitan and patriotic, a fashion plate and a penny-pincher, a revolutionary and a conservative. He loved liberty and owned slaves, championed religion and refused communion, valued temperance and drank like a fish. But mostly he was revered—and misunderstood. </p>
He was a Virginia farmer and surveyor when Virginia was a colony belonging to Great Britain. As a young man he longed to earn glory as an officer in the King’s Army. When his career stalled in the 1750s he returned to farming, married extremely well, and set about his lifetime work of advancing the economic prospects for his country (Virginia) through the settlement and development of the western lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains by white farmers. He was also a shrewd and exacting businessperson and an inveterate experimenter in the agricultural sciences. <BR/><BR/>
As a leading landowner of the Virginia colony he became politically active in the 1760s and 1770s, soon coming to champion the independence and unification of Britain’s North American colonies. The American Continental Congress appointed him commander-in-chief of the army during the War for American Independence (aka, the American Revolution), 1775-1783. The political and organizational skills he demonstrated as the rebellion’s commanding general is generally acknowledged as the principal reason for the success of the American revolt. <BR/><BR/>
In the early years of the independence of the United States of America, Washington and many of his social and political associates became concerned that the decentralized and highly chaotic republican government of the country was causing an economic recession. When recession led to political violence in a number of the 13 states in 1786-1787, most notably Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts, Washington helped lead an effort to create a stronger unified (called "federal") Constitution. It was his personal commitment to the new government the Federalists proposed in 1787 that reassured more populist factions within the country that the Constitution would not lead to tyranny. <BR/><BR/>
Washington served as the first US President under the Constitution from 1789-1797. By taking the unprecedented step of voluntarily leaving office at the end of his second term, he helped to establish the principle of government by law in the United States, which over the next 200 years would become the norm by which all democracies would be measured. <BR/><BR/>
He was a Virginia farmer and surveyor when Virginia was a colony belonging to Great Britain. As a young man he longed to earn glory as an officer in the King’s Army. When his career stalled in the 1750s he returned to farming, married extremely well, and set about his lifetime work of advancing the economic prospects for his country (Virginia) through the settlement and development of the western lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains by white farmers. He was also a shrewd and exacting businessperson and an inveterate experimenter in the agricultural sciences. <BR/><BR/>
As a leading landowner of the Virginia colony he became politically active in the 1760s and 1770s, soon coming to champion the independence and unification of Britain’s North American colonies. The American Continental Congress appointed him commander-in-chief of the army during the War for American Independence (aka, the American Revolution), 1775-1783. The political and organizational skills he demonstrated as the rebellion’s commanding general is generally acknowledged as the principal reason for the success of the American revolt. <BR/><BR/>
In the early years of the independence of the United States of America, Washington and many of his social and political associates became concerned that the decentralized and highly chaotic republican government of the country was causing an economic recession. When recession led to political violence in a number of the 13 states in 1786-1787, most notably Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts, Washington helped lead an effort to create a stronger unified (called "federal") Constitution. It was his personal commitment to the new government the Federalists proposed in 1787 that reassured more populist factions within the country that the Constitution would not lead to tyranny. <BR/><BR/>
Washington served as the first US President under the Constitution from 1789-1797. By taking the unprecedented step of voluntarily leaving office at the end of his second term, he helped to establish the principle of government by law in the United States, which over the next 200 years would become the norm by which all democracies would be measured. <BR/><BR/>
