George Washington
(1732-99):

No review of the American Revolution would be sufficient without at least a brief consideration of George Washington, the "father of the United States," its first president. He was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen.

Washington was born into a wealthy Virginian family. He became a surveyor as a young man and was one of the principals of the Ohio Company, whose purpose was the exploitation of Western lands. An officer in the militia, he fought in the last of the French and Indian Wars and, in 1755 was named commander in chief of the Virginia militia with the rank of colonel. He resigned in 1759, married, and turned his attention to his plantation known as Mount Vernon.

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-75), which named him commander of the Continental forces upon the outbreak of hostilities with the British. He assumed command (July 3, 1775) in Cambridge, Mass., and succeeded in capturing Boston from the British (Mar. 17, 1776). Unable to defend New York City, he was forced to retreat. He developed his military skill by trial and error as he went along. On Christmas night, 1776, with morale at its lowest ebb, he and his troops crossed the Delaware River and defeated the British at Trenton and Princeton, N.J. Less successful in his attempts to defend Philadelphia at Brandywine and Germantown, he spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge in great misery and deprivation. But he emerged with increased powers from Congress and a well-trained, totally loyal army. After the battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778), his fortunes improved and subsequent victories preceded the surrender at Yorktown of General Cornwallis on Oct. 19, 1781.

At the conclusion of hostilities, Washington retired to Mount Vernon. His dissatisfaction with the new government, however, led him back into public life. He presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where his prestige and reputation were incalculable in the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. He was chosen unanimously as the first president and took office on April 30, 1789. His efforts to remain aloof from partisan politics were unsuccessful, and the influence of Alexander Hamilton moved him increasingly toward conservatism. His second term, openly Federalist, was bitterly criticized by the Jeffersonians. Sickened by the partisan struggles, he refused a third term and retired for the last time to Mount Vernon in 1797. He died two years later.

Washington was universally regarded as the man without whom the American Revolution and the new republic could not have succeeded.