Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the manners, customs, and the body of knowledge as the basis for the 18th Century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: martial arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah countries for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754 he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The following year, as an employee of General Edward Braddock, he escaped injury, but four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot under him.
From 1759 until the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his land in Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of citizens. Martha Dandridge Custis married a widow, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations. As the dispute with the mother became acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his opposition to the limits.
When the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, was elected a delegate to the Virginia commander of the Continental Army. On 3 July 1775, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked on a war that was to last six grueling years.
He recognized early on that the best strategy was to harass the British. He told the congress that "we should on all occasions, a general measure to avoid or something to the Risque, unless a need that we should never be forced to formulate." Subsequent battles saw him fall back slowly, then hit unexpectedly. Finally, in 1781 with the aid of French allies - he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his Mount Vernon areas. But he soon realized that the nation will not work properly under its Articles of Confederation, he was a driving force in the steps on the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. If the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.
He has no policy against the forces he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy was largely a presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused fully accepted the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who is pro-British. Instead, he insisted on a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties until the end of his first term development. Tired of politics, feeling old, he moved at the end of his second. In his farewell speech, he urged his countrymen to renounce excessive partying and geographical differences. In foreign policy, he warned against long-term partnerships.
Washington less than three years in retirement at Mount Vernon enjoyed because of a sore throat he 14th Died in December 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.
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