George Washington lived sixty-seven years, from 1732 to 1799. During his last twenty-four years—more than a third of his life—he was the foremost man in America, the man on whom the fate of his country depended more than on any other man. And these were fateful years.
From 1775 to 1783—the years of the American War of Independence—Washington was Commander–in–Chief of the Continental Army upon whose victory the thirteen colonies depended to secure their separate and equal station among the powers of the earth. In the summer of 1787, he presided over America’s Constitutional Convention. His presence lent decisive significance to the document drafted there, which continues in force in the twenty–first century as the oldest written constitution in the world. From 1789–1796, he held the highest office in the land as the first president of the United States of America under this constitution. The office of president had in fact been designed with his virtues in mind.
