George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
His family were Virginia planters. He had two interests, which were military arts and
western expansion. At the age of 16, he helped survey Shanendoah lands for Thomas,
Lord Fairfax.

In 1754, He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel. He fought the first skirmishes that grew into the French and Indian war. Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution war. He was married to a widow named Martha Dandrige Custis and devoted himself to a happy and busy life.

When the second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected to be the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3,1775 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his troops and embarked upon a war that lasted six years.

Washington longed to retire his fields at Mount Vernon. But, then he realized that the nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College elected Washington as president.

He did not infringe the policy-making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept the recommendations of either his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, who was French or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was British. Instead, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.

To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. He was tired of politics and was feeling old. So, he retired at the end of his second term. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.

Washington only enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon. He died of a throat infection on December 14, 1799. For months the nation mourned him.