George Washington

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, on a Virginia plantation. His father died when he was eleven, and he was raised by his half-brother Lawrence. Without formal schooling he taught himself surveying and military arts, working at sixteen as a surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley.

At 22 he served in the French and Indian War, surrendering early at Fort Necessity but earning his reputation by leading the retreat at the Monongahela after Braddock's death. His Virginia Regiment service taught him the British army's contempt for colonial officers — a personal motive for the later revolution. In 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis, gaining stepchildren and a fortune.

After fifteen years in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Washington was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774. In June 1775 the Second Continental Congress made him commander of the Continental Army. With under-trained colonial forces he fought the world's strongest army for eight years — the 1776 Delaware crossing, Valley Forge in 1777, and the decisive 1781 Yorktown victory that produced the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Washington's most revolutionary act was his post-war resignation. Many expected him to make himself a king; he refused and went home to Mount Vernon, drawing comparisons to Cincinnatus. Called back to chair the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he was elected first president by unanimous Electoral College vote and inaugurated April 30, 1789.

In office he built precedent: the cabinet, three executive departments, mediation between Jefferson and Hamilton, suppression of the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, the 1796 Farewell Address warning against partisan faction. He stepped down after two terms — a custom honoured until codified by the 22nd Amendment in 1951. He died December 14, 1799, aged 67. His will freed his slaves — the only founding-era president to do so.