1732-1799

George Washington is known as the “Father of our Country”.

He represented Virginia as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses.

He arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts in July of 1775 to take command of his ill-trained troops in a war that was to last six years.

He forced General Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown in October of 1781.  This ended the American Revolutionary War.

He refused the offer from his officers to set up a monarchy with himself as king, an idea he viewed “with abhorrence.” He resigned his commission to Congress and returned to his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. King George III of England remarked he was” the greatest character of the age.”

He was unanimously elected to serve as the presiding officer over the Constitutional Convention that wrote the Constitution of the United States.

He became the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789, serving two terms from 1789-1797.

His portrait appears on the one-dollar bill.

Source for most text only: Liberty Kids