George Washington - The First President Documentary

[Music] the man known to history as George Washington was born at Westmoreland County Virginia on the 22nd of February 1732 his father Augustine Washington was a moderately successful plantation owner who had married George's mother Mary ball in 1731 after the death of his first wife a year earlier George's great-grandfather John Washington had emigrated to Virginia in the 1650s and had even fought on the side of King Charles the first in the English Civil War against the Parliamentarians John then after leaving England for America married the daughter of a successful plantation owner who gifted him over 700 acres of land to develop into his own plantation over the coming years John and his descendants expanded the Washington plantation at Pope's Creek until by the time George was born the family had considerable assets spanning thousands of acres the colony of Virginia itself had been in existence since the early 17th century when England's first settlement in North America Jamestown was founded in 1607 since then England established 12 further colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America until by the mid 1700s the population of these colonies had grown to nearly 2 million people in comparison to England's population of around 6 million this population boom was down to emigration from Ireland Germany and England amongst others leading to cities such as Boston and New York becoming centres of international commerce immigration to the colonies was in turn largely down to the fact that North America offered limitless possibilities for business due to its massive signs and rich natural resources [Music] these commodities such as tobacco sugar and coffee were available in abundance in North America and the Caribbean were then cultivated on a large scale at thousands of plantations and transported back to Europe through maritime trade networks France also had a strong presence in North America and the Caribbean at this time and the coming decades would see both day and the English in a near constant struggle for the lucrative North American and Caribbean territories the immense resources of North America soon made England's 13 colonies rich and it's thousands of plantation owners and merchants further expanded their profits by using slaves from Africa who were seen as a massive resource of expendable unpaid labor the land owning colonial classes to which the Washington's belonged lived in lives of refinement luxury and relative security as there were ample opportunities for advancement for those blessed with intellect and conscientiousness in many ways the wealthy colonial families of the period modeled themselves in the English style and saw themselves as loyal subjects of the crown with many sending their children to be educated in England as well as serve in his armed forces unlike some colonial families at the time the Washington's land and human assets were more modest than many and both Augustine and Mary could not afford to send their children away to school meaning that George and his siblings received their initial education from private tutors he then progressed to a local school in Fredericksburg Virginia where he was taught mathematics as well as other subjects such as cartography and he was according to accounts an intelligent and hardworking young man but George's comfortable childhood was brought to an abrupt end in 1743 when his father died and as he was just one of 10 children his inheritance was inevitably split between him and his siblings he did however inherit a small holding named fairy farm and several slaves from his father but the burden of heading the family now fell onto the shoulders George's eldest half-brother Lawrence who it is fair to say would have a considerable influence on him over the coming years Lawrence had inherited the Washington family's largest plantation at Mount Vernon as his father's eldest son and had also secured a good marriage to the daughter of a prominent English colonial government official named William Fairfax Fairfax soon became a father figure to George who then moved to Mount Vernon Plantation to live with his half-brother and his wife Lawrence's connections with prominent local families then gained George the opportunity in 1749 of becoming a land surveyor and after obtaining the relevant qualifications from a University in Williamsburg Virginia he was appointed to be the surveyor of the town of Culpepper George did not stay in this position for long however as he over the next few years purchased land in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia and resigned his role in Culpepper shortly afterwards his brother Lawrence had also become ill by this time with tuberculosis and the two would regularly bathe in hot springs in the town of Bath which is today known as Berkeley Springs West Virginia in the hope of finding a remedy both Lawrence and George then left mainland North America in 1751 and traveled to the Caribbean island of Barbados hoping that the tropical climate would have some positive effect whilst on the voyage George contracted smallpox but catching the disease may very well have worked to his benefit in the long run as he was now immune from the virus and after recovering both he and his brother then returned home in 1750 to Laurence's health unlike his brothers continued to failed him however and he died in July of 17 52 in his early 30s and after the untimely deaths of his brothers wife and daughter two years later George inherited the Mount Vernon estate his brother Lawrence as well as owning a plantation had enjoyed a successful military career before his death which prompted George to follow his example by seeking commission as an officer he was then appointed to serve in the Virginia militia in 1752 and was then shortly afterwards given the rank of Major and tasked with aiding the various trade routes with native tribes around the Ohio River as well as ensuring that the French did not disturb colonial trade or operate in English territory although the British owned the territories of the 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast the French crown lay claims to the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains which was known as New France however the growing population of the Atlantic colonies and the increasing demand of new land inevitably resulted in the British crown laying claim to the territories west of the 13 colonies which resulted in the governor of Virginia Robert Dean Witte ordering Washington to deliver an ultimatum to the French forces in the Ohio River Basin to vacate the area this was an extremely dangerous mission involving the crossing of hostile and often difficult terrain but Washington who had volunteered for the assignment was eager to prove himself as an officer and so set out from Virginia with a small band of frontiersman and natives towards the Ohio basin after over a month of traveling Washington arrived at the French for d'leh berth whose commander replied to the English demands by stating that any diplomatic communications should be sent to the major-general of New France in Quebec modern-day Canada Washington then left the fort to return to Virginia but along the way was attacked by native Indians and nearly drowned in a frozen river he did however finally were delivered the French response to Robert dimwitty in person and was praised in a local journal for his bravery during the mission and news of his exploits then spread further afield this soon made him a household name in America and England which resulted in Dinwiddie promoting Washington to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel George was not given much time to enjoy his newfound fame however as all-out war was now brewing between Britain and France for control of the Ohio basin meaning that Washington would soon once again be heading westward the two competing nations centered their attention on the strategically vital area in and around the modern-day city of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where three rivers including the Ohio converged the reason for the junction of these rivers being vital was that boats were often the quickest form of transport at the time given the heavily forested terrain and thusly controlling the junction of the area's three major rivers would give one side or the other control of river traffic Washington along with the detachment of some 200 men was then sent to prevent the French from fortifying the river Junction but along the way received word they had already begun the construction of a fort named Duquesne and had occupied the area in strength he thusly decided to hold back from advancing further and instead awaited reinforcements but whilst doing so received intelligence that a small number of French troops were in a camp only a few miles from his own Washington then led his men towards the French position and attacked them resulting in the enemy being quickly overwhelmed Washington stated that his forces had killed around a dozen at the French party including its commander Joseph de Jumonville however other eyewitness accounts stated that Jumonville was only injured during the battle and was murdered by the leader of Washington's Indian allies it is also claimed that the French were undertaking a diplomatic mission like the one Washington himself and undertaken into the Ohio Basin shortly before no one knows if these claims are true or not but the Battle of Jumonville Glen as Washington's attack became known was the opening action of the coming war between Britain and France for control of North America which is today known as the French and Indian War however this conflict was only the American theater of the Seven Years War between England and its allies such as Prussia amongst others against a coalition of France Austria and Russia to name but a few after the incident Washington now a full colonel expected a French counter-attack and ordered the fortification of his position which he named Fort Necessity and his numbers were then increased by fresh reinforcements but the French commander in the region was the brother of the late joseph de Jumonville and was thusly determined to exact revenge on the English for their attack by launching his own Washington had also neglected to clear away the woods surrounding the fort which in turn gave the French cover from which they could rain fire down onto his exposed position culminating in him then having to surrender to the French commander this defeat was a disaster for the British and Washington himself as it had been his own rash attack on the French forces in the area and poor understanding of the necessities of defending a fortified position that resulted in the defeat [Music] both he and his men were then allowed to leave the area unmolested under the terms of the surrender leading to Washington with his shattered force returning to Virginia in disgrace but the terms of surrender that Washington had signed before being allowed to withdraw clearly stated that he had assassinated the French commander Jumonville but he claimed afterwards that he hadn't understood the terms at the time there was also a widespread public outcry for his actions as he had effectively started a full-scale war with the French at the Battle of Jumonville Glen have been responsible for his forces defeat and withdrawal this debacle would have ended many officers careers but Washington refused to let these setbacks get on top of him and soon was given an opportunity to redeem himself when the British government ordered another army west to take Fort Duquesne it's commander Edward Braddock appointed Washington to serve on his staff largely due to his knowledge of the area surrounding the French fort and the 1200 strong force then left Virginia in the spring of 1755 however whilst marching towards its objective the British Army was ambushed and cut to pieces by surprise French attack who along with their Indian allies killed or wounded nearly two-thirds of Braddock's force who was himself killed in action Washington despite having fallen ill during the journey distinguished himself by organizing an orderly retreat from the area and his actions in taking command of the British forces after Braddock's death largely restored his reputation upon returning to Virginia Robert Dean Willi promoted Washington to command the Virginia regiment which had been formed the year before and was tasked over the coming year with defending the frontier from Indian raids the British then formed a larger force under the Scottish General John Forbes in 1757 who eventually managed after our initial reversals to capture Fort Duquesne after the French withdrew from the area he then rebuilt the fort naming it Pitt after Britain's Prime Minister William Pitt the elder and also named the neighboring settlement Pittsburgh which over the following centuries became the city of Pittsburgh the British now had the upper hand in the American theater of the Seven Years War culminating in the British capturing the city of Quebec in 1759 which effectively ended French hopes of victory however the British victory was due at least in part to the sheer manpower and resources that its North American colonies could muster as the entire population of New France totalled well under a hundred thousand people whilst as previously mentioned the population of Britain's American colonies numbered around two mm therefore the French were always likely to lose the conflict as they simply could not match the sheer numbers of colonial troops the British could bring to bear it should also be remembered that most of the troops or militia who fought under the British flag during the French and Indian War were born in the Americas and therefore it was as much a colonial victory as it was a British one Washington who took no part in the conclusion of the french-indian war then decided to resign his commission in 1758 aged just 27 and returned home to his Mount Vernon estate a year later George married Martha Parke Custis the widow of a wealthy plantation owner with whom she had two children this marriage further increased Washington's already sizable estates amend that his financial affairs were more secure than ever he was now amongst the wealthiest men in Virginia as his Union to Martha catapulted him to the very top of the social pecking order and he now threw himself into the management of his plantations for the best part of the next decade the acreage of his estates now numbered upwards of 50,000 and by the mid 1760s washington was the owner of some 1700 slaves he also after leaving the army stood for election for the Virginia House of Burgesses in Frederick and Fairfax counties and at one point according to accounts offered the population free alcohol in return for their support things were better than ever for Washington and the future seemed bright but tragedy soon befell the new married couple when his stepdaughter patsy suffered a massive epileptic fit whilst having dinner and despite george's attempts to save her died in his arms by the 1760s anti-british sentiment was growing in the American colonies but Washington's reasons for beginning to question British rule were at first at least by based on his own experiences with British merchants this was because he had various business arrangements involving the trade of tobacco which was shipped across the Atlantic to Britain and in return he would receive merchandise such as bottles or other goods to sell on the only trouble was many of the British goods that were delivered to him were often badly made damaged or defective which made Washington feel like he was being taken advantage of or was being treated as a second-class citizen by his British business partners indeed it was in many ways this feeling of being a second-class citizen that was at the root of Washington's growing disdain for the British state and he now started to voice his opinions and anger at the treatment both he and his fellow associates were receiving this resentment further increased when the population of the 13 colonies was prevented from settling in the West as the British were keen to protect their lucrative fur trade with the Native American tribes the English Parliament then further compounded the growing unrest by the passing of the Stamp Act of 1765 which stipulated that all paperwork books and magazines in the 13 colonies had to be printed on British made paper this paper in turn had to be purchased with British currency and not colonial currency which meant that the colonial money was now not equal to British currency the reason for this act being passed in the first place was essentially to make the 13 colonies paying for the cost of the French and Indian War but it only poured further fuel onto the fire of anti British public opinion which was now reaching fever pitch Washington saw this act as one of oppression as did many in the 13 colonies but the act was then repealed by the English Parliament the following year as it became evident to those in power that he created more problems that it solved and was severely hampering British trade there was a growing sentiment that it was at best unfair and at worst unlawful or even oppressive for England's Parliament to be passing Acts over the 13 colonies when there were no representatives from the 13 colonies in the English Parliament this is summarized in the famous phrase taxation without representation and was the root cause of the following American Revolution as the British simply saw their American colonies as just that was the American population saw themselves as equals in every respect there was now a growing political movement amongst the leading members of colonial society which first manifest itself in the Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765 where representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies not including Virginia met to plan their opposition over the coming years england's parliament passed numerous further acts which only served to compound the situation as it attempted to assert its control over the thirteen colonies and increase its tax revenue from the british perspective the 13 colonies had it easy as they often paid a fraction of the taxes that were paid in Britain and it was also important to Britain that the American colonies only trade with it and not foreign countries without its approval essentially both sides have valid claims as the population of the thirteen colonies were taxed far less than the British population but it was also unfair that taxes were in turn passed over the thirteen colonies without their consent this is a classic example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object and it was because of this combined with both sides reluctance to compromise which would eventually lead to all-out war Washington had helped to organize the resistance to some of the English Parliament acts in Virginia resulting in the form of a boycott of British goods until they were repealed but the tension between the British in the 13 colonies then boiled over in march 1770 in Boston when British troops opened fire on a group of protesters killing several which became known as the Boston Massacre the city of Boston would become the heartland of the coming American Revolution and there was growing agitation amongst his inhabitants with the goal of provoking an active independence movement amongst the local population these Patriots or radicals as the British saw them were led by a brewer named Samuel Adams who used the Boston Massacre as a propaganda opportunity to increase anti British agitation Adams's then on the 16th of December 1773 made a speech the South meeting house in Boston which was designed to provoke a response by those listening by means of playing on their fears of future taxation that night fifty men dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded a ship in Boston Harbor and tipped its cargo of tea overboard into the harbor this incident is known today as the Boston Tea Party and was one of the most effective demonstrations of nonviolent resistance during the 1700s the English Parliament responded to this by passing legislation to restrict public meetings in Boston and closed Boston Harbor until compensation for the tea party had been received these acts amongst other measures together became known as the Intolerable Acts which yet again only inflamed the outrage in Massachusetts and provided the local Patriots such as Samuel Adams with precisely the response he had wanted the man in charge of British forces in the area was General Thomas Gage who then sought to bring about a peaceful resolution to the growing crisis by seizing the colonial militias supplies of gunpowder which would in turn prevent them from resisting his forces gage then received intelligence that there was a large arms cache in the town of Concord to the northwest and Julie dispatched a force of around 900 British regulars to seize it however the Patriots had their own spies engages staff and riders were sent to the outlying towns and villages summoning the local militia men to arms then on the 19th of April 1775 the British column entered the small town of Lexington and were met on the village green by a small party around 80 local militia men who instead of blocking the path of the British intention left the Road opened Concord however the British then proceeded to march straight towards the militia no doubt expecting a fight but at the last minute a British officer ordered both his own men and the militia to disperse what happened next is unclear but what we do know is that there was a firefight in which eight militia men were killed and greater carnage was only stopped when the lefthand and colonel in charge of the British forces Francis Smith arrived to restore order after this incident which was the first engagement of the coming war the British forces moved on to the town of Concord which was their objective and once there searched the town but were eventually driven back towards Boston itself by the militia the colonialists had one strategic victories at the Battle of Lexington and Concord and there was no going back as either British rule would continue or the thirteen colonies would gain their independence a month after the battles in the Second Continental Congress which George Washington attended the Continental Army was officially created which was comprised of the militia units that had confronted the British at the battles around Boston Washington was then appointed commanding general of the Continental Army in July 1775 and first inspected his new force at Cambridge Massachusetts but was disappointed to find his new army was in a sorry state being ill disciplined and badly equipped the British intern labeled Colonials as traitors which effectively meant that anyone supporting or fighting for the rebel cause would be subject to the harshest of punishments if captured in the summer of 1775 the British attempted to break out of Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill and despite claiming victory sustained such losses that further advances were impossible and in March of the following year were forced to evacuate the city due to the Continental Army bringing cannons in range of the harbor Washington then prepared for an attack on the loyalist city of New York for the British under General William Howe returned an occupied Long Island in September of 1776 July 1776 is also arguably one of the most important months in the history of the United States as on the 4th of July 13 colonies Declaration of Independence was ratified the purpose of this document was to announce and explain that the 13 colonies were declaring their independence from Great Britain which made it perfectly clear that the coming war was not just simply an uprising but was instead a full-scale insurrection or revolution aimed a gaining independence from Great Britain in the meantime in New York General Howe had landed with a force of some 40,000 men all of whom were professional soldiers whereas Washington's force although comparable in numbers were not nearly as highly trained or disciplined as many of them were simply armed citizens or militia Washington was also operating under Force intelligence which led him to believe that the British force was much smaller than his own and he decided to stand and fight them over the coming days in series of engagements the British were able to force the Colonials to withdraw across the Hudson River and how was them welcomed into New York as a liberator by its loyalist population this period in the winter of 1776 was arguably the darkest period for the Colonials during the Revolutionary War as Washington's Continental Army now numbered in the region of only a few thousand men who were poorly equipped trained and fed the Continental Army was then granted a reprieve as how who arguably should have pressed home his advantage as soon as possible decides to overwinter in New York and wait for spring around a quarter of his army at this time consisted of German born mercenaries known as Hessians a number of whom during the winter of 1776 were posted the north bank of the river Delaware at Trenton at the southwestern edge of British held territory on Christmas Eve 1776 Washington devised a plan to cross the Delaware and attack the Hessians stationed at Trenton he then led the attack in person on the morning of Boxing Day the 26th of December and conducted a successful surprise attack on the Hessians in which their commanding officer was killed hundreds were captured and large amounts of supplies were seized this attack and the crossing of the Delaware was a minor victory but it was a crucial morale booster for the Continental Army I provided them with a renewed sense of purpose as well as the previously mentioned supplies the next summer the British launched a major invasion of the 13 colonies from their main base in Quebec which was led by General John Burgoyne however General Howe based in New York decided to push south himself into Philadelphia rather than wait for Burgoyne's army to join him Washington then moved north to confront Howe and the two armies met at the Battle of Brandywine on the 11th of September 1777 when the British defeated the Continental Army and occupied Philadelphia but this victory itself was marred as a few weeks later to the north pennines army of around 7,000 men was defeated and on the 17th of October he was forced to surrender at the Battle of Saratoga general hell then sent a letter of resignation home to London which was duly accepted in October of 1777 in which he complained he had been inadequately supported during his Philadelphia campaign and he was then replaced as commander-in-chief of British forces by Sir Henry Clinton the next year so further fighting around Pennsylvania and New Jersey with the two sides fighting an inconclusive battle Monmouth on the 28th of June 1778 in the spring of 1778 came one of the crucial turning points in the war when the Continental Congress agreed an alliance with louis xvi of france the French king was eager to humiliate the British and help the Americans as his country had been defeated in the Seven Years War and in turn resulted in the loss of the vast majority of France's North American territories but in order to support the Americans Louie had to stretch the near bankrupt French economy to breaking point which would eventually play a significant role in igniting the French Revolution later that year Sir Henry Clinton sought to go on the offensive by launching an invasion of the southern colonial state of Georgia from New York with the goal of recapturing the southern colonies in their sizeable loyalist population culminating in the capture of Savannah in Georgia indeed although the American Revolutionary War pitted the British against those colonialists who sought independence in many respects it was also a civil war as often friends and family fought against each other on either side in January of 1780 Sir Henry Clinton led a 17,000 strong army into South Carolina and assaulted the city of Charleston and then returned to New York spreading his forces and leaving the remainder under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis this meant that the British now effectively controlled the southern colonies as well as New York which was yet another low point for Washington and Congress however in the summer of 1784 arms and troops arrived from France under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette which would prove to be crucial after overwintering in the December of 1780 in New York State Washington was convinced by his French allies to attack Lord Cornwallis in the south instead of concentrating their efforts against Sir Henry Clinton in the north he then outmaneuver Clinton with a feint and headed south where in the late summer of 1781 the French Navy defeated the Royal Navy at the Battle of Chesapeake which cut off Lord Cornwallis his supply lines from the main British base in New York and he was soon forced to surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in October of 1781 the British then withdrew from Savannah in 1782 and a peace treaty was then finally signed on the 3rd of September 1783 in Paris ending the war resulting shortly afterwards in 1783 the last British troops within the thirteen colonies were evacuated from New York in many ways the British had always been fighting an uphill battle in their attempt to retain the thirteen colonies as with the French before them in the French and Indian War they were massively outnumbered by the colonial population and their supply lines stretched thousands of miles across the Atlantic as his job was now done Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in December of 1783 and returned to Mount Vernon the following year where he once again oversaw his estates for years later Washington was elected to oversee the Constitutional Convention starting on the 25th of May 1787 resulting in the American Constitution then being formally signed on the 17th of September 1787 although he never saw himself as a politician and was reluctant to formally involve himself in politics Washington was seen as a natural leader by those surrounding him as he after all was the hero of the war against the British and had relatively neutral political views the new American Constitution stipulated the requirement for the creation of the positions of president and vice-president and as Washington had remained largely impartial in the various disputes during the first Constitutional Convention he was seen as an ideal candidate to be the first president of the United States the first American presidential election then went ahead in early 1789 with Washington winning a majority in every state and John Adams was elected as vice president under him Washington then formed the first cabinet and appointed Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State Alexander Hamilton as the secretary of the Treasury Henry Knox's Secretary of War and Edmund Randolph as Attorney General he intelligently assigned his subordinates equally to positions within his cabinet so that neither of the two political parties the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans had a majority over the other it was a conflict between these two parties or rather the disagreements between them which had been the reason for Washington's assent to the presidency as he commanded Universal respect of all those around him and was also extremely reserved cautious and careful during his tenure as president seeking to take as few risks as possible to preserve the fragile Union he also often refused to take sides seeking to compromise as much as possible and there is a consensus that without him acting as a neutral figurehead during the transitional period that the Union may have fractured or split between the rival parties there was also great division between Washington subordinates themselves as the Republican Jefferson disagreed with the Federalists Hamilton about the creation of a new National Bank Hamilton wanted to establish a National Bank which would take control of state debt and loans whilst Jefferson was strongly opposed to the measure and wanted the states of which the new nation was comprised to retain fiscal independence however Jefferson agreed to the bank's creation on condition that the nation's capital was moved to Georgetown in 1790 which was in turn renamed in George Washington's honor in 1791 and is today known as Washington DC there were also growing concerns amongst Republicans and the federalization of their new nation would mean the centralizing of power and many such as Jefferson feared this would trample on the freedoms of various states as well as individuals this led in December of 1791 to the First Amendment being ratified which along with the bill of rights was designed to protect freedom of religion press and speech to name but a few and addressed the concerns of the anti-federalists such as Jefferson who feared that the centralization of power would lead one day to the kind of tyranny the 13 colonies had fought so hard to escape the First Amendment and Bill of Rights are still regarded by many as being amongst the most important documents in the history of the english-speaking world as they enshrined civil liberties into the American Constitution and are along with the Magna Carta and English common law the foundations of American democracy over the coming years Washington declared America's neutrality when Europe was engulfed in the French revolutionary walls and also spent the next few years overseeing America's victory in the Northwest Indian war against Native American tribes who were allied with the British he was then re-elected for a second term in February of 1793 but during his second term the division between the two parties in his cabinet increased as they bickered over various issues leading to Washington himself being heavily criticised in the Federalist and Republican press which hurt him deeply he also signed various acts relating to slavery allowing slave owners to cross state lines to capture fugitive slaves but also signed the slave trade act of 1794 which limited the involvement of the United States in the continuing Atlantic slave routes the president then in 1794 signed another act to create the United States Navy and at the end of 1797 made the decision to retire and return to his estates at Vernon Virginia he was not blessed with much time to enjoy his retirement however and after riding in the snow in December of 1799 developed a violent inflammation of the throat along with chest congestion over the coming days Washington became progressively more and more ill and finally died peacefully with his wife Martha at his bedside on the 14th of December 1799 aged 67 the first President of the United States was then buried at Mount Vernon and after his death a new vault was constructed which still houses the body of both George Washington and his wife to this very day George Washington is today seen as one of if not the most important figure in American history the leadership he showed during the American Revolutionary War was one of the crucial factors in the eventual victory and without his leadership it is difficult to see how American independence would have transpired in terms of his military career despite early setbacks and defeats in the early to middle stages of the award independence George Washington eventually proved himself to be an extremely capable commander who earned the respect of those under him and eventually formed in the Continental Army a fighting force which was comparable if not equal to that of the British he is sometimes criticized for owning slaves and being an active participant in the slave trade but it is important to remember that Washington was born into an age where slavery was the accepted norm for the ruling classes and that he knew no different or better George Washington is seen by many people today as he was by his contemporaries as the perfect candidate to lead the United States in the years of its birth as is cool calm cautious leadership brought stability to the early republic and also brought divine political parties together under his authority during his presidency and afterwards George Washington became an icon or a symbol which the people of the United States could rally round and believe in which is just as true today as it was over 200 years ago you you you

Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 744,634

Rating: 4.7808723 out of 5

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: WBIGl61oxnA

Length: 43min 40sec (2620 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019