George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army in June 1775, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted and ratified the Constitution of the United States and established the American federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of his Country" for his manifold leadership in the nation's founding. Washington's first public office, from 1749 to 1750, was as surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia. He subsequently received his first military training and was assigned command of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. He was later elected to the Colony of Virginia's House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, the Continental Army's most senior military position. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led American forces to a decisive victory over the British in the Revolutionary War, leading the British to sign the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which acknowledged the sovereignty and independence of the Thirteen Colonies and paved the way for the establishment of the United States. He resigned his commission in 1783 after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. Following victory in the Revolutionary War, Washington played an indispensable role in adopting and ratifying the Constitution of the United States, which replaced the Articles of Confederation in 1789 and remains the world's longest-standing written and codified national constitution to this day. He was then twice elected president by the Electoral College unanimously. As the first U.S.