George Washington (AnglophoniZ n°1)

This year, for the first time in History, an African American has become President of the United States. Barack Obama is indeed the 44th President to hold office in the White House and can be sure to get his name deeply carved in his country’s History as “the first one”, just like George Washington, who was the very first President of the United States.

George Washington was first destined to a career as a planter, but he applied in 1752 to Virginia’s militia, which was then under the command of Robert Dinwiddie. The latter sent him in 1754, at the beginning of the French and Indian war (later on encompassed in the world wide Seven Years’ War), to fight against the French in the so-called “Battle of Fort Necessity”, during which Washington’s troops were defeated. He then helped General Braddock in an attempt to capture the French Fort Dusquesne and here again the British were defeated whereas Washington managed to distinguish himself when Braddock was killed during the battle. At this point, he earned the nickname of “Hero of the Monongahela”, and this established his fame for a long time.

After the Seven Years’ War, George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, and got back to his former activity as a planter in Mount Vernon. In fact, his marriage and his deeds during the French and Indian war awarded him land, so that he could greatly diversify his business. Yet little by little, as the situation between Britain and its colonies were getting more
tensed, Washington began to feel involved in political life but first from aloof only; he was against the policy of taxation imposed by the British Government on the colonies in order to compensate the immense debt accumulated during the Seven Years’ War. In 1769 he proposed together with George Mason to boycott all English goods until the various Acts imposing abusive taxation on the colonies were repealed. When the British Government passed the so-called “Intolerable Acts” in 1774, things took a radical change in course and Washington was soon selected to seat as a delegate in the First Continental Congress. George Washington got more and more involved in the critical political and revolutionary situation of the colonies. In 1775, during the Second Continental Congress, he firmly expressed his will to get in the war against Britain and was even given
the command of the Continental Army – the army created at the time to fight against the British troops. He showed courage and determination, cared for his troops and had a sense of responsibility. These qualities were not only praised in the colonies but even in the British Government, which greatly admired this strong and deep character full of the values they were also hoping, or rather wishing, for their own generals and commanders to have.

Once the independence was gained in 1783, with the Treaty of Paris, Washington retreated to Mont Vernon and made a bit of exploration to the Western frontier in 1784 before being called to Philadelphia in 1787 to preside over the Constitutional Convention. However, though he willingly accepted the presidency, he did not take much part in the debates that were slowly drawing a Constitution for the country because everyone already knew at the time who would be the one to get the presidency of the newly created United States : George Washington himself, who was elected unanimously in 1789". He was the first President of the New United States of America; he was “the first one”.

Jean-Georges Plaz