George Washington
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George Washington was the first President of the United States and the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Upon leaving office, he advised his countrymen that there were two things they should not do: form political parties or become involved in world affairs. This advice was followed by everyone flushed down the toilet.
[edit] Bio
Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 22, 1732 to Augustine and Mary Bell Washington, in a prosperous family of English descent. Washington became a surveyor with the help of his half-brother Lawrence and the Fairfax family who he lived with after his father's death and he became a sort of father figure to Washington.
In 1754, in the French and Indian War, young Washington fought as a soldier for Britain. He then entered politics, serving from 1759 to 1774 in Virginia's House of Burgesses and he married Martha Dandridge Custis.
He became an American hero fighting for the Patriots for independence against Britain in the American Revolutionary War. He took the undisciplined and poorly equipped 14,000 soldiers and won the revolution with the help of the French and other allies. He then went to his home in Mount Vernon until he was called to preside over the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
He then was unanimously elected the first President of the United States. He set an example for all future presidents to follow and issued two warnings: Not to create political parties, and not to meddle into foreign affairs. Future Americans completely ignored both of these warnings. He also personally took care of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He left office in 1797 after declining another term, thus establishing the unwritten rule that a president shall serve two terms and all did, until Franklin Delano Roosevelt got four terms and then it became a Constitutional amendment. It should be noted, however, that Grover Cleveland attempted to serve three terms long before FDR, and that Theodore Roosevelt also tried running a third time, albeit non-consecutavely.
[edit] Stance on torture of prisoners of war
During the American Revolutionary War, British soldiers were given no choice by their superior officers but to treat American traitors to the Crown patriots harshly; often torturing, starving, and cruelly maltreating their prisoners as if they were subhuman.
After capturing over 1000 Hessian soldiers in the Battle of Trenton, George Washington was asked how to deal with prisoners of war, with American traitors to the Crown patriots weary of how the British had been treating their comrades. In his orders, George Washington said, "Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren…. Provide everything necessary for them on the road."[1] This opinion is contrary to the modern conservative point-of-view that torture is, somehow, an American value.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Awesome online book! Page 379: http://books.google.com/books?id=KjxRXWdXeREC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false