George Washington

"To His Excellency George Washington" was written to Washington when he was the commander of the American forces during the Revolutionary War, almost thirteen years before he took the position for which he is best remembered, as the country's first president. Commanding the army was a position for which Washington seemed destined, one that made the most of his strengths and minimized his personal shortcomings. He was born in 1732 to a large and moderately wealthy family in rural Virginia. As a child growing up in a British colony, he dreamed of becoming an officer in the British army but was discouraged from this dream by his mother and by an older brother who pointed out that the family lacked the connections that would be necessary for him to rise in the ranks. At the age of seventeen, he became the surveyor of Culpepper County, which gave...