Welcome to the American Story.

Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful

and worthy of our love.

This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one simple truth.

George Washington lived 67 years from 1732 to 1799.

During his last 24 years, more than a third of his life,

he was the foremost man in America,

the man on whom the fate of his country depended

more than on any other man.

And these were fateful years.

From 1775 to 1783, the years of the American War of Independence.

Washington was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army,

upon whose victory the 13 colonies to protect. was Commander-in-in-Chief of the Continental Army,

upon whose victory the 13 colonies depended

to secure their separate and equal station

among the powers of the Earth.

In the summer of 1787, he presided over America's constitutional convention.

His presence lent decisive significance to the document drafted there, which continues in force in the 21st century as the oldest

written constitution in the world. From 1789 to 1796 he held the highest office in the land as the first president of the United States of America under this Constitution.

The office of president had in fact been designed with his virtues in mind.

In each of these capacities,

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