Introduction
George Washington is widely known for being of the seven Founding Fathers of the USA and the first American president who served from 1789 to 1797. In addition to that, he was also the leader of the Patriot forces, who won the American War of Independence that ended in 1783. This is a person by virtue of whom Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on November 26. This day is marked by the end of the American War of Independence and the ratification of the first Constitution of the US. George Washington contributed a lot towards the formation of the American political system, its government, its constitution, and the entire nation. As Calloway (2018) states, no one contributed to the nation-building of the US as much as the first president did. The present essay discusses the role of George Washington in founding the American nation.
Main body
The central aspect that characterizes the modern US is the democratic form of government. In democratic nations, people have a right to elect officials and be elected, express their thoughts, and criticize the authorities. American democracy is representative once, meaning that during elections, people choose representatives who express the opinion of the group of citizens. The idea of a democratic state is not a new phenomenon because the first democracy in human history appeared in the 5th century BC in Athens. Nonetheless, in the late 18th century, there were not as many democratic countries as there are now.
In this context, their contribution of Washington is that he promoted the idea that the American government should be democratic. For example, in the letters to Moses Seixas, he explained his view on the universality of political rights. He argued that all people, no matter what their religion is, should enjoy themselves equally (Reimers, 2018). Undoubtedly, during Washingtons presidency, slavery still prospered in the US. Furthermore, only in 1920 were women officially granted suffrage. Nonetheless, his views were the first step forward to the equality of all people living on American land.
Another feature that characterizes the modern American nation is equal respect towards people of all races and the fight against discrimination on a racial basis. As has already been mentioned above, in the late 18th century, in the US, there were a lot of slave owners, and the criticism of the institution of slavery was not strong. It is essential to note that George Washington himself opposed slavery even though he was an enslaver for almost 60 years. One of the justifications of this claim is that ten years before being elected as president, he allowed accepting some African soldiers to the Continental Army that he led. Apart from that, at the end of his life, he granted freedom to his slaves. Even though slavery was formally abandoned by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, George Washington laid the groundwork for this.
Conclusion
To conclude, George Washington is a national hero and one of the most influential presidents in American history. Their major accomplishment of Washington is that he laid the foundation of the American nation. More precisely, Washington contributed to establishing the democratic form of government and the institution of the presidency. What is more, George Washington expressed the necessity to abandon discrimination on a religious basis and even opposed the institution of slavery in the last years of his life. From this, it could be inferred that the first American president, to a large extent, affected the further development of the American nation.
References
Calloway, C. G. (2018). The Indian world of George Washington: The first President, the first Americans, and the birth of the Nation. Oxford University Press.
Reimers, F. M. (2018). Education for a democratic and cosmopolitan future. In F. Reimers (Ed.) Learning to Collaborate for the Global Common Good (pp. 23-49). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.