George Washington As A Military Leader

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d Great Britain to grant independence to its
richest overseas possession.
With victory won, Washington was the most revered man in the United States. A
lesser person might have used this power to establish a military dictatorship or to become
king. Washington sternly suppressed all such attempts on his behalf by his officers and
continued to obey the weak and divided Continental Congress. However, he never ceased
to work for the union of the states under a strong central government. He was a leading
influence in persuading the states to participate in the Constitutional Convention, over
which he presided, and he used his immense prestige to help gain ratification of its
product, the Constitution of the United States.
During the summer of 1752, Virginia was alarmed by reports that a French
expedition from Canada was establishing posts on the headwaters of the Ohio River and
seeking to make treaties with the Native American peoples. Governor Dinwiddie received
orders from Britain to demand an immediate French withdrawal, and Major Washington
promptly volunteered to carry the governor’s message to the French commander. His
ambition at this time was to secure royal preference for a commission in the regular British
army, and this expedition promised to bring him to the king’s attention.
Washington took with him a skillful and experienced frontiersman, Christopher
Gist, together with an interpreter and four other men. Reaching the forks of the Ohio, he
found that the French had withdrawn northward for the winter. After inconclusive
negotiations with the Native Americans living there, who were members of the Iroquois
Confederacy, he pressed on and finally delivered Dinwiddie’s message to the French
commander at Fort Le Boeuf, not far from Lake Erie. The answer was polite but firm: The
French were there to stay. Returning, Washington reached Williamsburg, the capital of
Virginia, to deliver this word to the gov...