Presidential History 1

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How much do you know about our US Presidents? There are television programs that take US trivia to the streets and it is sad how little Americans know. So it might be fun to learn about our presidents. Our first president was George Washington. He was, first, the president of the Continental Congress. Because of his humble, yet intelligent leadership as a general, that he was asked to be the first president. He refused at first, but later humbly accepted, making sure Americans knew he had no intent on becoming a king. A wealthy native of Virginia, Washington served as president from 1789 to 1797. Washington was a husband, father, military general, one of the writer of the Constitution, and land surveyor. He conducted himself, in every venture, with honesty and integrity. America was small, consisting of eleven states and 4 million people, at the time of George Washington's presidency. There was not much policy at this point and corruption had yet to plague the office. George Washington favored neutrality on foreign affairs. He wanted to exercise fairness and integrity above all. In an effort to be completely fair, he made appointments that turned out to be his most controversial: he appointed Thomas Jefferson to as secretary of state and Alexander Hamilton as secretary of treasury. The two were completely opposite. Hamilton was a big government advocate and Jefferson supported state's rights. Although these two appointments brought much controversy to the nation, Washington believed these divergent personalities would lend to the health of the nation. One of the lessons that stands out from George Washington's story is that integrity and humility are the characteristics of great leaders. What traits do you think a president should possess?