George Washington — 1st President (1789–1797)

**George Washington** is the indispensable man — Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and first President of the United States. A Virginia planter and surveyor who became the most trusted figure in American history not through brilliance or eloquence, but through character, restraint, and the revolutionary act of voluntarily surrendering power. He set every precedent because there were no precedents.