Today we are talking about George Washington. He was the first president of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1797. But he had many other accomplishments, too. He owned thousands of hectares of land in his home state of Virginia. He was a famous general, who led the American colonists to freedom from British rule. And he presided over the convention that created the U.S. Constitution. For Washington, that was enough. He said he wanted to retire from public service and return home. But the country’s new electors had other ideas. They wanted him to move to New York and invent the American presidency. Washington accepted the job as his duty.