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Show George Washington : Helped Compromise George Washington's births day is February's third Mon-: -day (the 15th) this year. Until a ' : few years ago. it was observed : -on his actual birthday anniver: ': sary. the 22nd. GEORGE Washington, first president of the county and the soldier who did more than any -other to defeat British armies in the Colonies and win inde- pendence for the U.S.. was -born in Westmoreland Coun- . ty, Virginia, in 1732. His father was a well-to-do planter"' and educated older sons abroad but he died when George was twelve. This meant George received only the practical and elemen- .-tary .-tary teaching of Colonial Virginia. Vir-ginia. HE TOOK to the outdoors, forest life and sports. He was engaged by Lord Fairfax, who had come from England to ook after inherited property, ... and worked with him and acted as his companion for some three years. Thus he learned much of the manner and habits of an English gentleman. ; ; ; It was through his older. -' brother, Lawrence, that George entered into military prominence. Lawrence, in; : failing health, gave George his place in the militia before he died and Governor Dinwiddie gave him a commission. Washington's first efforts against the French were unsec- '' cessful. WHEN FIGHTING broke . out between the Colonies and -England, Washington who had hoped for conciliation was chosen to lead the American Amer-ican armies. His first success came when he forced the British Brit-ish from Boston in March of 1776, but it was to be a long an bitter struggle which only ended en-ded in the British surrender at Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781. That he held his forces together and won the loyalty and support of the various states is something of a miracle. mira-cle. He was modest by nature . and his character was such that all those who once learned to know him admired him and. this influenced the new country coun-try into choosing him as its first -president. :' HAD IT not been for his reluctant re-luctant agreement to enter, politics, unity might not have . : been possible among the . states. After eight years, in. which he set many sound pre-; . cedents, he refused to again be . ' a candidate. Three years later : he died in 1799 at Mount Vernon. |