[americanophile]

The achievements of this man, this unsurpassed man, are truly astonishing. Many will argue for Lincoln or Jefferson, for TR or RR...but all of these man, all of Washington's successors had his model to follow. Washington created the presidency - his style, his sense of national unity, his inherent understanding of the role of the president, his courageous actions in keeping the nation together during the rancorous early years of the republic. Indeed if you were take away all his pre-presidency achievements, and then strip away all his presidential ones as well, the single act of voluntarily relinquishing power when many were set to make him not unlike a king, is one of the most transformative single achievements of modern human political history.

[Windflier]

...the single act of voluntarily relinquishing power when many were set to make him not unlike a king, is one of the most transformative single achievements of modern human political history.

As a side note to that, when it was proposed by some in Congress that he be addressed as "His Excellency, the President", Washington humbly requested that he simply be referred to as "Mr. President".

Every US president since that time has been addressed in that way.

With that one small act, Washington underscored the concept that the presidency is the office of The People, and that the President is their servant. Not the other way around.