IMHO George Washington is unchallenged as the greatest president we have ever had, and probably ever will have.
He is also one of the finest men and finest Americans who has ever lived.
There have been many who rose to greatness throughout our history but George Washington is a giant among them all.
There never would have been an America as we knew it without George Washington.
The beginning of America's current downfall coincides with the time when schools stopped inculcating respect for George Washington and our Founders, and when they began teaching the politically correct history of America in place of the true history of our founding and development.
This is the picture that hangs in a place of honor in our home:
There may have been many men whose personal characters were essential to accomplishing the founding of our nation. There might be disagreement regarding the inclusion of one or another. Could anyone ever doubt the correctness of including Washington? I think not.
I don’t know enough about his presidency to agree he’s the greatest president.
I’d certainly agree, though, that he could legitimately be called the Greatest American.
Authors have called him “Bulletproof George” because of the way he fearlessly charged into the front during battles. During the battle of the Monongahela, the first battle of the French and Indian War, every officer was shot off his horse, including General Braddock, but Washington was the only officer left on horseback out of a total of 86 British and American officers.
The next day Washington wrote a letter to his family explaining that after the battle he had taken off his jacket and found four bullet holes through it, yet not a single bullet had touched him; several horses had been shot from under him, but he had not been harmed. He told them:
“By the all powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation.”
Washington openly acknowledged that God’s hand was upon him, that God had protected him and kept him through that battle.
However, the story does not stop here. Fifteen years later, in 1770 — now a time of peace — George Washington and a close personal friend, Dr. James Craik, returned to those same Pennsylvania woods. An old Indian chief from far away, having heard that Washington was in the vicinity of the battle, traveled a long way just to meet with him.
He sat down with Washington, and face-to-face over a council fire, the chief told Washington that he had been a leader in that battle fifteen years earlier, and that he had instructed his braves to single out all the officers and shoot them down. Washington had been singled out, and the chief explained that he personally had shot at Washington seventeen times, but without effect. Believing Washington to be under the care of the Great Spirit, the chief instructed his braves to cease firing at him. He then told Washington:
“I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle....I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle.”
A verifying account was given by Mary Draper Ingels, who was captured by a band of Shawnees from her home in Virginia in 1755. While still a captive at the Indian camp, she overheard discussions between the French and their Indian allies describing the inability of the chief, Red Hawk, to hit Washington during the battle.
Mary eventually escaped and traveled a grueling 1000 miles to return to her home, where she related this story many times.