Ben Thompson - Not-So-Great Presidents: Failures, Frauds, and Cover-Ups

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

George Washington

The year was 1776, and the bloody fighting of the American Revolution was in full swing. American colonists had openly challenged the authority of King George III of England, and the first shots of the conflict rang out over Boston Harbor and echoed across the Atlantic. While many brave and poorly equipped American patriots stood their ground against the might of the British Empire, the members of the Second Continental Congress were frantically scrambling to try to figure out what the heck to do next.

You see, what had started as a slightly rowdy antitax demonstration of protesters cosplaying as Native Americans (the Boston Tea Party) now escalated into a shooting match between the largest military the world had ever seen and a ragtag group of untrained militiamen that was low on gunpowder. If this revolution was going to be a real war for independence, America was going to need a powerful, talented, and effective leader to take command and lead the country to freedom.

On July 4, 1776, members from all thirteen colonies had finally come to an agreement. It was a hot Thursday afternoon at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. And on that day, the members of the Continental Congress signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, which decreed Americas separation from England. The fifty-six delegates who signed the document declaring their independence from Great Britain knew that if they lost the war, they would all be dead men walkingbetraying the king of England was a crime punishable by death. Today we know these men as the Founding Fathers, but at the time, they were just rebels-with-a-cause in funny-looking wigs. They were labeled traitors to the Crown.

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson working hard on writing the Declaration of Independence

Founding Father and future president George Washington was not present at this historic signing, mostly because he was too busy getting shot at by redcoats on the battlefield. He ended up being the leader America was looking for, even though, for a famous war hero, General George Washington actually lost a lot of battles. Like, a ton. In fact, Washington lost way more battles than he won.

Contrary to urban legend, George Washington didnt have wooden dentures and never chopped down a cherry tree (its all a lie!). What is true, though, is that Washington was born on February 22, 1732, to a super-rich colonial family in Virginia and that he inherited his familys entire fortune, like an eighteenth-century Tony Stark.

Regardless of his impressive losing streak as commander in chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was an inspiring leader who never gave up no matter how many times the British beat up his armies. After Washington endured years of tough battles and miserable combat conditions, his luck finally changed late at night on Christmas 1776, when he and his troops crossed the freezing Delaware River under the cover of darkness and led a successful surprise attack on the British garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. That battle dealt the redcoats one of their worst defeats yet. The American soldiers were still far from winning the war, but Washington gave them the hope they needed to persevere.

The war raged on for seven more years, from the bitter lows of Valley Forge to the climactic victory at Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. Finally, the American colonies managed to secure their freedom from England with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Eager to get their young country on the right track, the Founding Fathers came together in the Philadelphia convention and crafted the Constitution we know so well today, along with the Bill of Rights and the basic structure of the federal government.