Why America Needed George Washington First

Published on LinkedIn: February 6, 2026

The American presidency did not become a constitutional office by accident.

It became one because George Washington chose restraint over power.

When the United States elected its first president, nothing about the role was settled in practice. The Constitution created the office, but it did not determine how it would be lived. That task fell almost entirely to George Washington.

Washington entered office with a level of personal authority no future president would ever possess. He was the victorious general of a revolutionary army, the most respected figure in the nation, and the one person nearly everyone trusted to lead. If any individual could have transformed the presidency into something resembling a throne, it was him.

He refused.

Washington treated the office with seriousness and dignity, but he deliberately avoided royal trappings. He enforced the law without claiming supremacy over it. He exercised executive authority without pretending it was unlimited. And when the time came, he stepped away from power voluntarily.

His decision to leave office after two terms was not required by law. It was an act of constitutional statesmanship. It sent a message that the presidency was temporary, not personal — and that leadership in a republic includes knowing when to relinquish authority.

The country was extraordinarily fortunate to have Washington as its first president — not because he sought power, but because he showed how to hold it without becoming its master.