evidence: Turns out there’s much, much more to GW, as I discovered when I picked up a copy of Ron Chernow’s much-hailed biography Washington: A Life. I expected to just dip a toe in America’s Colonial history but it ended up becoming a full immersion. Because George Washington, the man, the soldier, the general, the politician and the President, was larger than life all across the board. I passed the book along to the CE, and soon we numbered ourselves among GW’s biggest fans. In an election year, especially, George Washington’s accomplishments and character stand out. His greatest desire was to live quietly at his plantation at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, yet he sacrificially spent most of his adult life serving his country. His courage, resolve and solidarity with his troops during the Revolutionary War is the stuff of legend. But the most singular aspect of George Washington was his wisdom and character in shaping the direction our country’s government would take after independence was won. There was a general clamor for him to become King, or at the very least, President for life. Washington’s vision and restraint played an enormous part in the creation of a government for and by the people. He said it best himself: "Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary,… under no form of government will laws be better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness be more effectually dispensed to mankind."