George Washington Volume VII by John Alexander Carroll & Mary Wells Ashworth

This is my seventh post about this amazing seven-volume series, so I will keep it short.  How does one succinctly conclude a 5,000 page biography of the most important person in the history of the United States?

Well, you don't.  But here is what I have to say...

George Washington was exactly the man this young nation needed to hold it together through the Revolution and its formative years.  Without him, the United States would never have formed, it would not have survived it's nascent years, and it certainly would not have risen to prominence.

Washington lacked many of the skills and training of most military leaders and prominent politicians.  But what he had was steadfastness, clarity of purpose, unwavering morals and an indomitable spirit of determination.  He willed the United States into winning the war and through its formative, antagonistic post-war years.

Volume VII covered Washington's second term as President and his remaining 2+ years of life after office.  He was ready to step down at the end of his first term but the country was becoming highly unstable, on the verge of an internal revolution.  He longed to return to Mount Vernon but he knew the country still needed his leadership and he was right.

Ugly politics ruled the day with Washington's Federalist party in constant battle with the Republicans of Thomas Jefferson.  Although my personal politics lie much closer to Jefferson's, the delicate state of the new nation needed the strength of a federal system to tie it together during those early years.  If Washington had returned to Mount Vernon after his first term, the nation almost certainly would have erupted in violent revolution during that time.  Only Washington - the national hero and the most popular man in the country - had the ability to keep the nation together.

Washington died young at age 67 after giving decades of his life to the cause of the United States.  His persistent desire was to remain the planter of Mount Vernon, but time and time again he submitted to the will and the needs of the nation.  His dedication was complete.

I take from Washington's life a lot of things, but perhaps most will be the power of persistence, of fortitude, of focusing on your long-term goals without regard for even the most virulent disasters in the short-term.  Skills are great, but it's nothing in the face of these attributes that filled every fiber of Washington's being.