(Part 3) Over the next four years, George Washington and many other Americans saw that this new country needed central government to keep peace at home - and gain respect abroad. In Philadelphia, 55 men argued out a strong, yet flexible U.S. constitution - a set of laws by which people could govern themselves.
It wasn't perfect, but it seemed to George - who presided over the continental Congress - A little short of a miracle. The federal government would have the legislative branch - headed by the Congress - to make the laws; the judicial branch, headed by the Supreme Court - to explain the laws - and the Executive branch, headed by a president, to enforce them.
It didn't take much arguing to decide who that should be. In 1789, George Washington was overwhelmingly elected the first president of the United States.
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