Washington had nothing to gain from the American Revolution, at least in a material sense. He had achieved both wealth and fame as a British subject in colonial Virginia. Yet he was among the first to raise the possibility of armed resistance and accepted command of the Continental Army. He served for the eight and a half years of the Revolution without pay. Though his army was inexperienced, often outnumbered, and poorly supplied, Washington was able to avoid defeat, wear down the British forces, and eventually achieve victory. With independence secured in 1783 by a peace treaty with Britain, Washington appeared before Congress and publicly resigned his military position, returning to Mount Vernon a private citizen of the new nation. His plantation had suffered greatly during his absence and the war.
During the periods of fighting with the Native Americans and expanding American territory on the continent through ethnic cleansing the United States was not actively engaged in expanding its boundaries around the globe through colonialism like other European states were doing at the time. This was a major difference in the expansionary domestic policy that was pursued in contrast to the rather isolationist foreign policy.
The Fifteenth Amendment had a significant loophole: it did not grant suffrage to all men, but only prohibited discrimination on the basis of race and former slave status. States could require voters to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes - difficult tasks for the formerly enslaved, who had little education or money.
