4 February 1789 A.D. GEN George Washington Unanimously Elected 1st
U.S. President by 69 Electors
Editors. “1789
– George Washington, the commander of
the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, is unanimously elected the
first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors..” This
Day in U.S. History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/february-4/. Accessed 3 Feb
2015.
1789 – George Washington, the commander of the Continental
Army during the Revolutionary War, is unanimously elected the first president
of the United States by all 69 presidential electors. John Adams of
Massachusetts, who received 34 votes, was elected vice president. The electors,
who represented 10 of the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution,
were chosen by popular vote, legislative appointment, or a combination of both
four weeks before the election. According to Article Two of the U.S.
Constitution, the states appointed a number of presidential electors equal to
the “number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled
in Congress.” Each elector voted for two people, at least one of whom did not
live in their state. The individual receiving the greatest number of votes was
elected president, and the next-in-line, vice president. (In 1804, this
practice was changed by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which ordered
separate ballots for the office of president and vice president.) New
York–though it was to be the seat of the new United States government–failed to
choose its eight presidential electors in time for the vote on February 4, 1789.
Two electors each from Virginia and Maryland were delayed by weather and did
not vote. In addition, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which would have had
seven and three electors respectively, had not ratified the Constitution and so
could not vote. That the remaining 69 unanimously chose Washington to lead the
new U.S. government was a surprise to no one. As commander-in-chief during the
Revolutionary War, he had led his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of
civilian soldiers to victory over one of the world’s great powers. After the
British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, Washington rejected with abhorrence a
suggestion by one of his officers that he use his preeminence to assume a
military dictatorship. He would not subvert the very principles for which so
many Americans had fought and died, he replied, and soon after, he surrendered
his military commission to the Continental Congress and retired to his Mount
Vernon estate in Virginia. When the Articles of Convention proved ineffectual,
and the fledging republic teetered on the verge of collapse, Washington again
answered his country’s call and traveled to Philadelphia in 1787 to preside
over the Constitutional Convention. Although he favored the creation of a
strong central government, as president of the convention he maintained
impartiality in the public debates. Outside the convention hall, however, he
made his views known, and his weight of character did much to bring the
proceedings to a close. The drafters created the office of president with him
in mind, and on September 17, 1787, the document was signed. The next day,
Washington started for home, hoping that, his duty to his country again served,
he could live out the rest of his days in privacy. However, a crisis soon arose
when the Constitution fell short of its necessary ratification by nine states.
Washington threw himself into the ratification debate, and a compromise
agreement was made in which the remaining states would ratify the document in
exchange for passage of the constitutional amendments that would become the
Bill of Rights. Government by the United States began on March 4, 1789. In
April, Congress sent word to George Washington that he had unanimously won the
presidency. He borrowed money to pay off his debts in Virginia and traveled to
New York. On April 30, he came across the Hudson River in a specially built and
decorated barge. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of Federal
Hall on Wall Street, and a large crowed cheered after he took the oath of
office. The president then retired indoors to read Congress his inaugural
address, a quiet speech in which he spoke of “the experiment entrusted to the
hands of the American people.” The evening celebration was opened and closed by
13 skyrockets and 13 cannons. As president, Washington sought to unite the
nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. Of his
presidency, he said, “I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of
my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent.” He successfully
implemented executive authority, making good use of brilliant politicians such
as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his Cabinet, and quieted fears of
presidential tyranny. In 1792, he was unanimously reelected but four years later
refused a third term. In 1797, he finally began his long-awaited retirement at
Mount Vernon. He died on December 14, 1799. His friend Henry Lee provided a
famous eulogy for the father of the United States: “First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
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