A Year With George Washington
On February 4, 1789, in a historic moment, state electors enacted the novel instrument of self-government provided for in Article II of the newly ratified Constitution, and cast their ballots unanimously for George Washington, electing him the first president of the United States.
Three of the original thirteen colonies did not field electors. Two of which had not yet ratified the Constitution, North Carolina and Rhode Island, and one, New York, did not send electors due to their missing the deadline for selection on January 7, 1789. The New York State legislature, though it had narrowly ratified the Constitution six months earlier, remained divided over its contents. They simply were still quarreling when the deadline for elector selection came and went.
George Washington remains the only president in American history to have been elected unanimously. Amazingly, he achieved both times he reluctantly ran for the office. It may surprise the modern reader, who has borne witness to the tightly contested elections of the twenty-first century, but the office of the president, as prescribed in the Constitution, was specifically designed for the honorable man who would be the first to lead the new nation.
George Washington would be sworn in as the nation’s first president, not quite three months later, on April 30, 1789.
