George Washington Invents the Presidency (Winter 2020 | Volume: 64, Issue: 1)

George Washington Invents the Presidency

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Authors: Joseph J. Ellis

Historic Era: Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

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Winter 2020 | Volume 64, Issue 1

There were no primaries back then to select presidential candidates, no organized political parties, no orchestrated campaigns, not even any established election procedures. But it really didn’t matter, because when the votes of that odd invention called the Electoral College were cast in February of 1789, George Washington had in effect won by acclamation.

As the new president, Washington was largely making it up as he went along.

While no one could agree what kind of republican government the principles of the American Revolution required, all could agree that Washington embodied those principles more fully and fittingly than anyone else. His trip from Mount Vernon to the temporary capital in New York that April was a prolonged coronation ceremony: rose petals strewn in his path, choirs singing his praises to the tune of “God Save the King,” and even a laurel wreath lowered onto his noble head.

The inauguration was a more republican affair. Washington wore a simple suit of black velvet; and the ceremony itself had to be delayed for almost two weeks until a sufficient number of congressmen arrived. They were all, Washington included, making it up as they went along.

A 1908 postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons shows Washington's inauguration as President of the United States. American Heritage Collection.
A 1908 postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons shows Washington's inauguration as president of the United States. American Heritage collection

Looking back over 200 years of the American presidency, it seems safe to say that no one entered the office with more personal prestige than Washington, and only two presidents—Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt—faced comparable crises. The Civil War and the Great Depression, though now distant in time, remain more recent and raw in our collective memory than the American founding, so we find it easier to appreciate the achievements of Lincoln and Roosevelt.

There was no such thing as a viable American nation when George Washington took office as President.

Washington’s achievement must be recovered before it can be appreciated, which means that we must recognize that there was no such thing as a viable American nation when he took office as President, that the opening words of the Constitution (“We the people of the United States”) expressed a fervent but fragile hope rather than a social reality.

The roughly 4,000,000 settlers spread along the coastline and streaming over the Alleghenies felt their primary allegiance — to the extent they felt any allegiance at all — to local, state, and regional authorities. No republican government had ever before exercised control over a population this diffuse or a land this large, and the prevailing assumption among the best-informed European observers was that, to paraphrase Lincoln’s later formulation, a nation so conceived and so dedicated could not endure.

PRESIDING AT THE PRESIDENCY

Washington insisted that merit, rather than favoritism, must determine federal appointments.

Not much happened at the executive level during the first year of Washington’s presidency, which was exactly the way he wanted it. His