The legislators had chosen a fine emissary. The day after Congress counted the electoral votes, declaring Washington the first president, it dispatched Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, to bear the official announcement to Mount Vernon. In a letter to his friend Edward Rutledge, he made it seem as if the presidency was little short of a death sentence and that, in accepting it, he had given up “all expectations of private happiness in this world.” He savored his wait as a welcome “reprieve,” he told his former comrade in arms and future Secretary of War Henry Knox, adding that his “movements to the chair of government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.” His “peaceful abode” at Mount Vernon, his fears that he lacked the requisite skills for the presidency, the “ocean of difficulties” facing the country-all gave him pause on the eve of his momentous trip to New York. The Congressional delay in certifying George Washington’s election as president only allowed more time for doubts to fester as he considered the herculean task ahead. The excerpt below sheds light on the president’s state of mind as the first Inauguration Day approached. In a new biography, Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow has created a portrait of the man as his contemporaries saw him. The reason-bad roads-suggests the condition of the country Washington would lead. Congress was supposed to make the choice official that March but could not muster a quorum until April. On February 4, 1789, the 69 members of the Electoral College made George Washington the only chief executive to be unanimously elected.

Editor’s note: Even as the Constitution was being ratified, Americans looked toward a figure of singular probity to fill the new office of the presidency.

Washington by Ron Chernow