![]() The newly established Constitution was not yet a year old and still lacked ratification by two of the thirteen states, North Carolina and Rhode Island. Upon his inauguration as the first president on April 30, 1789, George Washington assumed office under the tenuous circumstances of an untested federal government. Washington won the presidency by unanimous electoral vote in both 1788 and in 1792. Citizens across the colonies as well as former comrades in arms insisted that only he could forge a nation. America’s first presidential campaign was, in fact, a broad effort to persuade Washington to accept the office. As he had united them during the war, he would do so again in the aftermath. The colonists had fought the war as a set of different nations, without unity, until Washington assumed command of their forces. Washington was now tired and wanted only a quiet life, but his peers knew that his leadership and charisma were unsurpassed. But after the war’s end, Washington watched with dismay as the very officers who had fought off the rule of a monarch made grabs for their own individual power. Against heavy odds, Washington outmaneuvered British forces to lead the colonists to victory. During the Revolutionary War, conditions were dismal for American colonists. ![]()
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