Washington as President 153New York politics presented a complex and baf-
fling picture. Resistance to independence had been
strong there in 1776 and remained a problem all
through the war. Although New York was the third
largest state, with a population rapidly approaching
340,000, it sided with the small states at Philadelphia,
and two of its three delegates (Hamilton was the
exception) walked out of the convention and took the
lead in opposing ratification. A handful of great
landowning and mercantile families dominated poli-
tics, but they were divided into shifting factions. In
general, New York City, including most ordinary
working people as well as the merchants, favored rati-
fication and the rural areas were against it.
The Antifederalists, well-organized and compe-
tently led in New York by Governor George Clinton,
won forty-six of the sixty-five seats at the ratifying
convention. The New York Federalists had one great
asset in the fact that so many states had already rati-
fied and another in the person of Alexander
Hamilton. Although contemptuous of theweakness
of the Constitution,Hamilton supported it with all
his energies as being incomparably stronger than the
old government. Working with Madison and John
Jay, he produced theFederalist Papers, a series of
brilliant essays explaining and defending the new sys-
tem. In his articles, Hamilton stressed the need for a
strong federal executive, while Madison sought to
allay fears that the new national government would
have too much power by emphasizing the many
checks and balances in the Constitution. The essays
were published in the local press and later in book
form. Although generations of judges and lawyers
have treated them almost as parts of the
Constitution, their impact on contemporary public
opinion was probably slight. Open-minded members
of the convention were undoubtedly influenced, but
few delegates were open-minded.
Hamilton became a kind of one-man army in
defense of the Constitution, plying hesitating dele-
gates with dinners and drinks, facing obstinate ones
with the threat that New York City would secede from
the state if the Constitution were rejected. Once New
Hampshire and Virginia had ratified, opposition in
New York became a good deal less intransigent. In the
end, by promising to support a call for a second
national convention to consider amendments, the
Federalists carried the day, thirty to twenty-seven.
With New York in the fold, the new government was
free to get under way. North Carolina finally ratified in
November 1789, and Rhode Island the following year
in May 1790. (See Mapping the Past, pp. 150–151).
Madison Defends the Constitutionat
myhistorylab.com
ReadtheDocumentWashington as President
Elections took place in the states during January and
February 1789, and by early April enough congress-
men had gathered in New York, the temporary
national capital, to commence operation. The ballots
of the presidential electors were officially counted in
the Senate on April 6, Washington being the unani-
mous choice. John Adams, with thirty-four electoral
votes, won the vice-presidency.
When he left Mount Vernon for the eight-day
trip to New York for his inauguration, Washington’s
progress was a series of celebrations. In every town he
was met by bands, honor guards, local dignitaries,
and crowds of cheering citizens. The people were
informally ratifying the decision to create a new and
more powerful United States. On April 30
Washington took the oath of office at New York’s
Federal Hall.
Washington made a firm, dignified, conscien-
tious, but cautious president. His acute sense of
responsibility led him to face the task “with feelings
not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place
of his execution.” Each presidential action must of
necessity establish a precedent. “The eyes of Argus
are upon me,” he complained, “and no slip will pass
unnoticed.” Hoping to make the presidency appear
respectable in the eyes of the world, he saw to it that
his carriage was drawn by six cream-colored horses,
and when he rode (he was a magnificent horseman),
he sat upon a great white charger, with the saddle of
leopard skin and the cloth edged in gold. Twenty-one
servants (seven of them slaves) attended his needs at
the presidential mansion on Broadway.
Washington meticulously avoided treading on the
toes of Congress, for he took seriously the principle
of the separation of powers. Never would he speak for
or against a candidate for Congress, nor did he think
that the president should push or even propose legis-
lation. When he knew a controversial question was to
be discussed in Congress, he avoided the subject in
his annual message. The veto, he believed, should be
employed only when the president considered a bill
unconstitutional.
Although the Constitution said nothing about a
presidential Cabinet, Washington established the sys-
tem of calling his department heads together for gen-
eral advice, a practice that was followed by his
successors. In selecting these department heads and
other important administrators, he favored no partic-
ular faction. He insisted only that appointees be com-
petent and “of known attachment to the Government
we have chosen.” He picked Hamilton for secretary
of the treasury, Jefferson for secretary of state,
General Henry Knox of Massachusetts for secretary