February 4 · This Day in America
The presidential electors of ten states cast their ballots, and every one of the sixty-nine votes for the new office goes to the same man: George Washington. No campaign, no opponent, no doubt. A country that had just fought a war to be rid of one ruler turns and freely, completely, asks one man to lead it, trusting him precisely because everyone believes he does not want the job. John Adams finishes second and becomes the first vice president. Washington would take the oath in April in New York, knowing that every step he took would become a precedent, that he was not just holding an office but inventing one. The most powerful argument for the new Constitution was the character of the man everyone agreed should go first.
Source: www.history.com
Also on this day · 1861
As Washington's old Union strains toward war, delegates from seceded states convene in Montgomery, Alabama, to organize a rival government, the Confederate States of America. Within days they would draft a constitution and choose Jefferson Davis to lead it. The country built on a single audacious sentence about equality was now, openly, two governments and one unfinished argument about who that sentence was for.
Source: www.nps.gov