ABSTRACT
THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES answered his country’s call to command the birth of a new nation in the spring of 1789. George Washington methodically made his way from his Mount Vernon home in Virginia to New York City, the Republic’s first Capitol of the United States of America. The journey north was unhurried as the President-elect passed through many villages and towns and cheering throngs of joyous and proud citizens. Americans along the route pressed the crowds eager to get a glimpse of the revolutionary hero and champion of the new Republic. The General had defeated Cornwallis and ended the British tyranny at Yorktown, thereby bringing the American Revolution to a successful conclusion. In the aftermath of that victory, the now independent American people faced a new crisis of government under the flawed Articles of Confederation. The Father of Our Country once again came forth to provide leadership and inspiration in forging a new instrument of governance in Philadelphia at the Convention which produced the Constitution of the United States.
