Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/53

not until September 13 was a day appointed for the choice of electors of president. That day was the first Wednesday of the following January, while the beginning of proceedings under the new constitution was postponed until the first Wednesday of March, which chanced in that year to be the 4th of March. Not, however, until April 1 was there a quorum for business in the house of representatives, and not until April 6 was the senate organized. On that day, in the presence of the two houses, the votes for president and vice-president were opened and counted, when Washington, having received every vote from the ten states that took part in the election, was declared president of the United States. On April 14 he received at Mount Vernon the official announcement of his election, and on the morning of the 16th he set out for New York. "Reluctant," as he said, "in the evening of life to exchange a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties," he bravely added: "Be the voyage long or short, although I may be deserted by all men, integrity and firmness shall never forsake me." Well does Bancroft exclaim, after recounting these details in his "History of the Constitution": "But for him the country could not have achieved its independence; but for him it could not have formed its Union; and now but for him it could not set the government in successful motion."