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Election of 1789
Washington wins with 69 votes of the electoral college (100% of votes), John Adams coming in 2nd with 34 votes is made vice-president -
Congress first meeting
Met in NYC temporary seat of the federal government in the federal hall. Took a month for both chambers to gather enough quorum (only 8 senators and 13 members of the House initially) -
Washington Inaugurated President
His journey to NY from Mount Vernon turned into a procession. Washington felt like a condemned man going to his place of execution as expectations for him and the new experiment of the constitution were extremely high -
Judiciary Act
Established a hierarchical system of federal courts. At the top was the Supreme Court: consisting of a chief justice and 5 associate justices. Beneath it were to be district courts in each state and 3 circuit courts of appeal The act gave the Supreme Court power to rule on constitutionality of the state court decisions and nullify state laws that violated the Constitution Washington selected the 6 members of the Supreme court (3 from north, 3 from south) and named John Jay the Chief justice -
Bill of rights: James Madison drafts the initial 17 amendments to the Constitution. The Senate adopted 12 and the states ratified 10 of them.
This reconciled Anti-federalist with a Constitution that didn't deprive the individual of his fundamental rights: right to freedom of speech, of religion, of assembly, of press, right to petition, to bear arms, immunity against arbitrary search and arrest. As well as the prohibition of excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishments and the quartering of troops in private houses. Ratified in 1791, it secured the joining of North Carolina (1789) and Rhode Island (1790) into the Union.