 This is from the introduction. On April 14th, 1789, George Washington was out walking through the fields at Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia, when Charles Thompson, the Secretary of the Continental Congress, rode up on horseback. Thompson had a letter for Washington from the president pro tem of the new constitutionally created United States Senate, telling Washington that he'd just been elected president and the inauguration was set for April 30th in the nation's capital, then New York City.