I'm starting a new project on my blog.

QUOTE from Abigail Adams on President Washington, 1789:
"He is polite with dignity, affable without familiarity, distant without haughtiness, grave without austerity, modest, wise, and good."

MY NEW BLOG PROJECT IS:

With a presidential election coming in 2012 I've decided to get myself educated about all the other presidential election campaigns in the history of the U.S. This campaign in 2012 is predicted to be one of the dirtiest, nastiest, and most expensive campaigns in our history. My curiosity got me thinking about what all the previous PRESIDENTIAL campaigns were like. I know in my lifetime there have been some pretty dirty and nasty presidential campaigns. But what about the campaigns in the 1790s, the 1800s, and the first half of the 1900s? How dirty and nasty were they? So with the help of several books I bought at Barnes and Noble and the help of Google I'm going to find out. So this is my new project on my blog for probably the next year. So enjoy the ride through all 44 campaigns and hope you LEARN as much as I plan on LEARNING.

Each campaign will have a NASTY-METER ranking from 1-10. With 1 being the least nasty to 10 being the most nasty.

ELECTION #1, 1789. George Washington became our first president in 1789. The NASTY-METER ranking for our first presidential election is a 1.

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Pope's Creek, Virginia and died on December 14, 1799. He was 67 years and 205 days old. George's father (Augustine) was married twice, producing four kids with wife number one and six kids with wife number two. George was the oldest of the second batch of six.

George's election to the Presidency was the CLEANEST one in our history. In 1789, America was like a newborn babe, and since the birth pains included a bloody and divisive war, a calming fatherly figure was needed. Washington was the only one to fit the bill.

Washington was not happy about being the anointed one. He was a reluctant leader who, at age 56, thought he was too far past his prime to undertake such a challenge. But his friends Alexander Hamilton and James Madison convinced him that America needed his presence to make sure that the gains of the Revolution did not disappear in factional infighting between state's rights advocates and those who favored a strong central government.

The first presidential election was also the quickest. There was NO POPULAR VOTE and there would NOT BE A POPULAR VOTE UNTIL 1824. Instead, following rules set down in the newly ratified Constitution, each state appointed presidential electors in January 1789. Each state got the number of electoral votes based on this formula; the number of representatives that state had in the U.S. House of Resentatives plus the two senators each state was entitled to. The electors in each state were selected by the legislatures in each state. Of course, all the electors appointed were white men. With the first Electoral College thus established, the electors cast two votes for two different people - a point that would soon become very controversial. The man who received the most votes would become president; the man coming in second would be vice president. It was a total landslide for George Washington as all 69 electors made Washington their number one pick and John Adams, with 34 electoral votes, was their number two pick so he became vice-president.

Washington then made his triumphal entry into New York City, the nation's temporary capital, on April 30, 1789. Thousands of spectators thronged the road that led from Mount Vernon, cheering and tossing flowers. The first president was ferried across the Hudson River on an enormous barge manned by 13 sailors (representing the 13 states); the barge was surrounded by a veritable flotilla of ships, filled with celebrants who sang Washington's praises to the spring skies.

In more ways than one, the election of 1789 was the smoothest sailing an American presidential candidate would ever have. (But the sailing wasn't completely smooth as the bitter John Adams did claim that the only reason Washington was chosen for everything was that he was taller than anyone else in the room).

George Washington is known as the FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY. He was the right man at the right time.

I can assure you that things will get more interesting as I journey through each campaign.