[Sidenote: Amendments.]

One important function was performed before Congress adjourned, by
submitting to the States twelve amendments to the Constitution. These were
made up by comparison of the propositions submitted by the States at the
time of ratification, and practically constituted a brief bill of rights.
In due time all but two unimportant clauses were ratified by the States,
and the great objection to the Constitution was thus removed.

The importance of the First Congress was that the general forms adopted
for the transaction of its business have continued without serious change
to the present day. Its officers have increased, its powers have
developed, its political importance has expanded; but its parliamentary
procedure is still much the same as in 1789.


74. ORGANIZATION OF THE EXECUTIVE (1789, 1790).


[Sidenote: The first President.]

While the senators and representatives were being selected, Presidential
electors were also chosen in all the eleven States except New York. The
States exercised their constitutional discretion: in some the electors
were chosen by the legislatures, in others by general ticket, and in
others by districts. In one thing they agreed: when quorums of both houses
were obtained, so that the votes could be counted, April 6, 1789, it was
found that every elector had cast a ballot for George Washington. On April
30 he took the oath of office in Federal Hall on Wall Street, New York,
and Maclay records for the benefit of posterity that "he was dressed in