On the 25th of May, when a quorum was finally present at the State House, the delegates unanimously elected George Washington president of the convention and escorted him to the chair.  From his desk at the raised dais he made a little speech of acceptance, depreciating his ability:  “ . . . he declared that as he had never been in such a situation he felt himself embarrassed, that he hoped his errors, as they would be unintentional, would be excused.  He lamented his want of qualifications.”

It was typical George Washington to lament his lack of qualification and to call on God to help, whether it was his nomination as commander in chief of the army, as president of the Federal Convention, or as President of the United States.  Neither was it false modesty.  To his colleagues, it was reassuring.  Here was a man of great prestige, of magnificent physical appearance, with landed estate, yet he was a genuinely humble man.  Certainly he was not a ready or accomplished speaker; throughout the next four months, Washington sat silently in the Convention, and only on the very last day did he rise to take part in the debates.  Jefferson, who served with Washington in the Virginia legislature, and with Dr. Franklin in Congress, testified afterwards that he “never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the question.”  But in their silence lay their strength.  Washington’s presence kept the Federal Convention together, kept it going, just as his presence had kept a straggling, ill-conditioned army together all through the terrible years of war.