Originally published on February 22, 2017 

In commemoration of George Washington’s birthday, here’s the exchange wherein he is informed that’s he’s been elected to the office of President of the United States of America.

PROCEEDINGS INITIATORY TO THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION.

[From the Washington Papers (Executive Proceedings, vol. 17), Department
of State.]

Charles Thomson, esq., Secretary of the late Congress, being appointed
by the Senate of the United States to carry to General Washington the
official information of his unanimous election to the office of
President of the United States of America, arrived at Mount Vernon on
the 14th day of April, A.D. 1789, when he communicated to General
Washington the purport of his mission in the following words:

Sir: The President of the Senate chosen for the special purpose, having
opened and counted the votes of the electors in presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, I was honored with the commands of the
Senate to wait upon Your Excellency with the information of your being
elected to the office of President of the United States of America. This
commission was intrusted to me on account of my having been long in the
confidence of the late Congress, and charged with the duties of one of
the principal civil departments of Government.

I have now, sir, to inform you that the proofs you have given of your
patriotism, and of your readiness to sacrifice domestic ease and private
enjoyments to preserve the happiness of your country, did not permit the
two Houses to harbor a doubt of your undertaking this great and
important office, to which you are called, not only by the unanimous
vote of the electors, but by the voice of America.

I have it, therefore, in command to accompany you to New York, where the
Senate and House of Representatives are convened for the dispatch of
public business.

To which General Washington replied:

SIR: I have been accustomed to pay so much respect to the opinion of my
fellow-citizens that the knowledge of their having given their unanimous
suffrages in my favor scarcely leaves me the alternative for an option.
I can not, I believe, give a greater evidence of my sensibility of the
honor which they have done me than by accepting the appointment.

I am so much affected by this fresh proof of my country’s esteem and
confidence that silence can best explain my gratitude. While I realize
the arduous nature of the task which is imposed upon me, and feel my own
inability to perform it, I wish, however, that there may not be reason
for regretting the choice, for, indeed, all I can promise is only to
accomplish that which can be done by an honest zeal.

From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume I (1897)