Truthout.org
May 13, 2013
On April 14, 1789, George Washington was walking through the fields
of Mount Vernon, his Virginia home, when Charles Thomson, the secretary
of the Continental Congress, rode up on horseback, to deliver Washington
a letter, telling him that he had been elected president of the United
States by the newly created United States Senate.
While this was great news for Washington, it presented two problems for him.
The first was that he had to say goodbye to his ailing mother before
setting off for the presidential inauguration in New York City. His
mother died before Washington was able to return from the inauguration.
The second problem Washington faced was trying to find a suit of
clothes he could wear for the swearing-in ceremony that were made in
America.
When Washington became president in 1789, the majority of America's
industrial and personal products were manufactured in England. One of
the ways that England kept the American colonies under their thumb was
by outlawing American manufacturing of most high-quality goods,
including fine clothing.
Instead, in the years prior to the American Revolution, the British
East India Company, the world's largest transnational corporation,
controlled the production and transportation of a variety of goods,
including fine clothing.
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