Presidency

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I was elected in 1789. I took the oath of office as the first President on April 30, 1789. The First U.S. Congress voted to pay me a salary of $25,000 a year, which was a large sum in 1789. I, already wealthy, declined the salary. At the urging of Congress, however, I ultimately accepted the payment. I attended carefully to the ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. to that end, I preferred the title "Mr. President" to the more majestic names suggested.I only reluctantly agreed to serve a second term of office as president. I refused to run for a third, establishing the precedent of a maximum of two terms for a president.

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