United States presidential election, 1788–89
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| Presidential election results map. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. (Note: North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution, the New York legislature was deadlocked, and Vermont was operating as a de-facto unrecognized state.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The United States presidential election of 1788–89 was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789. It was conducted under the new United States Constitution, which was ratified earlier in 1788. In the election, George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president, and John Adams became the first vice president.
Before this election, the United States had no chief executive.[1] Under the Articles of Confederation adopted in 1781, the national government was headed by the Confederation Congress, which had a ceremonial presiding officer and several executive departments, but no independent executive branch.[2]
The enormously popular Washington essentially ran unopposed. The only real question was the choice for vice president. Under the system then in place, each state was to choose a number of electors equal to its representation in Congress. Each elector would have two votes: the candidate who received a majority of the votes would become president and the runner-up vice president. All 69 electors cast one vote for Washington. Their second votes were divided between eleven other candidates; John Adams received the most and was elected vice president. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, would change this procedure, requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice president.
Contents
Candidates
No political parties existed at the time of the 1788–89 presidential election. Candidates were either Federalists, meaning they supported the ratification of the Constitution, or Anti-Federalists, meaning they opposed ratification. These groups were not established political parties, however, and were united in supporting Washington for president.
Washington's immense popularity made the question of who would be the first president only a technical one. The real race was for the vice presidency, which was contested by nine individuals of varying prominence in the United States. However, because the voting procedure of the time did not distinguish between votes for president and vice president, all were technically candidates for president along with Washington.
Federalist candidates
- George Washington, former Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army from Virginia
- John Adams, former Minister to Great Britain from Massachusetts
- John Jay, United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs from New York
- John Rutledge, former Governor of South Carolina
- John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts
- Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut
- Benjamin Lincoln, former U.S. Secretary of War from Massachusetts
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Anti-Federalist candidates
- George Clinton, Governor of New York
General election
In the absence of political parties, there was no formal nomination process. The framers of the Constitution had presumed that Washington would be the first president, and once he agreed to come out of retirement to accept the office, there was no opposition to him.
Less certain was the choice for the vice presidency, which the Constitution stipulated would be awarded to the runner-up in the presidential election. Because Washington was from Virginia, many assumed that a vice president would be chosen from one of the northern states to ease sectional tensions. In an August 1788 letter, U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson wrote that he considered John Adams and John Hancock, both prominent citizens from Massachusetts, to be the top contenders. Jefferson suggested John Jay, James Madison, andJohn Rutledge as other possible candidates.[3]
Electors were chosen by the individual states, and each cast one vote for Washington. The electors used their second vote to cast a scattering of votes: while Adams won a plurality of these votes, a majority of the 69 electors voted for a candidate other than Adams. This was due largely to a scheme perpetrated by Alexander Hamilton, who feared that Adams would tie with Washington, throwing the election to the House of Representatives and embarrassing Washington and the new Constitution. Thus, Adams received only 34 of 69 votes, with the remaining 35 ballots split between ten other candidates.
As the electors were being selected, rumors spread that there was an Anti-Federalist plot afoot to elect Richard Henry Lee or Patrick Henry president over Washington, with George Clinton as their choice for vice president. These rumors may have been encouraged by those sympathetic to the Federalists, who wished to discourage electors from voting for Clinton. If so, this strategy was effective: Clinton received only three electoral votes, possibly due to the fear that a vote for Clinton was effectively a vote against Washington.[4]
Only ten states out of the original thirteen cast electoral votes in this election. North Carolina and Rhode Island were ineligible to participate as they had not yet ratified the United States Constitution. New York failed to appoint its allotment of eight electors because of a deadlock in the state legislature.
Results
Popular vote
| Popular Vote(a), (b), (c) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | |
| Federalist electors | 39,624 | 90.5% |
| Anti-Federalist electors | 4,158 | 9.5% |
| Total | 43,782 | 100.0% |
(a) Only 6 of the 10 states casting electoral votes chose electors by any form of popular vote.
(b) Less than 1.3% of the population voted: the 1790 Census would count a total population of 3.0 million with a free population of 2.4 million and 600,000 slaves in those states casting electoral votes in this election.
(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
(b) Less than 1.3% of the population voted: the 1790 Census would count a total population of 3.0 million with a free population of 2.4 million and 600,000 slaves in those states casting electoral votes in this election.
(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
Electoral vote[edit]
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote(a), (b), (c) | Electoral vote(d), (e), (f) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | ||||
| George Washington | Independent | Virginia | 43,782 | 100.0% | 69 |
| John Adams | Federalist | Massachusetts | — | — | 34 |
| John Jay | Federalist | New York | — | — | 9 |
| Robert H. Harrison | Federalist | Maryland | — | — | 6 |
| John Rutledge | Federalist | South Carolina | — | — | 6 |
| John Hancock | Federalist | Massachusetts | — | — | 4 |
| George Clinton | Anti-Federalist | New York | — | — | 3 |
| Samuel Huntington | Federalist | Connecticut | — | — | 2 |
| John Milton | Federalist | Georgia | — | — | 2 |
| James Armstrong(g) | Federalist | Georgia(g) | — | — | 1 |
| Benjamin Lincoln | Federalist | Massachusetts | — | — | 1 |
| Edward Telfair | Anti-Federalist | Georgia | — | — | 1 |
| Total | 43,782 | 100.0% | 138 | ||
| Needed to win | 35 | ||||
Source:. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.
(a) Only 6 of the 10 states casting electoral votes chose electors by any form of popular vote.
(b) Less than 1.3% of the population voted: the 1790 Census would count a total population of 3.0 million with a free population of 2.4 million and 600,000 slaves in those states casting electoral votes in this election.
(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
(d) The New York legislature failed to appoint its allotted 8 electors in time, so there were no voting electors from New York.
(e) Two electors from Maryland did not vote.
(f) One elector from Virginia did not vote and another elector from Virginia was not chosen because an election district failed to submit returns.
(g) The identity of this candidate comes from The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections (Gordon Den Boer (ed.), University of Wisconsin Press, 1984, p. 441). Several respected sources, including the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and the Political Graveyard, instead show this individual to be James Armstrong of Pennsylvania. However, primary sources, such as the list only Armstrong's name, not his state. Skeptics observe that Armstrong received his single vote from a Georgia elector. They find this improbable because Armstrong of Pennsylvania was not nationally famous—his public service to that date consisted of being a medical officer during the American Revolution and, at most, a single year as a Pennsylvania judge.
(b) Less than 1.3% of the population voted: the 1790 Census would count a total population of 3.0 million with a free population of 2.4 million and 600,000 slaves in those states casting electoral votes in this election.
(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
(d) The New York legislature failed to appoint its allotted 8 electors in time, so there were no voting electors from New York.
(e) Two electors from Maryland did not vote.
(f) One elector from Virginia did not vote and another elector from Virginia was not chosen because an election district failed to submit returns.
(g) The identity of this candidate comes from The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections (Gordon Den Boer (ed.), University of Wisconsin Press, 1984, p. 441). Several respected sources, including the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and the Political Graveyard, instead show this individual to be James Armstrong of Pennsylvania. However, primary sources, such as the list only Armstrong's name, not his state. Skeptics observe that Armstrong received his single vote from a Georgia elector. They find this improbable because Armstrong of Pennsylvania was not nationally famous—his public service to that date consisted of being a medical officer during the American Revolution and, at most, a single year as a Pennsylvania judge.
Results by state
| George Washington Federalist | George Washington Anti-Federalist | State Total | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | ||||||||
| Connecticut | 7 | no popular vote | 7 | no popular vote | - | CT | ||||||||||
| Delaware | 3 | 685 | 100 | 3 | no ballots | 685 | DE | |||||||||
| Georgia | 5 | no popular vote | 4 | no popular vote | 1 | - | GA | |||||||||
| Maryland | 6 | 5,539 | 71.63 | 6 | 2,193 | 28.37 | - | 7,732 | MD | |||||||
| Massachusetts | 10 | 17,740 | 100 | 10 | no ballots | 17,740 | MA | |||||||||
| New Hampshire | 5 | 5,909 | 100 | 5 | no ballots | 5,909 | NH | |||||||||
| New Jersey | 6 | no popular vote | 6 | no popular vote | - | NJ | ||||||||||
| New York | 0 | did not participate (legislature deadlocked) | - | NY | ||||||||||||
| North Carolina | 0 | did not participate (didn't ratify Constitution) | - | NC | ||||||||||||
| Pennsylvania | 10 | 6,711 | 90.90 | 10 | 672 | 9.10 | - | 7,383 | PA | |||||||
| Rhode Island | 0 | did not participate (didn't ratify Constitution) | - | RI | ||||||||||||
| South Carolina | 7 | no popular vote | 7 | no popular vote | - | SC | ||||||||||
| Virginia | 10 | 3,040 | 70.16 | 7 | 1,293 | 29.84 | 3 | 4,333 | VA | |||||||
| TOTALS: | 69 | 39,624 | 90.50 | 65 | 4,158 | 9.50 | 4 | 43,782 | US | |||||||
| TO WIN: | 35 | |||||||||||||||
Electoral college selection
The Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, provided that the state legislatures should decide the manner in which their Electors were chosen. Different state legislatures chose different methods:[5]
| Method of choosing Electors | State(s) |
|---|---|
| each elector appointed by the state legislature | Connecticut Georgia New Jersey New York(a) South Carolina |
| Massachusetts |
| each elector chosen by voters statewide; however, if no candidate wins majority, state legislature appoints elector from top two candidates | New Hampshire |
| state is divided into electoral districts, with one elector chosen per district by the voters of that district | Virginia(b) Delaware |
| electors chosen at large by voters | Maryland Pennsylvania |
| state had not yet ratified the Constitution, so was not eligible to choose electors | North Carolina Rhode Island |
(a) New York's legislature deadlocked, so no electors were chosen.
(b) One electoral district failed to choose an elector.
(b) One electoral district failed to choose an elector.
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