United States presidential election, 1789

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United States presidential election, 1789
1789
	Winner
Nominee	George Washington
Home State	Virginia
Running mate	John Adams*
Electoral Vote	69
States Carried	10
Popular Vote	38,818
Percentage	100%
Presidential election results map. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Before Election None	After Election George Washington

The United States presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States of America. Prior to the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the United States had no office of President. (While there was an office under the Articles of Confederation called the President of the United States in Congress Assembled, it was the chair of the United States Congress and was similar to the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate.)

For all intents and purposes, George Washington ran unopposed for election as President. Under the system then in place, each voting elector cast two votes, and the recipient of the greatest number of votes was elected President, providing they equaled or exceeded half the total number of electors. The runner-up became Vice President. At that time, the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution had not been passed and thus the electoral system for that era differs from most elections. Washington was now very popular, as he successfully presided over the Philadelphia Convention and made the US, which was weakened by the Articles of Confederation, much stronger through the new US Constitution.

The recipient of 34 electoral votes, John Adams of Massachusetts, finished second in voting and as such was elected Vice President of the United States.

The Candidates

• John Adams, former Minister to Great Britain from Massachusetts
• James Armstrong, politician from Georgia
• George Clinton, Governor of New York
• Robert H. Harrison, judge from Maryland
• John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts and former President of Congress
• Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut
• John Jay, Secretary of Foreign Affairs from New York
• Benjamin Lincoln, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
• John Milton, Secretary of State of Georgia
• John Rutledge, former Governor of South Carolina
• Edward Telfair, former governor of Georgia
• George Washington, retired Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army from Virginia

General election

In the absence of parties, there was no formal nomination process. The framers of 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. Individual states chose their electors, who voted all together for Washington when they met.

Electors used their second vote to cast a scattering of votes, many voting for someone besides Adams less out of opposition to him than to prevent Adams from matching Washington's total.

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 due to deadlock in the state legislature.

Results

Popular vote

Source: U.S. President National Vote. Our Campaigns. (February 11, 2006).

^(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.

Electoral vote

Source: Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (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 DenBoer (ed.), Univ 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 Senate Journal, 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.

Breakdown by ticket

Electoral college selection

 method=each elector appointed by the state legislature|
 states=Connecticut 

 Georgia 

 New Jersey 

 New York (a) 

 South Carolina|

^(a) New York's legislature deadlocked, so no electors were chosen.
^(b) One electoral district failed to chose an elector.

See also

• United States House election, 1789
• History of the United States (1789-1849)
• First United States Congress

References

Books

• Jenson, Merrill, et al., eds. (1976–1989). The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections, 1788–1790. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-06690-8. 

Web sites

• The Electoral Count for the Presidential Election of 1789. The Papers of George Washington. Retrieved on May 4, 2005.
• A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College. The Green Papers. Retrieved on February 17, 2005.

External links

• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825

Navigation

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