1788–89 United States presidential election
1st quadrennial U.S. presidential election / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1788–89 United States presidential election was the first presidential election in the United States. It happened from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789, under the new Constitution made official that same year. George Washington was elected with no opposition. This would be the first of two times he was elected, as he would serve two terms as president. John Adams became the first vice president. This was the only U.S. presidential election that took more than one calendar year (not counting ones that had a follow-up election). It was also the first national presidential election in America.
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69 members of the Electoral College 35 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 11.6%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential election results map. Green shows states that Washington won. Black states are states that didn't vote. The numbers in each state shows the number of votes given by each state.[note 1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Under the Articles of Confederation, which were created in 1781, the United States had no head of state. The executive function of government remained with the legislative similar to countries that use a parliamentary system. Federal power, which wasn't as powerful, was only managed by the Congress of the Confederation whose "President of the United States in Congress Assembled" was also chair of the Committee of the States which existed to do a job similar to that of the modern Cabinet.
The Constitution created the offices of President and Vice President, and separated their jobs from Congress. The Constitution made an Electoral College, based on each state's number of Congressmen, where each elector would make two votes for two candidates, a process changed in 1804 by the passing of the Twelfth Amendment. States had different ways for choosing presidential electors.[2] In five states, the state government chose electors. The other six chose electors through, in some way, having the people vote. However, only two states had the population vote directly.
Washington, who was really popular, was well known as the past Commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. After he agreed to come out of retirement, he was easily elected by everyone. Because the vice president used to also be elected through the electoral college, Washington didn't choose one.
No political parties existed. However, most people called themselves Federalists or Anti-Federalists. Because of this, the contest for the Vice-President was anyone's game. Thomas Jefferson predicted that a popular leader from the North like John Hancock from Massachusetts or John Adams, a past American representative to Great Britain who had represented Massachusetts in Congress, would be elected vice president. Anti-Federalist leaders such as Patrick Henry, who didn't run, and George Clinton, who didn't like the Constitution, were also choices.
The entire electoral college, which had 69 people, made one vote for Washington, making his election an unopposed win. Adams won 34 votes and became vice president. The other 35 votes went to ten different people, like John Jay, who finished third with nine. Three states couldn't be in the election: New York's state government chose their electors too late and North Carolina and Rhode Island had not recognized the constitution yet. Washington was inaugurated in New York City on April 30, 1789, 57 days after the First Congress first met.