United States presidential election, 1789

The United States presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States of America, and was the only one to not take place in an even numbered year. The election took place following the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788. The polls opened on December 15, 1788, and closed on January 10, 1789. In this election, George Washington was elected for the first of his two terms as President of the United States, and John Adams became the first Vice President of the United States.

Before this election, the United States had no chief executive. Under the previous system—the Articles of Confederation—the national government was headed by the Confederation Congress, which had a ceremonial presiding officer and several executive departments, but no independent executive branch.

In this election, the enormously popular Washington essentially ran unopposed. The only real issue to be decided was who would be chosen as vice president. Under the system then in place, each elector cast two votes; if a person received a vote from a majority of the electors, that person became president, and the runner-up became vice president. All 69 electors cast one vote for Washington. Their other votes were divided among eleven other candidates; John Adams received the most, becoming vice president. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, would change this procedure, requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice president.

The candidates

 * John Adams, former Minister to the United Kingdom 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 the Continental 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 conventions, 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. 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 (a carefully organized scheme originating with Alexander Hamilton) 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 because of a deadlock in the state legislature.

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:

(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.), 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 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.''

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

Navigation
Präsidentschaftswahl in den Vereinigten Staaten 1789 Élection présidentielle américaine de 1789 הבחירות לנשיאות ארצות הברית 1789 Elezioni presidenziali statunitensi del 1789 1789 metų JAV prezidento rinkimai Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen 1789 1789年アメリカ合衆国大統領選挙 Presidentvalget i USA 1789 Wybory prezydenckie w Stanach Zjednoczonych w 1789 roku Eleição presidencial dos Estados Unidos da América (1789) Президентские выборы в США (1789) 1789年美国总统选举