The election of George Washington was weirder than you think

Video Description

The first U.S. presidential election in 1789 had none of the features Americans associate with elections today: no campaigning for the office, no political parties or conventions, no primary elections. Election Day was in January rather than November. The Electoral College was taken seriously rather than being treated as a formality. This was the only election in which a state was disqualified from participating. And there was only one issue at stake: whether the Constitution itself should be scrapped. The final results of the election were that George Washington received 69 electoral votes and John Adams 34, making them president and vice president, respectively. John Adams should have received at least 49 votes, but many of the electors who wanted to vote for him voted for other people instead because of a scheme that Alexander Hamilton helped create. So instead of Adams receiving 71% of the electoral vote as he would have, he only received 49%. 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Why 1789? Why not 1776? 2:59 The procedure for electing the president 6:41 How the states chose their electors 8:54 The major election issue 9:58 The New York debacle 12:04 What the anti-federalists wanted 16:46 The plot to prevent Adams from accidentally becoming president 17:31 Electoral College results 20:10 Conclusion FOOTNOTES DHFFE = The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections, 4 vols. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976–89) [1] Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), pages 128–132 Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 1741–1794 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), page 210 [2] Neal R. Peirce, The People’s President: The Electoral College in American History and the Direct-Vote Alternative (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968), pages 39–48 Lawrence D. Longley, The Electoral College Primer 2000 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pages 18–19 [3] New Hampshire: The New Hampshire Election Law, 12 November 1788, DHFFE 1:790 Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Election Resolutions, 20 November 1788, DHFFE 1:510 [4] Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, chapter 13 Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism, pages 210–214 Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pages 15, 35 The image shown here is the mural “The Anti-Ratification Riot in Albany, 1788” created in 1935 by David Cunningham Lithgow, located in Milne Hall at the University at Albany. [5] Alexander Hamilton to James Madison, 23 November 1788, DHFFE 4:95 William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 2 January 1789, DHFFE 4:125 Alexander Hamilton to James Wilson, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:148 [6] James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1788, DHFFE 4:109 Edward Carrington to James Madison, 19 December 1788, DHFFE 4:115 Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 31 December 1788, DHFFE 4:122 A Marylander, Maryland Gazette (Baltimore), 2 January 1789, DHFFE 4:126 Marcus Cunliffe, “Elections of 1789 and 1792” in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2001, vol. 1, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2002), page 15 [7] Tench Coxe to Benjamin Rush, 13 January 1789, DHFFE 4:140 Alexander Hamilton to James Wilson, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:148 Wallace & Muir to Tench Coxe, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:149-150 Tench Coxe to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1789, DHFFE 4:160 Marcus Cunliffe, “Elections of 1789 and 1792” in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2001, vol. 1, pages 13–15 John Ferling, John Adams: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), pages 298–299 Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2004), page 272 [8] William Stephens Smith to Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1789, DHFFE 4:178 John Trumbull to John Adams, 17 April 1790, DHFFE 4:290 [9] Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 19 January 1789, DHFFE 4:144 Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 5 February 1789, DHFFE 1:401 [William Bradford, Jr., to Elias Boudinot], 7 February 1789, DHFFE 4:168 Federal Gazette (Philadelphia), 9 February 1789, DHFFE 4:172 [10] William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:149 William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 9 February 1789, DHFFE 4:172 Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 11 February 1789, DHFFE 4:173 Elbridge Gerry to John Adams, 4 March 1789, DHFFE 4:190 [11] Georgia's throwaway votes: James Seagrove to [Samuel Blachley Webb], 2 January 1789, DHFFE 2:438 James Madison to George Washington, 5 March 1789, DHFFE 2:478 [12] John Adams to John Trumbull, 7 April 1790, DHFFE 4:290–291 John Adams to John Trumbull, 25 April 1790, DHFFE 4:291–292 John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 20 July 1807, DHFFE 4:292–293 John Ferling, John Adams: A Life, page 299 John Patrick Diggins, John Adams (New York: Times Books, 2003), page 42 Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, pages 272–273