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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
The Election of 1788
00:16:23
Learn about the first US presidential election
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- [00:01]
Host
Since the ratification of the US Constitution in 1788, there have been 60 presidential elections which have been run every four years. Over time, a system was developed for the election of the President, including how parties select a candidate and how votes are counted. Some of this has been done via legislation, some via tradition, and some via constitutional amendments. However, before any of this was established, the very first Presidential election was held and it was unlike any other. Learn more about the election of 1788 and how the United States figured out how to elect a President on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
- [00:51]
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- [01:53]
Host
I've done several episodes on various presidential elections on this podcast. There were some very important elections, such as the 1860 election, very contentious elections such as the 1876 election, and some very confusing elections such as 1824. This episode is going to focus on the very first presidential election, which is unlike any other, save for the election of 1792 which immediately followed it, which I'll discuss briefly. The 1788 election was not controversial at all. In fact, George Washington's election was a foregone conclusion. I would even go so far as to say that it is the least controversial election in US history, right up there with the election of 1820, where only one party bothered to nominate a candidate. What makes the election of 1788 so interesting is that the United States had never done this before and really weren't sure what they were doing. To understand why this was so, we have to go back several years to to the first governing document of the young United States, the Articles of Confederation. When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia starting in 1775, the biggest thing that they were known for Was declaring independence from Great Britain in 1776. However, they also spent much of 1776 and 1777 debating the governing document to organize this new country. On March 15, 1777, they voted on the document, which was titled the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The articles required approval by all 13 states to go into effect, which finally occurred on March 1, 1781, when Maryland ratified them. The articles established a confederation of sovereign states and purposely created a weak central government with limited powers, as the colonies were wary of a strong central authority following their experiences with British rule. The central government consisted only of a congress, which had the authority to conduct foreign affairs, Declare war, Manage native American affairs, and resolve disputes between states. However, it lacked the power to levy taxes or regulate commerce between states. There was no executive branch, and there was no judicial branch. Many people will try to be tricky and say that George Washington was not the first president of the United States. They may say it was John Hanson of Maryland Or Peyton Randolph of Virginia. However, neither of those are true. These men held a title with the word president in it, but they were not presidents of the United States. Rather, they were the president of the United States. In congress assembled, they effectually held the equivalent position of speaker of the house for the continental congress. These men were not executives, and they didn't exercise any sort of executive authority. Yes, they did have the word president in their title, but then so did the president of Harvard. The articles of confederation were kind of doomed from the start. The congress of the confederation, which, again, was the only organ of the central government, Couldn't really do anything. They couldn't enforce any laws that had been passed. And if a state didn't want to comply, There was nothing they could do about it. They couldn't raise money, so they had no budget. They couldn't defend the borders, and was extremely weak Relative to the other great European powers. It was difficult to negotiate treaties when everything had to be done by committee. Perhaps most importantly, if there was a dispute between the states, There was no method of resolving such conflicts. If a change to the Articles of confederation was proposed, it required unanimous consent of every state for it to pass. The shortcomings of the articles of confederation Were obvious enough that a constitutional convention was convened in 1787 to draft a new governing document without getting into the weeds about the entire convention, which would be for a future episode. The decision was made to establish an executive, a single person who would lead the country. This person would be the president of the United States. The initial idea was for Congress, the representatives of the people to select the President. However, there were concerns that if Congress elected the President, then they may exchange favors for votes. So the decision was made to create a temporary body that mirrored Congress, but would not consist of sitting members of Congress. We know this as the Electoral College. In addition to the President, the Constitution also established the office of the Vice President. The way it was initially done, the President and the Vice President did not run as a unified ticket. The Vice President was whoever received the second most votes in the Electoral College. As such, each elector in the Electoral College would get two votes. The obvious problems with this system came to light after the election of 1800, which I've covered in a previous episode. The Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth of the 13 states to approve it. The still standing Congress of the Confederation was charged with transitioning to the new system. They announced how the election was going to be conducted on September 13, 1788. The rule was that all electors had to be selected by January 7, 1789. As such, this was the first and only election that was conducted over two calendar years. So if I wanted to get really technical, this episode should be titled the election of 1788 and 1789. The constitution stated that the states had to submit electors to vote for the President, but it was silent about how the electors were to be selected. Moreover, not all the states had ratified the Constitution at this point. Rhode island and North Carolina still had not ratified, and as such, they were not bound by the Constitution and were not eligible to submit electors to vote for president. Connecticut, New Jersey, Georgia, and South Carolina had their electors selected by their state legislatures. Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia all had their electors selected by popular vote. While there was technically a popular vote, there wasn't much of one. Of the states that selected electors on the basis of popular vote. There were only 28,009 votes cast across all the states. To put this into perspective, the entire population of the United States at the first U.S. census taken just a year later in 1790, was 3.9 million people. That means that less than 1% of the population voted in the first presidential election. And you may have noticed that when I was describing how electors were selected, I did not mention one state, New York. And that's because New York didn't submit any electors. The two houses of its legislature were split between Federalists and Antifederalists. Each house passed its own resolution selecting electors, and each House rejected the other's resolution. By the time the deadline of January 7th rolled around, new York hadn't selected a slate of electors, so they missed the deadline and didn't submit anything. While the selection of electors was a very mixed bag across the states, the one thing that was not in question was who the electors would vote for. George Washington. No one had the stature of Washington at this point in American history. Washington's leadership during the American Revolutionary War earned him widespread admiration and respect. As the commander in chief of the Continental army, he was credited with leading the colonies to victory against British rule. Washington was renowned for his strong moral character and integrity. These personal qualities were seen as essential for the first leader of the new republic, where trust and ethical leadership were paramount to establishing credibility both domestically and internationally. His willingness to relinquish power at the end of the war and return to private life only enhanced his reputation as a leader who placed his country's interests above his own. Washington remained above partisan politics, which made him an ideal candidate for the first president. He was not affiliated with any political faction or party, which allowed him to be seen as a unifier who could govern impartially. Washington had already shown his capabilities in a governmental role as the President of the constitutional convention in 1787, which drafted the U.S. constitution. His leadership in presiding over this convention and his endorsement of the Constitution played a significant role in its ratification. And finally, there was a strong public sentiment and desire for Washington to become the first president. Many Americans couldn't envision anyone else but him in the role, and his candidacy was seen as essential to the successful launch of this new constitutional government. The end result was that each elector in the first electoral college cast one of their two votes for Washington, ensuring his unanimous selection. His total was 69 out of a possible 69 votes. There was no nomination procedure since the Constitution's ratification. It was just assumed by everyone that Washington would be the first president. And so it was. However, the 1788 election, as with every presidential election, was not just about electing the president. It was also about electing the vice president. John Adams was widely assumed to be the person to become vice President. But there was a problem. Because the Vice President was simply the runner up in the Electoral College, and because every elector received two votes, if every elector voted for both Washington and Adams, there would have been a tie for president. This outcome would have been an embarrassment from Washington. So Alexander Hamilton worked behind the scenes to ensure that Adams was not elected unanimously as well. There were 11 different men who all received at least one electoral vote. Adams ended up with 34 electoral votes, one shy of a majority. However, The Vice President didn't require a majority, just a plurality. The first Congress sat for the first time on March 4, 1789. However, a quorum wasn't established until early April in both houses. One of the first orders of business of the First Congress was counting the electoral ballots, which took place on April 6. The first presidential inauguration took place on April 30, 1789, in New York City, which was then the capital of the United States. The ceremony was held on the balcony of Federal hall on Wall Street. Today you can visit the spot where the inauguration took place. It's just yards away from the New York Stock Exchange, although the building that stands there today is not the original one. Administered by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, the oath was taken on a balcony in full view of the crowd gathered below. Washington placed his hand upon a Bible which was hastily provided by the local Masonic Lodge and opened at a random spot in the Bible due to the last minute nature of the arrangement. After taking the oath, Washington delivered his inaugural address to a joint session of Congress inside the Senate chamber. His speech, which James Madison had helped draft, emphasized the principles of democratic governments and federalism. He expressed his reluctance to accept the presidency, his desire for guidance from divine providence, and his hopes for the prosperity and success of the new nation under its new Constitution. The next presidential election, in 1792, was very similar to that of 1788. The outcome was exactly the same, with Washington being elected unanimously and Adams this time receiving more than a majority of votes. Again, the states selected their electors using different methods, but this time all the states participated, along with two new states, Kentucky and Vermont. It wasn't until Washington decided to step down that a truly competitive presidential election took place in 1800, which was an incredible mess of an election that I covered in a previous episode. The election of 1788 wasn't a close election and it wasn't a contentious election. It was, if anything, a rather awkward election. It was the first election and it was something that had never been done before. The election and inauguration of George Washington was a national milestone that reassured the American public about the stability and potential of their brand new government. It was a moment of unity and celebration for a country embarking on an unprecedented experiment in democratic governance. And it set a precedent for elections that has lasted almost 250 years. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Keever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day and also Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to Everything are in the show notes.