ABSTRACT
At this time, since there was no distinction between a presidential elector's vote for president or vice president, Adams could have received 69 votes as well, tying Washington. The situation would have been politically embarrassing and inauspicious for the new nation. Thus, already in the nation's first election, some behind-the-scenes political maneuvering took place. Alexander Hamilton, who had served as an aide-de-camp to Washington during the Revolution and who, along with James Madison and John Jay, had coauthored The Federalist Papers to support and defend the Constitution, set to work to avoid a tie vote. Some of Hamilton's contemporaries, including Adams, suspected that he was motivated more by political ill will toward Adams than anything else. Shrewd and manipulative, Hamilton arranged for just enough electors to vote for other candidates, thus ensuring that Adams would gain the second-highest total but not nearly enough to tie with Washington. Adams won 34 votes, while the remaining electoral votes were scattered among nine different persons (the next highest total after Adams's 34 was John Jay, with 9; John Hancock won 4; 22 electoral votes were spread among other persons). Three states did not participate in the election of 1789: North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution, and New York had failed to appoint its electors by the January 1 deadline. On April 6, the electoral votes were officially opened in Congress, and Washington became, reluctantly, the first president of the United States.
