Office established George Washington Independent Presidential elections were first held in the United States from December 15, 1788 to January 7, 1789, under the new Constitution ratified in 1788.

After he agreed to come out of retirement, he was elected with ease unanimously; Washington did not select a running mate as that concept was not yet developed.

No formal political parties existed, though an informally organized consistent difference of opinion had already manifested between Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

Anti-Federalist leaders such as Patrick Henry, who did not run, and George Clinton, who had opposed ratification of the Constitution, also represented potential choices.

Three states were ineligible to participate in the election: New York's legislature did not choose electors on time, and North Carolina and Rhode Island had not ratified the constitution yet.

Though no organized political parties yet existed, political opinion loosely divided between those who had more stridently and enthusiastically endorsed ratification of the Constitution, called Federalists or Cosmopolitans, and Anti-Federalists or Localists who had only more reluctantly, skeptically, or conditionally supported, or who had outright opposed ratification.

Limited, primitive political campaigning occurred in states and localities where swaying public opinion might matter.

For example, in Maryland, a state with a statewide popular vote, unofficial parties campaigned locally, advertising.

No nomination process existed at the time of planning, and thus, the framers of the Constitution presumed that Washington would be elected unopposed.

For example, Alexander Hamilton spoke for national opinion when in a letter to Washington attempting to persuade him to leave retirement on his farm in Mount Vernon to serve as the first president, he wrote that "...the point of light in which you stand at home and abroad will make an infinite difference in the respectability in which the government will begin its operations in the alternative of your being or not being the head of state."

In these two states, the legislatures ultimately chose the electors based on the voting results on the appointed day, January 7.

In Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the electors were chosen directly by the popular vote on January 7.

In Connecticut, Georgia, and South Carolina, the electors were appointed by the legislature alone on January 7, while in New Jersey the governor and council selected them on that day.

(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.

(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.

Several respected sources, including the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and the Political Graveyard, show this individual to be James Armstrong of Pennsylvania.

[14] Virginian electors John Pride and Patrick Henry had previously voted against ratification of the Constitution.

Control of the bicameral New York State Legislature was divided following ratification of the federal constitution, and lawmakers could not reach an agreement to appoint electors for the forthcoming presidential contest.

Federalists, backed by the great landed families and the city commercial interests, were the largest faction in the Senate, the smaller of the two chambers for which roughly a quarter of the state's free white male population was eligible to vote; but in the House of Representatives, with its larger membership and electorate, Anti-federalists representing the middling interests held the majority.

The Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, provided that the state legislatures should decide the manner in which their Electors were chosen.