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Show THE FIRST ELECTION Party Fooling Unknown, with Washington tho Unanimous Choice of tho Country. It Is u far cry from tho tlmo of tho cloctlon of Georgo Washington nnd John Adams to bo President nnd Vlco President of tho United States down to tho presidential campaign of tho years of our Lord, 1"0I. That first election took place on the 7th of Jan-unry Jan-unry hi tho enr 1789, and bucIi ovl-denco ovl-denco ns wo havo In regard to It would lndlcato that It was rather a tamo affair. Indeed, It could not wolf havo been otherwise In vlow of tho fnct that thoro wcro no opposing candidates, can-didates, and nono of tho olements Hint ontor Into tho election contests of our dny. Party spirit hod not yet manifested mani-fested Itself, and tho young ropubllc turned with ono common impulso to I Washington when It became necessary neces-sary to elect a President. The, "spellbinder," tho "stump spanker," spank-er," tho professional politician, tho chronic cnmpolgn shoutcr nnd tho political po-litical "wlro puller" wcro ns yet unknown!. un-known!. Only ten states voted at this first olectlon. Now York, nlthongh having ratified the constitution nnd thereby having tho right to voto, lost this privilege through n bitter contest between be-tween tho two branches of her Legislature Legis-lature over the apixilntment of electors. elec-tors. Thoro Is no satisfactory record of tho number of populnr votos cnBt at this election, nor nt nny of tho succeeding suc-ceeding elections until tho year 1824, when Andrew Jackson rccelvod 155,-872 155,-872 votes; John Quincy Adams. 100,-311 100,-311 votes; W. II. Crawford of Georgia, 11.282 votes, and Henry Clay, 4G.587 votes. Although tho popular voto cast for Andrew Jackson exceeded tho number of votos enst for John Qulncv Adams by n llttlo moro than 50,000, tho electoral collego gavo Adams 1C moro votes than Jackson received, and Adams was declared President, to tho disappointment and rngo of tho supporters of Jackson. Washington's cabinet had In It Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph and Timothy Pickering ns secretaries of state Pickering was from Massa-chiiBPtts. Massa-chiiBPtts. and ho became secretary of stnto In December of tho year 1795. Alexander Hamilton and Oliver Wolcott Berved as secretaries of tho treasury during Wnshlngton's administration, adminis-tration, while Henry Knox, Timothy Pickering and James McIIenry served at different times ns secretaries of war and nnvy. Tho different nttornoy generals during tho Washington administration ad-ministration were Kdmund Ilnndolph, William Ilradford and Charles Leo. Tho postmaster general was not recognized rec-ognized ns n member of tho President's Presi-dent's cabinet until tho year 1829. All was not harmonious In tho President's Pres-ident's cabinet, peaceful as his election elec-tion had been Thomas Jefferson and Alcxnnder Hnmllton wcro not tho best of friends, nnd tho brench widened as It became moro and moro apparent that Hamilton had moro Inllucnco than Jefferson over Washington nnd was ablo to bring moro things to pass. Washington was as unwilling to ro-celvo ro-celvo bis second nomination as ho had been to recelvo tho first, nnd ho was anxious to rctlro from public life, but again his friends made him feel that It was his duty to accept tho offlco. Tho second campnlgn, llko tho first, wns without conventions, without nominations, nnd Mich a thing as a "platform" on which tho party might "stand" was as yot unheard of. But party spirit had made Itself felt, and thoro wer3 Federalists and Anti-Fed-crnllsts, to whom tho nnmo of Republicans Repub-licans begnn to bo given. Hut both parties wero eager that Washington should remnln in office, although there wns un effort made to oust John Adams from tho vlco presidency presi-dency and to give that olllco to Georgo Clinton, but Adams was, as Is ,woll kpown, elected for a second term, Party spirit ran high. Indeed It be-enmo be-enmo so violent beforo tho closo of Washington's second administration that ho might well havo wished himself him-self back on his peaceful Mt. Vernon farm, leaving behind all tho vexatious cares of stato that must bo tho portion por-tion of every President of tho United Stntos. |