1788, the legislature agreed on a method of choosing representatives, according to which the electorate voted for a list of candidates three times as numerous as the number of representatives to be chosen. The names of the successful ones were then published, and some weeks later at a second election the required one-third was voted for. A third election might be necessary, as it took a majority to elect. This was the method that Connecticut followed in choosing Assistants.[1] The venerable Roger Sherman headed the congressional delegation from this State. He had signed the famous Declaration, and had been a member of the Federal Convention. Jonathan Trumbull was also elected representative, and became a candidate for Speaker of the first House, receiving a "respectable vote."[2] Five of Connecticut's seven members in the first Congress were college graduates—all were Federalists.
Connecticut was represented in the first Senate by Oliver Ellsworth, who later became Chief Justice of the United States, and by William S. Johnson, sometime president of Columbia College. Both men had been influential members of the Federal Convention. For Vice-President the State gave Adams five votes and Samuel Huntington two. The votes cast for Huntington had been taken from Adams at the suggestion of Alexander Hamilton, who was fearful lest Adams should have more votes than Washington and thus defeat him.[3] Adams never forgave Hamilton for this and impugned his motives in it.
