Rhode Island having ratified the Constitution, May, 1790, at once provided for her first federal elections.[1] The senators were chosen by the General Assembly "joined in a grand committee, and not in separate houses, and by ballot and not otherwise." An election of a representative was ordered by the legislature to be held by the town meetings on the last Tuesday in August, 1790. Returns were to be sent to the legislature, which should determine whether any one had obtained a majority, and in case no one had so many votes, it should order another election on the tenth day succeeding the count. In this election choice was made between those the whole number of whose votes in the preceding election constituted a majority. And if again no election resulted, a third election was held to choose between the two that stood highest in the second. Theodore Foster and Joseph Stanton, Jr., whose names have long been forgotten outside of their own State, were the first senators.
There was a well nigh universal demand that Washington should be the first President. The people, the press, and the political leaders gave voice to this almost universal feeling. In New York there seems to have been, however, some objection to so strong a Federalist as Washington. It is said that the opponents to the Constitution had agreed to unite on someone other than Washington, probably on George Clinton. Mr. J. C. Hamilton in his Life of Alexander Hamilton says that Franklin's fitness for the office was canvassed in New York.[2] In August, 1788, it was
