1789
| Candidate |
Popular
|
Electoral
|
| George Washington Federalist |
*
|
69
|
| John Adams Federalist |
*
|
34
|
| John Jay Federalist |
*
|
9
|
| *popular vote was not recorded George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart All presidential candidates' images are taken from Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted. |
1A-1066488
To call this a presidential election cartoon may be stretching the point, but it is one of the few prints depicting Washington in a political, that is, non-military role, before his election in 1789 (1A-1066488). Washington is pictured on the left in the chariot offering the "grand Fabrick of American Independence, the Federal Constitution," to the thirteen freemen, representing the original thirteen states, pulling his chariot. Benjamin Franklin is seated next to him.
1B-1066489
In a similar picture, Washington is portrayed in a favorable light, triumphing against the "French Republican cannibals and French Revolutionary sympathizers" (1B-1066489). Jefferson is portrayed as trying to "stop de wheels of de gouvernement." This was published late in Washington's second term.
1C-1066490
Here Charles Thomson, exhausted after riding from New York to Mount Vernon, a trip of a week, is shown bringing Washington the news of his election to the presidency of the new nation (1C-1066490). Thomson was secretary of the Old Continental Congress. Washington received all of the sixty-nine electoral votes cast for president and was the only president ever to be elected unanimously by the Electoral College.