were not under the New Roof, and were not members of the new Union.  Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress.  This the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month.  Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of the Presidents begin and end.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go into force?  Article VII. says, “The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.”  New Hampshire, the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the constitution was “established” between the nine.]

%183.  How Presidents were elected%.—­It must not be supposed that our first presidents were elected just as presidents are now.  In our time electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote.  In 1788 there was no uniformity.  In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice.  In Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the electors were appointed by the legislatures.  In New York the two branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen.

As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of the Senate.  But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate.  Less than a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be done.  When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still without one, and remained so till April.  Then, in the presence of the House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who was thus elected President.  No separate ballot was then required for Vice President.  Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two men.  He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of the Constitution, “such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed,” was elected President.  He who received the next highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President.  In 1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts.

[Illustration:  Federal Hall, New York[1]]

[Footnote 1:  From an old print made in 1797.]