United States presidential election, 1792

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United States Presidential Election, 1792
United States
1788-1789 ←
November 2 – December 5, 1792 → 1796

132 electoral votes of the Electoral College
67 electoral votes needed to win
  Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822) - George Washinton at Princeton.jpg

Nominee George Washington
Party Nonpartisan
Home state Virginia
Electoral vote 132
States carried 15
Popular vote 28,579
Percentage 100%



President before election

George Washington

Elected President

George Washington

The United States presidential election of 1792 was the 2nd quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 2 to Wednesday, December 5, 1792. Incumbent President George Washington was re-elected to a second term by a unanimous vote in the electoral college. As in the first presidential election, Washington is considered to have run unopposed. Electoral rules of the time, however, required each presidential elector to cast two votes without distinguishing which was for president and which for vice president. The recipient of the most votes would then become president, and the runner-up vice president. Incumbent Vice President John Adams received 77 votes and was also re-elected (Washington received 132 votes, or one from each elector).

This election was the first in which each of the original 13 states appointed electors (in addition to newly added states of Kentucky and Vermont). It was also the only presidential election that was not held exactly four years after the previous election, although part of the previous election was technically held four years prior. The second inauguration was on March 4, 1793 at the Senate Chamber Congress Hall in Philadelphia.


In 1792, the President of the United States was still elected by the original method set in place by the U.S. Constitution, which would remain in place until 1804. Under this system, each presidential elector was to vote for two individuals for president. As today, the person who received the greatest number of votes became president. The vice presidency, however, was given to the candidate who received the second-greatest total of votes. Thus, it is difficult to apply modern-day definitions of presidential candidates to this election. Washington is generally held by historians to have run unopposed. Indeed, the incumbent president enjoyed bipartisan support and received the first vote of every elector. The parties were not as united over how to cast their second vote, which would effectively be for vice president, there being no question that Washington would win the top spot. Federalist electors threw their support behind incumbent Vice President John Adams, a hero of the American Revolution. Their Democratic-Republican opponents supported New York Governor George Clinton, who had received a handful of votes in the 1788-89 Election. Adams and Clinton were technically candidates for president running against Washington, as the Constitution did not distinguish between the two for electoral purposes. However, as it was generally acknowledged that Washington was the choice of both parties for president, the election quickly became a competition for second-place.

Federalist candidates[edit]

Democratic-Republican candidates[edit]

Born out of the Anti-Federalist faction that had opposed the Constitution in 1788, the Democratic-Republican Party (sometimes simply called "Republicans", although there was no connection to the modern-day Republican Party) was the main opposition to the agenda of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. They had no chance of unseating Washington, but hoped to win the vice presidency by defeating the incumbent, Adams. The Republicans would have preferred to nominate Thomas Jefferson, their ideological leader and Washington's Secretary of State, however this would have cost them the state of Virginia, as electors were not permitted to vote for two candidates from their home state and Washington was also a Virginian. Instead, they settled on Governor George Clinton, though Jefferson would receive the votes of four Kentucky electors.




Although Washington had been considering retiring, both sides encouraged him to remain in office to bridge factional differences. Washington was supported by practically all sides throughout his Presidency and gained more popularity with the passage of the Bill of Rights. However, the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists contested the vice-presidency, with incumbent John Adams as the Federalist nominee and George Clinton as the Democratic-Republican nominee. With some Democratic-Republican electors voting against their nominee George Clinton – voting instead for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr – Adams easily secured re-election.





Only two states, Pennsylvania and Maryland, cast popular votes. Overall there were 28,579 popular votes cast for presidential electors, a record low turnout for a United States presidential election.

Popular vote[edit]

Count Percentage
Federalist electors 26,088 91.28%
Democratic-Republican electors 2,491 8.72%
Total 28,579 100.0%


(b) About 0.88% of the population voted: the 1790 Census counted a total United States population of 3.9 million with 3.2 million free population and 700 thousand slaves

Electoral vote[edit]

Presidential Candidate Party Home State Popular Vote(a) Electoral Vote(b)
Count Percentage
George Washington (Incumbent) None Virginia 28,579 100.0% 132
John Adams Federalist Massachusetts 77
George Clinton Democratic-Republican New York 50
Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican Virginia 4
Aaron Burr Democratic-Republican New York 1
Total 28,579 100.0% 264
Needed to win 67


(a) Popular vote figures are suspect because (1) only 6 of the 15 states chose electors by any form of popular vote, (2) pre-Twelfth Amendment electoral vote rules obscure the intentions of the voters, and (3) those states that did choose electors by popular vote often restricted the vote via property requirements.

Electoral college selection[edit]


Method of choosing Electors State(s)
each elector chosen by voters statewide Maryland
  • two Congressional districts chose five electors each; the remaining two districts chose three electors each
  • each elector chosen by majority vote of voters in Congressional district
  • each elector chosen by majority vote of voters statewide
New Hampshire
each elector appointed by the state legislature (all other states)

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "The Electoral Count for the Presidential Election of 1789". The Papers of George Washington. Archived from the original on 14 Sep 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2005. 


External links[edit]