Papers of John Adams, volume 19
thMarch 1789
I find on enquiry that you are elected Vice-president, having three or four times the number of votes of any other candidate. Maryland threw away their votes on Colo Harrison & South Carolina on Governor Rutledge, being with some other states which were not unanimous for you, apprehensive that this was a necessary step to prevent your election to the chair— in this point they were mistaken, for the president as I am informed from pretty good authority, has an unanimous vote. it is the universal wish of all that I have conferred with, & indeed their expectation, that both General Washington & yourself will accept: & should either refuse it will have a very disagreable effect. the members present met to day in the City Hall, there being about eleven Senators & thirteen Representatives, & not constituting a quorum in either house they adjourned till tomorrow.—1
Mrs Gerry & the ladies join me in sincere regards to yourself, your lady Colo & Mrs Smith & be assured / I remain with the highest respect / your friend & very huml / sert
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency Mr Adams.”
Members of the first federal Congress met on 4 March in New York’s Federal Hall, located at Wall and Nassau Streets; it served as Congress’ legislative home until Aug. 1790. Church bells rang and cannons were twice fired to salute the new era of federal
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government. The eight senators and thirteen representatives who entered the “superb edifice” designed by Pierre L’Enfant discovered, however, that the building was still under construction. Lacking a quorum, the congressmen left after meeting for less than an hour (Charlene Bangs Bickford and Kenneth R. Bowling, Birth of the Nation: The First Federal Congress, 1789–1791, Washington, D.C., 1989, p. 9, 10, 12; New-York Journal, 5 March 1789).