1789 Gubernatorial Election: Hancock vs Bowdoin 5
THE FOLLOWING CONTEST, SCHEDULED FOR ONE TERM IS FOR THE 1789 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION! INTRODUCING FIRST, THE CHALLENGER, REPRESENTING NO PARTY AT ALL....JAMES BOWDOIN!
The Challenger
The incumbent
Everyone's in....almost
"I'm the new speaker of the House, anybody got a problem with that?" - Frederick Muhlenberg
"I declare Washington president and Adams vice president, now get outta here!" - John Langdon
"Vote for me" - Nathaniel Gorham
"Johnny doesn't want to be Chief Justice? His loss" - Chief Justice William Cushing
Here we go again
Its a landslide!
and....NEW....LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR....SAMUEL ADAMS!
AND.....STILLLLLL...GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS...JOHNNNN HANCOCK
AND HIS OPPONENT. HE IS THE CURRENT REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS....JOHNNNNNN HANCOCK!
Big things happened in between the last Gubernatorial election and this one. By the end of 1788, the United States ratified the Constitution....slowly but surely. Maryland ratified it on April 28th while South Carolina ratified it on May 23rd. New Hampshire ratified it on June 21st and it went into effect with some colonies still holding out. Virginia ratified it on June 25th and New York waited until July 26th to do it. That meant 11 states had ratified it with just two holdouts.
By January of 1979, the House of Representatives, the US Senate and the first President were all elected. George Washington was announced the winner and first president on February 4, 1789. One month later the United States Congress met and put the Constitution into nationwide effect. On April 1st, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first Speaker of The House. Congratulations Freddie.
On April 6, 1789, the United States Senate named New Hampshire Senator John Langdon Jr the first president pro tempore. He counted the votes that gave the presidency to George Washington and the vice presidency to John Adams. Here's to you, Johnny!
Also on April 6th would be the next Gubernatorial election. Once again it would be incumbent governor John Hancock defending his title against James Bowdoin, Benjamin Lincoln and anyone else as a write-in. The sad irony was James Bowdoin had a lot of Federalist supporters but the majority of them voted for Hancock. Bowdoin helped ratify the Constitution for Massachusetts with the help of Samuel Adams and their supporters rallied around Hancock. Lt. Governor Benjamin Lincoln would also be running as well as Nathaniel Gorham.
The only new player in the game would be Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, William Cushing. Cushing was born in 1732 and also became a prominent lawyer upon graduating Harvard in 1751. In the 1760's, he moved to what would eventually become Maine and set up shop as one of the first high profile attorneys. In 1772, he was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson to replace William's father John on the Massachusetts Superior Court. During the Revolutionary War, the Superior Court was dissolved to weed out all the British loyalists until only one remained...William. John Adams was supposed to be the new Chief Justice but he was busy, so William became Chief Justice in 1777. As Chief Justice, he helped abolish slavery in Massachusetts by presiding over the Quoc Walker case where he said slavery goes against the Massachusetts Constitution. On the other hand, he was the one who tried and convicted those who took part in Shay's Rebellion. Going into the 1789 Gubernatorial election, he seemed impartial and fair in his role as a Chief Justice which in the eyes of a few, was better than the Federalists or Anti-Federalists.
So, once again it was going to be Hancock vs Bowdoin with a bunch of dark horses thrown in. Would the mighty Hancock finally be dethroned by Bowdoin or will his reign continue? Let's find out.
There were a ton of write ins of various local politicians with just one vote but one name to watch out for down the road was Samuel Phillips Jr, then the president of the Massachusetts Senate. John Adams got 2 votes despite not even running and Massachusetts Speaker of the House James Warren got 3. The funniest one was local Dedham farmer Ebeneezer Paul got 7 votes. I'm sure his descendants today can get a laugh at Ebenezer scored more votes in this election than future President John Adams. Nathaniel Gorham got 8 votes but then came the real election. In fifth place with 85 votes was Samuel Adams. In fourth place with 157 votes was Chief Justice William Cushing. In third place with 438 votes was Lieutenant Governor Benjamin Lincoln. Then for the main event......ITS A LANDSLIDE! Hancock once again buried James Bowdoin with 17,309 votes to 3,457.
Hancock may have retained, but wait! Apparently the Lt. Governor title was up for grabs when Benjamin Lincoln defended it. He actually LOST the election to none other than Hancock's buddy Samuel Adams. More on him another time, but for now, Sam was the new Lt. Governor.
It was fairly obvious that no one was going to dethrone Hancock as governor. Unfortunately for John, it would be his own health that would be his un-doing. But that's a story for another day. As of now, Hancock wins again.
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