Hello and welcome to a history of the United States, episode 165, The First Congress.

In the spring of 1789, the newly elected congressmen and senators made their way to the first

capital of the United States, New York City. It was smaller than Philadelphia, which had a population of around 45,000 people. New York was

only 30,000, but it was rapidly growing. Back in 1789, it was still the tip of Manhattan, with Greenwich

Village being considered out of town. This New York was very different to the one of today, but as I say,

it was rapidly growing. Having a high foreign-born percentage of the population would indeed become

a key character trait of New York City, but in 1789, New York was still mainly potential.

The same could be said about a lot of the United States, and in particular, its government.

The Constitution had been ratified by 11 of the 13 states, but the Constitution was only a small document.

It only had 4,543 words.

All of this would need to be fleshed out.

Precedents would need to be set.

It will become clear over the course of the next few episodes,

what needed to be done.

Members of the First Congress included many veterans of the Revolution and the Constitutional

Convention. A good number of the names will be familiar to you. In the Senate were Oliver

Ellsworth of Connecticut, Caleb Strong of Massachusetts, Philip Skyler and Ruthus King of New York, Richard Henry

Lee of Virginia, and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania. The house contained Roger Sherman of

Knesskut, Elbrinch Jerry of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia. They were

originally supposed to meet on March 4th, but it took until April 1st for a

quorum to be reached in the House, and nearly another week for a quorum to be reached in the

Senate. In that first joint session, Washington was elected president and John Adams as vice-president.

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