 What was the situation back in 1788? How was John Adams selected to be the first vice president? Was that a decision made by George Washington? Was it a decision made by others? How did he end up as vice president? Yeah, so see, this was like a very unique situation and probably the only time it has happened in this way, because by the time he was running for election himself as president in 1796, there were the very beginnings of political progress.