Everything about United States Presidential Election 1800 totally explained
In the
United States Presidential election of 1800, sometimes referred to as the “Revolution of 1800”, Vice President
Thomas Jefferson defeated President
John Adams. The election was a
realigning election that ushered in a generation of
Democratic-Republican Party rule and the eventual demise of the
Federalist Party.
The election exposed one of the flaws in the original
Constitution. Members of the
Electoral College could only vote for President; each elector could vote for two candidates, and the
Vice President was the person who received the second largest number of votes during the election. The Democratic-Republicans had planned for one of the electors to abstain from casting his second vote for
Aaron Burr, leading to Jefferson receiving one vote more than Burr. The plan, however, was bungled, resulting in a tied electoral vote between Jefferson and Burr. The election was then put into the hands of the outgoing
House of Representatives controlled by the Federalist Party. Most Federalists voted for Burr in order to block Jefferson from the Presidency, and the result was a week of deadlock. Federalist
Alexander Hamilton, who detested both but preferred Jefferson to Burr, intervened on Jefferson's behalf, which allowed Jefferson to ascend to the Presidency. Hamilton's actions were one cause of his
duel with Burr, which resulted in Hamilton's death in 1804.
The
Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, was added to the United States Constitution. The Twelfth Amendment stipulates that electors make a distinct choice between their selections for President and Vice President.
Jefferson's 22.8 point victory margin is the largest ever victory margin for a challenger to an incumbent President.
General election
The Candidates
Image:Adamstrumbull.jpg|President John Adams of Massachusetts
Image:AaronBurr.jpg|Former Senator Aaron Burr of New York
Image:John Jay (Gilbert Stuart portrait).jpg|Governor John Jay of New York
Image:Tj3.gif|Vice President Thomas Jefferson of Virginia
Image:Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.jpg|Former United States Minister to France Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina
Campaign
The 1800 election was a rematch of the
1796 election. The campaign was bitter and characterized by slander and personal attacks on both sides. Federalists spread rumors that the Democratic-Republicans were radicals who would murder their opponents, burn churches, and destroy the country (based on the Democratic-Republican preference for France over Britain. At the time, the rather violent French revolution was in full swing). In 1782, George Washington (who had no political party) had complained "that you could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a profest [
sic] Democrat; and that he'll leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country.” Meanwhile, the Democratic-Republicans accused Federalists of destroying republican values with the
Alien and Sedition Acts, which were later ruled unconstitutional; they also accused Federalists of favoring Britain in order to promote aristocratic, anti-republican values.
Adams was attacked by both the opposition Democratic-Republicans and by "High Federalists" in his own Federalist Party who were aligned with Hamilton. The Democratic-Republicans felt that Adams' foreign policy was too favorable toward Britain, feared that the new army called up for the
Quasi-War would oppress the people, opposed Adams' new taxes, and attacked his Alien and Sedition Acts as violations of
states' rights and the
Constitution. A faction of “High Federalists” considered Adams too moderate; it would seem natural that Federalist leader
Alexander Hamilton, in his third sabotage attempt towards Adams, schemed to elect Vice Presidential candidate
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to the Presidency. One of Hamilton's letters, providing a scathing criticism of Adams and spanning fifty-four pages, became public when it came into the hands of a Republican, embarrassing Adams and damaging Hamilton's efforts on behalf of Pinckney, not to mention speeding up Hamilton's own political decline.
Selection method changes
Partisans on both sides sought any advantage they could find. In several states, this included changing the method of selection to ensure the desired result. In Georgia, Democratic-Republican legislators replaced the popular vote with selection by the state legislature. Federalist legislators did the same in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. (This may have had some
unintended consequences in Massachusetts, where the delegation to the federal House of Representatives was changed from 12–2 Federalist to 8–6 Federalist by irate voters.) Pennsylvania also switched to legislative choice, but this resulted in an almost evenly split set of electors. Virginia switched from electoral districts to winner-take-all, a move that probably switched one or two votes from the Federalist column to the Democratic-Republican column.
Voting
Each state could choose its own election day, voting lasted from April to October. In April, Burr succeeded in reversing the Federalist majority and getting a Democratic-Republican majority in
New York's state legislature. With the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans tied 65–65 in the Electoral College, the last state to vote, South Carolina, chose eight Democratic-Republicans, giving the election to Jefferson and Burr.
Under the
United States Constitution, each Presidential elector cast two votes, without distinction as to which was for President or Vice President. The recipient of a majority of votes was elected President, while the Vice Presidency went to the recipient of the second greatest number of votes. The Federalists therefore had one of their electors vote for John Jay rather than for Vice Presidential candidate Pinckney. The Democratic-Republicans had a similar plan to have one of their electors cast a vote for another candidate instead of Burr, but, by a misadventure, failed to execute it. As a result, the Democratic-Republican electors each cast their two votes for Jefferson and Burr, giving each of them 73 votes. A contingent election had to be held in the outgoing,
Federalist dominated, House of Representatives (the old House elected in 1798).
Disputes
Defective certificates
When the electoral ballots were opened and counted on
February 11,
1801, it turned out that the certificate of election from Georgia was defective; while it was clear that the electors had cast their votes for Jefferson and Burr, the certificate didn't take the Constitutionally mandated form of a "List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each." Jefferson, who was counting the votes in his role as President of the Senate, immediately counted the votes from Georgia as votes for Jefferson and Burr. No objections were raised. The total number of votes for Jefferson and Burr was 73, a majority.
Results
Jefferson and Burr tied for first place, so the election was thrown into the House of Representatives.
Source (Popular Vote):
U.S. President National Vote
.
Our Campaigns. (
February 10,
2006).
Source (Electoral Vote):
(a) Votes for Federalist electors have been assigned to John Adams and votes for Republican electors have been assigned to Thomas Jefferson.
(b) Only 6 of the 16 states chose electors by any form of popular vote.
(c) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
Breakdown by ticket
Contingent election
The members of the House of Representatives balloted as states to determine whether Jefferson or Burr would become President. There were sixteen states, and an
absolute majority—in this case, nine—was required for victory.
While it was common knowledge that Jefferson was the candidate for President and Burr for Vice President, the lame-duck House was controlled by the Federalists, who were loath to vote for Jefferson (with one exception,
Alexander Hamilton ), their partisan nemesis; Jefferson was the key opponent of Federalists since 1789. Seizing a chance to elect Burr as opposed to Jefferson, most Federalists voted for Burr, giving Burr six of the eight states controlled by Federalists. The seven states controlled by Democratic-Republicans all voted for Jefferson, and Georgia's lone living Federalist representative also voted for Jefferson, giving Jefferson eight states. Vermont was evenly split, casting a blank ballot. The remaining state, Maryland, had five Federalist representatives to three Democratic-Republicans; one of its Federalist representatives voted for Jefferson, forcing the state delegation to cast a blank ballot.
Over the course of seven days from
February 11 to
February 17, the House cast a total of 35 ballots, with Jefferson receiving the votes of eight state delegations each time—one short of the necessary majority of nine. During the confusion,
Alexander Hamilton said he supported Jefferson because he was “by far not so dangerous a man” as Burr; in short, he'd much rather have someone with wrong principles than someone devoid of any. Hamilton embarked on a frenzied letter-writing campaign to get delegates to switch votes. He narrowly succeeded, and on Tuesday,
February 17, on the 36th ballot, Jefferson was elected.
Federalist
James A. Bayard of Delaware and his allies in Maryland and Vermont all cast blank ballots. This resulted in the Maryland and Vermont votes changing from no selection to Jefferson, giving him the votes of 10 states and the presidency. Bayard, as the sole representative from Delaware, changed his vote from Burr to no selection. The four present representatives from South Carolina also changed their 3-1 selection of Burr to four abstentions. The final count was Jefferson with ten votes to Burr's four.
Results
|
Jefferson |
Burr |
no result |
| 1st – 35th ballots | 8 |
6 |
2
|
| 36th ballot | 10 |
4 |
2
|
In the following table, results for the state delegation are expressed as (<
votes for Jefferson>-<
votes for Burr>-<
abstentions>).
|
1st ballot |
2nd–35th ballots(a) |
36th ballot |
| Georgia (b) |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
| Kentucky |
Jefferson
(2-0-0) |
Jefferson
(2-0-0) |
Jefferson
(2-0-0) |
| New Jersey |
Jefferson
(3-2-0) |
Jefferson
(3-2-0) |
Jefferson
(3-2-0) |
| New York |
Jefferson
(6-4-0) |
Jefferson
(6-4-0) |
Jefferson
(6-4-0) |
| North Carolina |
Jefferson
(9-1-0) |
Jefferson
(6-4-0) |
Jefferson
(6-4-0) |
| Pennsylvania |
Jefferson
(9-4-0) |
Jefferson
(9-4-0) |
Jefferson
(9-4-0) |
| Tennessee |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
Jefferson
(1-0-0) |
| Virginia |
Jefferson
(16-3-0) |
Jefferson
(14-5-0) |
Jefferson
(14-5-0) |
| Maryland |
no result
(4-4-0) |
no result
(4-4-0) |
Jefferson
(4-0-4) |
| Vermont |
no result
(1-1-0) |
no result
(1-1-0) |
Jefferson
(1-0-1) |
| Delaware |
Burr
(0-1-0) |
Burr
(0-1-0) |
no result
(0-0-1) |
| South Carolina (c) |
Burr
(0-5-0) |
Burr
(1-3-0) |
no result
(0-0-4) |
| Connecticut |
Burr
(0-7-0) |
Burr
(0-7-0) |
Burr
(0-7-0) |
| Massachusetts |
Burr
(3-11-0) |
Burr
(3-11-0) |
Burr
(3-11-0) |
| New Hampshire |
Burr
(0-4-0) |
Burr
(0-4-0) |
Burr
(0-4-0) |
| Rhode Island |
Burr
(0-2-0) |
Burr
(0-2-0) |
Burr
(0-2-0) |
(a) The votes of the individual representatives is typical and may have fluctuated from ballot to ballot, but the result for each individual state didn't change.
(b) Even though Georgia had two representatives apportioned, one seat was vacant due to the death of James Jones.
(c) Even though South Carolina had six representatives apportioned, Thomas Sumter was absent due to illness, and Abraham Nott departed for South Carolina between the first and final ballots.
Electoral college selection
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