This is lecture 19, for History 2111. The last time we met we talked a bit about the
emerging of the two-party system in the early republic. Today I want to talk about the election
of 1800.
This election is significant because it demonstrates the establishment, and the lasting establishment
of the two-party system. The founders, as I said before, did not anticipate the emergence
of political parties, so they set up the Electoral College, whereby the candidate who received
the most votes would be President; the candidate who received the second number of votes would
be Vice President. Now not anticipating the emergence of political parties, it did not
occur to the founders, or to the writers of the Constitution, that you could potentially
have a President and a Vice President in opposition to each other, but that’s exactly what’s
going to emerge here.
Now you’ll recall that George Washington served 2 terms as our first President, and
then took his retirement to Mount Vernon, establishing a precedent which may be the
most valuable thing that Washington ever did, walking away voluntarily from power. His Vice
President, John Adams, an attorney from Boston, became President in 1796. Now the former Secretary
of State, Thomas Jefferson, received a substantial number of votes in 1796, from the Electoral
College, and you can look at the maps here that we’ve provided for you, the Electoral
map.
Take a look at this election in 1796 – You see that Adams carries all of New England,
including New York State and some of the mid-Atlantic states; Jefferson, on the other hand, carries
the South for the most part and has Electoral power extending all the way up to Pennsylvania.
Now, you can help but empathize with Jefferson, looking at these results and seeing how close
the results are, you can’t help but put yourself in Jefferson’s shoes and begin
to ask – What would it take to elect ME as President of the United States? Having
come so close in 1796, Jefferson looks at the Electoral map here and sees that should
the state of New York switch it’s allegiance from the Federalist to the anti-Federalist,
then Thomas Jefferson could become President of the United States. So I want you to keep
this in mind.
Now John Adams serves one term as President, and it is a tumultuous 4 years. Adams, in
deference to Washington, kept many of Washington’s cabinet officers. Alexander Hamilton, of course,
was not in the government officially, but he was very powerful and active behind the
scenes, generally working against the policies of President Adams. So Adams was somewhat
hamstrung by this arrangement, whereby his own cabinet tended to be against him. During
Adams’ Presidency, we also have a threatening war with France. Again, remember that the
French Revolution is taking place in Europe, so the Adams administration takes place, if
you want to look at a broader Atlantic context, in the shadow of this revolution in France,
and of course, the ongoing wars of the French Revolution between France and England.
So war threatens with France, due to the American interest in its own neutrality and its right
to trade with whoever it wants. Of course, the French don’t see it this way. The French
see American trade with the British as aiding their enemy. So this will very nearly take
us to war with France. Adams will show a great deal of forbearance and patience, and we’ll
manage to avoid this conflict, which the United States could barely afford and certainly could
not match the power of France. But it tended to create division in the country. It tended
to divide the American people. Many Americans felt that the United States had been humiliated
by France, and had been treated as a second-rate power, which of course, we were at that time.
So we give some credit here for Adams for avoiding war, a war that Alexander Hamilton
would very much have enjoyed, having maneuvered himself to the ranking general of the American
Army.
Now during the Adams administration, this tension, borne of the French Revolution and
the American peoples’ reaction to it, the divided reaction, is going to lead to the
Alien and Sedition Acts, which are designed to both limit the influence, the bad influence
of the French Revolution on the United States and to suppress domestic dissent. This, of
course, tends to violate the First Amendment, and further divides the Federalists from the
Anti-Federalists. For Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists, the Alien and Sedition Acts look very much
like the program of a tyrannical government, power being held in the hands of a few and
oppressing the rest of the population. So this is a very tumultuous time in American
political history, diplomatic history, and Adams is at the forefront of this.
So you can see the election of 1800, the 2 men who vied for power in 1796 are going to
go at it again, Adams and Jefferson. Look at the difference here. Adams continues to
carry the Electoral votes of most of New England and some of the mid-Atlantic states and even
a few votes in North Carolina. But look what’s happened – Jefferson has held onto the votes
that he had earlier, for the most part, but he’s added New York State to the Anti-Federalist
column. T
This is decisive, or at least important, because of the deal that Thomas Jefferson made with
one of New York State’s most powerful politicians, Aaron Burr. Now we mentioned Burr when we
talked about the founding fathers. I mentioned that Burr was a little different in that he
was a true blue blood of American colonial society, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards,
the son of the President of New Jersey College, or what would later become Princeton. Burr
was one of the youngest of the founders. He was a hero in the American Revolution. He
was an attorney. He worked in New York City, close by, with Alexander Hamilton; they were
both about the same age, both attorneys, both very skilled. Although ostensibly friendly
– even working cases together at times – there was an emerging competition between these
two. Sometimes you get the sense that Manhattan was not big enough for both Aaron Burr and
Alexander Hamilton, and of course, in due time Burr would kill Hamilton in a duel, which
we’ll talk about later.
But notice here in the election of 1800, that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr create a political
alliance and Burr worked very hard and very skillfully to bring New York State in line
with the Anti-Federalists, and indeed, the election of 1800, the Anti-Federalists win.
So the incumbent, John Adams, serves only the one term and will now retire to Massachusetts.
There’s something else here worth considering though.
This election is unusual in that Jefferson receives 73 Electoral votes; Aaron Burr, his
running mate, also receives 73 Electoral votes. John Adams the incumbent President receives
I think it was like 65, I don’t remember the exact number. But we have 2 politicians
with the same number of votes. How are we going to resolve this problem? Everyone knew
that the ticket of Jefferson and Burr – It was meant that Jefferson would be President
and that Burr would be Vice President. But here we have both men with the same number
of Electoral votes. This selection goes into the House of Representatives now, and the
debate goes on and on and on about how to resolve this problem. Now, oddly enough, probably
the key figure in settling this Electoral dispute is Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of
course, had been at odds with Jefferson from the very beginning, as we talked about earlier.
Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s views on virtually everything are in opposition to each other,
yet Hamilton persuades the Federalists in the House of Representatives to cast their
vote for Thomas Jefferson as opposed to Aaron Burr, thus allowing Jefferson to become President,
as it was meant to be, and Burr, Vice President.
Now this election is interesting because number one, it establishes the enduring two-party
system in the United States, and this is a complicated historical question as well. We’ll
see the two-party system wane in the early 1800s under James Monroe, and then we’ll
see it reemerge again in the 1820s with Andrew Jackson, but that’s a later story. What
we have here is a full-blown emergence of a two-party system and a Constitutional problem
– How do we prevent a President and a Vice President from having the same number of votes?
So the Twelfth Amendment is put into effect, whereby candidates are designated for political
parties and there’s a distinct designation for President and Vice President.
You can see here that this is a perfect illustration of how the founders did not anticipate political
parties. They did not anticipate this type of problem emerging.
So another result of this election of 1800, is that it begins to lay the foundation for
a lasting bitterness and hostility between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Burr knows
full well that Hamilton has used his influence to persuade the Federalists to cast their
votes for Jefferson, although Hamilton and Jefferson had been political enemies since
the late 18--, 1889.
Now I mentioned earlier that Burr and Hamilton – similar in age, both attorneys, both living
in Manhattan, ostensibly friends – Yet, there’s an emerging jealousy and bitterness
between these 2 men. Like I said earlier, it’s almost as if New York cannot handle
the ego and the political talent of 2 such men, and of course, one of them will be shortly
eliminated in fact, in 1804.
So the election of 1800 is decisive for all these reasons. We’ll talk about the culture
of honor, about the Burr and Hamilton conflict and the duel in our next discussion, and we’ll
touch briefly on Jefferson’s administration, we’ll talk about Lewis and Clark and Jefferson’s
embargo during the French Revolution.
Thank you.