THE MAKING OF A NATION #35 - Election of1800
By Harold Braverman
Broadcast: Thursday, October 23, 2003
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program inSpecial English by the Voice of America.
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I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Shep O'Neal and Itell about America's presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred. The two majorcandidates were President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Adamsrepresented the Federalist Party. Jefferson represented the Republican Party.
John Adams
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As president, John Adams was head of theFederalist Party. But the power of that position belonged, in fact, to formerTreasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.
Thomas Jefferson
For this and other reasons, Adams did notlike Hamilton. He said: "Thomas Jefferson will be a good president, ifelected. I would rather be a minister to Europe under Jefferson than to be apresident controlled by Hamilton."
Hamilton did not like Adams. He dideverything he could to block Adams from becoming president again. He gave hissupport to another Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of SouthCarolina.
Under the electoral system of that time,the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with thesecond highest number of votes became vice president.
VOICE ONE:
A Federalist victory in the election ofEighteen-Hundred would not be easy. The Republicans had a very strong andpopular candidate -- Thomas Jefferson. So, Federalist Party leaders attemptedto change the electoral system.
The Constitution said state legislatureswere to choose electors to vote for president. The Federalists tried to gaincontrol over the legislatures' decisions.
They wanted Congress to create a specialcommittee to rule if an elector had -- or did not have -- the right to vote.The committee could say if an elector's vote should be counted or thrown away.
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The committee would have six members fromthe Senate and six members from the House of Representatives. The thirteenthmember would be the Chief Justice of the United States. Creating such acommittee violated the Constitution. Federalist leaders knew this. So, theywanted Congress to approve the committee, but keep the measure secret untilafter the election.
The Federalists held a majority of seats inthe Senate. And the Senate voted to approve the proposal. But some Federalistmembers of the House of Representatives denounced it. They made many changes inthe proposal. The Senate refused to accept the changes. Without agreement byboth houses of Congress, the bill died.
Federalist leaders saw their hopes for anelection victory begin to disappear.
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By the summer of Eighteen-Hundred, ThomasJefferson's Republican Party had strong leaders in every state. It had manynewspapers to express party ideas. Jefferson decided to take a holiday atMonticello, his farm in Virginia.
Aaron Burr
The Republican Party leader in New York wasa lawyer, Aaron Burr.
Burr had served as an officer under GeneralGeorge Washington during America's war for independence from Britain. After thewar, he joined the Federalist Party and was elected to the United StatesSenate. Later, he changed parties and became a Republican. In Eighteen-Hundred,a group of both Federalists and Republicans supported him as a candidate forpresident.
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Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton werebitter enemies. When Hamilton learned of a plan by his own party to elect Burrpresident, instead of Jefferson, his reaction was quick and sharp.
"Anybody," he said, "evenThomas Jefferson, is better than Aaron Burr. Jefferson is not dangerous. Burris. Jefferson's ideas of government are wrong. But at least he is an honestman. Burr is a man without honesty and character. He will destroy America."
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The president elected in Eighteen-Hundredwould govern in a new capital city. The national government would move fromPhiladelphia to Washington, a newly-built city in the District of Columbia. Itwas on the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia.
When President Adams and his wife Abigailarrived in Washington, D.C., they found a frontier town. There were few housesor streets. Missus Adams could not believe what she saw. She wrote to herdaughter:
"This is a city only because we callit a city. Our house here is very big. But the rooms are not finished. There isalmost no furniture. There are not enough lamps for light."
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A street called Pennsylvania Avenue wentfrom the president's house to the Capitol building where Congress would meet.On each side of the street -- where buildings stand today -- there were fieldsof mud.
This was the new federal city, the newcapital of the United States. This was where the winner of the presidentialelection of Eighteen-Hundred would begin his term of office.
VOICE ONE:
Record of electoral votes in the 1800presidential election: 73 for Thomas Jefferson and 73 for Aaron Burr.
George Washington won America's first twopresidential elections without opposition. John Adams won the thirdpresidential election by three votes. This time, in Eighteen-Hundred, there wasno clear winner.
When the electors' votes were counted,President Adams had sixty-five votes. But Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr eachhad seventy-three votes. So, under the Constitution, the House ofRepresentatives would choose between Jefferson or Burr -- the candidates withthe highest number of votes.
Each congressman could vote. But each statehad just one vote. That vote would go to the candidate supported by a majorityof congressmen from the state. A candidate had to receive a majority of thestate votes to win. In Eighteen-Hundred, that was nine of the sixteen states.
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The Federalists saw the situation as theirlast chance to control the presidency. They had two plans. They would try toblock the Congress from electing either Jefferson or Burr as president. Thenthey would try to find a way to put executive power in the hands of aFederalist. If that plan failed, they were prepared to elect Burr.
The Federalists tried to make peoplebelieve that Burr was working with them, against Jefferson. Burr denied this.In a letter to Jefferson, Burr wrote:
"Every Republican wants you to bepresident of the United States. Every good Republican wants to serve under you.I would be happy and honored to be your vice president. And, if you believe Icould help you better in some other position, I would do so."
VOICE ONE:
On February eleventh, the House ofRepresentatives began to count votes, state by state. Eight states choseJefferson. Six chose Burr. The representatives of two states -- Maryland andVermont -- gave each man an equal number of votes. There was no majority withinthose states. So neither man won the votes of those states.
The voting continued. All that day andthroughout the night the representatives voted. Twenty-seven times the countremained the same: Eight states for Jefferson. Six for Burr. Two undecided.
The next morning, the representativesdecided to rest for four hours. The voting began again at noon. There was nochange.
The thirteenth of February passed, then thefourteenth and fifteenth. Still, no change. The House voted thirty-three times.It could not elect a president.
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A change in the vote of just onecongressman from Maryland or Vermont could decide the contest.
Later, after the election, therepresentative from Delaware said he had met with two congressmen from Marylandand one from Vermont. All were Federalists. All had voted for Aaron Burr.
The Delaware congressman said they claimedthey spoke with a friend of Thomas Jefferson. He said they told Jefferson'sfriend they would change their votes, if Jefferson made certain promises.
Jefferson denied that he had made anypolitical promises. He said many men tried to get promises from him. But hesaid he told them all that he would never become president with his hands tied.
VOICE ONE:
History experts do not agree on what reallyhappened. What is sure is that the House of Representatives voted for thethirty-sixth time on February seventeenth. Ten states, including Maryland andVermont, voted for Thomas Jefferson. Four states voted for Aaron Burr.
Two states -- Delaware and South Carolina-- did not vote. But Jefferson had the majority he needed. He would be the newpresident.
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VOICE TWO:
You have been listening to the SpecialEnglish program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver andShep O'Neal. Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson.
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