Hello and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series for today we will be going over the Election of 1800. John Adams takes on his Vice President and member of the Democratic-Republicans, Thomas Jefferson in one of the most important elections in American History.
A Rough Four Years
When we last saw John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as part of this series, they were competing in the election of 1796. This is where Adams narrowly won the election to become the second President of the United States while Jefferson (Adams’ former friend turned enemy) came in second place in the electoral vote. This meant under the rules of the U.S. Constitution whoever came in second place in the election became the Vice President.
Since that election, President Adams has been dealing with major issue after major issue like America’s loyalties to Great Britain which annoyed Jefferson and the rest of the Democratic-Republicans who are in favour of supporting the French.
This is seen through the events of ‘The Quasi-War’ which was a naval conflict between American and the Republic of France over U.S. ships trading supplies with Great Britain who were enemies of the French. As a result, France began seizing U.S. shipping vessels whilst negotiations between the U.S. and France failed to go anywhere until a treaty was signed in September of 1800.
Adams also signed into law the ‘Alien and Sedition Act’ which prevents Americans from questioning or making insensitive comments about the government (which could lead to you spending time in jail). The act also made it a lot harder for immigrants to become U.S. citizens as the government now had the power of sending them back if they were perceived as dangerous.
So John Adams has a few things working against him heading into the 1800 election and the fact that his VP and rival, Thomas Jefferson has had a front row seat to all of this will make it even harder for Adams
Nasty Campaigning
Throughout much of his time as VP and now President, many detractors of John Adams would go on to call the Massachusetts native a variety of names like ‘His Rotundity’ due to the founding father’s rather husky appearance.
The Democratic-Republicans would also refer to Adams as someone with a hermaphroditical personality which lacked the firmness of a man or the sensibilities of a woman, which by 1800 talk was one heck of an insult, especially towards the President of the United States.
The Federalists also did some trash talking of their own, referring to Thomas Jefferson as an atheist while also mentioning that he was the lovechild of Indian and Mulatto parents. They also criticised him and his support of France especially after the events of the Quasi-War… and needless to say, the country was more divided than it had ever been before.
Both Adams and Jefferson were given running mates in the form of South Carolina Senator, Charles Pinckney and New York Senator, Aaron Burr with both parties choosing Pinckney and Burr respectively with the hopes that one of them will get the needed votes to become Vice President alongside their respective candidates in order to prevent the unusual result of the election of 1796 from happening again.
The Election of 1800: The Results
Much like the previous election, the electoral results seemed pretty close as you need 70 or more electoral votes to win. The outcome however, was much different from 1796 as Thomas Jefferson won with 73 electoral votes to John Adams’ 65 electoral votes and Charles Pinckney’s 64 electoral votes.
With this loss, John Adams became the first one-term President in American history and it also became the closest presidential election since 1796 from an electoral standpoint. In terms of the popular vote, it was more one-sided with Jefferson getting 60.5% compared to Adams getting 39.4%.
Many historians have credited Jefferson’s win in the 1800 election not only to the failures of the Adams administration, but for a number of other reasons like Aaron Burr using a political machine centred in New York to discredit John Adams which helped the Democratic-Republicans win the state in the election although many believed New York would’ve gone to Adams.
Another key factor in this election was the ‘Three-Fifths Compromise’ which gave more power to states that supported slavery, and since John Adams was the only founding father turned President who disliked the practice of slavery, many southern states used the Three-Fifths Compromise to vote for the slave-holding Jefferson. Had it not been for this compromise, John Adams would’ve won the election but he stiil would’ve lost the popular vote making, him the first person to do so.
So, the Democratic-Republicans have done it they’ve won the Presidency and Thomas Jefferson is going to the White House as the next President of the United States…except, Aaron Burr also got 73 electoral votes which means that both Jefferson and Burr are tied and if this happens, the results have to be sent to the House of Representatives in order to pick the winner and much like everything else about this election things are going to get controversial.
Deciding The New President
So now we have a contingent election where the House of Representatives has to figure out who will become the new president out of Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson but it’s not as easy as you could imagine.
The big issue is that neither Jefferson or Burr are able to get enough votes from the House to become President. This is down to some Federalists supporting Aaron Burr while many Democratic-Republicans are supporting Thomas Jefferson, but even after 35 ballots, neither man can be able to get the necessary votes needed.
Ultimately, the person who comes in to influence the outcome of this election is none other than George Washington’s former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton who now has another opportunity to be the kingmaker and put either Jefferson or Burr as the next commander-in-chief.
Hamilton decides to convince the representatives that Jefferson seems like a safer bet for president than Burr and after much deliberation, Thomas Jefferson gets the votes he needs from the House of Representatives to become the third U.S. President and the second Vice President to become President in American history.
With Thomas Jefferson finally the new president, the Democratic-Republicans are looking to spread their influence throughout the United States. Meanwhile, a certain New York Senator who was screwed out of the presidency is looking for some payback against Hamilton…and I think you all know how that turns out.
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