35 - Election of 1800
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
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I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Shep O'Neal and I tell about America's presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred. The two major candidates were President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Adams represented the Federalist Party. Jefferson represented the Republican Party.
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| John Adams |
VOICE TWO:
As president, John Adams was head of the Federalist Party. But the power of that position belonged, in fact, to former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.
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| Thomas Jefferson |
For this and other reasons, Adams did not like Hamilton. He said: "Thomas Jefferson will be a good president, if elected. I would rather be a minister to Europe under Jefferson than to be a president controlled by Hamilton."
Hamilton did not like Adams. He did everything he could to block Adams from becoming president again. He gave his support to another Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina.
Under the electoral system of that time, the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice president.
VOICE ONE:
A Federalist victory in the election of Eighteen-Hundred would not be easy. The Republicans had a very strong and popular candidate -- Thomas Jefferson. So, Federalist Party leaders attempted to change the electoral system.
The Constitution said state legislatures were to choose electors to vote for president. The Federalists tried to gain control over the legislatures' decisions.
They wanted Congress to create a special committee 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.
VOICE TWO:
The committee would have six members from the Senate and six members from the House of Representatives. The thirteenth member would be the Chief Justice of the United States. Creating such a committee violated the Constitution. Federalist leaders knew this. So, they wanted Congress to approve the committee, but keep the measure secret until after the election.
The Federalists held a majority of seats in the Senate. And the Senate voted to approve the proposal. But some Federalist members of the House of Representatives denounced it. They made many changes in the proposal. The Senate refused to accept the changes. Without agreement by both houses of Congress, the bill died.
Federalist leaders saw their hopes for an election victory begin to disappear.
VOICE ONE:
By the summer of Eighteen-Hundred, Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party had strong leaders in every state. It had many newspapers to express party ideas. Jefferson decided to take a holiday at Monticello, his farm in Virginia.
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| Aaron Burr |
The Republican Party leader in New York was a lawyer, Aaron Burr.
Burr had served as an officer under General George Washington during America's war for independence from Britain. After the war, he joined the Federalist Party and was elected to the United States Senate. Later, he changed parties and became a Republican. In Eighteen-Hundred, a group of both Federalists and Republicans supported him as a candidate for president.
VOICE TWO:
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were bitter enemies. When Hamilton learned of a plan by his own party to elect Burr president, instead of Jefferson, his reaction was quick and sharp.
"Anybody," he said, "even Thomas Jefferson, is better than Aaron Burr. Jefferson is not dangerous. Burr is. Jefferson's ideas of government are wrong. But at least he is an honest man. Burr is a man without honesty and character. He will destroy America."
VOICE ONE:
The president elected in Eighteen-Hundred would govern in a new capital city. The national government would move from Philadelphia to Washington, a newly-built city in the District of Columbia. It was on the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia.