Volume 18 , Issue 40

1800 Presidential Election Controversy

The election of 1800 created so much drama that it resulted in a Constitutional amendment. Under the original system, each person in the Electoral College got two votes: the candidate who got the most votes (as long as it was a majority) became president, and the person in second place would become vice president, whether or not the two were from the same party.

Found on Newspapers.com

- [The Raleigh Minerva, Raleigh, North Carolina, dated 24 Feb. 1801, Tuesday, page 3. RE: Article from a Federalist paper critical of Federalists in Congress willing to support Jefferson.] "Unworthy will he be, and consecrate his name to infamy - who, with a view to the permanency of our political system, has hitherto strenuously opposed the exaltation of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidential chair, shall now, meanly and inconsistently lend his aid to promote it. Such conduct would be dishonourable in the extreme. Such conduct cannot possibly characterize the federal party. Will they confer upon Mr. Jefferson the federal suffrage in reward for the calumnies he has indiscriminately can upon the federal charter - or will they remunerate him with the most dignified of free of government, in return for the very honorable epithets of panders to the whore of England, "timid men, office hunters, monarchists, speculators," and plunderers, which he has missed no opportunity to bestow on them? Surely not! The federal republicans professed to be disciples to the old school, and they trust that the lex talionis was neither obsolete or forgotten.

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (both of the Democratic-Republican Party) tied at 73 votes in the Electoral College. The election went to the House of Representatives for a decision, and Alexander Hamilton (former secretary of the treasury) convinced his fellow Federalists to vote for Jefferson. Although Hamilton disliked Jefferson, he disliked Burr more. Burr would eventually kill Hamilton in a duel a few years later.

Jefferson's Statement to Congress, Feb., 1801
It was in the Weekly Raleigh Register, Raleigh, North Carolina, dated 3 March 1801, Tuesday, page 3, we found this concerning the announcement of Thomas Jefferson as the President and Mr. Burr as vice president of the United States.

Found on Newspapers.com

The new article reported: ".....We have the pleasure to announce to them a very important article of domestic intelligence, viz. the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, and of Mr. Burr to the Vice-presidency of the United States. It will be seen, under our Congress head, that, after thirty-five balloting, which had uniformly produced the same issue, the thirty-sixth confirmed the election of Mr. Jefferson, by ten States. The Vice-Presidency, of course, devolved on Mr. Burr.

On the 18th a Committee, consisting of Messrs. T. Pinckney, Tazewell and Bayard, waited upon the President elect, to notify him of his election, which they did, and addressed him in the following words: "The committee beg leave to express their wishes for the prosperity of your administration, and their sincere desire that it may promote your own happiness and the welfare of our country."

To which the President Elect was pleased to make the following reply: "I receive, Gentlemen, with profound thankfulness, this testimony of confidence, from eh great Representative Council of our nation. It fills up the measure of that grateful satisfaction which had already been derived from he suffrages of my fellow citizens themselves, designating me as one of those to whom they were willing to commit this charge, themes important of all others to them. In deciding between the candidates, whom their equal vote presented to your choice, I am sensible that age has been respected rather than more active and useful qualifications.

"I know the difficulties of the situation to which I am called, and feel, and acknowledge my incompetence to them; But whatsoever of understanding, whatsoever of diligence, whatsoever of justice, or of affectionate concern for the happiness of man, it has pleased Providence to place within the compass o my faculties, shall be called forth for the discharge of the duties confided to me, and for procuring to my fellow citizens all the benefits which our Constitution has place under the guardianship of the General Government.

"Guided by the wisdom and patriotism of those to whom it belongs to express the legislative will of the nation, I will give to that will, a faithful execution.

"I pray you, Gentlemen, to convey to the Honorable Body from which you are deputed, the homage of my humble acknowledgements, and the sentiments of zeal and fidelity by which I shall endeavour to merit these proofs of confidence from the nation and its representatives; and accept yourselves my particular thanks for the obliging terms in which you have been placed to communicate their will. - Thomas Jefferson, Feb. 20, 1801."
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