The Election of 1800 and its Revolutionary Consequences
The US elections have always been a topic of debate around the world, because of the political, economic and social influence of the US around the world, which means that almost all other countries around the globe have a stake in the US elections. However, during the 1800s, the US was at a precarious political, economic and social status itself, as a newly independent democratic country consisting of states previously colonized by Britain. The 1800 elections arrived at a crucial time when the French revolution and the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity were gaining popularity around the globe, while at the same time the lives lost and the damages to life and property as a result of the revolution greatly scared many others. The divide could be seen in the political parties and the public of America, some of which showed support for liberal values perpetuated by the French Revolution, while the others supported the more conservative stance of Federalists.
The two main viewpoints were headed by Thomas Jefferson, who was a proponent of the French Revolution, and its ideas of governance based on values of liberty and equality. His opponent was the incumbent, John Adams, a Federalist, who was a conservative and supported Great Britain’s efforts to stop the French Revolution. During such a time, before the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a Philadelphia physician, Benjamin Rusch, which was later made public. It said that the elections of 1800, and the results, would be revolutionary for the future of America, and would decide the path that the new country would follow for years to come. This paper aims to analyze such a claim regarding the context and results of the 1800 elections. We will begin to highlight the particulars of the elections, as well as the context of the politics around the globe, especially the French revolution, which had a serious impact on the elections of 1800. We will then analyze the results, and the impacts the election of Jefferson had on the future of the country.
At the time of the elections of 1800, America, like now, was also a two-party system, where two main parties held the majority of the seats and power in the elections. One of these parties was the Federalist Party, which had more conservative leanings, and supported ideas such as a centralized form of government, building a strong alliance with the government in London to restore American-British relationships, and anti-French revolution sentiments . On the other hand, was the Democratic-Republican Party, which was a liberal party that was averse to any association and dependence on their former colonial rulers, believed in a decentralized form of government and the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity espoused by the French Revolution. The broader context of these elections was also very important in determining the polarizing views of both the parties. The elections of 1800 were being conducted not long after the American Independence of 1776, which meant the country was still a very new country. Its people, as well as its political parties, were still trying to figure out which path they wanted the country to follow, regarding ideologies, economics, and cultures.
Secondly, the late 1780s marked the start of the French Revolution , which propagated ideas of liberty, fraternity, equality, secularism and a form of government where the government is answerable to its citizens, who had natural rights, and that the purpose of governance was to protect the natural rights of their citizens. These ideas were crossing borders and influencing people around the world, and many countries had their reactions to the French revolution. The British for example did all they could to help the incumbent monarchy in France to fight the revolution. Such ideas from the French revolution also crossed into America, where the Democratic-Republican Party sought to follow such values of liberty, equality and natural rights, claiming that these values were the very values on which the declaration of independence was formed. Thomas Jefferson, one of the prominent leaders of Democratic-Republicans, was a strong supporter of thi argument, as can be seen from his letter to the Benjamin Rush, in which he writes that he believed the Federalists under Adams were going against the very ‘spirit of 1776.
The public opinion of both the main candidates, namely Adams and Jefferson, as well as their alliance to the opinion of the party, was also important in determining the results of the 1800 elections in Jefferson’s favor. The Public opinion was not in favor of Adams, who was seen as short-tempered, short, ugly, and suspected of leanings towards the monarchical form of government due to his support of England and was seen as strongly conservative and regulatory of economics, politics and the press . Jefferson, on the other hand, had strong public support, from his image of being the champion of liberty, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, tall, humorous, intelligent, and a liberal due to his leanings towards France and their ideas of liberty, fraternity, democracy, natural rights and freedom. An America under Adams was therefore seen as a conservative America with strengthening ties with the British, a regulated governance structure and a divided nation, while under Jefferson America was to be free, liberal and progressive, with freedom of the media and the economy.
While Lepore argues that much of it was propaganda and tactics of the campaigns to demonize the other, the fact is that the public opinion was in favor of Jefferson, which is why the elections resulted in Jefferson as the President. It is interesting to note here that the Declaration of Independence was written by Jefferson, with the help of Adams, and thus both were essentially the founders of the Declaration, and therefore the values on which America was based. However, propaganda and public opinion were shaped in Jefferson’s favor.
The Presidential elections of 1800 were to be conducted between four main Presidential Candidates: the incumbent and Federalist, John Adams, Charles C. Pinckney, the second Federalist nominee, Thomas Jefferson, the then Vice president and Democratic-Republican Nominee, and Aaron Burr, the other Democratic-Republican nominee. The incumbent government was Federalist, led by John Adams. At that time, the Constitution of the US left the decision on deciding the way to elect the president of the states. From the 16 states that existed, 11 chose to select the electors through state legislators, and five chose to directly elect electors through direct voting of qualified citizens of the state, which essentially translated into white, male, property-owning and taxpaying citizens .
The Electoral college, once selected then decides to vote for the President and the Vice President, though without making a distinction for the separate posts. In the end, the candidate with the highest electoral votes is the President of the United States, while the candidate with the second highest votes gets the office of Vice Presidency . The elections of 1800 were unique because they resulted in Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams with seventy-three to sixty-five electoral votes. However, the interesting part was that Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied with seventy-three electoral votes each, though after the voting fell on the House of Representatives, Thomas Jefferson was chosen as President .
As such, the elections were important, because, in the rightful words of Thomas Jefferson himself, the revolution of 1776 determined the form of government for America, while the elections of 1800 determined the principles of such a government. The election was indeed revolutionary because it determined the path that the future politics of America took: it essentially deleted the path towards any reliance with British colonial rule and a conservative, authoritarian government, leading America to the liberal democracy that it is today.