Election of 1800 why did jefferson win

These publications mercilessly criticized their respective opposing candidates. All attention was on the mid-Atlantic states because it was clear that Jefferson would carry the South while the New England states would certainly go to Adams. In those days, most southern states chose presidential electors to the Electoral College by direct vote.

In the mid-Atlantic states, however, state legislatures selected the presidential electors, and the election of would be decided by the political scheming within those assemblies.

In the Electoral College balloting, Jefferson came in second to Adams 71 to 68 votes , principally because Adams had won the behind-the-scenes battle for the New York legislature. While the vice president received only two electoral votes south of the Potomac, Jefferson won only eighteen votes outside of the South, thirteen of which came from Pennsylvania. In those days, the candidate receiving the second-highest vote became the vice president. In a scheme to deny Adams the presidency, Alexander Hamilton influenced South Carolina's Federalist electors to withhold their votes from Adams.

But New England Federalists, learning of the scheme, withheld their votes from Pinckney to counter Hamilton's ploy. As a result of the Federalist intraparty conflicts, Jefferson compiled more votes than Pinckney for second place and became vice president.

Although Jefferson strained under the largely ceremonial duties of the vice president, he fulfilled his responsibilities as presiding officer of the Senate efficiently and fairly. In his spare time, Jefferson wrote A Manual of Parliamentary Practice, which remained the guiding text for congressional meetings for years to come. He also pursued his renaissance interests in architecture, astronomy, botany, animal husbandry, mechanical engineering, gardening, natural history, classical languages, and book collecting.

Most importantly, Jefferson—although vice president—did little to inhibit, and in fact encouraged, the growing Republican opposition to the Adams administration.

When Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, designed to curb Republican opposition to his foreign policy, Jefferson authored the Kentucky Resolution of Jefferson's statement presented a compact theory of the Constitution, challenging these federal laws enacted under Adams as unconstitutional.

James Madison joined Jefferson by writing a similar resolution adopted by Virginia. Both resolutions established the states' rights position that was employed in the nineteenth century to oppose high tariffs, the Second Bank of the United States, and the abolition of slavery.

By the end of Adams's term of office, a raging debate, which was presented in brutal and uncivil political cartoons and newspaper articles, swept over the land. It was in this atmosphere of undeclared political war that Jefferson sought and won the presidency in the election. Jefferson approached the presidential election well organized for victory and determined to win. One factor that elevated Jefferson's chances of becoming President was the general mood of the country.

During the Adams presidency, public discontent had risen due to the Alien and Sedition Acts, a direct tax in , Federalist military preparations, and the use of federal troops to crush a minor tax rebellion led by John Fries in Pennsylvania. Consequently, Jefferson enjoyed quite a lot of popular support for his opposition to Adams's policies. The Federalist candidate, the incumbent John Adams, led a split party.

Many of his party's members opposed his candidacy because of his refusal to declare war on France—when a naval war did occur, Adams used diplomacy to end it when many Federalists would have preferred the war to continue. Jefferson understood that to win he would have to carry New York, thus his running mate, Aaron Burr of New York, was brought onto the ticket.

When the New York legislature turned out its Federalist majority in , prospects looked good for Jefferson. Given the intense rivalry and conflict involved, it is not surprising that the election reached a level of personal animosity seldom equaled in American politics. The Federalists attacked the fifty-seven-year-old Jefferson as a godless Jacobin who would unleash the forces of bloody terror upon the land.

But Hamilton also urged the party to stall, in the hope of inducing Jefferson to make a deal. In the end, the Federalists decided to back Burr. Burr, who had seemed to disavow a fight for the highest office, now let it be known that he would accept the presidency if elected by the House.

In Philadelphia, he met with several Republican congressmen, allegedly telling them that he intended to fight for it. The safest course would have been to acquiesce to the vice presidency. But Burr also knew there was no guarantee he would live to see future elections.

His mother and father had died at ages 27 and 42, respectively. Given the high stakes, every conceivable pressure was applied to change votes. Thirty-two years old in , Bayard had practiced law in Wilmington before winning election to the House as a Federalist four years earlier.

The city of Washington awoke to a crippling snowstorm Wednesday, February 11, the day the House was to begin voting. Voting began the moment the House was gaveled into session. When the roll call was complete, Jefferson had carried eight states, Burr six, and two deadlocked states had cast uncommitted ballots; Jefferson still needed one more vote for a majority.

A second vote was held, with a similar tally, then a third. When at 3 a. By Saturday evening, three days later, the House had cast 33 ballots. The deadlock seemed unbreakable. For weeks, warnings had circulated of drastic consequences if Republicans were denied the presidency.

Now that danger seemed palpable. In all likelihood, it was these threats that ultimately broke the deadlock. Were Delaware to abstain, Bayard pointed out, only 15 states would ballot. With eight states already in his column, Jefferson would have a majority and the elusive victory at last.

But in return, Bayard asked, would Jefferson accept the terms that the Federalists had earlier proffered? The Federalists caucused behind doors on Sunday afternoon, February Two matters in particular roiled his comrades. Some were angry that Bayard had broken ranks before it was known what kind of deal, if any, Burr might have been willing to cut.

Others were upset that nothing had been heard from Jefferson himself. In addition, the caucus directed Bayard to seek absolute assurances that Jefferson would go along with the deal. Unless Burr offered even better terms, Jefferson would be the third president of the United States. What exactly he said or did not say in them—they likely were destroyed soon after they reached Washington and their contents remain a mystery—disappointed his Federalist proponents. The election was in his power.

The following day, February 17, the House gathered at noon to cast its 36th, and, as it turned out, final, vote. Bayard was true to his word: Delaware abstained, ending seven days of contention and the long electoral battle. Bayard ultimately offered many reasons for his change of heart. Had Jefferson in fact cut a deal to secure the presidency? You are safe. Despite having fought against the Hamiltonian economic system for nearly a decade, he acquiesced to it once in office, leaving the Bank of the United States in place and tolerating continued borrowing by the federal government.

Nor did he remove most Federalist officeholders. The mystery is not why Jefferson would deny making such an accord, but why he changed his mind after vowing never to bend. He must have concluded that he had no choice if he wished to become president by peaceful means. Jefferson's presidency and the turn of the nineteenth century. The Louisiana Purchase and its exploration.

Practice: Jefferson's election and presidency. Practice: The War of The presidency of John Quincy Adams. Politics and regional interests. The Market Revolution - textile mills and the cotton gin.