Jack Norman
Mr. Nicholls—Period 7
November 4, 2016
Adams vs. Jefferson
The Tumultuous Election of 1800
Analytical Book Review
Adams vs Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800, describes the events of the infamous United States Presidential Election of 1800, the election that forever changed the landscape of American politics and reestablished the principles of the American Revolution. The election of 1800 was a battle of two political powerhouses: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They were two of America’s founding fathers who were once great friends, but were thrown against each other as adversaries with the future of America in their hands.
John Ferling, the author, began by describing the events that occurred just prior to the election, and painted the picture of John Adams travelling to Washington D.C. from his Massachusetts farm and Thomas Jefferson from his hilltop lair of Monticello in Virginia—symbolizing the differences among Adam’s northeastern simple farming roots and Jefferson’s extravagant southern slave-owning background. From the start, the author explains (without tipping his hat to the debacle the system would cause in the 1800 election) how in the 1796 and 1800 elections, the Constitution required the practice of each political party nominating two presidential candidates, with the candidates with the most votes becoming President and the second most becoming Vice-President. The Federalists nominated Adams and Charles Pinckney from South Carolina;
According to the first draft of the Constitution, electors voted for two presidents, at least one of which was from a different state than the elector was representing. Whichever candidate received the most votes would become president and the runner-up would be vice-president. This method worked for several years until, in 1800, the unforeseen effect of political parties resulted in a tie for the presidency between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, both of the same party. The resulting dispute over who the president would be led to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al
During the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected president.Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were running against each other. Americans were losing hope because the electoral college voted 35 times and still could not chose the next president. Alexander Hamilton came in and made a plan that helped resolve who won, which was Thomas jefferson. Then they created the 12th Amendment.
Describe the campaign and election of 1800. You must identify what two parties competed in the election, their differences, and the tactics employed by each in the campaign. In 1800, the Federalists and Democratic-Republican parties run for the president with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as their candidates respectively. The federalists spread a campaign aimed at discrediting the Democratic-Republican who supported the French Revolution.
The presidency of George Washington was a difficult pair of terms to follow. John Adams tried to follow the precedent that the first president had set, but the second president only managed to polarize the nation among two parties: the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Although his decisions are today looked at with mixed feelings, at the time John Adams fell into popular disfavor. After his singular term due to the opposition of the Jeffersonian Anti-Federalists and the Hamiltonian Federalists (members of Adams’s own party), there was a power vacancy clearly waiting to be filled which would lead to the spot of the third President of the United States. The first twelve years of the nation and its first two presidents had been marred by stirrings of factionalism and tension. However, the two presidents after Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, would do much to lessen these issues due to educated and intelligent policy-making, in addition to a great deal of fortunate circumstances.
The election of 1800 was a rematch between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson from the election of 1796, where Adams had won and Jefferson stayed as vice president. During the four year term, Adams and Jefferson had many disagreements, so when the rematch came in 1800 it was a drastic turmoil, which is why the election of 1800 is often referred to as the Revolution of 1800. (Johnson) To run for the Democratic Republican Party Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson were selected, but they didn’t want to repeat the same misstep in appointing Adams and Jefferson together in office again. Consequently, they made sure to have the exact same votes between Burr and Thomas Jefferson, in the constitution it is stated that in order to break a tie the House of
The opening of the nineteenth century found Thomas Jefferson and James Madison at the forefront of Democratic-Republican party. As the third and fourth presidents of the United States, respectively, Jefferson and Madison held together a country divided by issues such as foreign policy disputes and political sectionalism. Largely supported by Southern farmers and plantation owners, they aimed to strengthen their country through a rigid interpretation of the Constitution. Strict constructionist Democratic-Republicans believed in limiting the strength of the federal government and preserving the rights of the states. They opposed the broad constructionist Federalists, who preferred a loose interpretation of the Constitution—meaning that the government could assume powers not explicitly stated or prohibited in the Constitution. These Federalists also favored a strong, central government to ensure order and organization throughout the country. Jefferson’s election, deemed the “Revolution of 1800,” was a peaceful transfer of power from the former and last Federalist president, John Adams, to the new Democratic-Republican leader. But with this transfer of power came a shift in policies for both parties. Changing circumstances, as well as political and economic pressures, caused both presidents to compromise their beliefs in order to benefit the country; during their presidencies, they behaved as Democratic-Republicans in some respects and as Federalists in other areas. Though
In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” author, Edward J. Larson examines all aspects of the events that occurred during the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. Larson discusses the Presidential Election rivalry battle between Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans and John Adams of the Federalists. In 1776 both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were sent to Philadelphia as delegates to the second continental congress, they joined a five-member committee, which drafted a Declaration of Independence for the United States. They later then voted to adopt and sign the document their committee drafted which was the Declaration of Independence. Adams was more active when promoting independence and argued the longest and the most effective, but
He lost in 1796 to John Adams, defecting to the vice president position. While his first run at president was uneventful, the election of 1800 was one of the most controversial in United States history. Thomas Jefferson ran against fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr. Miraculously, in an unprecedented decision, the vote was a tie. The House of Representatives was asked to break the draw, of which Alexander Hamilton, a firm Federalist, was the deciding vote. Although he often opposed Jefferson in many political stances, Hamilton cast his vote for Thomas. Burr—even though he had been campaigning against Jefferson—became the vice president. Later, Vice President Burr shot and killed Hamilton over more political discrepancies.
I agree with Jefferson that the election of 1800 was indeed a revolution. The election of 1800 was a presidential election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, where each side thought a win by the other candidate would destroy the nation. This was the election where two parties were being formed, Federalists and Democratic-Republican, and the first time in the U.S. that there was a shift in power from one party to another. The Federalists lost power to the Democratic-Republicans in the election which came to be a bloodless revolution and proved that the constitution worked.
The Election of 1800 was notably to be of the most significant elections in American history of governmental evolvement. It marked once power struggle to a astonishing transfer of power from one party to another in national government; this transfer of power was also accomplished in a non-violent and organized fashion, which marked the evolving maturity of the nation's first system of political parties . The election was a party contest for control of the national government and for determining the direction and management of national policy. This election was the first time both parties used congressional caucuses to nominate candidates for their ballots which was a never heard of occurrence in that day and age. This specific election also made second history in the first, as it was the first presidential election to be decided in the House of Representatives.
The major presidential candidate in the election of 1800, were John Adams, running for his second term in office, against his old friend, the democratic-republicans
The Federalists no longer held power in the presidency and in Congress and as a whole, were “destined never to regain national power” (Tindall and Shi 317). The defeat of Adams was the beginning of the Federalists’ decline and their party would gradually fade over time into obscurity. Even more important was that the election of 1800 demonstrated the success of the so-called experimental republican government. Jefferson’s victory showed that it was possible for the government handle the transfer of power from the in-power party to the out-of-power party. Even though the period leading up to the election was filled with conflict between the political parties, after the election the presidency was transferred from Adams to Jefferson without bloodshed or legal issues. Jefferson was unanimously recognized as the president and the government was established as a legitimate political body that could handle change, not just a dynasty of Federalists (Mr. Weisend). The election of 1800 and subsequent deadlock between Jefferson and Burr also exposed a flaw in the U.S. Constitution that the original Founders did not expect. The Founders originally gave each elector in the Electoral College two ballots to cast for a President and a Vice President. They had hoped that the two candidates with the most votes would set aside their differences and assume the roles of President and Vice President,
During the Progressive Era, Americans faced the challenge of choosing between four strong candidates of the election of 1912. Each candidate held concrete platforms that would have different effects on progressivism. Americans could chose the conservative presidential incumbent William Howard Taft(R), the New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson (D), the long-time fighter for social reform-Eugene V. Debs (S), or the former president Theodore Roosevelt of the newly formed Bull Moose Party (Progressive Party). Through this election many steps were taken to change the face of the election
In November of 1860, the presidential election was one of the most momentous in the history of the United States. The land was split between North and the South and was smoldering for almost a decade. The candidates for the presidential election of 1860 were Abraham Lincoln, Republican, John Breckinridge, Southern Democrat, John Bell, Constitutional Union, and Stephen Douglas, Northern Democratic. Abraham Lincoln was against the increase of slavery into the new territories. Lincoln did not receive one vote from the south, but he did win over 50% of the Electoral College votes so Lincoln won the presidency to become the 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was known as one of America’s greatest heroes because of his inconceivable impact on our nation and his unique appeal. Lincoln was a captain in the military and a lawyer all before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was one of two U.S. presidents who was assassinated while in office. Lincoln was also the president during the roughest part of American history, the Civil War. Lincoln was heavily in favor of abolishing slavery and so most of the citizens in the northern states of the U.S... On the other hand, the south had large plantations and favored slavery because the slaves worked for free and made plantation owners and other farmers a staggering amount of profit. The slaves were not treated as human beings; therefore, the slaves were mistreated. Slave owners often beat their slaves