As Donald Trump takes office as the forty-fifth president of the United States, this course explores presidential elections in historical perspective, via five case studies. It tells the story of key campaigns in US history, and by doing so it investigates how politics changed over time—and how understanding the past sheds light on the current campaign. From the arrival of "dirty politics" to the impact of the "digital revolution," the course looks at the historical background to some of the key phenomena that shaped the controversy-laden campaign of 2016. The five elections that we'll investigate are among the most significant in American political history. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in a contest that encouraged politicians to reform the electoral college, the system by which presidents are still chosen. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted the outbreak of the Civil War. It's an election that helps us to understand the development of political parties. In 1968, the Vietnam War was a dominant concern for Americans, and yet foreign policy played a secondary role in Richard Nixon's victory. Twelve years later, in 1980, Ronald Reagan won an election that initiated a new era of conservatism. Finally, we'll turn our attention to the election that took Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to the White House in 2008. Many saw the Obama's success not only as revealing the impact of the digital revolution on campaign politics, but also as signaling a turn to progressivism. Image credits: Course logo - "Former President Truman holds a copy of the famous Chicago Daily Tribune paper declaring 'Dewey Defeats Truman'" Harry S. Truman Library & Museum (https://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=38592). Course banner - "US Flag Backlit" by Joshua Nathanson, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Flag_Backlit.jpg). Select a languageEnglishGreekSpanish So when we consider the election of 1800, which of course, extended to 1801 as well, what are we left with? Jefferson termed the election of 1800 the 'Revolution of 1800'. Now he was given to fits of rhetorical passion sometimes and perhaps exaggeration. But was it truly a revolution? On one hand, one can make the case that it was a revolutionary moment in the history of American politics and the history of the American presidency. For the first time, the presidency had changed hands in the sense that it had gone from one political party to another. Previously, in the 1796 election, George Washington, the outgoing president, had resigned. He had signaled that he wanted to go into retirement, and there was a contest between Adams, representing Washington's own party, and Jefferson. But Adams won, so the same party remained in power. In 1801, we see the first transfer of power in American history. And despite some rumblings from Virginia and Pennsylvania, the transfer of power was peaceful. And this is no insignificant thing. Ever since in the history of the United States, political power in most cases has been transferred peacefully. We'll see with the election of 1860 that that will have consequences for the country that are not peaceful, but the election itself was conducted peacefully. And this is what happened. This was the crucial precedent set in the spring of 1801, which is very, very important. It's also revolutionary, arguably, because Jefferson and the Jeffersonian Republicans represented a very different political ideology from their Federalist predecessors. And although Jefferson kept key elements of the Federalist platform in place, or the Federalist program in place, his election represented a significant shift ideologically for the country, and a significant change in terms of the kind of policies the United States would pursue. And so it's important in that respect as well. It's perhaps less revolutionary when one considers how close the election actually was. The fact that Jefferson very nearly wasn't elected because of the ascendancy of Aaron Burr. So it may not be quite as revolutionary as Jefferson later remembered it to be. But it is a significant turning point in the history of American presidential elections, in part because the Constitution was tested, this was a constitutional crisis at some level, and weathered the storm, and so it's important in that regard as well. In terms of the individuals concerned, Jefferson served two terms as President, he left office in 1809. He's genuinely reckoned to be a successful President. The course of his presidency isn't really our concern today, but it's a significant presidency in the history of the United States. He and John Adams never saw each other again. They'd been very, very close friends when they lived in Europe and when they were representing the United States in Europe, but they never saw each other again. And there was a rift that emerged between them, really it preceded the election, but the election created a real chasm in their relationship. And they weren't reconciled, they didn't begin writing to each other again until 1812. But they spent the final years of their lives writing to each other on a fairly regular basis. And their correspondence is one of the great treasures in American letters. They both died on the same day, the 4th of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American independence. Aaron Burr had a fairly notorious career after the election of 1800. Jefferson never really trusted Burr after the election controversy in 1800 and 1801. They did not enjoy a close relationship when Burr served as Jefferson's Vice President, and Jefferson dropped him from the ticket in 1804 when he ran for re-election successfully. Burr was later, was subsequently involved in two rather notorious events that characterized American history during the first decade of the 19th century. He killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, in July of 1804. A duel that arose in part from the controversies arising from the election of 1800, and the longstanding rivalry and bitterness between the two men. And a couple of years later, he was subsequently involved in a conspiracy, some alleged to invade Spanish territory to the west of the United States, others have alleged that he sought to break up the United States and create a republic among the western states of the Union, and Burr was tried for treason. He was acquitted, barely, but Burr became a rather notorious figure. He lived until the 1830s, so he was rather long lived. He outlived most of the other participants in this election. As far as the lessons we might draw, the crucial thing to bear in mind as we go forward in the course is to consider the Electoral College. That's the key element that remains the same when it comes to electing presidents. It was in place in 1800, it was crucial to the election of 1800, and it remains so today. And it will be central to the operation of the other presidential elections we'll be discussing during this course. And indeed, next week, my colleague David Silkenat will take over. And David will tell you about the election of 1860, which resulted in Abraham Lincoln becoming President, and ultimately, the dissolution or the attempt to dissolve the United States, resulting in the Civil War.
Writing to Judge Spencer Roane in the summer of 1819, Thomas Jefferson recalled the tumultuous events leading up to his election to the presidency nearly two decades earlier. The "revolution of 1800 ... was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of [17]76. was in it's form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people."[1] By 1819, Jefferson's victory over Federalist rivals had taken on mythic proportions. With the overwhelming support of the citizenry, Jefferson and his followers had overcome the politics of faction and intrigue, turned back the tide of counter-revolution, and restored the country to its true republican course. After his election, Jefferson ascribed an air of inevitability to his triumph. The "storm through which we have passed, has been tremendous indeed," he wrote in March 1801, "the tough sides of our Argosie have been thoroughly tried."[2] But prospects had not seemed so bright in the dark days of the Federalists' ascendancy, dubbed by Jefferson the "reign of witches," nor the eventual outcome so certain.[3] During the 1790s the country's political fabric was so rent by the "baneful effects of the spirit of party," its leaders so polarized in their opinions, that it appeared scarcely possible the young republic would escape disunion and civil war.[4] On taking up his post as Secretary of State in George Washington's administration in 1790, Jefferson recalled his "wonder and mortification" that much of the political table talk in government circles revolved around a "preference of kingly, over republican, government."[5] His observation would set the tone of his opposition to Federalist policies throughout the decade. Jefferson's republicanism was grounded on an emphatic rejection of monarchical and aristocratic rule on the one hand, and an unshakable belief in the primacy of individual rights and the sovereignty of the states, as guaranteed by the Constitution, on the other. What he saw unfolding during the 1790s, first under Washington and then under John Adams, in his view, was nothing less than the subversion of the Constitution and ultimately the undoing of the nation's revolutionary settlement of 1776. Alexander Hamilton's plans for the government's assumption of the country's debts and the establishment of a national bank threatened to erect a new kind of monied aristocracy and to undermine the constitutional balance between the states and central government by permitting the latter to take on powers not delegated to it by the states. Worse was to follow. The inglorious terms extracted by the British in the Treaty of 1795 negotiated by John Jay appeared to confirm the pro-British leanings of the government. "In place of that noble love of liberty and republican government which carried us triumphantly thro' the war," Jefferson wrote to Philip Mazzei in April 1796, "an Anglican, monarchical and aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over us the substance as they have already done the forms of the British government." Referring to Washington and other revolutionary heroes, he continued, "It would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies."[6] Any hope that John Adams's election to the presidency in 1796 would bring about a reconciliation between the two warring parties and end the intense factionalism that had emerged in Congress and in the country soon collapsed. Growing tensions with France appeared to put the nation on course for war with her sister republic, possibly in alliance with Britain. For Republicans, the Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition Acts of 1798 exposed the repressive character of the administration and its contempt for the revolutionary principles that had forged the nation. By early 1799 both parties, Republican and Federalist, were convinced of the other's determination to subvert the government and overthrow the Constitution. Hamilton argued that the attempt by "Virginia & Kentucke to unite the state legislatures in a direct resistance to certain laws of the Union can be considered in no other light than as an attempt to change the Government," and warned that supporters of the federal government should be ready if necessary "to make its [continued] existence a question of force."[7] William Cobbett, the arch-Federalist writing under the pseudonym Peter Porcupine, predicted fearful consequences if the government did not take a firm stand: "Now is the crisis advancing. The abandoned faction devoted to France have long been conspiring, and their conspiracy is at last brought near to an explosion. I have not the least doubt but they have fifty thousand men, provided with arms, in Pennsylvania alone. If vigorous measures are not taken, if the provisional army is not raised without delay, a civil war, or a surrender of independence is not more than a twelvemonth's distance."[8] Republicans had no intention of taking up the sword, however. Instead, as he had done a quarter of a century earlier, Jefferson took up the pen, convinced that if the people were apprised of the threat posed to their liberties, they would put out the government by constitutional means at the earliest possible opportunity. Through the rest of the year and into 1800 the Republicans mounted an intense campaign against Federalist policies in the press, at public meetings, and through the organization of democratic societies and clubs across the country. The presidential campaign of 1800 that pitted Jefferson and Aaron Burr against John Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was bitterly contested in the press and in the pulpit, but when the final results came in, it was clear the Republicans had swept away Federalist opposition. Yet at the moment of triumph, a fresh crisis emerged. Jefferson and Burr had tied for the presidency with 73 electoral votes each and consequently the sitting House of Representatives, still dominated by Federalists, was called upon to break the deadlock. The opportunity for defeated Federalists to prevent Jefferson from gaining the presidency by voting for Burr, or at the very least to extract concessions from the Republicans in return for voting for Jefferson, was too hard to resist. Early in the new year rumors began circulating that Burr would be elected, or that the Federalists intended to throw "things into confusion by defeating an election altogether, and making a President ... by act of Congress."[9] Amid renewed fears of civil war, the House assembled on February 9, 1801. But after several days of balloting, the outcome was still unresolved. Outside, in the streets of Washington, an eyewitness estimated over a hundred thousand people had gathered and were growing increasingly impatient with Federalist obstinacy. Finally, on February 17, on the thirty-sixth ballot, the opposition cracked and Jefferson was elected, ending "the fruitless contest" that had "agitated the public mind" and nearly plunged the nation into conflict. Jefferson's election was one of his greatest political victories, vindicating his belief that "the sovereign people" would repel attacks on their liberties and the enduring republican principles of 1776. "[A]s the storm is now subsiding & the horison becoming serene ...," he wrote to a political ally, "we can no longer say there is nothing new under the sun. for this whole chapter in the history of man is new. the great extent of our republic is new. ... the mighty wave of public opinion which has rolled over it is new. ... the order & good sense displayed in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous crisis which lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our nation which augurs well for the duration of our republic."[10] Recovery and reconciliation was a central theme of his Inaugural Address on March 4, 1801: "Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. ... We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans: we are all federalists." The fever had broken. Faction and party were behind them. For Jefferson, the Republican triumph reunited the people behind the "strongest Government on earth," and restored the nation to its historic mission as a shining example to other countries of the felicities of freedom, the "world's best hope."[11] - James Horn, 2000. Originally published as "Thomas Jefferson and the Election of 1800," Monticello Newsletter 11, no. 1 (2000). Further Sources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historian Edward Larson shares the story of this unprecedented campaign, the surprising results that nearly tore our young nation apart, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that ultimately led to the first peaceful transfer of power in American history: The Contentious Election of 1800 |
Why is the election of 1800 also remembered as the Revolution of 1800?
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