Round 2: Jefferson wins Presidential Election of 1800

Launching the New Nation part 7

On Saturday, November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to take residence in the. The construction took had taken place over a period of eight years, at a reported cost of $232,371.83 (equal to $3,196,252 today).

During Adams' second day in the house, he wrote a letter to his wife Abigail, containing a prayer for the house. Adams wrote:“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.”

• Thomas Jefferson and John Adams faced each other again in the presidential election of 1800. The election was close and bitter.

• Federalists feared that Jefferson would return power to the states, dismantle the army and navy, and overturn Hamilton's financial system. From: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=11

• The Republicans charged that the Federalists, by creating a large standing army, imposing heavy taxes, and using federal troops and the federal courts to suppress dissent, had shown contempt for the liberties of the American people.

From: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=11

• They worried that the Federalists' ultimate goal was to centralize power in the national government and involve the United States in the Europe’s Napoleonic Wars on the side of Britain. From: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=11

• Jefferson's Federalist opponents called him an "atheist in religion, and a fanatic in politics." They claimed he was a drunkard and an enemy of religion. The Federalist Connecticut Courant warned that "there is scarcely a possibility that we shall escape a Civil War. Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced."

From: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=11

• Jefferson's supporters responded by charging that President Adams was a monarchist who longed to reunite Britain with its former colonies. Republicans even claimed that the president had sent General Thomas Pinckney to England to procure four mistresses, two for himself and two for Adams. Adams's response: "I do declare if this be true, General Pinckney has kept them all for himself and cheated me out of my two."

• Jefferson defeated Adams by eight electoral votes.• However, Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr,

received the same number of electoral votes.

• The House of Representatives had to decide the winner. Alexander Hamilton quickly stepped in. Hamilton, who disliked Burr more than Jefferson, persuaded his supporters in the House to vote for Jefferson.

Hamilton’s dislike of Burr began in 1791, when Burr successfully captured a United States Senate seat from Philip Schuyler, Hamilton's powerful father-in-law.

• With his help, Jefferson was able to win. Thus, becoming the third president of the United States. The Democratic Republicans also were voted into control of Congress. The Federalists never returned to power afterwards.

• This controversy revealed a problem with the election system. The nation solved it by passing the Twelfth Amendment. The Amendment called for electors to vote separately for president and vice president.