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August 30, 2016

Jefferson, Adams, and the “Revolution” of 1800

After watching the current events of this 2016 election, the American people can agree as a whole that this Presidential race has been significantly different than ones we have seen before. The two candidates take and give personal blows to each other, and the electorate watches as what seems as the most personal election in recent history. With careful consideration of previous American Presidential Elections, one might be reminded of another election just as personal, maybe even more so, than our current one. The Election of 1800, or as Thomas Jefferson put it: the “Revolution of 1800.”1

This gruesome election was between Federalist and incumbent John Adams with his running mate Charles C. Pinckney and Democratic-Republican and principal author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson with his running mate Aaron Burr. In this story we have an interesting cast of characters, all of which are very prominent figures in the history of the early Republic. The men involved had intricate personal relationships that acted as a catalyst in the crucible that would become the Election of 1800. 

All men involved came from some form of political or military merit. John Adams was a prominent voice in declaring America’s Independence. Thomas Jefferson had been the United States Minister to France (he had spent a majority of the war and its aftermath in France). Aaron Burr had been a colonel in the Continental Army. Most of the men were quite fond of each other due to the fact that they had worked with each other before, although all had one thing in common: their distaste for Alexander Hamilton, Chief de Aide for General George Washington during the Revolutionary War and Senior Officer in the Continental Army. Hamilton was a stubborn man. Years before the election Hamilton had attempted to destroy Adams in his Adams’ Pamphlet, 2. He continuously bashed heads with Jefferson, while both he and Jefferson served in George Washington’s Presidential Cabinet in the early 1790s; and Hamilton was very vocal in his distaste of Aaron Burr. 

(From Left to Right: Adams, Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson)
(From Left to Right: Adams, Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson) | Courtesy of historynewsnetwork.org

At the beginning of the race, much of the American population was not too fond of President Adams’s Administration. With the implementation of the highly unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts, which was an act of law signed by Adams himself in 1798 that allowed the deportation of foreigners, the Federalist party itself seemed to fall apart. Only some truly supported Adams. With the relative unity of the Democratic-Republican Party and the particular favoritism of Jefferson in the South and Aaron Burr in New York, the Federalists feared that their opponents would win the presidency. In November of 1800 the election began, and as the ballots came in, the results only surprised a few. Adams received sixty-five votes while Jefferson received seventy-three. The election seemed to have been won, but something went wrong. The members of the electoral college failed to hold back one of their votes for Burr, which caused a vote count tie of seventy-three votes for each Jefferson and Burr, and thus propelled the two into a one on one race for presidency. 3

Alexander Hamilton, seeing both of his enemies with the potential to become president, felt himself in a sticky situation. Adams seeing this, laughed at Hamilton, saying,“The very man—the very two men—of all the world that he was most jealous of are now placed above him.”4 Hamilton had to put his pride aside and place his support behind one of these men for the betterment of the country.

Aaron Burr, being Jefferson’s running mate, was also put in an uncomfortable situation. He came into the race as just a Vice Presidential candidate; now he had to go against Jefferson for the presidential seat. Most people believed that Burr should just give Jefferson the position, even if Burr might have won by a landslide in the coming vote in the House, where the tie would be decided. This was not Burr’s intention. After being Jefferson’s running mate in the previous election, the Election of 1796, Burr had been left with a bitter taste in his mouth after Jefferson himself won the Vice Presidency and left him with nothing in fourth place. Burr even went so far as to say “As to my Jeff, what happened at the last election (Et tu Brute!).” 5 Burr was in it to win it.

The Democratic-Republicans (From Left: Burr, Jefferson) | Courtesy of Smithsonian.com
The Democratic-Republicans (From Left: Burr, Jefferson) | Courtesy of Smithsonian.com

Now that Adams, the Federalist Presidential Nominee, was out of the picture, the Federalists were in a scattered frenzy over whom they should pick: Jefferson or Burr. Most contemplated giving their votes to Burr due to the fact that most Federalists saw Jefferson as unfit to run for such an office, or as Robert G. Harper, a Federalist, put it: Jefferson was possibly able to be “a professor in a college or a president of a philosophy society,” but definitely not the head of our nation. 6  Others that were in favor of Jefferson were known to be quite violent in their advocacy, some even stating that if Burr were elected in place of Jefferson “we will march and dethrone him as an usurper.” 7

Finally, in February of 1801, the voting went to the House of Representatives. All sixteen states were allowed a single vote, and the winner only needed a majority of nine votes. The voting went on for five days. Tensions rose, state militas threatened to rise if a president was not elected. The House went through thirty-five votes, and each time they reached the same result: a tie. Then men grew restless and began to seek out an easy way out, and this is when Hamilton seized any opportunity he could to write to each of his Federalists colleagues in the electoral college to either withdraw their vote or place it for Jefferson.

James A. Bayard, a Federalist from Delaware, began to listen to Hamilton’s plea. For all thirty-five previous votes, Bayard had voted for Burr, but after reading Hamilton’s letters, Bayard began to weaken his support for Burr. Finally on the thirty-sixth vote, Bayard inserted a blank vote and abstained Delaware’s vote. At the same time two other representatives gave in as well and also withdrew their votes, allowing Jefferson to win ten votes, and thus win the presidency.

The general confusion of the Election of 1800 led the next Congress to pass the Twelfth Amendment, which revised the way the electoral college elected the President and Vice President. In addition to the passing of the Twelfth Amendment, personal feuds came to fruition after Burr’s lost. Burr believed Hamilton was the greatest impediment in his path for success and challenged him to a duel. In 1804, both left to New Jersey and Burr shot down Hamilton.

  1. Alan Brinkley, American History: Connecting with the Past. Volume 1: to 1865 (New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2015), 177.
  2. Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York : Penguin Press, 2004), 619.
  3. Brinkley, American History: Connecting with the Past, 178.
  4. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 632.
  5. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 634.
  6. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 634.
  7. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 635.

Tags from the story

Aaron Burr

Alexander Hamilton

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson

Recent Comments

Eliana Villarreal

This was a great article to read! I had wondered if there ever was an election before in history where the candidates were not so civil with each other. This gave great insight as to how the election process occurred and how we can now see to how it has evolved over time to the process we have now. I am glad that this simplified that election because I myself have yet to see the musical Hamilton but now that I have this background, I might give it a try and hopefully I will understand the story. Great job!

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28/09/2021

3:39 pm

Jourdan Carrera

This article is great at showing the various problems faced by the early government such as that of a question over succession or that of whether or not the opposition would be willing to accept the terms of the election if they won or not. The article also does a good job in talking about how in the end there was a duel between Burr and Hamilton and it ended with Burr killing Hamilton.  

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28/09/2021

3:39 pm

Ariette Aragon

I absolutely liked this article because is short and concise. It is interesting and ironic how Hamilton had to vote for one of his enemies for the Presidency of the nation. Also, the pictures you used really caught my attention and I could see how every one of them looked like. The article also made me analyze how US politics has always kind of started a personal conflict between the candidates.

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28/09/2021

3:39 pm

Skyla Bonilla

Before reading the article I had absolutely no knowledge on the election of 1800 or how personal it got. It was interesting to see the roots of these modern day feuds between presidential candidates but it is also quite sad since as a nation we are almost always and will most likely stay divided. The author did a great job of sharing the story of the election of 1800 because I truly felt the tension of this election especially when he mentioned that they went through 35 votes before something had changed.

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29/09/2021

3:39 pm

James Corley

I love how this article was short to the point. I have always been fascinated with presidential elections and how their outcome changed the course of the United States. Though I would do research on candidates separately I never really looked at some of how the elections unraveled. This however would give me new insight on how brutal the 1800 was. This was a great article and I am glad I got a chance to read it.

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30/09/2021

3:39 pm

Aidan Fitzgerald

This article was extremely interesting and very well done. I had never heard about this particular Election in detail before but you did a great job of making it very interesting to read about. I find it extremely fascinating how after thirty votes they still could not come a conclusion and this also provides a significant amount of context as to what later happened between the duel of Burr and Hamilton. I never understood the role Hamilton played in this election but he was ultimately the turning point.

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03/10/2021

3:39 pm

Christopher Metta Bexar

Before reading this article, I had only really heard of Aaron Burr as the man who had killed Alexander Hamilton. His position in history was mostly unknown to me. The portraits of the four men most involved in the election of 1800 illustrates more clearly the lives of the early founding fathers as well as a reminder that Hamilton was able to put the needs of the country ahead of his personal gain or ego. Reply

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03/10/2021

3:39 pm

Santiago Sabogal

I found very interesting how the author managed to accurately compare the 2016 elections with the 1800 elections. I feel that this was a very well developed article from the beginning to the end. Personally, I had not knowledge at all about how Jefferson became president and all of the beefs the were. I learned about the electoral system used at the time and I think that is fascinating how things change with time. To conclude with this comment, I would like to mention that the author did a great use of resources.

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03/10/2021

3:39 pm

Daniela Iniguez-Jaco

I really enjoyed reading this article, and I really liked that the author said everything there is to know about the 1800 election. I found it intriguing how Hamilton had to choose his enemy over Aaron Burr during the election. I personally found it childish how Burr blamed Hamilton for losing and challenged him to a duel, but Hamilton ended up dying from that duel and Burr got nothing out of it.

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04/10/2021

3:39 pm

Claudia Sanchez

I really love the way you incorporate modern events in the opening to connect the history of the article to the present day. This article is a great example of how political figures outside of the direct presidential race affect the presidential race. Alexander Hamilton’s role in this election is scary by the sheer amount of influence he has on who would take the presidential seat. This article is a great and concise way to understand this messy election. 

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05/10/2021

3:39 pm

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StMU Research Scholars

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