>>It is traditional, in the way American History is taught (as in "rather badly"!) in
our Nation's educational system as a whole, to regard our modern-day
Political Parties as being products only of the post-U.S. Constitution era; high
school and college textbooks are filled with text expounding upon the
emergence of Parties only in the waning days of George Washington's
Presidency. This mythology is further bolstered by a tendency to view the
Constitutional Convention as having been well above the fray of ordinary
Politics: but, while it might be useful to the organization of society to treat the
framers of that society's fundamental charter as near-gods debating atop of
some kind of "Mount Olympus", the fact is that the Pennsylvania State House
(now "Independence Hall") in which they met was not on so lofty a height. As
already noted in an earlier historical analysis of mine posted on this website,
most of the Framers were themselves products of "factionalism" on the State
level; their error was in their earnest thinking and sincere hope that they could
somehow keep this political scourge out of the new system of governance
they had created: insofar as the history of the Electoral College was
concerned, it was a rather grave miscalculation which came rather close to
disastrous result.
1796, however, was not that potential disaster: it was merely the
foreshadowing of disaster. Two "factions" had- despite the best intentions of
the Framers- emerged on the National/Federal political stage: the
conservative "Federalists"- headed by Vice President John Adams (the
national version of J.T. Main's "Cosmopolitans" on the state and local level)
and the libertarian "Republicans" (the new Federal version of Main's
"Localists")- headed by former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Both
sides claimed to be the true incarnation of the "intent of the Framers" and
both claimed close ties to the Administration outgoing President George
Washington (who would have none of this) [the Federalists' claim was,
perhaps, the more legitimate- as Jefferson had been eased out of the Cabinet
in 1793 by Federalist "power behind the throne" Alexander Hamilton but
Adams remained Washington's Vice President.] We can even precisely date
when these two "factions" first became most fully visible in the cold, hard light
of National Politics: that date being Saturday 30 April 1796.
One of the "dirty, little secrets" (a quite inconvenient little factoid, in fact, for
those who apotheosize George Washington) of American History is that,
during his entire Second Administration, Washington's Federalist friends did
not have political control of the Federal House of Representatives: that is, at
the precise time these new national "factions" were first emerging. Yet there
was an early effort to, as in Britain to this day, treat the office of Speaker of
the House as a non-partisan position; the Speaker was not even- unlike
today- the political leader of his Party in the House (by the Third Congress
[1793-95], Congressman James Madison of Virginia had emerged as the
leader of the Opposition "Republicans" who now formed the majority of that
body; the "Federalists", meanwhile, were under the control of Secretary of
the Treasury Alexander Hamilton- as that "faction" came to dominate
Washington's Second Administration, a man who had even opined that- like
the equivalent Chancellor of the Exchequer in Britain- his Cabinet office
should become the basis of a kind of "prime minister": it is to Washington's
credit as regards his establishing the forms and customs of his high office that
the U.S. President- although an "elected King"- would hereafter remain his
own "Prime Minister"!).
Accordingly, Federalist Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey was elected
Speaker of the House in the Fourth Congress [1795-97]- even though
Republicans controlled that body.
On the date in question (30 April 1796), Dayton voted with the Federalists to
produce two ties that defeated anti-Jay's Treaty motions (the Republicans
were attempting to block the efficacy of Jay's Treaty- already ratified the
previous June by the Senate- by withholding funds to be appropriated for its
enforcement): on that day, the Speaker of the House became a political office
(and no more would a Speaker NOT represent the majority in the House)-
but, more importantly, the lines between the two "factions" were now clear
and this demarcation would begin to adversely effect the Electoral College.
Once it became apparent that President Washington would not be seeking a
full term, the Federalists chose, as their candidate for President,
Vice-President John Adams; Thomas Jefferson was the obvious choice to be
the presidential candidate of the Republicans. But this was all done rather
informally and, beyond this, ran headlong into the workings of the Electoral
College: for the Framers had purposely had the Electors from each State
meet in each State on the same day which, in that era of poorer
communications, would easily prevent collusion (and thereby, so the Framers
vainly hoped, prevent "factionalism" from invading their system); in addition,
each Elector had to vote for two men for President: it was, therefore, quite
possible for the "wrong man" to become President- even if he be of the same
faction as the "right man". As a result, the Federalists had to "throw away"
some Electors' votes on other candidates to assure a majority for Adams and
Adams alone: however, they threw away too many Electoral Votes to have
Federalist Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina come in second and therefore
become Adams' Vice President. The Republicans, it turned out, had enough
Electors chosen to bring their champion, Thomas Jefferson, into second
place: it would be the first- and only- time that the President and Vice
President of the United States were of opposing parties.
Such political chicanery clearly presaged serious difficulties with the system
the Framers had devised for the election of the Nation's Chief Magistrate in
light of the unexpected (though, with hindsight, it should have been expected)
development of "factions" on the Federal level: South Carolina Congressman
William L. Smith, shortly after the 1796 election, was the first to introduce-
on the floor of the House of Representatives- an Amendment to the
Constitution embodying substantially that which was later to become the gist
of the 12th Amendment mandating that the Presidential Electors vote
separately for President and Vice-President, but no action was taken on his
proposal. Still, the worst was yet to come!
The election of 1800 brought more changes to the methods of choosing the
Presidential Electors: Georgia abandoned its "General Ticket" system of
election and went back to legislative choice; Massachusetts and New
Hampshire both finally discarded their cumbersome procedures in favor of
legislative choice. In all, 10 of the 16 states participating in the 1800 election
would be choosing the Electors through their state legislatures (this would, as
events transpired through the early 19th Century, prove to be the "high-water
mark" for what was clearly the intention of the Framers and the Continental
Congress' enabling legislation in the choice of Presidential Electors).
Kentucky, Maryland and North Carolina all retained their 1 Elector per
district popular vote method from four years earlier, but Virginia had now
abandoned this in favor of the "General Ticket" system involving a statewide
popular vote for Electors. Rhode Island had also switched to the "General
Ticket" system from legislative choice (but, curiously, Pennsylvania had
abandoned its "General Ticket" in FAVOR of legislative choice!). Tennessee
was to use its rather bizarre "county electors" meeting to choose Presidential
Electors by sub-State district method once more in 1800.
But the actual way the Electoral Vote was cast remained unchanged for the
Nation's fourth Presidential Election: each Elector was to vote in his
respective State- away from any possible direct and instantaneous
communication with any other State's Electors- for TWO men for President
of the United States, the second place candidate to be Vice President. The
choices of the "factions" was the same as it had been four years before:
now-President John Adams for the Federalists and now-Vice President
Thomas Jefferson for the Republicans. The same dilemma once again
appeared: while it was possible to indirectly coordinate the first vote (every
Federalist Elector knew- without even being told- that he had to give one
vote to Adams and every Republican inherently knew he had to cast one vote
for Jefferson), what should be done with the second vote each Elector had?
No one wanted a repeat of 1796 with the candidate of one "faction" as
President and the other as Vice President... but there was an even greater
danger: what if John Adams, the incumbent President, suddenly found himself
once again "demoted" to Vice President? What kind of strife might he-
consigned so unceremoniously to an inferior position- cause a potential
Jefferson Administration??
Of this latter possibility, many Federalists cared little- if at all: if Jefferson
were to become President and they could thereupon scheme against his
"Jacobin" "mob-rule Democracy" from the Senate President's chair, so much
the better! Hamilton- still pulling strings behind the scenes in what would turn
out to be the last Presidential Election in his lifetime- tried to have the
Federalist Electors withhold their second vote from Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney, the older brother of the man Hamilton had "sandbagged" four years
before. However, most Federalists were frightened enough of the dangerous
possibilites in what, by all accounts, was going to be an Election as close as
that of 1796, that only one Federalist Elector- from Rhode Island- cast his
vote for John Jay instead of C.C. Pinckney (giving Pinckney only one vote
fewer than Adams in what turned out to be a losing Federalist cause).
But the Republicans were well aware of the "revenge factor" should Adams
and Jefferson end up reversing roles as a result of this election: they could
take no chances- every Republican Elector cast the same two votes: one for
Thomas Jefferson, the other for former Senator Aaron Burr of New York.
Thus, when the balloting of the Electoral Vote had been completed, there
was a tie: Jefferson and Burr each had a majority of the votes cast by the
Electors, 73 out of 138 cast! Fortunately, the Framers did provide- in Article
II, Section 1, clause 2 of the Constitution- for this contingency: "if there be
more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes,
then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of
them for President". This- along with the related provision that, where no
candidate had a majority, the House would choose from among the top five
vote-getters- was a provision born of the Framers' concept that the House
would ALWAYS choose the President (at least once George Washington
was no longer in office)- that the Electoral College was originally to be a
presidential nominating body, much like the National Party Conventions in
recent times.
Those who drafted the fundamental charter of the Nation- much as in their
lack of anticipation of the development of Political Parties on the Federal
level- had had no conception that any successors to Washington would-
other than occasionally- command the votes of a majority of Electors:
however, not only had the successors to Washington now- twice!-
commanded just such a majority, but now you had a situation in which TWO
men commanded that majority!! Unfortunately, the Framers also did not take
into account that the two men tied might be of the same "faction" and that the
House which would now have to "chuse" might be controlled by a different,
opposing "faction"! The House of Representatives called upon to exercise this
constitutional duty- for the first time ever- was overwhelmingly Federalist
and, thus, anti-Jefferson: the newly-elected Republican majority Seventh
Congress would not take office until 4 March 1801!!
Therefore, on Wednesday 11 February 1801, in the midst of a raging
snowstorm blanketing the still-new national capital known as the District of
Columbia, the lame-duck Sixth Congress [1799-1801] met in Joint Session
to officially count the Electoral Vote: Vice President Jefferson presided over
what has to be looked upon as one of the strangest Congressional sessions in
History and had the dubious pleasure of announcing the tie between himself
and Burr, whereupon the House rose and repaired to "immediately chuse" the
next President. Of course, it was very clear to all- regardless of "faction"- that
Jefferson was the one the Republican "faction"- by consensus- had intended
to be President, but Aaron Burr was a politically ambitious man with more
than his fair share of ego; moreover, he had more than a few Federalists more
than willing to stroke that ego, if only to deny the White House to the hated
Jefferson. A more fair-minded politician than Burr might have stepped aside,
knowing that he was intended to be merely Vice President: however, no one
would accuse Burr of being so willing to serve in an office that already was
being seen as rather insignificant.
The Constitution further provided that the balloting in the House for President
was to be by States, not by individual Congressmen: this was reflective of the
Framers' belief that the House would, in those cases when they would choose
the President, be a kind of "second Electoral College" representing the
People (who, after all, had elected them: albeit two years earlier!) but also, at
the same time, the States- just as the Electors themselves had done. The
House, further, could only elect a President by an outright majority of States
(in 1800, 9 of 16): fortunately for the future peace of the Republic, the
Federalists only controlled the House delegations from half the States
(Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island and South Carolina)- this would prove to be lucky
break # 1, one State was equally divided (Vermont) and the remaining 7
States (Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee and Virginia) all had Republican majorities.
Burr was a leader in the local New York organization that would someday
become the Democrats' [in]famous "Tammany Hall" and he could well do his
own political head count. If the Federalists were so opposed to Jefferson to
vote instead for him, Burr reasoned, then he- not Jefferson- was the man only
one state away from the big prize: therefore, Burr refused to yield to reason...
or Thomas Jefferson. Only one man now stood in Burr's way, really: his New
York political nemesis, Federalist Alexander Hamilton; Hamilton's influence
was waning, as indicated by his inability to "sandbag" Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney in the Electoral College the way he had his brother- but he was still
a voice to be reckoned with among a number of Federalists: nevertheless,
Hamilton had a hard time- at first- convincing his fellow Federalists to vote
for Jefferson and not Burr. Hamilton strongly disliked Jefferson's politics but
he respected Jefferson the man (the two had, of course, been original
members of Washington's Cabinet); he, however, positively despised Burr
and, thus, Hamilton would do- where he saw opportunity- whatever he could
to undermine Burr: lucky break # 2. Burr's initial hope was that his home
state of New York would be convinced to break from Jefferson when they
saw that he- not the Virginian- was one state away from election by the
House; Hamilton would, to start with, make sure New York did not break
with Jefferson through a few connections he had with the other party in that
state.
Still, Burr was essentially right in his calculations: had the initial vote gone
along "factional" lines, the tally would have been the 8 Federalist states for
Burr, the 7 Republican states for Jefferson leaving Vermont split and,
therefore, casting a blank ballot under the constitutional "rules". But it didn't
turn out that way: one of Georgia's two Congressmen, James Jones, had died
a month earlier- leaving the only vacancy of this session; the other
Congressman, Benjamin Taliaferro, thus, got to cast Georgia's vote for
President alone- lucky break # 3 (well... OK... perhaps not for Congressman
Jones!). While we don't know how Jones would have voted had he lived long
enough to participate in this session, we do know that Jones was an ardent
Federalist; not so Taliaferro, who later would be elected to the Georgia
Superior Court- then the state's highest judicial tribunal- as, of all things, a
Jeffersonian Republican! Georgia had, in fact, gone for the Jefferson/Burr
ticket in the Electoral College; in addition, Taliaferro despised Burr as much
as Hamilton: accordingly, Georgia- though represented by a Federalist- voted
for Jefferson in the House of Representatives.
However, there was one other Federalist Congressman who refused to vote
for Burr- lucky break # 4: George Dent of Maryland. Maryland had 5
Federalists to 3 Republicans in this Congress and, thus, Dent's voting for
Jefferson deadlocked the State's House delegation, forcing Maryland to join
Vermont in casting a blank ballot. Still, Maryland might still have gone for
Burr had another of its Congressmen, Joseph H. Nicholson- suffering from
what we now know to be the flu- stayed home in bed. The final tally on the
1st ballot taken that wintry day turned out to be for Jefferson, 8 states (the 7
Republican states plus Taliaferro's Georgia); for Burr, 6 states (the Federalist
states other than Georgia and Maryland) and 2 states (Maryland and
Vermont) casting blanks. This 1st ballot effectively ended Burr's hope of
becoming President through political chicanery, but it most assuredly did not
yet elect Jefferson either!
The vote remained unchanged through 35 ballots over 6 days (in which the
House could consider no other legislation, by the way!). Federalists now
hoped that- rather than electing Burr, no longer a possibility- they could keep
Jefferson from being elected till after 4 March and that this would force a
whole new presidential election (at the time, a constitutionally-justifiable
position to take); but the outgoing Adams Administration now was getting
frustrated at the fact that the House could not even debate, let alone vote on,
Federalist bills it was hoping to get through Congress before their term of
office expired and the Republicans would take power in Congress, even if the
Presidency could be made to remain vacant: in addition, the change in focus
from "elect Burr" to "block Jefferson" was making Federalists- once in favor
of Burr- more and more lukewarm to the New Yorker.
Both these changes in attitude on the Federalist side played into Hamilton's
hands as he made his one last great contribution to the Republic by stopping
the "wrong man" from being elected President: he could now finally deliver
the coup de grace to his political enemy (though, in retrospect, he ended up
signing his own death warrant- as he would become the mortal victim in a
duel with Burr in the year of the next Presidential Election) and managed to
convince Congressmen from South Carolina (a state that had, like Georgia,
voted for Jefferson and Burr in the Electoral College anyway) to cast blank
ballots: likewise the 4 Federalists- aside from Dent (who consistently voted
for Jefferson anyway)- in Maryland, the sole Congressman- a Federalist-
from Delaware and the 1 Federalist from Vermont (which allowed the 1
Republican to cast Vermont's vote for Jefferson). On Tuesday 17 February
1801, on the 36th ballot in the House, Jefferson- thus- received the votes of
10 states (Maryland and Vermont added to his previous 8 state total), leaving
Burr with only 4 states (all in New England) and 2 states (Delaware and
South Carolina) blank.
The "right man", Thomas Jefferson, had now been finally elected President of
the United States- but it had been a near thing! Only a combination of dumb
luck (the 4 lucky breaks noted above), political skill and last-minute
compromise prevented Aaron Burr from being elected President or a
constitutional crisis from ensuing come 4 March 1801. The Union had
dodged a bullet... now it was up to Congress to make sure it didn't ever have
to do so ever again! The "bullet-proof vest" was to be the 12th Amendment
to the Constitution, which forever altered the presidential election system so
carefully devised by the Framers less than 15 years earlier; the key clause of
this Amendment was this: that "[the Electors] shall name in their ballots voted
for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as
Vice-President"... that is, the President and Vice-President would, from now
on, be voted for by the Electors meeting in their respective States separately
! It remains this way to this day!!<<
An excerpt from:
thegreenpapers.com |
