Vote! Politics and Society: A History Lesson by Sue Grace

Let’s play a game of Historical Anachronism. Pretend, for a moment, that we don’t have a Presidential/VP ticket. Pretend, instead, that all the candidates run for President and that the top voter-getter wins the top office, the one with the second-highest number of votes wins the Vice Presidency. The combinations are interesting to consider: President Sarah Palin and Vice President Barack Obama. President Joe Biden and Vice President John McCain. Or how about a tie between John McCain and Sarah Palin that is decided by a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives?

These various scenarios entered my head while reading the book “Adams versus Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800”, by John Ferling. The resulting election crisis led a few years later to passage and ratification of the 12th Amendment, requiring that presidential electors vote separately for president and vice president.

In the election of 1800, Vice President Thomas Jefferson ran against President John Adams. Jefferson teamed up with Aaron Burr, a former New York Attorney General, State Senator and Republican organizer. The Republicans identified Jefferson as their pick for president and Burr for Vice President. Four years before, Jefferson ran for president, placed second and served as Adam’s Vice President, though they came from two different parties.

Voting was an arduous process in the early days of the Republic. Election polls were few in number, requiring in some cases, two-day trips to vote. The country had a patch work quilt of different election laws, some of which didn’t call for secret ballots. In some parts, voting was done orally. And voting was prohibited, not just for women and blacks but, in some areas, Catholics, Jews and Indians. State legislators voted for presidential electors in nine states. In the others, they were chosen by popular vote.

Adams campaigned more successfully than other members of his party. But when the electoral votes were counted, he came in third in a field of five, with 65 votes. Jefferson and Burr were tied at 73 a piece. Because there was no clear winner, the Constitution required the House of Representatives to make the choice.

For four months, despite several roll call votes, the House remained deadlocked. Republicans feared Federalists would simply refuse to allow the transfer of the presidency to the other party. As March 4 approached (the original Inauguration date), threats of mob violence, and even Civil War, began to spread. Governor James Monroe of Virginia ordered the state militia to guard the arsenal so that the weapons stored there wouldn’t fall into Federalist hands.

Finally, Federalist Congressman James Bayard of Delaware offered to abstain from voting. Suspicions immediately emerged, that he had made a deal with Jefferson to soften the Republican agenda. Historians have given credence to these arguments based on Jefferson’s policies and decisions while in office.

So with the vote of one congressman, crisis was avoided and peaceful transfer of governance was made possible, a rare accomplishment at that time in history.