The Revolution of 1800

The Revolution of 1800 was a conflict of two political ideals between Thomas Jefferson and John Addams and the result was a compromise of who became president after the election of 1800. The United States presidential election of 1800 was the third presidential election, the incumbent John Addams of the Federalist party was defeated by Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican party. Under the rules of the electoral system that were in place prior to the 1804 ratification of the 12th Amendment, John Addams won against Jefferson in the election of 1796, with no distinction between electoral votes for president and vice president Jefferson became vice president. In 1800, unlike in 1796, both parties formally nominated tickets, The Federalist nominated a ticket consisting of Adams and Charles Pinckney, while the Democratic-Republicans nominated a ticket consisting of Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

The Democratic-Republicans favored decentralization to the state governments, and the party attacked the taxes imposed by the Federalists. The Democratic-Republicans also denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts, which the Federalists had passed to make it harder for immigrants to become citizens and to restrict statements critical of the federal government. The Federalists favored a strong central government and close relations with Great Britain, the Federalists were disorganized and suffered a bitter split between their two major leaders President Adams and Alexander Hamilton While the Democratic-Republicans were well organized at the state and local levels.

At the end of the campaign, both Jefferson and Burr won 73 electoral votes, while Adams won 65 electoral votes and Hamilton won 64 electoral votes and the parties split the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Each state delegation cast one vote, and a victory in the contingent election required one candidate to win most of the state delegations, Neither Burr nor Jefferson were able to win on the first 35 ballots of the contingent election, as most Federalist Congressmen backed Burr and all Democratic-Republican Congressmen backed Jefferson. Hamilton convinced many Federalist to back Jefferson, allowing Jefferson to win on the 36th ballot of the contingent election.

During the election of 1800 both Jefferson and Adams ran smear campaigns against each other, by the end neither one of them had their reputations completely intact. the election of 1800 was more than just a simple presidential election. The election of 1800 was the first peaceful transfer of power from the incumbent party to the opposition and represented a new step in politics, as well as a new direction in foreign policy that would emerge from Jefferson’s policies. Overall, it may be said that the conflict of Jefferson and Adams could have been compromised differently if slaves were not allowed to vote. Some argue that if slaves were not allowed to vote, Adams would have won the electoral vote and ultimately become president.