Transcript
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Introduces the bitter Adams-Jefferson election and explains how unusually hostile and personal campaigning was in 1800. The speaker sets up the rivalry between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
so Adam's had an interesting tumultuous four years and remember how elections work the Electoral College majority is needed to win but not strictly based on popular vote the top vote getter becomes president the second place becomes vice presidentthis is a incredibly dirty election we tend to think of Elections being dirty today and attack ads being bad but modern elections have nothing on elections like this one and in 1828.the next video you have uh is a bonus video in canvas uh unless we've already watched it in class that may have happened um it's a bonus you don't have to watch it but it it's uh somebody withinthe last I think it was around 2010 took all of the nasty things that were said in this election and turned into a modern attack ad it's pretty pretty great and I would just show it here but I've
done that in the past when I've recorded versions of this lecture and because it's basically us just watching another YouTube video in a YouTube video YouTube's content settings like to claim it and try to take down my videoeven though it's not monetized and even though I give the credit YouTube YouTube algorithms are just an absolute nightmare so I'm just going to keep it separate um it's very short it's only like a minute or two uhbut it's it's worth looking at to see that trust me elections are nothing like they used to be today's elections are crazy they're nuts but they're not dirty like these used to be they aren't making the claims atleast as of the recording of this video like this like they were here in 1800s because these two guys did not like each other and the people who supported them did not like each other too in it to
a level that we don't see today honestly even with all the crazy things going on okay what happened to this election you have John Adams the Federalist you have Thomas Jefferson the Democratic Republican Adams running for re-election Jefferson
Covers the election results, the tie between Jefferson and Burr, and how the decision moved to the House of Representatives. It explains Hamilton's role in breaking the deadlock and Jefferson's eventual victory.
trying to jump up one job and become president um interestingly the Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson campaigned to make sure Adams would come in no higher than third So Not only would he lose the presidency he would alsonot become vice president and so that's the goal wasn't necessarily for them to win but to make sure that the Federalists didn't come in first or second so the result was that Adams did indeed finish third but theelectoral vote was split between two Democratic Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr and they tied now there weren't quite this many electoral votes at this point I don't think there were 180 um like I said electoral college isis more complex than we've talked about but just just run with me on this um so they tied now logically Burr should have conceded first place at this point but he did not Jefferson was the party leader but
Burr was determined to fight because he believed the people had voted him to serve and he was going to do it right if you're this close to becoming president why you know you understand why he should have youknow we can easy for us to say he should have conceded but he's also that close to being president and that's a hard thing to just give up um so you see Adam's third Charles Pinkney who I havenever mentioned before comes in fourth and then poor John Jay I like to think that he was an elector and he voted for himself or is one of my students once joked uh that was his mom being anelector and was like well he's just a special boy I don't know why I always do that voice Southern but he gets the one electoral vote but there he is John Jay uh so here's the thing when there's
a tie when there's no majority the election goes to the House of Representatives and the pre-election version because in this election the Democratic Republicans actually won a majority of Congress but that new Congress doesn't start until the springso it's still the federalist-controlled Congress that has to make this decision the House of Representatives in particular
so the outgoing Congress or Federalist majority Congress dominated by Federalists spent their time denouncing and criticizing and attacking both Jefferson and Burr this continued into February and is closing in on inauguration day which is early March there's there'sa month before we're supposed to be a new president and that has not been decided since November finally the leader of the Federalist Party Alexander Hamilton breaks the deadlock by throwing his support behind Jefferson as much as Jeffersonwas his rival and as much as Jefferson had outed his affair back in 1797.Hamilton believed that Burr was dangerous and Jefferson was at the very least despite the affair thing honorable so Jefferson was finally selected president and Burr became the vice now bird didn't stick around to DC he went West hecommitted some light treason came back and before the end of his presidency he will shoot and kill him Hamilton and Abdul we'll get to not the treason part we'll get to the Dual part um well the light trees
Explains how the election led to the Twelfth Amendment and the new ticket system for president and vice president. It also highlights the importance of a peaceful transfer of power after a contested election.
in part the significance of this election twofold what's on the slide the 12th Amendment the 12th Amendment refined the processes of the Electoral College and presidential elections most notably the only thing you need to know from the amendmentand there's a lot about electoral votes and all that don't worry about that I've seen far too many students who just look up the 12th Amendment and see all this other mess that's not what you need to worryabout just this part it created a ticket system where the president and the vice president candidates ran together instead of the previous system where first became president second became vice president so now in modern presidential elections or atleast after 1800 it isn't you're voting for Jefferson or you're voting for Adams you would have voted for Jefferson Burr one ticket right Jefferson for president Burr for vice or Adams Pinkney just like in 2020 the options weren't
Biden or trump it was Biden Harris Trump Pence right one ticket with both offices and candidates for offices together so this eliminates this split we're second place second place just now loses and that's important because keeping the splitsystem was messy the two offices would never work together right because they're going to be from opposing political parties so this was a better system set up in the 12th Amendment it did other things but that's the onething I want you to know that set up the ticket system that we still use today this is how our elections still work and that's significant the second significance the peaceful transition of power this was a huge stepfor both the U.S and political uh history in general in this election the ruling party was basically ousted from Power by their Rivals what normally happens when an entire government changes hands what normally happens violence War retribution but
those things did not occur here Federalists did not Revolt they did not claim fraud when there was none they did not try to prevent the certification of the votes Democratic Republicans did not try to violently remove the Federalistsbut they defeated them in a heated and vicious election without violence so much could have gone wrong if the EOS followed what had always happened before the part the the group in power before this election was almost alwayswith exceptions Changed by usually by the hands of violence or at least some form of death right it wouldn't change until the Monarch died this was the standard and followed in every election from 1800 until 2020.every election from between 1800 where party the majority party changed was peaceful until 2020.when outgoing president Trump claim fraud concocted this game to use false electors and then when that failed ultimately inspired and led a violent Insurrection on the 6th of January 2021.
luckily for the U.S none of those schemes worked not even Lincoln's election in 1860 that preceded the civil war broke the tradition of non-violence Southern States accepted the election and did not contest it specifically hopefully the next timethat the majority power changes whenever that may be in the future the peaceful transition of power will also resume but that tradition was broken in in the 2020 election presidential election so that's why this election is significant yesJefferson becomes president but the 12th Amendment changes How We Do elections with the ticket system and the peaceful transition ensures that government changes hands without violence or supposed to
Reflects on the broader historical significance of the election for democracy in the United States and beyond. The speaker closes by previewing the next topic in Jefferson's presidency.
for the first modern democracy to have party the the group in control changed violently would have radically changed how the development of the United States because if a party in power could just be ousted by violence the electionswon't matter right because then it's just whoever has the most Military Support or or most supporters with guns that's who's going to win we don't have that system and most modern countries have a peaceful transition and a lotof that not only within the us but around the world comes from the US example on this so that's the election of 1800 where we'll pick up next is with Jefferson's presidency or pretty close to the start ofit because something happens with Adams before he actually leaves office but that's for next