February 17, 2006

For those who think American Presidential races...

...(until the year 2000) have always been polite, serene things marked by bipartisan respect.

From the Library of Congress, February 17, 1801:

Thomas Jefferson won support of a majority of congressional Representatives displacing incumbent John Adams. Jefferson's triumph brought an end to one of the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in U.S. history and resolved a serious Constitutional crisis.

Republican [sic--more precisely, this should read "Democratic-Republican" Ed.] Jefferson defeated Federalist John Adams by a margin of 73 to 65 electoral votes. When presidential electors cast their votes, however, they failed to distinguish between the office of president and vice president on their ballots. Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr each received 73 votes. With the votes tied, the election was thrown to the House of Representatives. There, each state voted as a unit to decide the election.

Still dominated by Federalists, the sitting Congress loathed to vote for Jefferson—their partisan nemesis. For six days, Jefferson and Burr essentially ran against each other in the House. Votes were tallied over thirty times, yet neither man captured the necessary majority of nine states. Eventually, a small group of Federalists, led by James A. Bayard of Delaware, reasoned that a peaceful transfer of power required the majority choose the President, and a deal was struck in Jefferson's favor.

Jefferson was inaugurated on March 4, 1801. Adopted in 1804, the Twelfth Amendment, to the Constitution provides that electors "name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president." [...]

More from C-SPAN, and Encylopedia Americana.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at February 17, 2006 10:41 AM
Comments

Does that mean that the VP is elected in his own right and is not just an extension of the President? I always thought that the VP was kind of like the first lady, an added bemefit of the Presidential election. (Actually, I only thought of the first lady that way after 1992 when we elected the co-Presidents!)

If what you says is true, then "gasp", the VP doesn't "work" for the President and could spend all his time shooting lawyers unless the Congress impeached him an outcome he could stop by carefully selecting which lawyers to shoot first.

Or am I missing something?

Posted by: Larry Anderson at February 17, 2006 10:48 AM

Yep, I suppose in theory the Vice President could be elected who was not the President's running mate, just as Jefferson was elected Vice President to Adams in 1796 (although admittedly under a different procedure than we have now).

Not likely to happen in practice, however, due to the fact that few people vote that way.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 17, 2006 10:59 AM

Man, blew the satire again! But the truth is teh VP is an entirely seaprate office and holder has no job description except to wait for the big guy to fall. He could do whatever he wants. I seem to remember Dan Quail playing a whole lot of golf.

Posted by: Larry Anderson at February 17, 2006 11:06 AM

Let's not forget about the all-important tie breaking vote in the most exclusive club on earth, the US Senate.

PBS televised a special on John Adams a few weeks ago, and it was extry-good in that they had actors recreate/dramatize the people of that time. They showed Adams initially getting all excited about "leading" the floor debate on the Senate (as the first VP), but the senators shut him out and left procedural issues to themselves.

They also showed Jefferson bribing someone to spread slander about Adams to the newspapers when the two were presidential candidates. Gasp - yes Jefferson, that paragon of democratic servitude, raking some muck. Try to catch it if PBS replays it this summer.

[I'm waiting for part 2 next week on the "American Experience" portrayal of the post-Civil War Reconstruction. It's fascinating to see how the country came to grips with over 30 million "freemen" and Andrew Johnson leading the way.]

Posted by: MarcV at February 17, 2006 11:22 AM

I'm sorry, Larry--I got my satire detector shot off in an accident several years back.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 17, 2006 11:43 AM