Background to the 1800 Election

In the presidential election of 1800, incumbent President John Adams and his fellow Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, challenged the Republican duo of incumbent Vice President Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. President Adams faced reelection in the face of crisis abroad, unpopularity at home, and a divided Federalist Party. Vice President Jefferson led a newly galvanized Democratic-Republican Party that was outraged over what it saw as Federalist abuses and enlargements of executive authority, especially in the form of the Alien and Sedition Acts. 

Campaign

The 1800 election campaign was characterized by slander and personal attacks on both sides. Federalists spread rumors that the Democratic-Republicans were radicals who would ruin the country (based on the Democratic-Republican support for the French Revolution). Meanwhile, the Democratic-Republicans accused Federalists of destroying republican values by favoring aristocratic, anti-republican principles. Democratic-Republicans promoted the vision of a decentralized economy that favored yeoman agriculture, minimal and simple federal government, and maximum freedom of mobility and opportunity for white men. In short, Democratic-Republicans stressed the virtues of austerity, individual labor, independence, self-reliance, and (white male) equality, which they pitted against their perceived notions of Federalists as protectors of the wealthy and of commercial and aristocratic interests.

While Democratic-Republicans were firmly aligned behind Jefferson and Burr, the Federalists began to fracture. A faction of so-called "High Federalists" emerged under Alexander Hamilton, who strongly opposed Adams' reelection. Hamilton, in an attempt to sabotage Adams in favor of electing the vice-presidential candidate Charles Pinckney, wrote a scathing 54 page criticism of Adams that accidentally became public when it landed in the hands of the Democratic-Republicans. Rather than marshal support for Pinckney, Hamilton's criticism embarrassed Adams and the Federalist party, exposing their internal divisions to the public.

Election Results

Because each state could choose its own election day, voting lasted from April until October. In the end, Jefferson won a narrow victory over Adams (73 to 65 electoral votes) with New York casting the decisive vote. Many factors led to the defeat of the Federalists, including better organization by the Democratic-Republicans, internal fighting between Adams and Hamilton supporters, and the controversy of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Other decisive factors in the Jefferson victory were Jefferson's popularity in the South and the effective campaigning of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the Electoral College) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican and cast the deciding vote. Jefferson swept the South, helped along by the Three-Fifths Clause of the Constitution, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of assigning electoral votes and gave additional power to the slave states. Jefferson also had strong support in the free states; only New England solidly supported Adams.

Thomas Jefferson

Founding father and third president of the United States.

An unexpected glitch occurred, however, that led to a tie between Jefferson and Burr. Because the framers of the Constitution did not foresee the rise of political parties, the Constitution of 1787 stipulated that the vice president would simply be the person who received the second-most electoral votes. So in order for Jefferson to be elected president and for Burr to be elected vice president, one of the Democratic-Republican electors in the Electoral College would have to abstain. The Democratic-Republicans, however, neglected to have one of their electors abstain from voting for Burr, creating a tie between Jefferson and Burr that threw the election into the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives as dictated by the Constitution. 

In order to spite the Democratic-Republicans, a number of congressional Federalists kept Burr's chances alive. It was only after dozens of ballots that Federalist Alexander Hamilton finally threw his support to Jefferson—viewing Burr as unsteady, unscrupulous, and the lesser evil of the two—and Jefferson was officially elected president. Hamilton's personal attacks on Burr's character would eventually lead to their duel and Hamilton's subsequent death. 

Transfer of Power

In his inaugural address, Jefferson sought to cool partisan tempers, proclaiming that, "we are all Federalists, we are all Republicans." This was the first peaceful transfer of political power in the history of the republic, and Democratic-Republicans hailed Jefferson's victory as the "Revolution of 1800." The transfer of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans in a peaceful manner was the most significant and surprising outcome of the election and was singled out as a break from European precedent of violent and bloody power transfers. 

In part, the peaceful transfer of power was due to the fact that the regime change did not necessarily signal a complete overhaul of Federalist policies. Despite the partisan polarization that occurred in the election of 1800, Jefferson's early presidency embodied both Federalist and Democratic-Republican policies that facilitated a stable transition of power during an otherwise volatile political period.

In response to the chaos of the election, the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1804, calling for a "party ticket" consisting of one presidential and one vice presidential candidate. This amendment stipulated that the president and vice president would be elected on separate ballots of the Electoral College, preventing ties in the future. 

Lasting Federalist Influence

The twelve years of Federalism left a long-lasting and important legacy. The assumption of state debts by the federal government, the enactment of protective tariffs to protect domestic manufactures, and the successful suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania proved the strength of the new federal government. Abroad, Washington and then Adams managed to avoid (barely) becoming embroiled in the war raging between Great Britain and Revolutionary France while increasing the country's naval strength. Overall, the Federalists established that the new constitutional regime was vigorous and capable.