This is the sixth episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 2000, was published July 11.
The opposing parties accused one another of imperiling the very existence of the republic. The partisan news media printed scurrilous attacks. The threat of war with a foreign power deeply divided Americans, leading the incumbent president to sign legislation in 1798 outlawing criticism of his administration. This was the backdrop to the election of 1800, which led to the first peaceful transfer of power in U.S. history — an essential republican tradition.
In this episode, historian Alan Taylor of the University of Virginia explores the hyper-polarized atmosphere of the early republic and the forces that split the nation’s leadership into two competing parties, the Federalists of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton and the Republicans of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
“I’m often asked are our politics today the most polarized they’ve ever been? And without selling short how polarized they are today, the answer is no. There have been periods in American history when it looked like the United States was going to blow apart. It did blow apart in the 1860s and it looked like it might blow apart in the late 1790s,” said Mr. Taylor, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history.
“Distrust by a large number of Americans of other large numbers of Americans goes back to the origins of our republic. We had a great crisis that came to a head in 1798 to 1800,” said Mr. Taylor, referring to the infamous XYZ Affair and possible war with France that President John Adams sought to avoid despite calls within his own party to declare war.
SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: The elections of 1860 and 1864
In 1800 there was no campaign. Neither Adams nor Jefferson made any public statements about the office they were seeking. In most states, the state legislatures selected the Electoral College, a process that went from May to the end of December. The final tally had Jefferson in a tie not with John Adams but with his “running mate” Aaron Burr, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where Federalists schemed to try to deny Jefferson the presidency.
History As It Happens is available at washingtontimes.com or wherever you find your podcasts.
