THE JEFFERSON-PINCKNEY CONTEST

1804

The election of Jefferson in 1800 was a complete revolution in the political policy of the new Republic, and it maintained its supremacy for sixty years. The Republican party that triumphed with Jefferson never suffered a defeat until after the name of the party had been changed to Democracy under Jackson. John Quincy Adams, who was elected President in 1824, was nominated and supported as a Republican, as were Jackson, Crawford, and Clay, and the Whig triumphs of 1840 and 1848 stand in our history as accidental victories without changing the general policy of the Government in any material respect. It may be accepted as a fact that from 1800 until 1900, the full period of a century, there have been but two political policies established and maintained in the government of this country. The Democratic policy ruled from 1800 to 1860, and from 1860 to 1900 the Republican policy has maintained its supremacy, notwithstanding the two Democratic administrations of Cleveland. They were but temporary checks upon Republican mastery, as the Whig successes of 1840 and 1848 were mere temporary checks upon Democratic rule.

With Jefferson’s success in 1800 came, for the first time, the control of the Republicans in both branches of Congress, and Jefferson thus had the entire legislative power of the Government in thorough sympathy and harmony with himself. He was bitterly opposed by the Federalists at every step. They justly criticised his hostility to an American navy; they complained vehemently of his removals from office in partisan interests, and they specially assailed his ostentatious attempts to limit the authority and powers of the General Government to give the supreme sovereignty of the nation to the people.

The one act of his administration that was most violently assailed was his purchase of Louisiana in 1803. It was proclaimed by the Federalists as the most flagrant usurpation of authority, as an utter overthrow of the Constitution, and as the beginning of the end of the Union. There is not an argument made to-day against the acquisition of the Philippines and Puerto Rico that is not the echo of the earnest arguments made by the Federalists against the acquisition of Louisiana. The ablest of the Federalists proclaimed in the Senate and House that the Union was practically destroyed by the acquisition of a distant country, containing a people with no sympathy with our interests or institutions; who were generally strangers to our language and could never be educated to the proper standard of American citizenship. But the country then, as now, believed in expansion, and the acquisition of Louisiana stands out as one of the grandest achievements of statesmanship exhibited by any administration, from Washington to McKinley.

The contest between Jefferson and Burr for the Presidency, after one had been distinctly supported as a candidate for President and the other as distinctly as a candidate for Vice-President, taught the necessity of changing the method of choosing a President in the Electoral College, but the Federalists bitterly opposed the change, chiefly on the ground that it was desired solely to gratify the personal ambition and interests of Jefferson. The proposed amendment prevailed, however, and was ratified by thirteen of the sixteen States in ample time for the contest of 1804. The dissenting States in the ratification of the amendment were Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. Under that amendment the electors voted for President and Vice-President as they do to-day, and the candidate for Vice-President must now have a majority of the electoral vote as well as the candidate for President to be successful.

The Congressional caucus that made Presidents for many years became an accepted institution in 1804, when the Republican or Jeffersonian members of Congress were publicly invited to meet on the 25th of February. They unanimously nominated Mr. Jefferson for re-election, and as Burr was unthought of for Vice-President, they nominated George Clinton, of New York, for that office. This was the first open political caucus or convention to nominate national candidates. The caucuses of 1800 were held in secret by both the Federalists and Republicans, and no record was preserved of their actions. Those who called the caucus, appreciating the prejudice that would likely be provoked by Congress attempting to dictate the candidates for President and Vice-President, distinctly declared that the caucus or conference was called solely as individuals, and not as official representatives of the Senate and House. If the Federalists held a caucus in 1804, there is no record of it that I have been able to find, but they united on Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King, of New York, for Vice-President. Both of the parties gave the second place on their respective tickets to New York, clearly indicating that they regarded New York as one of the pivotal States of the conflict.

Ohio had been admitted into the Union in 1802, making 17 States to take part in the election of 1804, and the new apportionment, shaped by the census of 1800, enlarged the number of electoral votes. While the Federalists had greatly diminished in popular strength by the loss of power and the steadily gaining approval of Jefferson and his Republican policy, they did not abate in any degree the intensity of their hostility to Jefferson, and in a few States where contests were made, the campaigns were conducted on the old defamatory lines which marked the two great battles between Jefferson and Adams.

In most of the States there was practically no contest, but in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where Federalism had always maintained its supremacy, the Federalists fought with an earnestness and desperation such as might have been expected in a hopeful struggle. The fiercest battle was fought in Massachusetts, where for the first time the Republicans defeated the Federalists in the largest vote ever cast in the State. Jefferson electors received 29,310 votes to 25,777 for the Pinckney ticket, giving Jefferson a majority of 3533. This was a terrible blow to Adams, and it was aggravated by the fact that while Massachusetts faltered, Connecticut gave her electoral vote to the Federal ticket. Delaware, with her three electoral votes, was the only other State that maintained her devotion to the Federal cause, and the electoral votes of those 2 States, with 2 added from the 11 votes of Maryland, summed up the entire vote of the Federal candidate for President in the Electoral College, the vote being 162 for Jefferson to 14 for Pinckney, and a like vote for Clinton and King for Vice-President. The following table presents the official vote cast in the electoral colleges:

STATES.President.Vice-President.
Thomas Jefferson.Charles C. Pinckney.George Clinton.Rufus King.
New Hampshire7—7—
Vermont6—6—
Massachusetts19—19—
Rhode Island4—4—
Connecticut—9—9
New York19—19—
New Jersey8—8—
Pennsylvania20—20—
Delaware—3—3
Maryland9292
Virginia24—24—
North Carolina14—14—
South Carolina10—10—
Georgia6—6—
Kentucky8—8—
Tennessee5—5—
Ohio3—3—
Total1621416214

JAMES MADISON