Jefferson and The Election of 1800

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Jefferson and The Election of 1800

• Was there a Revolution of 1800?

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• Contemporary Views
• Historiography
• So what?

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Contemporary views

• "teaching of murder robbery, rape, adultery and
  incest". (Federalist Newspaper)
• Adams is too moderate (High Federalists)
• Adams is a monarchist (Republicans)
• Revolution of 1800later used by
  Jeffersonorderly transfer of power

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Hamiltons Letter

• Few go as far in their objections aa I do. Not
  denying to Mr. ADAMS patriotism and integrity,
  and even talents of a certain kind, I should be
  deficient in candor, were I to conceal the
  conviction, that he does not possess the talents
  adapted to the Administration of Government, and
  that there are great and intrinsic defects in
  his character, which unfit him for the office of
  Chief Magistrate.

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Millennial Meanings

• "Heaven above looked down, and awakened the
  American genius, which has arisen, like a lion,
  from the swelling of the Jordon sic , and
  roared like thunder in the states, 'we will be
  free we will rule ourselves.'" John Leland,
  Mass. Baptist Minister, 1801.
• Results preserved those first principles of
  social justice, which can alone sustain and
  perpetuate the blessings of national liberty."
  Baltimore American 31 Jan. 1801.

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Historiography

• claim which Jefferson . . . loved to put
  forward" but really the Jeffersonians kept
  Hamiltons stuff in place. Henry Adams, History
  of the United States of America During the
  Administrations of Thomas Jefferson 1903
• there was no 'revolution of 1800' in any common
  use of the term." Lance Banning, Lance Banning,
  review of The American Revolution of 1800 by
  Daniel Sisson, William and Mary Quarterly, 3d
  ser., 32 (1975) 539

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More Historians

• TJ "sounded like no revolutionary . . . no
  reformer," Dumas Malone, Jefferson the President
  First Term, 1801-1805 (Boston Little Brown,
  1970)
• There is more than a little reason . . . to
  concede that Jefferson was essentially right
  that the revolution of 1800 was an authentic
  one. Elkins McKitrick, Age of Federalism,
  (1993) 693

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More Historians

• Simply put, 1800 marks the point at which the
  republican constitutional system envisioned by
  the framers of the constitution, with the popular
  will filtered through various layers of
  government and the various competing interests
  carefully checked so that no individual faction
  or party could control the national government,
  became a basically democratic and partisan
  system. The new system, far from filtering the
  popular will or preventing national coalitions or
  political competition, came to be framed around
  and even dependent upon those forces. Jeff
  Pasley, "Revolution of 1800" Conference
  Charlottesville, VA. December 2, 2000