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Indlæser... The Deadlocked Election of 1800: Jefferson, Burr, and the Union in the Balance (American Presidential Elections) (2010)af James Roger Sharp
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It was one of the most critical elections of American history, overshadowed only by the one that plunged the country into civil war. The deadlocked election of 1800 has earned considerable attention and debate from historians; now James Roger Sharp reveals that modern observers didn't necessarily get it right. Only a decade old, the Constitution gave the federal government more powers than had the Articles of Confederation, causing many citizens to fear the erosion of states' rights. Meanwhile, war between France and Great Britain exacerbated the schism between Republicans and Federalists, each faction taking sides and questioning the other's loyalty. With Thomas Jefferson challenging incumbent John Adams for the presidency, a tied Electoral College vote threw the election into the House of Representatives amid rumors of violence, civil war, and secession. Richer in contemporary detail and context than previous studies, Sharp's book offers modern readers a better understanding of exactly what was at stake. Some say that this election was a "mighty democratic uprising"; Sharp argues that such interpretations are misleading. Others contend that eighteenth-century politics were no different than ours today; Sharp reveals just how distinctive they actually were. Avoiding the common mistake of imposing modern concepts onto the past, he instead puts himself in the place of citizens from 1800 to see events through their eyes. From that perspective, Sharp argues that Americans envisioned many possible outcomes to the crisis--and that a peaceful solution was far from inevitable. Sharp offers a vivid account of protagonists and events. He tells how military conflict became a real possibility during the deadlock and explains what Jefferson meant when he characterized his election as the "Revolution of 1800." He unravels the nature of political polarization and its relationship to the development of parties. And throughout he emphasizes that the participants themselves greatly feared what the future would bring. Engagingly written and uncommonly insightful, Sharp's chronicle reveals the complex interplay between the main actors and the historical context in which they operated. His book sheds new light on this crucial contest--and shows like no other work that the success of the fragile new government under the Constitution was tentative at best. No library descriptions found. |
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Sharp situates his account of the election in the politics of the 1790s. This was the beginning of the "first party system," when the Federalist and the first Republican parties emerged to promote their respective visions of the new nation. While the Federalists dominated during this period, Sharp notes that what really distinguished this period from any other in American political history was that the concept of legitimate contested opposition had yet to establish itself. This added to the divisiveness of politics of the time, as many Federalists did not hesitate to use the instruments of government to prosecute their Republican opponents as enemies of the state. Making this argument was easier given the international political situation of the time, as the ongoing conflict between Great Britain and France in the 1790s fueled the political polarization and cast the shadow of war over the country. In these circumstances it was easy for the Federalists to pass laws that could be used to attack Republican newspaper publishers and even threaten Republican members of Congress.
Further complicating the situation was infighting within the Federalist Party itself. Though John Adams was the president, many Federalists looked to Alexander Hamilton as their party's true leader. Dissatisfied with the prospect of an Adams presidency, Hamilton even attempted to engineer the election of his vice presidential nominee, Thomas Pinckney, as the president in 1796, a gambit that ended with Adams's opponent Thomas Jefferson winning the vice presidency. The election of 1800 was a rematch between the two candidates, and was fought out over the course of 1800. Sharp details the events in the various states that determined the election, which was not a contest between the two men for the popular vote but a more indirect battle within the states over choosing the electoral college delegation. This Jefferson's supporters won, only for some desperate Federalists to try to engineer the election of his running mate Aaron Burr — who through a quirk was in the balloting as well and possessed the same number of votes — instead. It was only through Hamilton's strenuous efforts, coupled with a declaration by a Federalist senator that Jefferson would preserve the Federalist system of government, that Jefferson emerged the winner, effecting the first successful exchange of power between presidents of different parties.
As a scholar of early American political history, Sharp brings to the book an extensive knowledge of the period and the scholarship on his subject. This he employs to craft a study that clarifies the very different politics of the era, which helps to explain both the election and its outcome. Because of this, it is a good book for anyone seeking a guide to a very different type of presidential contest than the ones they are familiar with today, one in which politics was more personal and opposition often fought simply to establish its legitimacy. ( )