Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Adams being named for President and Charles C. Pinckney for Vice-President. A few weeks later the Republicans put in nomination, by Congressional caucus, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr as their Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. Both meetings were secret, but their decisions were immediately and completely accepted as authoritative by party followers throughout the nation. Thus the new device of party initiative, action, and rule by a body of leaders possessing recognized dignity and competence for the responsibility involved, had an auspicious beginning. It moreover operated with automatic perfection in its control of the men chosen to the Electoral College and therefore charged with the function of throwing the determining votes for President and Vice-President. The Jefferson and Burr ticket received the support of 73 Electors, every one of whom, casting a dual vote as ordered by the Constitution, gave one choice for Jefferson and one for Burr in conformity to the dictation of the party caucus. Adams and Pinckney secured 65 Electors, who also (with the exception of a single recalcitrant favoring Adams for first choice but Jay instead of Pinckney for second), faithfully obeyed the party behest in their voting. The total vote, counted first for President, showed a tie between Jefferson and Burr, and the contest was thereupon transferred to the House of Representatives, which, after protracted balloting, chose Jefferson President and Burr VicePresident. In addition to controlling the executive branch of the government, the Republicans for the first time obtained mastery of both houses of Congress. The

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

election of 1800 is famous for its anomalous result of a tie on the highest number of Electoral votes between two men of the same political faith nominated by the same organized body, and also for its complete and lasting reversal of the original party basis of the government. Not less famous is it for the introduction of the powerful machinery of the caucus to decide national party action and enforce regularity.

The high tide of Burr's fortunes was reached when, by the accident of an equal vote with Jefferson in the Electoral College, he stood before the House of Representatives as a hopeful contestant for the Presidency. His position, however, was purely technical, with no other merit to sustain it than the mathematical fact of the tie. Everybody knew that it was the intention of the Electors to award the office to Jefferson. But under the system of procedure in the House which the Constitution prescribed for such an emergency-the balloting to be by States, each State to have one vote, and the votes to be restricted to the two leading candidates, a wide latitude was afforded for those machinations of which Burr was so consummate a master. The House, still retaining its preëlection status, had a preponderance of Federalists, who, permitted full liberty of choice as between the tied Republican aspirants, were yet barred from voting for their own candidate, Adams; and moreover some of the Republicans were not disinclined to promote the ambition of Burr. There were at that time sixteen States, and the votes of a majority, nine, were necessary for an election. On the first ballot eight States voted for Jefferson, six

for Burr, and two were divided. By every contriving art the Burr forces strove to win in the struggle that followed, but all they could accomplish was to maintain a balance until the thirty-sixth ballot, when ten States rallied to Jefferson and he was elected.

Burr's part in this contest incensed the great majority of the leading men of his party; and the course of his Federalist abettors, so disregardful of the manifest preference of the country as registered at the election, contributed to the rapid decline of their politica! organization. The net result was the solidification of the dominant party, and its support by the people, to a degree never since paralleled. Jefferson became supreme, and thus was marked the beginning of that "Virginia dynasty" which for the next twenty-four years absolutely ruled the nation. It was a one-party rule, disputed nationally only by the slight competition of the surviving Federalists, though involving much factionalism among the Republicans, especially in the States. Burr was unceremoniously cast out from the Jeffersonian fold; and so doleful was his political lot that, upon seeking a Republican nomination for the Governorship of New York when his Vice-Presidential term was drawing to a close (1804), he was summarily refused and was constrained to make the race on a ticket mainly supported by his old enemies, the Federalists, whose action, however, denounced and derided by their great leader, Alexander Hamilton, did not avail to secure him the election.

The authority of the Congressional caucus, which showed itself so complete at its first application, con

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

tinued all-powerful until the divisions in the Republican organization resulting from personal rivalries in the Presidential contest of 1824 and after, led to the exercise of more popular methods of party direction and expression. To prevent any possible recurrence of the embarrassing situation of 1800 in the matter of electing the President, the Twelfth amendment to the Constitution was adopted (1804), providing for separate votes on President and Vice-President in the Electoral College. Thus the execution by the Electors of the previously declared party will was assured, subject only to chances of sporadic dissidence not to be foreseen but, it was believed, hardly to be apprehended in view of the expected indisputable sway of the caucus.1

1804

Again in 1804 the caucus functioned without the least accident or incident occurring to mar its supremacy. On February 25 the Republican Senators and Representatives met and unanimously renominated Jefferson for President, with George Clinton (also

1 Historically considered, the origin of the Congressional caucus is unquestionably to be assigned to the year 1800. In intention, however, the meetings of the Congressional leaders of the two parties in that year were rather spontaneous initial experiments to institute homogeneous political action, than caucuses in the official sense. As the new plan was found to work, it was promptly adopted by the Republicans and became their official mode of preparing for Presidential contests. But the Federalist party, lapsing into a hopeless minority, had less occasion for erecting an organic body to pass upon the claims of rival candidates; and its nominees subsequently to 1800 were therefore chosen by processes of agreement which proved satisfactory to its leaders without imitating the caucus formalities of the Republicans.

unanimously selected) for Vice-President. The Federalists, by agreement but without holding a Congressional caucus, chose as their candidates Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, and Rufus King, of New York. Jefferson and Clinton were successful, each receiving 162 Electoral votes against 14 for their opponents.

1808

As Jefferson's second term approached its completion, the question of selecting his successor was generally felt by the Republicans to be dependent upon the preference of Virginia. The Legislature of that State was expected to signify its choice between James Madison and James Monroe, but was unwilling to assume so delicate a responsibility and left the decision to the Congressional caucus. A marked sentiment favorable to George Clinton (at that time serving his first term as Vice-President) prevailed in New York, but the nomination of a Virginian was soon seen to be a foregone conclusion. The caucus, on January 23, 1808, named Madison for first place and Clinton for second, each by a very large majority of the members present. We have been unable to find any record of formal proceedings by the Federalists in designating their candidates, who, as in 1804, were Pinckney and King; apparently they adhered to their previous method of agreement without caucus intervention. The Electoral vote was as follows: President:-Madison, 122; Pinckney, 47; Clinton, 6. Vice-President:-Clinton, 113; King, 47; John Langdon, of New Hampshire, 9;

« ПретходнаНастави »