1788/1792 - The Federalists took the House and Senate with 100% of the vote
1796 - John Adams (F) d. Thomas Jefferson (DR) with 73.6% of the vote
1800 - John Adams (F) d. Thomas Jefferson (DR) with 80% of the vote
Hey all welcome to
Board 8 Elects!
a topic series in which we discuss each historical election from the perspective of the year it took place in!
The idea here is to re-litigate each election from the perspective of when it took place. I will be providing each candidates platform (where possible) so the merits of the election can be discussed and voted on. If possible lets speak of the issues in the present tense.
I am going to ask you vote via
BOLDING
the name of the candidate rather than providing a poll because I feel the poll encourages gut voting and I would really like to see some discussion.
Topics will be live for 3 or 4 days - basically until I make the next topic voting will be active in this one.
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Welcome to the Election of 1804.
The last four years have been eventful indeed. Jefferson spent the early part of his presidency trying to reconcile after the bitter campaign, declaring at his inaugural address that "We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." But Adams, bitter at his defeat, spent the day appointing as many Federalists as he could to the bench and snubbed Jefferson by skipping the event. Setting the stage for one of the most bitterly divided Congresses in history.
Jefferson has been busy at work drastically altering the makeup of the navy and engaging in another foreign war. But most dramatically, just last year when negotiating terms with Napoleon to purchase the port New Orleans, he was instead offered an opportunity to purchase all of Louisiana and he did! But this has opened many question about the future of the nation and that brings us to the election of 1804!
Meet the Candidates
The Democratic-Republicans
or just "Republicans" as they are now called in the common parlance, have nominated the sitting president, 61 year-old
Thomas Jefferson
to be their candidate. His running mate is the current Governor of New York,
George Clinton
. Aaron Burr has been dropped from the ticket after his coy late-in-the-day schemes to steal the presidency failed and was a leading candidate for the Federalist nomination before his duel/slaying with Alexander Hamilton made that impossible.
The Federalist Party
has nominated the 58 year-old former French Ambassador and former Vice Presidential candidate from South Carolina
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
for the presidency on the basis of national fame for his tough stances regarding France. His running mate is former New York Senator and former Ambassador to Great Britain under Adams, Rufus King. The hope is Pinckney will win Southern votes and that King will help contest the middle colonies.
The Issues
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Looming largest over everything was the purchase of Louisiana, in which Jefferson had effectively doubled the size of the nation. Jefferson had surprised everyone when he pushed for the purchase of that massive territory. The purchase was not a power explicitly granted by the constitution and was exactly the sort of use of executive power that Jefferson ran swearing against during the campaign. It has been denounced by many in his party, to include the Speaker of the House and his vice presidential candidate. It has however cast the Federalists in the awkward position of opposing it on constitutional grounds, the very sort of thing they would have been defending under other circumstances.
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Also regarding Louisiana is a difference of opinion on how it should be governed. Jefferson wants to slowly integrate the territories and allow them to continue to self-govern under Spanish law under direct federal supervision managed by the Executive Branch. The Federalists by contrast want to have the new territory formed into states or territories and governed according to American principles as soon as possible.
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There are concerns that if Spain should regain its independence from France that there will be potential for a war with Spain as a result of this purchase and Middle Staters and New Englanders alike have noticed that most of the new territory that is ready to be admitted as states would probably be admitted as slave states which would limit the political power of their regions and present economic challenges for their agriculture. This issue is evenly split among the two parties given, again that both tickets are led by slave-owners.
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The Purchase also signals a significant warming of the French-American relationship. Given that the French and British relationships are more or less a zero sum game, there are still many who are wary of the consequences of choosing France in the long run.
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Given that Napoleon planned to use the money from that purchase in part to fund his wars against Haiti, Jefferson has revoked his recognition of the Haitian government and is tacitly supporting Napoleon's efforts to bring them to heel. Pinckney, as a Southern slave owner, disapproves of the support of Napoleon but quietly is happy to see Haiti being seemingly brought to heel given the potential risk of a slave revolt in South Carolina.
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Jefferson has drastically reduced the size of the Navy opting to go for fast and mobile gunboats designed to protect ports but eliminating larger war vessels of the sort needed to wage a naval war with a foreign power. The Federalists maintain that the nation requires a large standing military while relations with France and Britain remain tense, considering mutual interests in the Caribbean.
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Relatedly, the United States has gotten into a war in Northern Africa, the First Barbary War. On one side, the United States and Sweden have banded together to oppose Tripoli and the other North African or Barbary states. The Pasha of Tripoli demanded tribute from the United States in exchange for not attacking their merchant vessels attempting to trade in the Mediterranean. Under Adams and Washington, the US had paid such a tribute, but Jefferson refused and is entangled in a naval war with his new, smaller navy. The Federalists criticize his handling of the military and his recklessness in picking an unnecessary war, though it remains relatively uncontroversial among the voting populace.
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Jefferson has repealed the excise taxes on whiskey, repealed the Property Tax, and repealed the Alien Act, lowering the time required to become citizen of the US from 14 years to 5 years. Federalists still worry over the effect of allowing citizenship after such a short period considering the ease with which foreign powers could exert influence over american politics under those rules. They also support the use of direct taxes to raise income, mostly in support of the large standing army they want.
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You know what isn't an issue in this election? Slavery. The Federalist candidate owns slaves and while the party still seeks to differentiate itself from Jefferson by needling him on the issue, Pinckney himself refuses to.