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
1804 - Thomas Jefferson (DR) d. Charles Pinckney (F) with 66% 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 1808. Not much has happened since we last met - the United States has won the Barbary War! There's been a huge Trade Embargo which I am sure will have no economic effect in a country that just repealed it's direct taxes! Congress has enacted a bill that will enforce the constitutionally prescribed ban on importing slaves! Louisiana!
Meet the Candidates
The Republicans
have nominated one of the chief architects of the Constitution, former Congressman and current Secreatary of State, 57 year-old
James Madison
to be their candidate. His running mate is the sitting Vice President,
George Clinton
. Clinton, however, strenuously objects to a Madison presidency on the grounds that he is a 'secret federalist' that favors a strong central government (given his role as an author of the Federalist Papers) and war-monger and is openly lobbying for electors to vote Clinton for president instead of vice president.
The Federalist Party
has nominated the 62 year-old former French Ambassador and former Vice Presidential and 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- yes again.
The Issues
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First and foremost on everyone's mind is the
Embargo Act
. The bill has banned ALL foreign trade (imports AND exports) with the exception of some extremely limited trade with Britain that is protected by treaty - though with the expiration of the Jay Treaty in 1806, it is much less than it would have been even two years ago. This was a response to a steep escalation in the conflict between Great Britain and France over the last several years. US Merchant ships - with no navy beyond a coast guard to protect them - were being seized by both the British and the French who felt entitled to American aid in the war effort due to overtures made by past administrations. Jefferson did not want to be dragged into the Napoleonic Wars more than he already had been and at Madison's urging simply banned all foreign trade to prevent ships from being seized and American sailors from being impressed as soldiers in these European wars.
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At home, the ban has been hard on the economy and on the American people - Ships sit idle in docks, and farmers are stuck with rotting cash crops that they had hoped to sell before the unexpected cessation of trade. The Federalists have managed to get up off the mat and vociferously oppose this effort calling it a total disaster. The entirety of their campaign is staked on their promise to repeal the Embargo Act and better navigate foreign policy after 8 disastrous years of Democratic rule on that front - Madison is tied to all of this as Secretary of State and suddenly Pinckney's hardliner attitude from the XYZ Affair is appealing to the populace again.
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There is quietly trouble brewing regarding the future of the Louisiana territory but its not quite on anyones radar yet - still the Federalists would likely take a stronger hand in organizing this territory while the Republicans are content to allow it to go on laissez-faire.
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For what it's worth, Clinton doesn't own slaves while Madison and Pinckney both do.
The Campaign
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This was a very one issue election which naturally led the campaign to have a lot of strange twists and turns. Madison is widely seen as a controversial candidate for the office. Despite being one of the founders of the Democratic-Republican party, the acts of the Jefferson government that saw an increase of strength for the federal government all came via foreign policy and at the advice of Madison. Further, Madison is largely credited as being the voice who saved the National Bank - a hated institution whose creation sparked the creation of the Democratic-Republican Party just to oppose it. His old working relationship with Alexander Hamilton is now the talk of skeptical critics of his - though this may have the effect of making him more appealing to Federalists who are skeptical of Pinckney.
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Madison made an issue of his political strategy being one that got a congress that is largely in favor of slavery to enact funding to enforce a ban on the international slave trade and forced South Carolina's hand in ending the trade in order to make himself more appealing to middle staters, while still leaning on his Virginian pedigree to avoid losing the South. Pinckney wisely has avoided hopping into this debate, opting to instead keep the focus on Embargo and France.
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Clinton leads the faction that is skeptical of Madison, promising to end the National Bank and bring the federal government back under control. He is representative largely of the faction of Democratic Republicans who were once Anti-Federalists and such strongly favors a weakening of the federal government in favor of states' rights. Unlike Madison, he is not explicitly tied to the foreign policy decisions of the Jefferson administration. A strike against is that he was a largely ineffectual Vice-President as he did not have any interest in the Senate and was not invited to play a larger role than that in the Jefferson administration.
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Clinton also has widely circulated a pamphlet in which he tears the Jefferson administration a new one for its handling of the French and English relationships, calling the Embargo a disaster and promising to replace Madison's misguided meddling in European affairs, where the United States tries to play both sides and gets crushed by both with a policy of "dignified neutrality", promising to negotiate treaties that protect our ships in exchange for promising to favor neither Britain nor France in trade.
EASY VOTE FORM -
Madison/Pinckney/Clinton