Case Study Task 1: Survey Of United States History

The book Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 is a book describing what led up, and what happened during the 1800 election. Furling went as far as to mention the American revolution and talked all the way to the year 1800. Although he didn’t talk about the 1800 election until the last couple chapters, Ferling filled the readers minds with what was going on in America before the election. Ferling gives a short biography about all the candidates in the election of 1800, like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Charles Pinckney, and Aaron Burr.

The election of 1800 was the first election to be decided by the House of Representatives. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both had the same amount of electoral votes. At the end it was decided, Jefferson as president and Burr as vice president. Thomas Jefferson as president scaled back Federalist building plans for Washington and cut the government budget. He also reduced the size of the army by a third and cut back the navy to six ships.

Jefferson ended up winning and becoming president. Congress

Thomas Jefferson also changed the country by establishing the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act was an act that allowed United States’ territories to become states. This was a change

President Thomas Jefferson firmly believed in the ability of the people of America to elect congressmen for guidance of the republic of America. He, also, felt that the central government should be sparing or economical with regard to money. In order to be frugal, he reduced the size of America’s army and navy to almost nothing. He, also, ended internal taxes and worked on paying off the federal debt.

The Election of 1800 The Election of 1800 was a grueling duel between longtime friends Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The only time in history where a Vice President and President were opponents, each with different visions for the United States of America. The statement “politics were rarely as dirty as it was in the Election of 1800” refers to the mud-slinging, lies, and propaganda between the two opponents. Adams and Jefferson had different ideas about what the United States of America should look like and more specifically how it should be governed.

Political parties were splitting along North and South lines and even violence was becoming an issue in congress itself. Before the election of 1860, Southerners had already agreed that if a republican wins the election, they would leave the Union. As it came to be, Lincoln, a republican, was elected and the south truly did leave the Union. During the four months, before President Lincoln's inauguration, President James Buchanan did nothing to stop the secession. It may be even concluded that he was sympathetic to the Southern cause.

This election was almost as confused and complex as the 1796 election Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Republicans, tied in the Electoral vote because Republican electors failed to follow the prescription of ensuring that Jefferson would receive more votes (and the presidency) than Burr. Burr is accused of violating the agreement. This result threw the election to the House of Representatives for a final decision, an interesting situation given the fact that the House continued to be dominated by Federalists.

Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were nominated to run on the Republican side in the election of 1800. He had many fervent views on what he intended to change that, remaining true to his political party, were Republican in nature. However, many Americans still supported John Adams, the Federalist president antecedent to Jefferson, for another term, so Jefferson had to campaign well. To conclude months of working, Jefferson came out victorious after multiple ties, which was the event that inspired the twelfth amendment, stating electors had only one vote for president and another for vice president. This opposed the previous method in which they would cast two votes without specifying which position the candidate should take.

John Adams got a majority of the electoral votes, becoming president. However, Thomas Jefferson got second place in the vote tally, making him vice president. This would’ve left the president with a vice president of the opposing party. At this point in time, the position of “running mate” had not yet been established; candidates ran independently. In the following presidential election in 1800, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had a rematch.

Under his leadership, The Whiskey Act was repealed, and the Alien Act along with the Sedition Act expired. When it came to the national debt, Jefferson said, “neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself, assembled can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time....” He understood that in order to pay for war there would be the consequence of debt, but to cut down on that debt the number of federal employees could

Jefferson, for example, switched from his strict-constructionist proclivities towards a looser constitutional interpretation involving the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. While there was nothing explicitly stated in the constitution about territorial acquisition, Jefferson accepted the deal for the good of the country. He also initiated the Embargo Act of 1807, which harmed the agriculture, mainly in the South. This goes against the Jeffersonian ideals, which value the agrarian republic over private enterprise and manufacturing. The anger in the South is demonstrated in Isaac Cruikshank “The Happy Effects of that Grand System of Shutting Ports Against the English” in which the people portrayed complained of “warehouses [that] are full” and “goods [that] are spoiling”

Abraham Lincoln would lead the Republican Party even though he did not win the south over in the election. He promised that he would save the Union no matter what the cost. This disconnect in policy would later lay the basis for the Civil War, which started in 1861. He never envisioned a proclamation or ending slavery but he was ultimately committed to saving the Union from the succeeding south. Lincoln gave into the antislavery Republicans toward the end of the war and finally decided to make slavery the true basis of the war.

Constitution and altered it by explicitly protecting the institution of slavery. This peculiar institution was what made the Confederacy unique. Sectionalism over economic, social, political, and constitutional issues regarding slavery continued from Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857 until secession after Lincoln’s election in 1860. “The expansion of slavery into western territories provided the catalyst for the growing perceptions of northerners and southerners that they held different intentions of the republic’s future.” “In the South, loyalty to slavery and its required expansion became the hallmark of party politics as the region’s politicians—Whigs, Know-Nothing, and Democrat—competed to demonstrate their loyalty to southern rights.”

Franklin Pierce was the leader of the state's Democratic Party, when he was in New Hampshire. The 1852 election became closer and the Democratic Party wanted someone who was a pro-slavery Northerner to get people from both sides to vote of the issues with slavery. Pierce happened to be just what they were looking for since he matched what the Democrats wanted. He ran against General Winfield Scott who was his former commander of the Whig Party even though he never wanted to. Pierce was quickly elected president, but he became depressed soon after from the train accident that caused the death of one of his many