Recap of Popular Vote
In the popular vote, Thomas Jefferson won 55 electoral votes to 33 for John Adams. The Federalists had little to worry, however. In the eight states choosing Electors by the legislatures, Federalists controlled seven legislatures (CT, DE, NJ, NY, RI, SC, and VT to TN for the Anti-Federalists). This meant that Adams could expect an additional 47 electoral votes to just four for Jefferson. The Federalists thus appeared headed for certain victory, with a margin of 80-58.
Enter Alexander Hamilton.
With the Federalists safely in first place, Hamilton’s continuing dislike of Adams led to a new electoral vote scheme. As in 1789, Hamilton contacted the Electors. He told the Electors in New England that they needed to cast a solid vote for Adams and Pinckney to ensure their victory. However, he asked the SC Electors to boycott Adams. This scheme would give the presidency to Pinckney and re-elect Adams to a third term as VP. Word of the plot leaked out, of course. In response, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) contacted the Electors and urged them to elect Aaron Burr the next president.
The Electoral Vote
The Presidential Electors met to cast the electoral votes on 12/7/1796. As in 1789, an incredibly large number of Electors threw away their second votes. On the Federalist side, one of the two Federalist Electors in PA (Samuel Miles) joined the SC Electors in voting for Jefferson and Pinckney. One Federalist Elector in
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Recap of Popular Vote
In the popular vote, Thomas Jefferson won 55 electoral votes to 33 for John Adams. The Federalists had little to worry, however. In the eight states choosing Electors by the legislatures, Federalists controlled seven legislatures (CT, DE, NJ, NY, RI, SC, and VT to TN for the Anti-Federalists). This meant that Adams could expect an additional 47 electoral votes to just four for Jefferson. The Federalists thus appeared headed for certain victory, with a margin of 80-58.
Enter Alexander Hamilton.
With the Federalists safely in first place, Hamilton’s continuing dislike of Adams led to a new electoral vote scheme. As in 1789, Hamilton contacted the Electors. He told the Electors in New England that they needed to cast a solid vote for Adams and Pinckney to ensure their victory. However, he asked the SC Electors to boycott Adams. This scheme would give the presidency to Pinckney and re-elect Adams to a third term as VP. Word of the plot leaked out, of course. In response, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) contacted the Electors and urged them to elect Aaron Burr the next president.
The Electoral Vote
The Presidential Electors met to cast the electoral votes on 12/7/1796. As in 1789, an incredibly large number of Electors threw away their second votes. On the Federalist side, one of the two Federalist Electors in PA (Samuel Miles) joined the SC Electors in voting for Jefferson and Pinckney. One Federalist Elector in MD voted for Adams and Jefferson. New England's 39 Federalist Electors gave only 21 of their second votes to Pinckney, with Oliver Ellsworth receiving 11 and seven scattering. Jefferson’s Electors in VA and NC gave Burr only seven of 31 votes, with 15 votes going for Samuel Adams, 3 for George Clinton, 2 for President Washington, and four for Federalists.
As a result of all the defections, Adams won with 71 votes to 68 for Jefferson. They were thus elected President and Vice President. Thomas Pinckney received 59 votes and placed third; the Ellsworth votes alone would have elected him VP. Aaron Burr placed a distant fourth with 30 votes and was infuriated by the VA and NC Electors for abandoning him.
Once the result of the presidential race was settled, the Federalists gained additional seats in the U.S. House. They scored a net gain of three seats in Virginia, one in MA, and one in NH. As a result, they gained a 57-47 majority of the House.
Joint Session of Congress
The electoral vote was counted before a joint session of Congress in the U.S. House chamber in Philadelphia on 2/8/1797. VP Adams and Jonathan Dayton, Speaker of the U.S. House, presided. Adams gave a brief overview of what was about to happen. He mentioned that he had received returns of the vote from each state by messenger and duplicates from all states except Kentucky by mail. He began opening and reading the returns, beginning with TN and proceeding to NH. The tellers were U.S. Senator Theodore Sedgwick and U.S. Representatives Josiah Parker and Samuel Sitgreaves. After NH was read, VP Adams stood, read the tally, and resumed his seat. After a moment, Adams stood again and declared himself to have been elected President and Thomas Jefferson to have been elected Vice President. The Senators then returned to their chamber (NYC Minerva, 2/10/1797).
Key Sources
The Presidential Game, pp. 50-58.
Stephan Lorant The Glorious Burden (Lenox MA: Authors Edition, Inc., 1976), pp. 45-51.
Popular vote of 1796
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