Thomas Jefferson's first term as president was very successful. With the Louisiana Purchase, he doubled the size of the United States, and his defeat of the Barbary Pirates protected American trading rights in the Mediterranean. As the election of 1804 neared, Jefferson felt good about his chances for re-election. His party, though, was concerned about a repeat of some aspects of the previous election.
Click through the slides below to learn how the 1804 election played out.
|
In 1800, the House of Representatives had to choose the president because Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes. Before the election, the Democratic-Republicans had named Jefferson as their presidential candidate and Burr as their vice presidential candidate. For a while, though, it seemed that the Federalist-controlled House might choose Burr to be president. As the election of 1804 approached, the Democratic-Republicans wanted to make sure that an opposition party would note have that opportunity gain.
On December 9, 1803, the Congress—now controlled by the Democratic-Republicans—proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would alter how electors voted for president. Previously, electors had cast two votes for president with the majority winner becoming president and the second place finisher becoming vice president. The 1803 amendment would have each elector cast one vote for president and a separate vote for vice president.
The amendment changing the election process was sent to the states for ratification and on June 15, 1804, it became the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. Once the amendment had ensured that the electors cast separate votes for president and vice president, the two political parties could nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates without worrying that their vice presidential choice would be elected president. It also decreased the chances that the president and president would belong to separate parties, as had happened in 1796 with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
In 1804, the Democratic-Republicans nominated Jefferson to be their presidential candidate and George Clinton to be their vice presidential candidate. The Federalists nominated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King for president and vice president. Under the new electoral voting system, Jefferson and Clinton each received 162 electoral votes, while Pinckney and King received just 14. The election of 1804 was a landslide victory for the Democratic-Republicans. |
 |
Question
What was the purpose of the 12th amendment?
