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CHAPTER 7 Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787–1820 223

Ironically, arch-Federalist Alexander Hamilton ushered in a more 1796 Presidential elections
democratic era by supporting Jefferson. Calling Burr an “embryo quickly became a central
focus of American political
Caesar” and the “most unfit man in the United States for the office life. Political leaders used
of president,” Hamilton persuaded key Federalists to allow Jefferson’s 4 mental maps to envision
those areas likely to support
election. The Federalists’ concern for political stability also played a 12 6 16 various candidates and to
map their election strategies
role. As Senator James Bayard of Delaware explained, “It was admit- 14 9 4 accordingly.
ted on all hands that we must risk the Constitution and a Civil War NORTHWEST 1 7 7 3
TERRITORY
or take Mr. Jefferson.” 20 1 4
Jefferson called the election the “Revolution of 1800,” and so it SPANISH TERRITORY 4 11 1 Electoral
was. The bloodless transfer of power showed that popularly elected 3 8 Candidate Vote
governments could be changed in an orderly way, even in times of TERR. SOUTH 4 John Adams 71
(Federalist)
OF THE
bitter partisan conflict. In his inaugural address in 1801, Jefferson OHIO RIVER Thomas Jefferson 68
praised this achievement, declaring, “We are all Republicans, we are FLORIDA (Democrat-Republican)
all Federalists.”
Presidential election maps usually show the strength of each state in the
electoral college. e number of electoral votes cast by a state is the sum
A REPUBLICAN EMPIRE IS BORN of the number of its senators (two) and its representatives in the U.S.
Congress. States gain or lose representatives depending on their
population, as determined each decade by the U.S. census. Consequently,
the number of a state’s electoral votes may change over time.
How were the principles of the Jeffersonian Republicans
reflected in this era of dramatic growth and development?
1800
In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Great Britain gave up its claims to the
trans-Appalachian region and, said one British diplomat, left the
Indian nations “to the care of their [American] neighbours.” Care 4
was hardly the right word: many white Americans wanted to destroy 12 6 16
Native communities. “Cut up every Indian Cornfield and burn every 7 9 4
Indian town,” proclaimed Congressman William Henry Drayton INDIANA NORTHWEST 8 5 7 3 Electoral
TERR.
of South Carolina, so that their “nation be extirpated and the lands TERR. 21 5 Candidate Vote
become the property of the public.” Other leaders, including Henry SPANISH TERRITORY 4 8 4 Thomas Jefferson 73
(Republican)
Knox, Washington’s first secretary of war, favored assimilating Native 3 8 Aaron Burr 73
(Republican)
peoples into Euro-American society. Knox proposed the division of MISSISSIPPI 4 John Adams
tribal lands among individual Indian families, who would become TERRITORY (Federalist) 65
citizens of the various states. Indians resisted both forms of domina- FLORIDA C. C. Pinckney 64
(Federalist)
tion and fought to retain control of their lands and cultures. In the John Jay 1
(Federalist)
ensuing struggle, the United States emerged as an expansive power,
determined to control the future of the continent.
States may cast their electoral votes either by district (as, for example,
in North Carolina) or as a single statewide total. When omas Je erson
and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes, the House of
Sham Treaties and Indian Lands Representatives decided which one would be president.
As in the past, conflicts between Natives and Europeans centered on MAP 7.1 The Presidential Elections of 1796 and 1800
land rights. Invoking the Paris treaty and regarding Britain’s Indian Both elections pitted Federalist John Adams of Massachusetts
allies as conquered peoples, the U.S. government asserted both sov- against Republican Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and both
ereignty over and ownership of the trans-Appalachian west. Indian saw voters split along regional lines. Adams carried every New
England state and, reflecting Federalist strength in maritime
nations rejected both claims, pointing out they had not been con- and commercial areas, the eastern districts of the Middle
quered and had not signed the Paris treaty. “Our lands are our life Atlantic states; Jefferson won most of the agricultural-based
and our breath,” declared Creek chief Hallowing King; “if we part states of the South and West (Kentucky and Tennessee). New
with them, we part with our blood.” Brushing aside such objections York was the pivotal swing state. It gave its 12 electoral votes
to Adams in 1796 and, thanks to the presence of Aaron Burr
and threatening military action, U.S. commissioners forced the on the Republican ticket, bestowed them on Jefferson in 1800.
pro-British Iroquois peoples — Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and
Senecas — to cede huge tracts in New York and Pennsylvania in the Treaty of Fort
Stanwix (1784). New York land speculators used liquor and bribes to take a million SKILLS & PROCESSES
more acres, confining the once powerful Iroquois to reservations — essentially colo- CONTEXTUALIZATION
nies of subordinate peoples.
American negotiators used similar tactics to grab Ohio Valley lands. At the Why did Jefferson consider his
Treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785) and Fort Finney (1786), they pushed the Chippewas, election in 1800 to be revolutionary?
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