The First Campaigns

The first contested election was in 1796 when Jefferson and Adams duked it out for the presidency.  This was a pretty heated campaign but, let's fast forward to the election of 1800. Adams was running for his second term, and Jefferson who Adams had defeated during the last campaign was also running. Another federalist Gov. Pinckney from South Carolina was running. Aaron Burr through various schemes was able to also secure many votes, especially in the north. He was also the first candidate to openly campaign for the office.  This ended in a very close election.  The Federalists had planned to have an elector not vote for Burr.  This plan did not end up working, and the electoral college was tied 73-73.  In the event of a tie, the house of representatives would decide the election with each state having one vote.  During the deadlock in the House Burr conducted a very secretive campaign where he tried to win the votes of the Congress. This ultimately proved unsuccessful, and on the 36th vote, Jefferson was elected president.  Because Burr came in second, he did become Vice President.  This lead to the 12th amendment in 1804 where the second place candidate no longer became vice president. There is an excellent song from the musical Hamilton about the 1800 election give it a listen here. This election leads to a lot of problems because the founders had not anticipated political parties. So the issue that came about in this election were not things that some people were prepared to face.  Burr's scheming to become president is also something that was new at the time, and many people were unaware of the many actions he took to try and gain the presidency.  This election was overall not very democratic, and the people really were not heavily involved.  The early process of American elections was mostly decided by the few people at the top.

The next election that I want to write about is the election of 1824 and the corrupt bargain.  The election of 1824 was mainly between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Although Jackson won the plurality of votes the electoral college was once again deadlocked between the two candidates. This meant that again the house had to decide the winner of the election. Having the support of Henry Clay one of the most influential congressmen would be crucial for either candidate to win the election.  He ended up supporting Adams but, this leads to many accusations from Jackson and his supporters that a corrupt bargain had occurred.  The charges were not wholly unsubstantiated but they were also not really proven.  Either way having the possibility of a bargain can still undermine the legitimacy of the election which is very harmful to the government as a whole.

The third election that I want to talk about is the 1828 election where again Jackson was running for president against the now incumbent John Quincy Adams.  Jackson's history as a military leader has already established him as someone who was closer to the people than someone like John Quincy Adams, and he had a received a plurality of the votes in the previous election even though he did not win.  This election would be the first election where the winner won because they won the popular vote. Unlike past elections where electors were not as faithful to the ballots of the people. More people were also able to vote in this election than ever before which significantly increased turnout.  Jackson won this election not because he had favor with all of the elites but because he was supported by the masses. Because most electors were chosen by the voters in this election having popular support was needed to win. Jackson used a variety of techniques including lots of campaigning.  This helped him win by a large margin of votes in the electoral college having 178 votes to Adams 83 votes.

Overall these elections show how the electoral college changed from what it was originally intended to be. Many of the delegates in the constitutional convention were concerned about having a direct democracy which is why they had the electoral college but with the changes to the system.  Appealing to the masses like Jackson did was the way to win and for the most part is today.  The electoral college is no longer what it was intended to be. Although some elements like giving smaller states a voice in choosing the executive are still present many elements that the founders wanted are no longer present. Instead of having electors vet the candidates themselves now the people have to vet the candidates.  Many of the founders did not want this because they believed that the people would not be able to do this because they could not get to know candidates very well.  If this system still existed campaigning as we know it would be totally different.  Much fewer people would have a direct hand in deciding who became president.  Now the process is closer to a popular vote but as we have seen in past elections the number of electors is still the most important thing as far as winning goes.  How you get those electors has changed quite a bit though.