Presidential election in the United States 1796

‹  1792  •   •  1800 ›
3rd presidential election
November 4 - December 7, 1796
			Federalist Party
			John Adams / Thomas Pinckney
			electors					71
			be right				35,726
									53.4%
			Democratic Republican Party
			Thomas Jefferson / Aaron Burr
			electors					68
			be right				31,115
									46.6%
Election results by state
9 states of   Adam						7 states   Jefferson
President of the United States
Before the election George Washington Independent						Elected John Adams Federalist Party

The third election of the President of the United States of America took place in 1796. It was the first election in which two political parties vied for victory; it was also the only election where the president and vice president came from different parties. Was elected John Adams before Thomas Jefferson , the vice president was.

Electoral system

See also : 12. Amendment to the United States Constitution

The electoral system of that time gave each elector two votes. Each elector had to vote for at least one candidate outside of his home state. In order to become president, the candidate had to achieve an absolute majority of the electoral votes, the candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice-president, for this no absolute majority was necessary.

Candidates and parties

• 

  John Adams

• 

  Thomas Pinckney

• 

  Oliver Ellsworth

• 

  James Iredell

• 

  John Jay

• 

  Samuel Johnston

• 

  Charles C. Pinckney

• 

  Thomas Jefferson

• 

  Aaron Burr

• 

  Samuel Adams

• 

  George Clinton

• John Adams , Acting Vice President of the United States, of Massachusetts
• Thomas Pinckney , former governor of South Carolina
• Oliver Ellsworth , Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut
• James Iredell , North Carolina Supreme Court Justice
• John Jay , Governor of New York
• Samuel Johnston , former Senator for North Carolina
• Charles Cotesworth Pinckney , envoy to France, from South Carolina
• Thomas Jefferson , former United States Secretary of State , of Virginia
• Aaron Burr , Senator for New York
• Samuel Adams , Governor of Massachusetts
• George Clinton , former New York Governor
• John Henry , Senator for Maryland

Incumbent George Washington refused to run for a third term; in doing so he created a tradition that was not broken until the second re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

The first parties had already formed in the election in 1792 , but 1796 was the first time that all candidates belonged to one party. The Federalist Party , led by John Adams, advocated a strong, economic government. The Democratic Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, advocated a decentralized government, a strict interpretation of the constitution and an agricultural nation. In addition, the Democratic Republicans were against the Jay Treaty .

In contrast to the previous elections, the winner was not clear from the start. The federalists nominated Adams, the Democratic Republican Party Jefferson. To secure the support of the southern states , the Federalist Party nominated Thomas Pinckney , former governor of South Carolina , as a candidate for the office of vice president. Other candidates for the vice-presidency from the Federalist Party were Oliver Ellsworth, James Iredell, John Jay, Samuel Johnston and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. The Democratic-Republicans nominated Aaron Burr as their vice-presidential candidate. In addition, the Democratic Republicans Samuel Adams, George Clinton and John Henry ran for this office. Interestingly, the outgoing President George Washington received 2 electoral votes even though he was no longer a candidate.

Result

candidate	Political party	Home state	Popular election		electors
			number	percent
John Adams	federalist	Massachusetts	35,726	53.4%	71
Thomas Jefferson	Democrats-Republicans	Virginia	31,115	46.6%	68
Thomas Pinckney	federalist	South carolina	-	-	59
Aaron Burr	Democrats-Republicans	new York	-	-	30th
Samuel Adams	Democrats-Republicans	Massachusetts	-	-	15th
Oliver Ellsworth	federalist	Connecticut	-	-	11
George Clinton	Democrats-Republicans	new York	-	-	7th
John Jay	federalist	new York	-	-	5
James Iredell	federalist	North Carolina	-	-	3
George Washington	Non-party	Virginia	-	-	2
John Henry	Democrats-Republicans	Maryland	-	-	2
Samuel Johnston	federalist	North Carolina	-	-	2
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	federalist	South carolina	-	-	1

The federalists' bill did not work out. Too many members of the Electoral College , including eleven electors from New Hampshire , did not give Pinckney their second vote. Although John Adams was able to win the election with 71 electoral votes, Pinckney was able to unite only 59 votes and was third behind Thomas Jefferson, who got 68 votes and thus became Vice President, although he had originally run for president. Aaron Burr of New York , a member of the Democratic Republican Party, was fourth alongside Jefferson with just 30 electoral votes. The result shows that the emerging political parties were still very divided and fragmented at the time; Although the opposition were united behind their identification figure Jefferson, as Vice-President the various parts considered several candidates to be suitable.

This was the only case in the history of the United States in which the president and vice president came from different parties, except for the case of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson , who, unlike Lincoln Republican, was a Democrat, but supported him with him the so-called National Union Party had started. The problems that arose from it later, and the election of 1800 led to the passage of the 12th Amendment , which completely separates the election of presidency and vice-presidency.

Web links

Commons : US Presidential Election 1796  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

literature

• Donald Richard Deskins, Hanes Walton, Sherman C. Puckett: Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2010, ISBN 978-0-472-11697-3 , pp. 25-32 (= Chapter 5: John Adams's Election. ).
• Joanne B. Freeman: The Election of 1796. In: Richard Alan Ryerson (ed.): John Adams and the Founding of the Republic (= Massachusetts Historical Society Studies in American History and Culture. 6). Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston MA 2001, ISBN 0-934909-78-4 , pp. 142-167.
• Arthur M. Schlesinger (Ed.): History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968. Volume 1: 1789-1824. Chelsea House Publishers, New York NY 1985, ISBN 0-87754-491-3 .