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Setting the Scene 3: The Election of 1796; the Quasi-War

Course video 3 of 46

The stormy election of 1800 culminated in the election of Thomas Jefferson as president, but it also played an important role in encouraging American politicians to reform the electoral college, which remains the system by which presidents are chosen.

As Donald Trump takes office as the forty-fifth president of the United States, this course explores presidential elections in historical perspective, via five case studies. It tells the story of key campaigns in US history, and by doing so it investigates how politics changed over time—and how understanding the past sheds light on the current campaign. From the arrival of "dirty politics" to the impact of the "digital revolution," the course looks at the historical background to some of the key phenomena that shaped the controversy-laden campaign of 2016. The five elections that we'll investigate are among the most significant in American political history. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in a contest that encouraged politicians to reform the electoral college, the system by which presidents are still chosen. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted the outbreak of the Civil War. It's an election that helps us to understand the development of political parties. In 1968, the Vietnam War was a dominant concern for Americans, and yet foreign policy played a secondary role in Richard Nixon's victory. Twelve years later, in 1980, Ronald Reagan won an election that initiated a new era of conservatism. Finally, we'll turn our attention to the election that took Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to the White House in 2008. Many saw the Obama's success not only as revealing the impact of the digital revolution on campaign politics, but also as signaling a turn to progressivism. Image credits: Course logo - "Former President Truman holds a copy of the famous Chicago Daily Tribune paper declaring 'Dewey Defeats Truman'" Harry S. Truman Library & Museum (https://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=38592). Course banner - "US Flag Backlit" by Joshua Nathanson, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Flag_Backlit.jpg).

Impartido por:

Frank Cogliano
Professor of American History
David Silkenat
Lecturer
Fabian Hilfrich
Senior Lecturer in American History
Robert Mason
Professor of Twentieth-Century U.S. History

Transcripción

In 1796, John Adams of Massachusetts, a Federalist

who had been serving as Vice President, was elected to succeed George Washington.

And so what we see is George Washington served two terms from 1789 to to 1797.

The election to succeed Washington was held in 1796,

and I'll say more about how elections were conducted in a later segment.

John Adams was elected to succeed George Washington.

He ran against Thomas Jefferson of Virginia,

who was leading the opposition to Federalist policy.

Jefferson lost the election, but finished second in the electoral college.

And I'll say more about that in a few minutes.

But as a consequence of that, Jefferson was elected Vice President.

So we have this curious paradox in 1796, where Federalist policies,

which were pro-British, pro-manufacturing

pro, if you will, the Hamiltonian policies of creating a fiscal military state.

Those policies triumph, but the Vice President again is Thomas Jefferson,

who's opposed to most of these things.

As a result of the election of 1796,

France viewed the United States with increased suspicion.

Basically, as far as revolutionary France was concerned,

the election of 1796 was a referendum in the United States on whether

the United States would ally with Britain,

or sympathize with Britain I should say rather than formally ally, or with France.

And when the United States elected John Adams as president in 1796.

The revolutionary French government interpreted this as certainly an act of

belligerence on the part of the United States.

And as a consequence of this, Franco-American relations deteriorated

quite badly in the second half of the 1790s.

From 1796 down to 1800, the US and France waged war at sea.

It's a conflict that historians call the Quasi-War.

War was never formally declared.

John Adams couldn't bring himself, for all kinds of reasons, to ask for

a formal declaration of war.

But there was an expectation that a declaration of war would come.

And the two countries essentially waged war on each other's commerce,

especially in the West Indies.

And so, the Adams administration, Adams was in office

from 1797 to 1801, was racked by this conflict.

And there was an ongoing incipient war between the United States and France.

And remember, there's a belief within the United States,

and within the political class, which is divided, that France or

Britain represent polar opposites and the United States must choose between them.

And so as a result of this Quasi-War,

American politics becomes even more divided.

This is a crucial background to the election of 1800.

And in anticipation of a declaration of war,

Congress, which was then dominated by the Federalists, so

it's the same party as John Adams, President Adams.

The Congress is fairly conservative.

The Congress very much wants to declare war on France in 1798.

In anticipation of what they expect will be a declaration of war

by President Adams, Congress adopts a series of laws

called the Alien and Sedition Acts.

And the Alien and Sedition Acts are meant to be wartime measures, but

they're also measures that attack the Republican opposition.

So the Alien and Sedition acts lengthen the amount of time that immigrants in

the country have to reside in the country before they become citizens and vote.

And this was very much a partisan measure because Republicans tended to attract more

support from immigrants than the Federalists did.

And so there's a belief that they want to keep immigrants from voting if possible,

at least on the part of the Federalists.

And the Sedition Act is meant to limit free speech.

Newspapers were crucial to the politics of the 1790s and

the emergence of these two political factions.

And they each have their own newspapers, and

some of them engage in quite vicious attacks.

And the Sedition Act is meant to limit what

newspapers can say and the degree to which they can criticize the government.

So all of this is a crucial background to what will happen

in 1800 when the United States gathers to elect a president again, or

seeks to elect a president again.

And it's a rematch, if you will.

The election of 1800 will pit Thomas Jefferson against John Adams yet again.

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