Election of 1800
From Hamilton the Musical (2020, Act 2)
Categories:
Run time: 4:02
Clip Description: The election of 1800 ended in an electoral tie so it went to the House of Representatives, which voted by state delegation, eventually ending with Thomas Jefferson winning
American Politics Concepts Discussed/Connected To: This clip is useful in discussion on the flaws of the early electoral college and the importance of ideology and beliefs within the electoral system.
Possible Uses in Classroom: This clip can discuss the early process of Elections and the importance that elections have within the U.S. government.
Discussion Questions
- The original rule was simple: each elector cast two votes, the winner became president and the runner-up became vice president. In 1796 that produced an Adams presidency with Jefferson, his opponent, as vice president; in 1800 it produced a tie between two men on the same ticket. The 12th Amendment fixed it by making electors name a president and a vice president separately. That fix assumes organized parties running joint tickets. Is it strange that the Constitution’s response to the rise of parties was to build them into the machinery rather than resist them, and what would the alternative fix have looked like?
- When nobody has an electoral majority, the House chooses — and it votes by state delegation, one vote per state regardless of population. That rule survived the 12th Amendment and is still the law today. Make the strongest case for it, then the strongest case against, and say which one you would be willing to defend in a room that disagreed with you.
- The musical’s climax is a man who despises both candidates throwing his weight behind the one he thinks less dangerous. Have you ever voted that way? Say what it costs a person to back someone they disagree with in order to block someone worse — and whether a system that routinely demands that of people deserves to be called offering a choice.
Assignment
Put Article II, Section 1 as originally ratified side by side with the 12th Amendment. Both are short. In two pages, identify every operative change and say what problem each one solves. Then find something the 12th Amendment left alone, and argue whether it survived because it worked, because changing it was politically impossible, or because nobody noticed. The difficulty is not length — it is reading two short texts carefully enough to see what stayed the same.
Clip hosted on Critical Commons.