Thomas Jefferson, Original Intent, and the Shaping of American Law: Learning Constitutional Law from the Writings of Jefferson

It was the first election of the new century. The race had been tight and close. The incumbent party might not be able to hold the presidency, despite relative prosperity in the nation. For weeks and weeks, the nation waited without knowing who would be President. No candidate had a clear majority of the electoral votes. The Electoral College might have been designed to insure a smooth election of the President,1 but it was not working. The nation was in crisis. The outcome of the election might determine public policy for years, even decades. With no certain winner, one of the candidates, who was the outgoing Vice President, feared the election would be “stolen” from him. Thus, the Vice President of the United States discussed with his friends the possibility of calling on sympathetic governors to mobilize state militias to secure his transition to office. Politicians maneuvered, rumors spread, anxiety rose, and the outcome of the election remained in doubt. This was high-stakes drama, with the fate of the nation in balance. This was not Bush v. Gore 2 in the making. The year was 1800, not 2000. The candidates were initially the incumbent President, John Adams, and the incumbent Vice President, Thomas Jefferson. When the electors cast their ballots, Adams was the clear loser, with only sixty-five electoral votes to Jefferson’s seventy-three. But Jefferson was not the clear winner. His putative running mate, Aaron