Who determined who would be president of the U.S. in the election of 1800?
Since the election resulted in a dead tie of the Electoral College (Aaron Burr=73 votes, Thomas Jefferson=73 votes) there was vast confusion what to do. The Constitution didn’t address a tie, so the electors sent the case to the Supreme Court, who wisely ducked the issue by refusing to hear the case. The election then went to the House of Representatives, who took 37 ballots to finally select Jefferson. In Gore Vidal’s excellent book, “Burr,” the two candidates meet and hammer out a deal. Jefferson will take the first term, then Burr will take the second, but during the first term Burr and Hamilton fought their duel, and the rest…
