Why was the Election of 1800 also called the Revolution of 1800?
The election exposed one of the flaws in the original U.S. Constitution. Back then the President was chosen from who got more votes from the Electoral College and the Vice-President was the person who got the second highest number of electoral votes. In the 1800 election, a tied electoral vote between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr caused the House of Representatives to have to choose. And after having to vote 36 times the House picked Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice. The problem with a system like that was, even when the Democratic-Republican party’s ticket was Jefferson as President and the Federalist party’s ticket was John Adams as President, the Dem-Rep party’s Vice President canidate almost became President. And what made it possible was the opposition party, the Federalists in the House of Representatives, were mainly casting their votes for Burr to oppose a Jefferson presidency. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, made electors cast distinct votes for President an
