This past Friday, January 20, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. The election was close. The popular vote went to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but the Electoral Vote – the vote that actually elects the president went to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump — Republican — 304 Electoral Votes — 62,980,160 Popular Vote,  45.9% Pop. Vote
Hillary Clinton — Democrat — 227 Electoral Votes — 65,845,063 Popular Vote,  48% Pop. Vote

Not only was the election close, but many Americans find it impossible to comprehend how the candidate with a majority of the popular vote could possibly lose the presidential election.

So where did the Electoral College come from?

The ELECTORAL COLLEGE is the result of substantial debate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 — a time of very different sensibilities. Delegates couldn’t envision of time when the United States would have either political parties or universal voting rights. Most states restricted the vote to those citizens who held property.

Everyone at the Constitutional Convention assumed George Washington would be the first president – as indeed he was. Washington was the only name most Americans knew. The delegates worried that after Washington, people wouldn’t know of viable candidates outside of their own state. They thought of the Electors as a special type of Congress named by each state. A state’s number of Electors would be determined by the total number of senators and representatives elected by each state. This would allow each state’s population to be a factor.

Current Electoral College Map

Originally, the Elector could vote for any two candidates as long as one was not from their home state. The man with the most votes would be president. The first runner-up would be vice-president. If no one held a winning majority, the election would go into the House of Representatives (the only body directly elected by the voters). Each state would have one vote. The Founders expected the Electoral College to function more as a nominating body with the House making the actual selection of president.

TODAY each political party within a state presents a slate of Electors. When voters cast their ballots for President, they also elect the Electors.* The Electors aren’t required to vote according to a state’s popular vote, but they usually do.

The tension between the numbers in the voting population and the total number of a state’s congressional delegation is meant to prevent more populous states from dominating smaller states.

CONTROVERISAL ELECTIONS

The Trump-Clinton Election is the most recent in a long line of controversial, closely-fought elections. I count eight such elections, though others might point to more or less. These elections demonstrate the changing electorate as Americans debate the future of the nation. I propose to look at four this week and four next week.

1796 ELECTION

George Washington served two terms as president, which he thought was enough for any man. Since Washington took office in 1790, factions had developed in the electorate. Americans didn’t have formal political parties, but they were beginning to coalesce around key political figures.

Since it wasn’t appropriate then for candidates to openly campaign, their friends and allies did the job. Each state chose Electors in a different way and Electors could vote how they wished – even for candidates of opposing “parties.” Candidates John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had widely differing views on almost everything and could hardly stand each other.

John Adams — Federalist — 71 Electoral Votes, 51.1%
Thomas Jefferson — Democratic-Republican — 68 Electoral Votes 48.9%
Charles Pinckney — Federalist — 59 Electoral Votes
Aaron Burr — Democratic-Republican — 30 Electoral Votes

1800 ELECTION – THE REVOLUTION OF 1800

The Founders thought that once a candidate was elected to office, everyone would put aside their differences in favor of the “greater good.” This proved not to be the case. By 1800 Federalists and Democratic-Republicans were clearly in opposition. The Federalist party also split between Adams and Alexander Hamilton.
The campaign became decidedly uncivil. Federalists attacked Jefferson as a godless supporter of the French Revolution who would unleash bloody terror on the country. Democratic-Republicans charged Adams was a fool and a tyrant who wanted people to call him “Your Excellency.”

Thomas Jefferson — Democratic-Republican — 73 Electoral Votes
Aaron Burr — Democratic-Republican — 73 Electoral Votes
John Adams — Federalist — 65 Electoral Votes
Charles Pinckney — Federalist — 64 Electoral Votes

ELECTORAL VOTE TIED – THE HOUSE VOTES

Jefferson and Burr tied at 73 Electoral Votes each which threw the election into the Federalist controlled House of Representatives. This presents an interesting situation since the tied vote was between Democratic-Republicans. Thirty-five ballots were cast without result. Finally Alexander Hamilton convinced a few delegations who refused to vote for a Democratic-Republican to turn in blank ballots. This allowed the victory to go to Jefferson. Burr was enraged. In 1804 Burr killed Hamilton in a duel.

1804 Burr-Hamilton Duel

1824 ELECTION – THE CORRUPT BARGAIN

Politics changed after 1800. More people had voting rights. The 12th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1804. This required that the president and vice-president be from the same political party. It also stipulated that when an election was thrown into the House of Representatives, only the top three candidates would be considered.

There were four candidates in 1824. John Quincy Adams, son of the second president, would become the last president to wear knee-breeches. Adams’ primary rival was Andrew Jackson, known as the victor at the Battle of New Orleans. There were two other candidates: William Crawford and Henry Clay.

Andrew Jackson — Democratic-Republican — 99 Electoral Votes, 37.9% — 151,271 Popular Votes 41.3%

John Quincy Adams — Democratic-Republican — 84 Electoral Votes, 37.9% — 113,122 Popular Votes, 30.9%

William Crawford — Democratic-Republican — 41 Electoral Votes, 15.7% — 40,856 Popular Votes, 11.2%

Henry Clay — Democratic-Republican — 37 Electoral Votes, 14.2% — 47,531 Popular Votes, 13%

Jackson had a majority of Electoral Votes and popular votes, but his percentage of Electoral Votes tied with those of John Quincy Adams. The election went to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay was eliminated and told his supporters to give their votes to John Quincy Adams. Jackson supporters believed Clay had stolen Jackson’s election. Their suspicions were confirmed when Adams named Clay as his Secretary of State.

1828 ELECTION

Jackson supporters immediately began their campaign for the 1828 election. Campaign Manager Martin van Buren put together a political coalition that held until 1860. Jackson’s party became the Democratic Party on a platform of States Rights and Popular Democracy.

Jackson supporters made much of their candidate’s nickname – Old Hickory. Jackson, they said, was tough as hickory wood. Supporters put up hickory poles. They distributed hickory toothpicks and held barbecues fired by hickory chips. They attacked Adams for his legalism, for marrying a foreign-born wife, and spread the rumor that during his diplomatic career Adams procured American virgins for the Russian czar.

Adams’ supporters accused Jackson of murders, personal violence, and living with his wife before her divorce was final.

Andrew Jackson — Democratic — 178 Electoral Votes, 68.2% — 642,553 Popular Votes, 56.1%
John Quincy Adams — National-Republican — 83 Electoral Votes, 31.8% — 500,897 Popular Votes, 43.6%

Between 1796 and 1828 the United States moved from a largely agrarian economy to one of booming commerce and expansion. The electorate expanded to include most white males. The physical geography of the country grew from a boundary at the Mississippi River to one that extended that reached westward into the Northwest Territories. An increasing number of Americans concluded that slavery was not compatible with the concept that “all men are created equal.” Elections became more volatile. The 1860 presidential election would trigger what some historians call the Second American Revolution.

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*Nebraska and Maine have a proportional distribution of Electors.

Images from Wikimedia Commons:

George Washington by Edward Savage. U.S. Public Domain

Electoral College Map for 2012, 2016, and 2020. U.S. Public Domain

John Adams by John Trumbull. U.S. Public Domain

Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale. U.S. Public Domain

Aaron Burr Drawing. U.S. Public Domain

John Quincy Adams by George Peter Alexander Healy. U.S. Public Domain

Andrew Jackson by Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl. U.S. Public Domain

Data Taken From:

American Presidency Project.
The Miller Center.
U.S. Electoral College 

The post The Electoral College & Historic Controversy first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

When you think of Washington D.C., what comes to mind? Most people think of visiting the White House, the Capital Building, and Mount Vernon. Maybe various exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum. But, unless you’re an academic researcher, you might overlook the Library of Congress, and it’s well worth an excursion.

Congress established the Library with an appropriation of $5000 in 1800 to provide reference materials for the government.** The following year, 740 books and three maps arrived from London booksellers. The British burned the library along with most of city’s public buildings when they raided Washington on August 24, 1814. At the White House they found a table set for 40 diners and sensibly decided to enjoy the food and wine before destroying the residence.

Thomas Jefferson immediately offered to sell his personal library of over 9,000 volumes at a price determined by Congress. Regarding the breadth of topics under consideration, Jefferson wrote, “I do not know that it contains any branch of science which congress would wish to exclude from this collection…there is in fact no subject to which a member of congress may not have reason to refer.”
The purchase price worked out to $23,950, an amount based on the measurements of the sizes of all the books.  In April 1815, ten wagons left Monticello carrying 6,707 volumes packed in pine cases. A new Library of Congress was born.

THE MODERN LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Over the years the Library outgrew its space in the Capital Building and in 1897  moved  into its own structure. When it opened, the Library of Congress building was considered the most beautiful building in the city.

The design was based on the Paris Opera House, in a style now called Beaux Arts -neo-classical.

Today as Carla Hayden’s tenure as the fourteenth Librarian begins, the Library of Congress has three additional buildings – the John Adams Building (1939), the James Madison Memorial Building (1976), and the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation (2007).  The collection containing over 162 million items is overseen by a staff of 31,000 employees, and an annual budget of nearly $650 million.

Hmmm….I need to schedule some research time in the Main Reading Room.

** [If you’re wondering what the value of $5000 in 1814 would be today, I can only share that $5000 in 1914 is worth $118,262.50 in 2016. Calculation from Saving.org.]

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Featured Image: Library of Congress Logo in 2008. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Pictures:

The President’s House c. 1814 by George Munger. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Jefferson, c. 1817-1827 by Mathew Harris Jouett. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Library of Congress Building. 1910 Postcard. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Great Hall of the Jefferson Building by Andreas Praefcke. Creative Commons Attribution.

Carla Hayden. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Main Reading Room. Library of Congress. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Library of Congress Website.

Thomas Jefferson Building. Architect of the Capital.

Sofia Samee Ali. “Carla Hayden to be Sworn in.” NBC News. Sept 14, 2016.

Nicholas Fandos. “New Librarian of Congress.” The New York Times. Sept 14, 2016.

The post Library of Congress – Our National Repository first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Many of John’s abuses were due to his need for money. The last king, his brother Richard, had emptied the royal treasury for his crusading expenses, and John needed to pay for his wars against France. The king raised funds in a way that made him unpopular to all levels of society.

KING JOHN’S CRIMES

John
• charged high reliefs [an inheritance tax],
• abused his authority over wardships [administering the estates of minor and/or female heirs and keeping the money]
• abused his authority over marriages [royal approval of marriages for a fee],
• increased levies of scutage [taxes so John could hire soldiers instead of recruiting knights,]
• raised rents.

John even turned the pope’s interdict to his advantage by collecting church fees that would have gone to Rome. John didn’t negotiate with the pope until the Church endorsed the French king’s plans to invade England. John didn’t have the resources or support to refute an invasion, so he accepted the pope’s authority.

The barons revolted in May 1215. By early summer the barons had taken London and cornered the king at Windsor Castle. They refused to withdraw until the king signed a document guaranteeing their rights. On June 15, 1215 the parties met at Runnymede, a meadow by the Thames River. Reluctantly, the king placed his seal on what became known as Magna Carta.

The document has sixty-three clauses, most of which confirmed the barons in their feudal contractual rights. But there are glimmers of modern liberal thoughts. The king’s rights were limited by custom in his relations with all levels of society, and the term “Englishmen” occasionally included women.

• A widow would not be compelled to marry against her wishes. The king could, however, forbid a match. Though not exactly granting women their choice of marriage partner, the clause was a radical concept when marriage was about property, not personal preference.
• No free man could be arrested, imprisoned, or have his property confiscated without the legal judgment of his peers or the law of the land.
• The king could not claim feudal scutage, aids, or reliefs unless in keeping with common counsel.

Bottom Line – The law no longer came out of the “king’s mouth.” Instead, the king for the first time was placed under the law. And to keep the king honest, the barons appointed a watch-dog committee of twenty-five barons. If the king violated his agreement, they would inform him of the breach. If he continued the behavior, the committee would summon the people to “distrain and distress him in every way possible” except killing him.

It was and is a great document. But John had no intention of keeping his word. He immediately complained to the pope that he had signed under duress. The pope was quick to recognize the potential threat to all rulers “appointed by God,” and issued a bull absolving John from his oath. The barons went back to war. The French king invaded England, and by the time John died in 1216, the French held London.

After John’s death, the barons ended their rebellion to support young Henry III. The French were drive out. Henry III and his advisors reissued Magna Carta, and English government began its evolution to Parliamentary rule.

Fast-forward five hundred years to 1776 British America. The colonists believed King George III had overstepped his authority by levying taxes and controlling commerce. When Thomas Jefferson sat down to compose a document outlining the American case against Britain, the longest section outlined the king’s crimes against his American subjects. Such being the case, they had no choice but to invoke the right of rebellion first set out in Magna Carta.

Next Saturday Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence first proclaimed on July 4, 1776. In so doing, we also declare the continued relevance of Magna Carta.

Acknowledgements:

Featured Image: John and Barons. 1868. By Joseph Martin Kronheim. US Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Image of Magna Carta, 1297 version. Owned by David M. Rubinstein and on public display in the West Rotunda Gallery of National Archives Building. US Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

The post MAGNA CARTA – A STILL LIVING DOCUMENT first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.