Presidential Election of 1804

IN THE U.S. presidential election of 1804, Thomas Jefferson was elected for his second term. The election was the first held after the ratification of the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowed the election of both the president and the vice president. Before then, the candidate who received the most votes in the Electoral College was declared president, and the one with the second largest number of votes was declared vice president. The Amendment resolved many of the problems that Alexander Hamilton had seen in earlier presidential elections.

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson narrowly won the presidential election, but during his first four years as president, he become popular. He tried to ensure that his presidency represented a great change from English politics, and, in 1802, the Federalists lost seats in the U.S. congressional elections. On February 19, 1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union as the 17th state, during a period of great prosperity. U.S. merchants increased their trade after the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, during the brief lull in the Napoleonic Wars. With Jefferson's successful negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase, which came into effect with the signing of a treaty on May 2, 1803, the United States doubled in size. The Tripolitan-American War was also relatively successful, although pursued with little vigor by the United States.

The Federalists were keen to prevent Thomas Jefferson's election to a second term, and planned to get Vice President Aaron Burr elected as governor of New York. Some Federalists then believed that New York, and also New Jersey, might join the New England states in forming an independent confederacy. However, the leading Federalists, Alexander Hamilton and Ruftis King, opposed this, setting the scene for a tense election campaign. Hamilton managed to prevent Burr being elected by disseminating derogatory comments about the vice president. On February 25, 1804, the Democratic-Republican Party held its congressional caucus and nominated Thomas Jefferson for a second term as president. They were anxious to avoid having Burr as his running mate, and turned to George Clinton, a New York rival of Burr, who had won the gubernatorial elections for New York State. Clinton was extremely popular in New York, serving a total of 21 years as governor, 1777–95, and again 1801–04.

The death of Mary Eppes (nee Jefferson), the president's younger surviving daughter, on April 17 at Monticello, Jefferson's home, resulted in Thomas Jefferson suffering much grief, and overshadowed the first part of the election campaign. However, during the campaign, Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Burr had challenged Hamilton to the duel over the derogatory comments the latter had made that had prevented Burr's election as governor of New York. After the duel on July 11, at Weehawken, New Jersey, arrest warrants were issued for the apprehension of Burr as duels were illegal. Burr also became involved in a conspiracy with a colleague, General James Wilkinson, possibly to invade Mexico to establish an independent government there, or lead a secessionist movement in the West. This crisis overshadowed the presidential election campaign.

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