Ballots for Bullets: 1800 (2 of 3)
The American Story
Christopher Flannery
4.6 • 941 Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2022
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The election of 1800 in America came after a decade of bitter and extreme party strife. Each side accused the other of aiming to overthrow the Constitution and preparing the way for tyranny. There was no precedent, including the experience of 1776, for resolving such differences without appealing to bullets. But ballots prevailed and power was transferred peacefully between uncompromisingly hostile political rivals for the first time in human history.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the American Story. |
| 0:04.7 | Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful. |
| 0:08.0 | Heartbreaking, funny, inspiring, and endlessly interesting. |
| 0:13.3 | This is Chris Flannering with the Claremont Institute. |
| 0:16.3 | I call this one, |
| 0:18.7 | Ballots for Bullets, 1800. |
| 0:23.3 | It was March 4th, 1801. |
| 0:27.1 | Thomas Jefferson was delivering |
| 0:28.7 | his first inaugural address as president of the United States. |
| 0:32.6 | He had just defeated his old friend and federalist rival, |
| 0:36.4 | the incumbent president John Adams, in the bitterly |
| 0:39.5 | contested election of 1800. Jefferson spoke in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol building, |
| 0:46.9 | in the still thinly populated and primitive Washington, D.C. On his right was his Vice President |
| 0:53.3 | Aaron Burr, who had nearly become president himself. |
| 0:57.4 | On his left was the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, leading federalist John Marshall, |
| 1:04.0 | who would administer the oath of office and continue as Chief Justice for 35 years. |
| 1:10.6 | The defeated John Adams was not in attendance. |
| 1:14.6 | He was in a carriage already on his way home to Quincy, Massachusetts. |
| 1:19.1 | His friendship with Jefferson, born in the American Revolution, shattered, |
| 1:24.3 | not to be revived for many years. |
| 1:27.8 | Jefferson reflected on the great election America had just gone through. |
| 1:34.4 | During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, |
... |
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