Results navigation
2. Vermont 1790 Governor
3. Vermont 1791 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1
4. Vermont 1791 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 2
5. Vermont 1791 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
6. Vermont 1793 Governor
7. Vermont 1793 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1
8. Vermont 1793 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 2
9. Vermont 1793 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
10. Vermont 1794 Governor
11. Vermont 1794 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1
12. Vermont 1794 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
13. Vermont 1795 Governor
14. Vermont 1795 Lieutenant Governor
15. Vermont 1795 Treasurer
16. Vermont 1795 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 2
17. Vermont 1795 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2, Ballot 2
18. Vermont 1796 Electoral College
19. Vermont 1796 Governor
20. Vermont 1796 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1
21. Vermont 1796 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 2
22. Vermont 1796 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
23. Vermont 1797 Governor
24. Vermont 1797 Governor, Runoff
25. Vermont 1797 Lieutenant Governor
26. Vermont 1797 Treasurer
27. Vermont 1797 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 3
28. Vermont 1797 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2, Special
29. Vermont 1798 Council
30. Vermont 1798 Governor
31. Vermont 1798 House of Representatives, Bennington
32. Vermont 1798 Lieutenant Governor
33. Vermont 1798 Treasurer
34. Vermont 1798 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Ballot 2
35. Vermont 1798 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
36. Vermont 1798 U.S. House of Representatives, Western
37. Vermont 1799 Council
38. Vermont 1799 Governor
39. Vermont 1799 Lieutenant Governor
40. Vermont 1799 Treasurer
41. Vermont 1800 Council
42. Vermont 1800 Electoral College
43. Vermont 1800 Governor
44. Vermont 1800 Lieutenant Governor
45. Vermont 1800 Treasurer
46. Vermont 1800 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1
47. Vermont 1800 U.S. House of Representatives, District 2
48. Vermont 1800 U.S. House of Representatives, Eastern District, Ballot 2
49. Vermont 1800 U.S. Senate
50. Vermont 1801 Chief Judge of the Supreme Court
Results navigation
Vermont became the fourteenth state in 1791, fourteen years after declaring itself independent from the claims of New York. Vermont adopted its first constitution in 1777. Patterning its constitution after the radical document created by Pennsylvania, Vermont went even further, granting universal male suffrage and prohibiting slavery. Wary of power, the framers denied the veto to the governor and forced him to share executive duties with a twelve-man council. A unicameral assembly held legislative power.
The governor, lieutenant governor, and treasurer were chosen annually in general elections; they needed a majority to gain office. If there was no majority, the winner was chosen by the Joint Assembly (the House, or General Assembly, and the Executive Council). Freemen of each town selected their representative to the General Assembly annually. Members of the Executive Council were elected statewide. United States congressmen were voted on by district, with the exception of the years 1812–1820, when they were chosen statewide. United States senators were chosen by the Joint Assembly. The Council of Censors were the caretakers of the state constitution. Thirteen men, each elected statewide every seven years to a one-year term, were charged with examining legislation for constitutionality and with proposing appropriate amendments. The early years of statehood saw the old political factions of the Arlington Junto (Thomas Chittenden, the Allen brothers, and their followers) and their opponents fade as the Federalist and Democratic-Republican divisions took center stage. Voter participation was initially sparse but inched upward. It took Jefferson's embargo to jolt Vermonters out of their political inertia. Fifty percent more voters cast ballots for governor in 1808 than in 1807. Madison's declaration of war precipitated a similar rise in 1812. The war years contributed the highest voter turnout of the period. The two parties were evenly matched. In the years of 1813 and 1814, their candidates for governor were separated by less than 300 votes, and the parties in the General Assembly were separated by a handful of votes. Vermont's congressmen were elected by the same narrow margins.
Despite such intense party competition, very few men held statewide office. Straying from its Pennsylvania model, Vermont allowed unlimited reelection to state office and multiple office holding. From 1787 to 1825, only eight men sat in the governor's chair. Only seven men served as lieutenant governor. Just two had been elected treasurer. From 1778 to 1825, only 114 different men sat on the Executive Council, out of a possible 588 seats. Because of this, and because of their ability to hold other offices, a small group were able to wield immense influence in the state.
After the end of the war, the Federalist Party slowly dissolved, and with it voter participation. The last Federalist candidate for governor ran in 1817. The two-party system being defunct, Republican statewide candidates were chosen by caucus in the legislature and ran virtually unopposed. With no issues to divide the populace, by 1825 the number of votes for governor had dwindled to its lowest level since 1800.
Bibliography
- Aichele, Gary.
"Making the Vermont Constitution, 1777–1824." In Michael Sherman, ed. A More Perfect Union: Vermont Becomes a State, 1777–1816. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society, 1991, pp. 2–37. - Bellesilses, Michael.
Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993. - Brynn, Edward.
"Patterns of Dissent: Vermont's Opposition to the War of 1812." Vermont History, 40 (Winter 1972): 10–27. - Carroll, Daniel P.
"Development of the Unicameral Legislature of Vermont." Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, III (1932): 12–31. - Crockett, Walter Hill.
Vermont, The Green Mountain State. 5 vols. New York: The Century History Company, 1921–1923. - Gilles, Paul S. and D. Gregory Sanford, eds.
Records of the Council of Censors of the State of Vermont. Montpelier: Secretary of State, 1991. - Graffagnino, J. Kevin.
"’I saw ruin all around’ and ‘A comical spot you may depend’: Orcamus C. Merrill, Rollin C. Mallory, and the Disputed Congressional Election of 1818." Vermont History, 49 (Summer 1981): 159–168. - Muller, H. Nicholas III.
"Early Vermont State Government: Oligarchy or Democracy? 1778–1815." In Reginald L. Cook, ed., Growth and Development of Government in Vermont. The Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences, Occasional Paper 5 (1970): 5–10. - ________.
"Smuggling into Canada: How the Champlain Valley Defied Jefferson's Embargo." Vermont History, 38 (Winter 1970): 5–21. - Potash, P. Jeffrey.
Vermont's Burned-Over District: Patterns of Community Development and Religious Activity, 1761–1850. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1991. - Roth, Randolph A.
The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791–1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. - Shaeffer, John N.
"A Comparison of the First Constitutions of Vermont and Pennsylvania." Vermont History, 43 (Winter 1975): 33–43. - Shalhope, Robert E.
Bennington and the Green Mountain Boys: The Emergence of Liberal Democracy in Vermont, 1760–1850. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). - Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash.
Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2004. - Smith, Donald Allen.
"Green Mountain Insurgency: Transformation of New York's Forty-Year Land War." Vermont History, 64 (Fall 1996): 197–235. - Walton, Eliakim P., ed.
Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier: J. and J. M. Poland, 1873–1880). - Williamson, Chilton.
Vermont in Quandary: 1763–1825. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society, 1949.