New Hampshire 1800 Electoral College
- Office:
- Electoral College (Federal)
- Title:
- Elector
- Jurisdiction:
- Federal
- Label:
- New Hampshire 1800 Electoral College
- Date:
- 1800
- State:
- New Hampshire
- Type:
- Legislative
- Iteration:
- First Ballot
- Office/Role:
- Electoral College/Elector
- Electors:
- Benjamin Bellows, Timothy Farrar, Oliver Peabody, Thomas Thompson, John Prentiss, Arthur Livermore
| Electors: | Benjamin Bellows[1] | Timothy Farrar[2] | Oliver Peabody[3] | Thomas Thompson[4] | John Prentiss[5] | Arthur Livermore[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliation: | Federalist | Federalist | Federalist | Federalist | Federalist | Federalist |
| Presidential Candidate: | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney | John Adams / Charles C. Pinckney |
| Final Result: [7][8][9][10] | 148 | 147 | 146 | 99 | 90 | 89 |
| General Court | 148 | 147 | 146 | 99 | 90 | 89 |
Notes:
[1]Elected.
[2]Elected.
[3]Elected.
[4]Elected.
[5]Elected.
[6]Elected.
[7]"The General Court have passed a resolve that the Electors for this State, of President and Vice President of the United States, be chosen by the Legislature at their Session in November next." The New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth, NH). June 17, 1800.
[8]"The Electors for President and Vice-President are to be chosen by the Legislature - this is necessary on the present emergency, as a majority of the Legislature are now truly Federal, and the people might be so duped as to vote for some Electors who might be for placing Thomas Jefferson in the Chair. On this question the whole Jacobin strength was brought forward; the question however carried 83, to 66." The United States Oracle of the Day (Portsmouth, NH). June 21, 1800.
[9]"It must be pleasing to every friend of his country, to reflect, that notwithstanding all the attempts of the Jacobins, in this state, to the contrary, That the motion for choosing Electors of President and Vice-President, prevailed in our truly Federal Legislature. Had the choice been left to the people, it is more than probably that Jacobinic arts might have obtained one if not two Electors, who would have given a vote for the "twenty Gods or no God," THOMAS JEFFERSON. Those who think that this was hardly possible, still allow that the risque out not to be run." The United States Oracle of the Day (Portsmouth, NH). June 21, 1800.
[10]"When it came to the choice of presidential electors, the Federalist tactiticans left nothing to chance. Since the first election in 1788 New Hampshire had allowed its voters to choose presidential electors on a general ticket, subject to final selection by the legislature if the people failed to make a choice. Together with Massachusetts, which had formed electoral districts, the state had given far more scope to the popular voice than had the Republican South. But in the critical year 1800 there was a general disposition, both North and South, to remove this important matter from the whims of popular fancy and to bring it under strict party control. Virginia changed from district elections to a general ticket, Georgia and Pennsylvania from the general ticket to choice by the legislatures (fn: Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. Charles Paullin. 89, 93.). By these regressions from democracy, John Adams would certainly lose electoral votes outside New England, and the Yankee politicians were not loath to restore some of them by the same means. Harrison Gray Otis had persuaded the Massachusetts legislature in April to assume the power of naming presidential electors and the New Hampshire Federalists determined to follow that example (fn: The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, 2 vols. Samuel Eliot Morison. I: 186, 187.). Ignoring the precedents set by their fellow Republicans in half the states of the Union, Goddard and Langdon complained that such a measure would be unconstitutional and would deprive the people of their natural rights. Federalists answered simply with the indubitable fact that the Constitution gave every state legislature the right to choose electors any way it pleased. So the bill passed, but the Federalist majority was whittled down to seventeen, with the Old Colony and the Merrimack Valley showing hostile majorities (fn: Letters I (June 14, 1800) and "Autobiography, 85. William Plumer. Plumers Papers (Library of Congress))." The Ninth State: New Hampshire's Formative Years. 182-183.
References:
The New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth, NH). June 17, 1800.
The United States Oracle of the Day (Portsmouth, NH). June 21, 1800.
Village Messenger (Amherst, NH). November 22, 1800.
Courier of New Hampshire (Concord, NH). November 29, 1800.
The Republican Ledger (Portsmouth, NH). December 2, 1800.
Turner, Lynn Warren. The Ninth State: New Hampshire's Formative Years. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983. 182-183.
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