1. On 17 Oct. Democratic-Republican John Dawson of Virginia introduced in the House of Representatives a resolution to amend the constitutional process for electing a president and vice president, while on the 21st party colleague DeWitt Clinton of New York introduced a similar resolution in the Senate. Initiated in response to the congressional impasse in the election of 1800, the measures eventually became the 12th Amendment, reforming a system that awarded the presidency to the highest vote getter and the vice-presidency to the second place finisher. Under the proposed new system, separate elections would be held for the offices of president and vice president, virtually ensuring that both would be of the same party. In races in which there was no majority winner, the House would decide the contest, with each state casting a single vote.

Debate took place in the House from 19 to 28 Oct. 1803 and in the Senate from 23 Nov. to 2 Dec., with a key issue being the number of candidates for each office that would receive consideration in the event the House decided the election. House Democratic-Republicans proposed two, but Federalists argued for five. The Senate compromised at three, the number in the resolution when it passed on 2 Dec. by a 22 to 10 vote, with JQA among those opposed. In a speech near the close of the debate, JQA voiced his support for an effort “to establish the single principle of discrimination in the choice of the two highest officers of the union” but claimed the amendment as constituted did so at the expense of northern states and was “founded upon a manifest intention to attack the fundamental federative principle of the constitution.” The House adopted the Senate version on 8 Dec., sending the amendment to the states for ratification. The amendment was ratified by thirteen of the seventeen states between 21 Dec. and 27 July 1804, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Delaware either rejected the amendment or took no action on it at the time. Secretary of State James Madison declared the amendment adopted on 25 Sept. (Joshua D. Hawley, “The Transformative Twelfth Amendment,” William & Mary’ Law Review, 55:1542–1561 [2014]; Thomas J. Wickham, Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives of the United States One Hundred and Fourteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 2015, p. 95–98; Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States [1789–1824], Washington, D.C., 1834–1856; 42 vols. description ends , 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 209; Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 42:153; Washington Federalist, 2 Jan.).

2. Thomas Jefferson in a 16 July 1803 proclamation (Adams Papers) called for Congress to convene on 17 Oct. to consider the 30 April Franco-American treaty and two conventions regarding Louisiana, for which see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 4, above. The Senate ratified the treaty and conventions by a vote of 24 to 7 on 20 Oct., and Jefferson proclaimed the ratifications the following day. While Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans saw the acquisition of the territory as a triumph, Federalists believed it would erode the power of the northern states and therefore attempted to block subsequent legislation. JQA, who took his seat in the Senate the same day the ratification was proclaimed, split his vote on several pieces of related legislation. The first authorized the president to take possession of the ceded territory. It was introduced in the Senate on 21 Oct. and passed on the 26th by a vote of 26 to 6, with JQA joining the Federalist opposition. A bill to fund the purchase was introduced on 28 October. During debate on 3 Nov. JQA broke with his Federalist colleagues, arguing that the constitutional objections they raised could be overcome and declaring his support because of “the immense importance to this Union of the possession of the ceded country.” The bill passed the same day with JQA among the majority in the 26 to 5 vote. The House passed the bill on 7 Nov., and Jefferson signed it into law on 10 November. Summarizing his first weeks of congressional service, JQA described “the danger of adhering to my own principles,” writing in his Diary: “The Country is so totally given up to the Spirit of party, that not to follow blind-fold the one or the other is an inexpiable offence. … Yet my choice is made, and if I cannot hope to give satisfaction to my Country, I am at least determined to have the approbation of my own reflections” (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 41:67; Miller, Treaties description begins Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States, ed. Hunter Miller, Washington, D.C., 1931–1947; 8 vols. description ends , 2:498, 512, 516; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789– , Boston and Washington, D.C., 1845– . description ends , 2:245–248; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789– . description ends , 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 449–450; Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States [1789–1824], Washington, D.C., 1834–1856; 42 vols. description ends , 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 9, 16, 17, 26, 65–68, 73, 546–548, 558, 1231; D/JQA/27, 3 Nov., 31 Dec., APM Reel 30).