1. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , X, 1024.

2. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960), 681.

3. The legislature of Tennessee divided the state into three electoral districts. The legislature also appointed three delegates from each of the state’s eleven counties. The delegates then met in three separate district conventions, each of which selected a presidential elector. See “An Act to appoint electors to elect a Pr[esident] and Vice President of the United States” (Tennessee Laws, September, 1799, Sess., Ch. XLVI [October 29, 1799]).

4. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , X, 1024.

5. 1 Stat. description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, I (Boston, 1845); II (Boston, 1850). description ends 239–41 (March 1, 1792).

6. See notes 48 and 49. See also H to Jay, May 7, 1800; H to Sedgwick, May 8, 1800.

7. See H to Sedgwick, May 10, 1800, note 2; Sedgwick to H, May 13, 1800, note 2. See also the [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, May 19, 1800.

8. See Sedgwick to H, May 7, 1800; H to Sedgwick, May 8, 1800. See also Sedgwick to Rufus King, May 11, 1800 (King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King description begins Charles R. King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (New York, 1894–1900). description ends , III, 238); Joseph Hale to King, May 13, 1800 (King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King description begins Charles R. King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (New York, 1894–1900). description ends , III, 240); Pinckney to James McHenry, June 10, 1800 (Steiner, James McHenry description begins Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, Secretary of War under Washington and Adams (Cleveland, 1907). description ends , 459–60); McHenry to John McHenry, Jr., May 20, 1800, printed as an enclosure to McHenry to H, May 20, 1800.

9. See H’s Letter From Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States, October 24, 1800.

10. See H to Sedgwick, May 10, 1800; H to McHenry, May 15, 1800.

11. See the to H to Benjamin Stoddert, June 6, 1800; “Conversation with Arthur Fenner,” June 25–26, 1800.

12. On December 22, 1799, Sedgwick wrote to Timothy Pickering: “In a mixed company,… Mr.—(H.G.O.) declared that at the next election, whoever might be associated with Mr. Adams, the electors of Massachusetts would not give their votes uniformly, for fear the election of Mr. Adams would, thereby, be endangered” (ALS, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston). The initials within parentheses are in Pickering’s handwriting.

13. “Resolve respecting the choice of Electors of President and Vice President of the United States, and requesting the Governor to transmit a certificate of such choice” (Massachusetts Laws, June, 1800, Sess., Ch. VI [June 6, 1800]).

14. Gibbs, Wolcott description begins George Gibbs, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams: Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury (New York, 1846). description ends , II, 367. On November 12, 1800, the General Court of Massachusetts chose sixteen electors who were pledged to support Adams and Pinckney (The Columbian Centinel. and [Boston] Massachusetts Federalist, November 12, 13, 1800).

For correspondence on the presidential campaign in Massachusetts, see H to Wolcott, July 1, 1800; Wolcott to H, September 9, 1800; John Rutledge, Jr., to H, July 17, 1800; H to James A. Bayard, August 6, 1800; Fisher Ames to H, August 26, 1800; George Cabot to H, October 11, 29, 1800; McHenry to H, October 12, 1800; Benjamin Goodhue to H, November 15, 1800.

15. Federalists in New Hampshire prevented any possibility of that state having Republican presidential electors in 1800 by transferring the choice of electors from a general ticket to the state legislature which the Federalists controlled (“An Act directing the mode of balloting for, and appointing electors of this State, for the election of a president and vice president of the United States” [New Hampshire Laws, June, 1800, Sess. (June 14, 1800)]).

For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in New Hampshire, see H to Bayard, August 6, 1800; Cabot to H, August 23, November 29, 1800.

16. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in Vermont, see H to Bayard, August 6, 1800; Cabot to H, November 29, 1800.

17. When Adams dismissed Pickering as Secretary of State on May 10, 1800, he alienated some Federalist leaders in Connecticut, and on June 22, 1800, James Hillhouse, a Federalist Senator from Connecticut, wrote to Goodhue: “… it would be a hard matter to obtain their support in favour of his reelection” (ALS, New York Society Library, New York City). See also Wolcott to Ames, August 10, 1800 (Gibbs, Wolcott description begins George Gibbs, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams: Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury (New York, 1846). description ends , II, 403); Adams to John Trumbull, August 12, 1800 (ALS, Adams Family Papers, deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston). Nevertheless, on August 26, 1800, Chauncey Goodrich wrote to Wolcott that the Connecticut Federalists could be counted on to support Adams because “Among all the good people of the state, there is a horrid idea of Mr. Jefferson” (Gibbs, Wolcott description begins George Gibbs, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams: Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury (New York, 1846). description ends , II, 411–12).

For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in Connecticut, see H to Bayard, August 6, 1800; Wolcott to H, September 3, 1800; McHenry to H, October 12, 1800; Goodhue to H, November 15, 1800.

18. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in Delaware, see Rutledge to H, July 17, 1800; Bayard to H, August 18, 1800.

19. In the spring and summer of 1800, New Jersey Republicans for the first time conducted a comprehensive and successful campaign to organize their party through a series of local meetings in every section of the state. For this campaign, see The [Newark] Centinel of Freedom, April 1, July 1, 8, August 5, 1800. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in New Jersey, see H to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, July 1, 1800; H to Bayard, August 6, 1800; H to McHenry, August 27, 1800; H to Aaron Ogden, October 2, 1800; Rutledge to H, July 17, 1800; Richard Stockton to H, August 9, 1800.

20. See Pinckney to H, July 17, 1800; Cabot to H, November 29, 1800.

In January, 1800, the Republican-controlled legislature in Virginia changed the method of selecting presidential electors from elections by districts to a general election. This change was designed to ensure that most, if not all, electors would be Republican (“An Act to amend an Act, intituled, an act for Appointing Electors to choose a President and Vice President of the United States” [Virginia Laws, December, 1799, Sess., Ch. I (January 20, 1800)]).

21. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, see Bayard to H, August 18, 1800; Edward Carrington to H, August 30, 1800; McHenry to H, August 22, 1800; Otis to H, December 17, 1800; Sedgwick to H, December 17, 1800.

22. See note 48.

23. For correspondence on the presidential campaign in Rhode Island, see “Conversation with Arthur Fenner,” June 25–26, 1800; H to Carroll of Carrollton, July 1, 1800; Rutledge to H, July 17, 1800; H to Bayard, August 6, 1800; Cabot to H, August 10, 23, November 29, 1800; Ames to H, August 26, December 15, 1800–February, 1801; McHenry to H, October 12, 1800; Goodhue to H, November 15, 1800.

24. See “Conversation with Arthur Fenner,” June 25–26, 1800.

25. On December 18, 1800, Burr wrote to John Taylor of Caroline: “my apology is, that I had it personally from Govr. Fenner in september. He was then on the Republican ticket for Elector, and no doubt was entertained by any person of any party, but that the ticket would prevail. He told me that he should vote for Adams and Jefferson. The same thing was confirmed by a letter from Mr. Green, a respectable & intelligent man, in October. Yet Govr. F. afterwards withdrew his name & the ticket failed by the remissness of our friends in two or three of our strongest towns” (ALS, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston).

26. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , VI, 1543–44.

27. For correspondence on the presidential campaign in Pennsylvania, see Bayard to H, August 18, 1800; William Bingham to H, August 24, 1800.

28. [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, January 31, 1800.

29. Thomas McKean, a Republican, was governor of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1808.

30. Gibbs, Wolcott description begins George Gibbs, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams: Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury (New York, 1846). description ends , II, 388.

31. [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, November 14, 1800.

32. See “A Proclamation,” October 18, 1800, by Governor McKean ([Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, October 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 1800).

33. “An Act to direct in behalf of this State, the Manner of appointing electors of a President and Vice President of the United States” (Pennsylvania Laws, 1800 Sess., Ch. CCLXXXIII).

34. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , VI, 1543–44.

35. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in Maryland, see Sedgwick to H, May 7, 1800; Harper to H, June 5, 1800; Jonathan R. Wilmer to H, June 18, 1800; Pinckney to H, July 17, 1800; Rutledge to H, July 17, 1800; H to Carroll of Carrollton, August 7, 1800; Carroll of Carrollton to H, August 27, 1800; Bayard to H, August 18, 1800; Cabot to H, August 21, 1800; McHenry to H, August 22, September 4, October 12, December 1, 1800; H to McHenry, August 27, November 22, 1800; Bingham to H, August 24, 1800; Carrington to H, August 30, 1800.

36. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis description begins Samuel Eliot Morison, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis. 1765–1848 (Boston and New York, 1913). description ends , I, 194.

Harper also wrote a pamphlet entitled Bystander: or A Series of Letters On the Subject of the “Legislative Choice” of Electors in Maryland, the description of which reads: “In which the Constitutional Right to a Legislative Choice in that State, and the Necessity of Adopting it, for the present Election only, in order to counteract the Artifices of the Anti-federalists in Virginia and other States, and to prevent a President from being elected the Minority of the Nation, instead of the Majority are considered and fully proved” (Baltimore: Undt and Brown, printers, 1800).

37. See McHenry to Wolcott, October 12, 1800 (ALS, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). See also the [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, October 16, 1800.

38. See McHenry to Wolcott, November 9, 1800 (ALS, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford).

39. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , VI, 1543–44.

40. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in North Carolina, see Bayard to H, August 18, 1800; Bingham to H, August 24, 1800; Carrington to H, August 30, 1800; McHenry to H, August 22, September 4 (enclosures), 1800.

41. For correspondence concerning the presidential campaign in South Carolina, see Bayard to H, August 18, 1800; McHenry to H, August 22, September 4, 1800; Carrington to H, August 30, 1800; James Gunn to H, December 11, 1800; Otis to H, December 17, 1800.

42. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , VI, 1543–44.

43. ALS, letterpress copy, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

44. King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King description begins Charles R. King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (New York, 1894–1900). description ends , III, 309.

45. See Gunn to H, December 13, 1800; Hillhouse to Goodhue, December 12, 1800 (ALS, New York Society Library, New York City); Ames to Christopher Gore, December 29, 1800 (Ames, Fisher Ames description begins Seth Ames, ed., Works of Fisher Ames With a Selection From His Speeches and Correspondence (Boston, 1854; Reprinted, New York, 1971). description ends , I, 286–90).

46. See Charles Pinckney (cousin) to Jefferson, January 24, 1801 (ALS, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress); John Hunter to James Madison, April 16, 1801 (ALS, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress). See also John H. Wolfe, Jeffersonian Democracy in South Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1940), 158n; Marvin R. Zahniser, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Founding Father (Chapel Hill, 1967), 228–33.

47. Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and all the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , X, 1024.

48. The election of members to the New York legislature in 1800, for which the polls closed on May 1, resulted in a clear-cut victory for the Republicans. In New York City the Republicans were victorious in all thirteen contests for the Assembly, while in the Southern District (Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties), which was one of four voting districts into which the state was divided, the Republicans elected seven senators and the Federalists two (The Albany Centinel, May 27, 1800; [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, May 27, 1800).

49. H’s prediction proved to be correct.

In New York the presidential electors were selected by the combined votes of the members of the Assembly and Senate. As a result of the election of 1800, the Senate consisted of eighteen Republicans and twenty-five Federalists, while the Assembly was made up of sixty-seven Republicans and forty Federalists. Thus, the combined vote of the two houses was eighty-five Republicans to sixty-five Federalists (The Albany Centinel, May 27, 1800). This was in contrast to the outgoing legislature in which the combined vote of the Federalists exceeded that of the Republicans.

It should, perhaps, be noted that the [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, May 27, 1800, incorrectly gives the results for the Assembly as sixty-eight (rather than sixty-seven) Republicans and that this mistake is repeated in Jabez D. Hammond, The History of Political Parties in the State of New York (Albany, 1842), I, 134.

50. In 1796 H attempted to secure equal electoral votes for Adams and Thomas Pinckney. See King to H, May 2, 1796; H to King, May 4, December 16, 1796; H to ———; November 8, 1796; H to Wolcott, November 9, 1796; H to Jeremiah Wadsworth, November 8, December 1, 1796.

51. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.