A Magnificent Catastrophe
Jun 3rd, 2008 by learningumbrella
A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign by Edward J. Larson
When I learned about the Founding Fathers as a child, I always imagined a single entity, a united front. “We must all hang together, or they will hang us one by one” or however that quote by Franklin actually went. Even when I read about Federalists, I thought this was a minor disagreement. Really, until you get to the Civil War, it’s easy to imagine that the early founders of our nation mostly agreed with each other, and that politics as we know them now is a recent blight on democracy.
Well, it is not recent, and this book will really open your eyes to that fact. Larson starts off examining the loss of friendship between Adams and Jefferson as their politics diverged, and moves us through to the election which tied Jefferson and Burr and how congress eventually decided who would be President. It makes the recount of 2000 look silly and childishly impatient - they didn’t know who was going to be President until February for the 1800 election. Both sides are shown as acting as they thought was best for the nation, and the extreme fears they expressed that the other side would be a disaster remind me of the extreme views we express about our politics now.
This election was the birth of the two party system, as they saw that party unity could move their cause forward, and as systems were developed to maintain party discipline and keep the votes in line. It was also the beginning of urban politics, with organizations to get out the vote going door to door and giving people rides to the polling place if that’s what it took. It’s all pretty fascinating to realize that our system of government is and always has been a huge compromise arrived at through lots of arguing and politics.
The drawback to the book is that it goes into so much detail about numbers and districts that it reminds me of watching the CNN election day coverage, and especially of the long and drawn out coverage of this year’s long and drawn out Democratic primary. After awhile, I found all that data overwhelming and I skipped a few parts in the middle of the book. The end wraps it up nicely again, but the book is dry in places.
If politics from the past interest you, I’d also recommend Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller, and the movie Amazing Grace.
