Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-25
The House Of Repre-
SenfatiVeJ BaW0ted
for Fi7e Days to
Break a Tie Be-
tzveenfhe @tRadlcuI''
Jefferson andAarou
Burr, the Latter
Getting the Vice-
Presidency.
BY HENRY W. LAWRENCE.

-HE only charges made against Thomas
Jefferson by his contemporaries were
that he was a liar, an atheist q
revolutionary, and a nbertine. IN
happily the all-inclusive term Dol
sheyik" was unknown then; else they
undoubtedly would have summed him up neatly
in that single, terrifying epithet
The drama of his election to the presidency
of the United States a thriller. It had
action, suspense wild alarm and frantic re-
joicing There was even dash Of comedy
here and there unintentional comedy, amid the
desperate earnestness. Take for instance the
Time: The night of February Hip. 1901.
Place; The hall Of the House OF Representa-
tyes Of the United States.
Dramatis personae: The members of the
House
Many of the members are wearing nightcaps
and are trying to sleep on the hard floors Of
the committee rooms with only borrowed pill
lows between the best minds" and the boards,
and only old shawls or overcoats covering the
congressional limbs.
This scene is not a mere fancy. 1t is sober
historic fact.
The House of Representatives was for the
first time in its then rather brief history, vot-
ing of tie in presidential election. Members
had been at it all day and were very tired. The
sixteenth ballot had been taken at pm, the
seventeenth at TO- the eighteenth at II.
The House had ordered that balloting should
continue without adjournment until an election
was accomplished, that is, until the following
March L. perhaps; but when the II o'clock bal
lot proved to be yet another draw, the nesh
showed its weakness by motion to adjourn
until the morrow. This motion, however, did
not prevail
CTERN civic virtue scored at least a partial
= triumph over the bedtime habit by passing
the buck to the sergeant-at-arns, who was in
structed to 60 around again at midnight among
the quick and the dead with his ballot box.
Most of the quick thereupon became dead.
some snoolng in their seats, others on the soft
wood floor
Remember, this was not a Democratic noml-
mating convention in our twentieth century era
of night-Iivehness. It was instead gathering
of our distinguished forefathers 100 years ago,
when the curfew was in flower and the nights
were customarily used for Sleep
At midnight the seargeant-at-arms and his
tellers did their duty. Mid slumbrous muir
murings they reused each snoring member and
extracted vote from him. Not man fiinched
or changed his vote and each went firmly back
to Sleep look OF high determination on his
face until the relaxation Of repose set his lower
Jaw slightly ajar.
At 1 o'clock the torture was repeated and
again at 2 Then, with fiendish ingenuity, the
Interval was varied At 2:30 the sleepers were
snatched to the ballot from the very surface
Of oblivion; at 4 they were dragged up from its
depths And through it all. every man OF them
stood pat rather lay pat.
But the end of this electoral drama came at
last four days later; the thirty-sixth ballot
broke the deadlock and made Thomas Jefferson
President of the United States, giving the vice
presidency to Aaron Burr.
HE absurd incidents in this first election by
the House of Representatives should not
divert attention from the serious de-
1ects In our ELECTORAL machinery, here first