Date: 1981-06-15
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. we have recently undergone a transition of party power in Washington. both in the executive branch and in the United States Senate. In both cases the transition was peaceful. amiable. and dignified. as the public has come to expect. We would be surprised and disappointed if it had been anything less. Yet when we look back over our national history to the first transition of party. we find an entirely different atmosphere. one of tension and intrigue. There were no guarantees that the new nation would survive the transfer of power between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans (a different political organization altogether. I should add. from todays Republican Party). This first transition was the greatest test of the fledgling constitutional republic. and while the process was by no means smooth and easy. it is stirring to read how successfully our predecessors passed this test. paving the way for the many orderly transitions which would follow during the next two centuries. Since 1789. the nation had been led by Federalist presidents. George Washington and John Adams. and the Congress controlled by Federalist majorities. For the first six congresses. the Federalists were continually in the majority in the Senate and only during the Third Congress. from 1793 to 1795. did the Jeffersonians take a majority in the House of Representatives. With the election of 1800 this situation was reversed. The Republicans gained an 18 to 14 majority in the Senate and a69 to 36 majority in the House. During the next eight years they would keep and increase these margins sharply. so that during the Tenth Congress (18071809) their majority in the Senate was 20 to 6. and in the House 118 to 24. As for the presidency. both the Federalists and Republicans nominated their candidates in congressional caucuses. a system which lasted until 1824. The Federalists renominated the incumbent president. John Adams and chose Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for vice president. The Republicans chose their popular leader. Thomas Jefferson. for president. Following the voting in New York in May 1800 (in those days. each state conducted its elections on its own independent schedule). which the Republicans carried largely due to the effective campaigning of Aaron Burr. the party nominated Burr for vice president. "Burr in 1800 was not some devious plotter." Professor Noble E. Cunningham has written. "but an aggressive. practical party organizer." Not until December did the last state. South Carolina. cast its ballots. Until then. Jefferson and Adams were tied with 65 electoral ballots each. South Carolina determined the victor by casting its eight electoral votes to Jefferson and Burr. But while Jefferson now had 73 electoral votes. so did his vice presldential running mate. and the tie vote forced the election into the House of Representatives. While the Republicans would have the majority in the House. as a result of the election. it was the outgoing Federalistdominated Sixth Congress which would determine the presidential election. Hating Jefferson. the Federalists cast their votes for Burr. For his part. Aaron Burr insisted that he was not in competition with Jefferson. but he took no action to dissuade Federalist support. The House was then meeting in the newly constructed Senate wing of the Capitol. in a room which for many years served as our disbursing office and which has recently become a part of the majority leaders suite. Outside that room is a bronze plaque describing the dramatic events which occurred there: "This tablet marks the first meeting place of the House of Representatives. Here--on November 18. 1800the House of Representatives met for the first time in Washington. remaining through the second session of the Sixth Congress. Here. from February 11 to February 17. 1801. the House cast 36 successive ballots to elect Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States in the contest between Jefferson and Aaron Burr." Why the Federalists abandoned Burrs candidacy is still uncertain. Alexander Hamilton strongly recommended voting Footnotes at end of article. S 6150 CO for Jefferson over Burr on the grounds that Burrs "public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement." The Federalists may also have assumed the effort was futile and might cause public resentment against them. There also appeared to be some backstage assurances from the Jeffersonians on matters of policy and patronage. which won over sufficient Federalist votes. In any case. Jefferson was finally selected and was sworn in as president in the Senate Chamber. less than a month later on March 4. President Adams left town without attending the inauguration of his successor. but two of Jeffersons chief antagonists were present in the Senate Chamber that day (today the room is commemorated as the Old Supreme Court Chamber. on the first floor of the Capitol. but from 1800 to 1810 it served as the Senate Chamber) . Chief Justice John Marshall. who swore in the president. and the new vice president and erstwhile rival. Aaron Burr. What a dramatic picture those three men must have presented to the audience that day. Just before taking his oath. Jefferson addressed the assemblage with these memorable lines: "We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans. we are all Federalists. . . I know indeed that some honest men fear that a Republican Government cannot be strong. that this Government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot. in the full tide of experiment. abandon a Government which has so far kept us free and firm. on the theoretical and visionary fear that this Government. the worlds best hope. may. by possibility. want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this. on the contrary. the strongest Government on earth." Once in power the Jeffersonian Republicans intended to flex their political muscles. They controlled the executive and legislative branches. but the Federalists remained firmly entrenched in the Judiciary. Shortly before the end of his term as President. John Adams had signed the Judiciary Act of 1801. Ostenhibly this act was designed to relieve the burdens of Supreme Court Justices who spent several months a year in the saddle riding circuit. The Judiciary Act created a special circuit court and new district judgeships to assume these duties. However. President Adams immediately filled the new positions with Federalist judges. The Act also provided that the Supreme Court would be reduced by attrition from nine to five justices. thereby postponing Jeffersons ability to nominate new Republican justices to the Court. Jefferson and his supporters in Congress were determined to repeal this offending act. In his State of the Union message on December 8. 1801. Jefferson called for a reexamination of the judicial system. and on January 6. 1802. Senator John Breckinridge of Kentucky moved for repeal of the Judiciary Act. Breckinridge argued that the law was both unnecessary and improper and that the courts and judgeships created by it should be abolished. The Senate debated the issue for the rest of the month and on January 26 it voted Footnotes at end of article.