Presidential Election of 1796

**The** **Third Presidential Election** was the first competitive Presidential Election, the election pitted former Vice President John Adams up against Senator George Benckendorf, and would go on to be the first Presidential Election decided by the United States Congress.

## Candidates

###### Democratic Party

The Democratic Party in nominated former Vice President John Adams, who had become a major anti-elitist following his falling out with Alexander Hamilton. For the other nomination they selected Vice President George Clinton, but a small fringe group of electors in North Carolina backed John Harvest, the editor of the Freedom Post, a popular Democratic news paper.

John Adams (Former Vice President)George Clinton (Vice President)John Harvest (Editor for the Freedom Post)
### Constitutional Democratic

The Constitutional Democrats had rallied behind Senator of Pennsylvania George Benckendorf. For the Vice President they mainly backed Henry Whittleston, but other groups backed former Governor of Massachusetts Benjamin Lincoln or Senator of Maryland John Henry.

George Benckendorf (President Pro Tempore)Henry Whittleston (Governor of Connecticut)Benjamin Lincoln (Former Governor of Massachusetts)John Henry (Senator of Maryland)
### Federalist

A small group of Federalist Electors decided to back Governor of Maryland, Charles Carroll.

Charles Carroll (Governor of Maryland)
## Campaign

As the Southern party picked a candidate popular in the North, and especially New England, the election seemed like a landslide for Adams, and for that reason he decided to play it safe, distancing himself from the campaign relying on Linda Banks on the matter, which later was used by Charles Davidson to portray him as the puppet of the "corrupt" Bankses in his article in the *Virginia Herald.*

The campaign has been turned around in 1799, when George Benckendorf, utilizing a new method of campaigning for his time, where he localized the attacks where they worked the most by using connections with the most prominent newspapers, such as *The Philadelphia Tribune* and the *Virginia Herald.* The newspapers leaked personal letters between Alexander Islington and John Adams in the South, where it has been revealed that the Vice President was agreeing with Thomas Paine on the matter of abolitionism, which caused the Southern states to back Benckendorf in droves (except for North Carolina, which voted for Gerald Smith but forced by the latter to vote for Adams later on).

The revelations about Adams have led to a newspaper war between *the Virginia Herald* and more popular, Banks-controlled *Freedom Post ,* where, as it seemed, the over-aggressive Charles Davidson held the edge and made his newspaper more popular because of this infighting.

It has been estimated by experts later on that most of the campaign has been centered around Virginia, the state which could have delivered an outright Adams victory.

## Results

The election season has been, expectedly, more negative and partisan than the two previous ones.

With an upset victory in Virginia, most of the southern states except for Tennessee and North Carolina were solidly behind Benckendorf, and with state legislatures of New York, Vermont and North Carolina disliking other candidates, they have all backed Gerald Smith as a protest vote. The election has been a deadlock. After negotiations, initially wavering Smith has stated that he is a more classical, mainstream liberal, and actually disliked the fusion of Federalist and Radical ideologies created by Benckendorf. Thus, the votes went for Adams, and pathway for a Benckendorf Presidency was closed at the time. But yet another upset happened.

While Benckendorf was unable to become President, Henry Whittleston tried to negotiate with the electors who originally voted for Smith, and would have become the new President easily. The electors would fall to 65-65 between former Vice President John Adams and Governor of Connecticut Henry Whittleston. Whittleston expected more, but George Benckendorf told several Pennsylvania Electors to not vote for Henry Whittleston, sending the election to the Congress chambers. As it turned out, Benckendorf knew about the plot, and was unhappy with this, thinking that democracy should not be undermined in a time of crisis. He informed John Adams of what was happening in the electoral college. The latter, extremely upset, was ready to concede anything in exchange for victory. While not willing much concessions from his opponent, after a promise to rescind the whiskey tax, Benckendorf blocked the pathway for a Whittleston presidency.

### Popular Vote

 John Adams | 44,772
 George Benckendorf | 37,630
 Total

## Congress Vote

The Congress would convene on February 17, 1797 to vote for the President, this would be the first time the Congress would decide who would be President. The Congress would decide 12-1-3 to elect John Adams to the position of President of the United States.

 **Adams** | Benckendorf