| theking |
09-10-2004 12:02 AM |
Quote:
Originally posted by Centurion
And as usual, you prove you don't know what the heck you are talking about by posting!
READ & LEARN:
"The first time the House of Representatives chose the President was in 1800. At that time, the President was the candidate who received the most electoral votes, and the Vice-President was the candidate who received the second most electoral votes. Thomas Jefferson was the Democratic-Republican candidate for President and Aaron Burr was his Vice-Presidential candidate. The Federalists nominated John Adams for a second term with his Vice-Presidential candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney as the Vice-Presidential candidate.
The Democratic-Republican electors forgot to withhold one electoral vote from Burr, so when the final results were announced, the results were Jefferson and Burr, 73 electoral votes each; Adams, 65; Pinckney, 64; and John Jay 1. It then fell to the lame duck Congress, with its partisan Federalist majority, to decide the result. When no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives chooses the President. Each state has one vote, decided by a majority of its delegation, with a majority of the states needed for election.
To make a long story short, the Federalist House toyed with electing Aaron Burr, because they hated Jefferson so much. But in the end, after 36 ballots in all, Jefferson was elected President. It is well to remember that a lame duck House nearly elected Aaron Burr President rather than the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.
The second time the House of Representatives picked the President was in 1824. In a four way race for President between Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford. Crawford, secretary of the Treasury under James Monroe. When the electoral votes were counted, Jackson had 94, Adams 84, Crawford 41 and Clay 37. In the popular vote, Jackson led with 41.34%; Adams had 30.92%; Clay had 12.99% and Crawford 11.17%.
Under the 12th amendment to the Constitution, when no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes, the names of the three top contenders - Jackson, Adams and an ailing Crawford, were placed before the House. Clay's support was vital to the frontrunners.
Again, to make a long story short, Clay agreed to support Adams in exchange for being made Secretary of State. In those days, Secretary of State was considered the best stepping stone to the White House.
When the House met to vote, Adams was supported by the six New England states and New York, and in large part through Clay's backing, by Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Louisiana. So, Adams was elected on the first ballot with 13 of the 24 states in the union at that time. The "deal" with Clay cast a cloud on Adams administration from which it never emerged.
Four years later, Andrew Jackson ran for President again making much of his contention that the House of Representatives had thwarted the will of the people by denying him the presidency in 1825, even though he had been the leader in electoral and popular votes. In 1828, Jackson was elected with 178 electoral votes to Adams 83, and 55.97% of the popular vote. Jackson's popular vote total was the highest percentage until Theodore Roosevelt was elected President in 1904 on the heels of William McKinley's assassination. Jackson went on to win re-election in 1832.
The third time the House chose the President was in the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York, won the election with 50.97% of the vote. However, Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana; southern states then under Republican carpetbag rule, submitted two sets of returns. The House was called upon to decide who won the electoral votes from these three states.
For Hayes to become President by a 185-184 margin, he needed to win all 19 of the contested electoral votes. If Tilden won even one of the electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, he would have been elected president.
The Congress passed a law appointing a commission consisting of five House members, five Senate members and five Supreme Court Justices to decide the disputed electoral votes. The majority party (Democrats controlled the House and the Republicans controlled the Senate) was to have three members and the minority party two members of each delegation with two supreme court members each. The fifth supreme court member would be chosen by the other four.
To make another long story short, the commission awarded every disputed electoral vote to Hayes by a vote of 8-7, along strictly party lines. Civil War threatened. But Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops from the south in exchange for the South agreeing to respect Negro rights. Hayes was elected President and kept his part of the bargain, but the South didn't keep theirs. For the next 20 years every presidential election margin was a plurality, razor thin margin."
http://www.leinsdorf.com/House.htm
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Yea...of little comprehension...have just proven again your lack of comprehension...and I quote.
"and to the best of my knowledge it has never gone to the House of Representatives. "
Which statement was off the top of head without researching it. I hate to disappoint you but...though I have a good memory...I do not have a photographic memory...that is why I used the qualifier "to the best of my knowledge"...comprende? |
