How Did French Revolution Influence America’s Elections Of 1800?

How Did French Revolution Influence America’s Elections Of 1800?
The French revolution that took place towards the end of the 18th century had a great impact on the American elections of the year 1800. The need to plan for and strengthen the American international policy values was at stake in the uprisings and the wars that were taking place in France. As a result, the British involvement to contain the fighting in France did not leave America out. The controversies that surrounded the three nations began when the former American colonial master, Britain got involved in the French revolution, thus creating political realignments and views that informed the politics between the incumbent present John Adams and his former vice president Thomas Jefferson (Simon 59). John Marshall, the US secretary of state, was at the center of the controversy, championing for the policies of the incumbent president, John Adams that were not popular with Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was among the three presidential candidates challenging Adams for the presidency and then first choice opposition to Adams.
In the year 1796, America conducted elections with a younger democratic nation having achieved their independence from the British colony just in the year 1776. The law of the land at the time allowed the leading political parties to nominate two candidates for president but specifying who was the first choice and the second choice among the two. In 1796, John Adams won the presidency with the Federalist Party, but Thomas Jefferson became second and was thus elected his vice president according to the constitution, though he was from a different party, the Democratic – Republican Party (Baumgartner 61).

Repeating the elections four years later meant that the rivalry was renewed and both parties were out to win the presidency,
Notably, both the Federalists and the Democratic-Republican disagreed in almost all the policies except the fact that they had a common feeling whoever was going to win the elections in 1800 had a chance to shape the destiny of America for decades and even centuries to come. John Adams, the incumbent president, was determined to win the election as a way of seeing his administration see the end of the French revolution successfully, though he was accused of giving a lot of preference to the British involvement in the revolution. The Democratic-Republicans saw John Adams as a British sympathizer who was keen to realign the nation’s policies to the former colonizer (Sounders 106). He championed for the british involvement in the wars of France, making him an enemy of the French nation. France was thus keen to get involved in a war with America for supporting British that was against the rule of the revolutionists.
However, the Democratic-Republicans felt that indulging in a war with France was not a wise option, and thus called for a peaceful treaty. A peaceful treaty would allow the two nations to become friends again despite their differences. They were rooting for the peaceful resolution of the differences between the two countries that had previously seen French army attack and destroy the America trade ships.
The Democratic-Republicans did not want to get America sucked up the in French revolutions wars and therefore vouched for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts between the two nations. However, John Marshal accused Thomas Jefferson that he didn’t know the international relations. Jefferson, keen to clinch on the presidency disregarded Marshall and went ahead to push for the peaceful resolutions of the conflicts. In the end, the two leading candidates, Jefferson and Adams tied on the electoral votes for the first time in history, but Jefferson was ultimately determined the winner of the election. He then constituted policies that resolved the conflicts between France, US, and Britain.

Works Cited
Baumgartner, Jody C. The American vice presidency reconsidered. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006.
Simon, James F. What kind of nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the epic struggle to create the United States. Simon and Schuster, 2003.
Saunders, Robert M. Power, the presidency, and the preamble: interpretive essays on selected presidents of the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.