Getting the Credit for a Two-Party System

In the latest installment in his series on consequential presidential elections, Kenneth Walsh writes, in U.S. News & World Report, that Thomas Jefferson's triumph in 1800 "confirmed the emergence of a two-party system in American politics."

It was, as Walsh observes, "the first time that power in America passed from one party to another." And it did so peacefully, as it has continued to do for two centuries.

Even though most of the Founding Fathers objected to the idea of political parties.

Including the father of the country, George Washington.

As historian Thomas Connelly tells Walsh, most of the Founders believed "parties would do more harm than good."

And, to be sure, the election of 1800 was a challenge.

The first two presidents, Washington and John Adams, were Federalists. Jefferson, who was a Democratic-Republican, had an extensive record of service to the young republic. In his 30s, he authored the Declaration of Independence. He later served as Washington's secretary of state and Adams' vice president before being elected president at the age of 57.

He sought the presidency because he disagreed with the direction of the country under Adams. The Federalist Congress had passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Jefferson saw as a violation of both the First Amendment right to free speech and the Tenth Amendment, usurping power "reserved to the states."

Jefferson went on to serve two terms as president, during which the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the land area of the United States. After leaving the presidency, Jefferson became the founder of the University of Virginia.

The vote in the Electoral College ended in a tie, and Jefferson had to go through 36 ballot votes in the House of Representatives before he emerged as the president-elect.

Actually, I think the election was more dramatic and had more long-lasting implications for the country than Walsh's article suggests. But I can't complain too much about Walsh's series on consequential elections. He's posted four of the 10 articles he'll post in this series, and the most recent election he's written about occurred 144 years ago.

So it's been a good history lesson, these stories he's written about how Washington and Lincoln and Jefferson became president.

But I suspect there will be a few articles about elections in the 20th century before Walsh is through.

How can there not be?