Respecting the Peaceful Transition of Power
In recent days, former President Donald Trump has called for throwing out Constitutional provisions and re-instating him as president because of his charge that the 2020 election was fraudulent. Many dismiss this as another desperate diatribe, yet it is very dangerous given his support among many Americans. The peaceful transition of power is a great result of our Constitutional system. We undermine it at grave risk.
On September 19, 1796, President George Washington announced he would not seek a third term and left Philadelphia (the nation’s capital) for Mt. Vernon. His Vice-President, John Adams, won the presidency against Thomas Jefferson that year by three electoral votes, marking the first transition of power in American history. The crowned heads of Europe were astonished that Washington stepped down. The 1793 beheading of France’s Louis XVI lingered as a reminder of what transitions could be like.
Adams was a Federalist as was Washington, so a peaceful transition was perhaps not so surprising. Jefferson, however, was a Democratic-Republican, with a more limited view of the role of government. In 1800’s vitriolic campaign he ran against Adams again, beating him by eight electoral votes. Yet (the 12th Amendment did not yet exist) Jefferson was tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr. The Constitution stipulated that in an electoral tie, the House of Representatives would choose the president with each state delegation having one vote. While the Democratic-Republicans captured the House handily, that Congress would not convene until December. Thus, the old, Federalist-dominated House was still in charge. Many Federalists preferred Burr. Some wanted to delay past the March 4th inauguration date, hoping Congress could then choose a Federalist at least until December. It took a week and 36 votes for Jefferson to prevail. Some state militia had offered to come to his aid, but violence was avoided. Jefferson took the oath in the first, peaceful transition from one political party to another.
In 1824, John Quincy Adams won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Andrew Jackson in another election decided by the House of Representatives. No one in the four-candidate race had won a majority. Jackson and his backers were furious but remained peaceful, taking their case to the people and winning the presidency outright in 1828.
After the bitter contest of 1860, losing candidate Stephen Douglas reminded the nation that "Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I'm with you, Mr. President, and God bless you." Lincoln arrived in Washington under heavy security but that transition too was peaceful, though war broke out soon after. Peaceful transitions of power had become a hallmark of our Constitutional system.
That nearly changed in an election marked by charges of voter fraud and faulty ballots. Threats of violence against voters and efforts to get state officials to certify the electoral votes for a candidate who lost the popular vote were widespread. The final result was uncertain for weeks. That was in 1876, when Republican Rutherford B. Hayes eventually emerged the winner over Democrat Samuel Tilden via a negotiated arrangement in the House of Representatives. Just eleven years after a murderous Civil War, the nation still managed another peaceful transition of power.
Violence was also avoided in 2000 when disputes about Florida ballots ended up in the Supreme Court. Its decision handed the presidency to George W. Bush even though he lost the popular vote. Rather than precipitate violence, Al Gore said: “I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new president-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together.”
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of over 4 million votes but lost the electoral vote to Donald Trump. In her concession speech, she reminded the nation that “Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it.”
Indeed, the election of 2020 stands as the only presidential transition accompanied by a violent attack on the Constitutional process. Millions of Americans, incited by Donald Trump, who lost both the popular and electoral vote, refuse to respect the result of that election. Shockingly, a late 2021 poll showed 62 percent of Americans expect the losing side in a future presidential election to react violently.
Thomas Jefferson understood this danger. In his 1801 inaugural address he pleaded:
“this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. . . . let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.”
American democracy requires acquiescence from losing candidates. It requires respecting our carefully managed voting system, not denigrating it by conspiracy theories, unverified charges of fraud and politicians who vow to respect outcomes only if they win. The peaceful transition of power is no small historical feat in a turbulent world. Those willing to undermine it or take to the streets if they lose risk the very Constitution they claim to revere.
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