What Was The Role Of Religion In The Presidential Election Of 1800

Politics Then and Now With the foundation of the United States, came the massive project of setting up a government that would represent the people as a whole. While the founders were putting together the massive role of politics within the constitution they planned out the role of the government and the people’s place within the system. The nation’s governmental system during the late 1790s’ through the early 1800s’ was very imbalanced because the people who ran the government were figuring out the way that the nation would embrace religion within government, the power of the people in the government, and the foreign policy of America in the baby stages of this new country. Politics during the beginning years of America has several similarities
Religion was very important to these people and their beliefs transpired into their work. We see the dramatic sense of this in James Parton’s document entitled, “The Presidential Election of 1800” when Parton writes, “Religion, for the first and last time, was an important element in the political strife of 1800.” The citizens respected a higher power in their lives and directed that respect toward politicians who respected and believed in God. Paton also writes that Hamilton tried to persuade people to vote against Jefferson because he did not believe in a god when he says, “Mr. Jefferson, on the contrary, was denounced by the pious and moral Hamilton as “an atheist.” The thought of Jefferson as being an atheist could have been a terrible blow to his campaign and this quote shows the importance of Jefferson’s faith in God. Although the thought of being an atheist could have been a blow to his campaign, it was not because the article continues with Parton saying, “It strengthened Jefferson’s faith in republican institutions, that his countrymen rose superior to religious prejudices in 1800, and gave their votes very nearly as they would if the religious question had not been raised.” Religion was a pressing issue during the early stages and continues to be in today’s society as well. Many politicians include their religious opinions while running to hopefully get some extra credit with the
Trying to ruin the reputation of the other man has and still is a major mechanism in a political race. In the “Congressional Pugilists”, we see how a fight ensued because of “[…] fight on the floor of Congress between Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Representative Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The row was originally prompted by an insulting reference to Lyon on Griswold’s part.” The negative side-effects of politics have always been the casting of someone’s else’s reputation and character down into the drain for someone else’s