My question:
The popular vote proved to be very close between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, and so the decision was turned over to the House of Representatives. The decision made by the House of Representatives was very clear-cut, and Thomas Jefferson received an obvious majority in the 10-4 vote. What were the political divisions in the House of Representatives at the time?
I searched on dogpile.com for "members of the House of Representatives in 1800" (I didn't enter it in quotes), and found this site:
http://clerk.house.gov/histHigh/Congressio...story/partyDiv.htmlMy evaluation:
This is a government website; as a matter of fact, it is the actual website of the House of Representatives. This is perfect for answering my question, since my question was specifically about the House and its members. A specific author of this page is not listed, but it is attributed to the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The page was last updated on December 21, 2004, and since the information that I am trying to find is from 1800, this is a recent enough page to be accurate. The footnote cites a biographical document about the U.S. Congress. The website provides a link to another page with a list of links to other government department websites and a list of education links. All of the links on this list work and give access to sites that appear to be up to date as well. According to alexa.com, this web site has a traffic rank of 4,299, a very fast speed that is faster than 88% of sites, an average load time of .6 seconds, 275 outside sites that link into it, no pop-ups, and has been on-line since November of 1989. Lots of the sites that link into this site are news organizations, on-line encyclopedias, or educational sites. This website is very good for answering my question; it provides me only with raw number data and allows me to form my own conclusions using this data.
Answer to my question:
During the time of the election of 1800, the House of Representatives that was in session was that that served from 1799-1801. This session of the House was made up of 106 representatives and 1 delegate. 60 of these people were Federalists, and the other 46 were Jeffersonian Republicans. This means that about 56% were Federalists and about 44% were Republicans at the time of the election of 1800.
