When Thomas Jefferson was running for president in 1800, Federalist evangelicals claimed that if the Virginian won the election he and his henchman would try to close their churches and confiscate Bibles from their homes. When Irish Catholics started arriving...
Election of 1800
Are we in the midst of a third American revolution?
CNN legal scholar Carrie Cordero and historian Ed Larson at USA Today: We are all familiar with the first American Revolution: an actual war, a rebellion for self-governance. But it was not long after that Thomas Jefferson called the election of 1800...
Putting the January 6, 2021 insurrection in historical context
Catherine Halley of JSTOR Daily offers some great resources. Here is a taste of her January 7 piece: Yesterday our friends who teach sixth grade were asking: how do I talk to my students about the insurrection that just happened...
Let’s set the record straight on what Mike Pence can and cannot do at tomorrow’s certification of the Electoral College results
Donald Trump seems to believe that Mike Pence can overturn the votes of the Electoral College tomorrow when Congress certifies the results. Here is Trump last night in Georgia: And earlier today: CNN is reporting that Trump and Pence had...
What the election of 1800 can teach us about the peaceful transition of power in the United States
There are so many lessons we can learn from the presidential election of 1800. For example, when we claim that we are living through “the most divisive campaign” in history, 1800 offers perspective: The election of 1800 also figured prominently...
What if Trump refuses to give up power?
Clarkson University political scientist Alexander Cohen says that “American democracy will survive” if Trump decides to contest the election of 2020. He points to five previous contested elections: 1800, 1824, 1876, 1960, and 2000. In all five cases, democracy survived....
The court evangelicals respond to Donald Trump’s RNC convention speech and the aftermath
Last night I thought Franklin Graham offered a good opening prayer to kick-off the last night of the GOP convention. Today he sat for an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network. At times Graham tried to be...
Mark Silk: “Trump’s 2020 religious attack on Biden harks back to 1800”
Here is Mark Silk at Religion News Service: In case you hadn’t heard, last week President Donald Trump attacked his presumptive Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, on religious grounds. “No religion,” declared Trump. “No anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God.”...
Trump’s new campaign ad in historical context
Have you seen Trump’s new campaign ad? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOOlOMLaFho&w=560&h=315] As Bruce Springsteen once said, “Fear’s a dangerous thing. It can turn your heart black, you can trust. It’ll take your God-filled soul and fill it with devils and dust.” Fear...
Wednesday night court evangelical roundup
What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? John Hagee invited Fox News commentator, conspiracy theorist, disgraced Christian college president, and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza to speak at the Sunday evening service at his Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Watch: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnd5fMkIaA&w=560&h=315]...
The Election of 1800 and Today
Yesterday the Messiah College History Department hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson for a lecture titled “The Election of 1800 and the Birth of Partisan Presidential Politics.” The lecture stemmed from Larson’s 2007 book A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election...
Pulitzer-Prize Winner Edward Larson at Messiah College
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Ed Larson of Pepperdine University School of Law will deliver a lecture entitled “The Election of 1800 & the Birth Partisan Presidential Politics” on Monday, February 27, 2017. The lecture is free and open to the public. ...
We are Getting Close to the Election of 1800
Back in the day POTUS elections were about competing ideas. Right? Not really. Today Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a racist. Trump responded by calling Clinton a bigot. We are getting close to the rhetoric of the campaign of 1800,...
The 2016 Presidential Election and Historical Comparisons
Everyone is making comparisons between the 2016 presidential election and other presidential election in American history. I have also been doing plenty of this here at the blog (including my last post about George Wallace). Historical analogies are never perfect....
Abigail Adams: Letters
The Library of America has announced the publication of Abigail Adams: Letters. The collection of 430 letters from the former first lady is edited by historian and Adams scholar Edith Gelles. In a post at The Library of America blog, Gelles...
Chief Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Was a Lame-Duck Appointment
Over at the blog of Oxford University Press, historian R.B. Bernstein reminds us that John Marshall, the man who many consider to be the most influential Supreme Court Justice in American history, was a so-called “lame-duck” appointment. Here is a...
If Bernie Gets the Nomination We Could Have the Election of 1800 All Over Again
As we enter the final weekend before the Iowa caucuses and with the February 9th New Hampshire primary fast approaching, Bernie Sanders has given himself a legitimate shot at the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He is...
Name That Candidate
He ran on a platform of change. He wanted to move beyond the culture wars of the previous decade by promoting national unity. He was attacked for his religious affiliations. He was criticized for being an intellectual who was out...
The Election of 1800: Politics as Usual
My class on the History of the Early Republic continues to work through Edward Larson’s The Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign. It has been fun teaching this book during an election season and my...