The president that slavery elected...maybe...maybe not.

Why was Thomas Jeffereson elected president in 1800? A better question is; who elected Jefferson president? I'm conflicted over the answer to this seemingly simple question. The argument can be and has been made, most notably by Garry Wills, that slavery was the reason Jefferson was able to capture the presidency over John Adams. In his book, Nergro President, Wills argued that Jefferson and the South were able to come to power due to the 3/5 clause (article 1, section 2, paragraph 3) of the Constitution. (a short review of Wills's book can be found here.) The "slave power," as Wills labels it, handed Jefferson a majority of votes in the Electoral College. This is true, but, as much as I don't like Jefferson, I must admit slavery was not solely responsible for his election to the presidency. Jefferson, according to John H. Aldrich, was also the choice of the people (or the choice of the white males population who were the only people that could vote). Aldrich, using voting records, was able to show that Jefferson also captured the popular vote; Jefferson had 150,778 votes to Adams's 138,685. A map of the election results can be seen here. It seems as if the will of the people and the "slave power" combined to make Jefferson president over Adams....Though one could also argue that Congress elected Jefferson, but I won't delve into that.