Presidents and Vice Presidents of the First Constitutional Period
1789-1797: George Washington (Independent)
1789 (with John Adams) def: John Adams (Federalist), John Jay (Federalist), John Hancock (Federalist), George Clinton (Anti-Federalist)
1792 (with John Adams) def: John Adams (Federalist), George Clinton (Republican), Thomas Jefferson (Republican)
1797-1801: John Adams (Federalist)
1796 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Thomas Pinckney (Federalist), Aaron Burr (Republican)
1801-1809: Aaron Burr (Republican)
1800 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Republican), John Adams (Federalist), Charles Pinckney (Federalist), John Jay (Federalist)
1804 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Charles Pinckney (Federalist)
1809-1813: Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
1808 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Michael Leib (Republican), Charles Pickney (Federalist)
1813-1821: James Madison (Republican)
1812 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
1816 (with Alexander Hamilton) def: Alexander Hamilton (Federalist), Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Theodosia Burr Alston (Republican)
1821-1822: Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
1820 (with John Quincy Adams) def: John Quincy Adams (Federalist), Thomas Jefferson (Republican), Theodosia Burr Alston (Republican)
1822-1825: John Quincy Adams (Union Ticket - Federalist)
1822 (with Thomas Jefferson)
1824 (with Thomas Jefferson) def: Thomas Jefferson (Union Ticket - Republican), Jesse Thomas (Anti-War Republican)
Notes:
the Burr presidency leads to Jefferson utilising his position as president of the Senate to lead the early United States in a less presidential direction maybe, with the veep remaining elected from the second place. The twelfth ammendment being, ITTL, instead muzzling the presidency and empowering the majority leaders, and the veep being for a time more relevant as president of the senate than the president itself.
1821 civil war over missouri? with a new constitution afterward that does away with the legal fiction of Veep as PM-esque in favour of a new position? Charles Grandison Finney & Denmark Vesey could be relevant. Andrew Jackson as a unionist general?
Walter Reuther, George Meany, Jimmy Hoffa as later Labor Party leaders
Write-up:
The 1800 election: Thomas Jefferson's Second Place Victory
by April Shepherd, posted on the Barbarossa Press Blog
"What if Thomas Jefferson had won the election of 1800?" is a commonly-posed question in uchronian fiction, particularly on uchronian fan forums. The reason for the question's enduring popularity is obvious; outside of perhaps Theodosia Burr, Jefferson is the most prominent figure from the First Constitutional Period to not have ascended to the presidency (which in that time was far more powerful a position than its modern day counterpart), and his 1800 loss to Burr was probably one of the most paradoxically successful defeats in political history.
Despite this, as a MOD (moment of difference), it is perhaps harder to manipulate than a prospective uchronian fiction author might first imagine. On the surface, simply having the elector who neglected to vote for Jefferson do his job properly would make sense; but it is important to remember that this would have simply led to Burr and Jefferson having the same number of votes, and a contingent election being fought in Congress. While we know that Jefferson did have significant allies in Congress following Burr's ascension, it is nevertheless difficult to find a situation where a significant enough number of Federalists would break ranks and vote for the arch-Republican Jefferson over the more moderate Burr, who by this time was not seen as the constitutional threat that Jefferson successfully painted him as after his election.
Nevertheless, if one were to orchestrate such a manipulation, the effects would have been wide-reaching. It is now second nature for us to imagine that America could have only developed along parliamentarian lines due to what many percieve as inherent flaws of presidentialism and one man rule, but to the people of 1800 the first Constitution was not viewed under such a jaded lens. At that time, the President was still seen as the primary figure in the administration, with the Vice President as a secondary figure. It was only because of the "untrustworthy" Burr's control over the White House that Jefferson persuaded enough of Congress - through his position as president of the Senate - to pass the twelfth ammendment to the first Constitution, which greatly reduced the powers of the presidency and empowered Congress to act on it's behalf; at the same time empowering Jefferson as the de facto head of Congress. It has been noted by historians that the ammendment was only ratified due to it's support among the Southern states, which is a great irony given its impact on the abolitionist movement.
Indeed, without Burr's two terms and the growing concentration of power in Congress and the vice presidency, some historians have argued that early America could have experienced a very different period. It is relatively well-known that the presidency was strong enough during Alexander Hamilton's first tenure that he was able to avert a very likely war with Britain over the press-ganging scandal. This could have strangled America in it's cradle; as surely war with the British Empire at that time - isolated from French allies - would have resulted in a reversal of the War of Independence.
Perhaps the more interesting grain of sand effect that could have occured had Jefferson won in 1800 were the events of the far more notable Hamilton preisdency. It is now commonly-held in academic circles that the early United States was headed for some form of civil war over the issue of slavery, and that any attempt to halt such a war would have merely delayed it (there remains some dispute over how long such a conflict could have been delayed). Regardless, had Jefferson not centralised power in the vice presidency, Hamilton's assassination in 1822 after the Defiance of Missouri triggered the Civil War could have been much more crippling to the United States administration. Due to Jefferson's reforms, however, it did not have the intended effects, and instead merely pushed Jefferson's faction of Republicans to reconcile with the Federalists and enter the Union Ticket for the final presidential election held under the first Constitution in 1824.
After the Civil War, however, the grains of sand get too scattered to predict too much. Presumably, some things in American history are set in stone to one degree or another. The post-Civil War era would likely still see a shift in political party loyalties; the collapse of the Unionist super-majority is assured, and it's likely that the rise of organised labour movements means that the Labor Party eventually comes to dominate the centre-left of the political spectrum, but whether the Unionists would persist or be supplanted by another party is anyone's guess. All in all, the ratification of the second Constitution in 1825 throws a lot of spanners in a lot of works for uchronian historians.
A number of uchronian historians have pondered whether the first Constitution could have persisted for longer than it did, had Jefferson not lost to Burr and was able to consolidate power in the White House instead, but I personally find this to be unlikely. The first Constitution was so riddled with flaws, inconsistencies and contradictions that it was headed for some sort of crisis at some point. Trying to conjure up a scenario where the first Constitution is never scrapped is like trying to conjure one where Britain never codifies it's own constitution; it's possible, yes, but in my honest opinion beyond the realms of plausibility, only achievable through the use of Extraterrestrial Cosmic Wombats.
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I have no clue if this is a logical timeline, my historical research on US politics amounts to listening to Hamilton.
