- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1933 : July]
-
-
- Date
- July 1933
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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North Carolina historical review [1933 : July]
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NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSIONAL
ELECTIONS. 1803-1810
By D. H. Gilpatbick
During the quarter of a century from 1790 to 1815 when Federalists
and Jeffersonian Republicans were struggling for supremacy in
national and state politics, North Carolina, a state inhabited mainly
by individualistic small farmers, boasted that she was “firmly re¬
publican.” The Federalists, despite valiant efforts of able men living
in the towns or throughout the Scotch Fayetteville district, never
succeeded in gaining a decisive lead in North Carolina as a whole.1
Their successive failures can be traced in the congressional elections
held throughout this period. Only in the election of 1798, w'hen
the French war scare could be utilized with some degree of effective¬
ness, could the party of “the rich, the well-born and the able” claim
any marked degree of success, and even in this election the Federalist
triumph was not so great as originally claimed.2 In 1800 the con¬
gressional election was naturally overshadowed by the presidential
election of the same year. In spite of the general enthusiasm for
Jefferson, the Federalists again elected four congressmen, but this
time they made no claims as to the Federalism of the other six
member s-elect.3
In the first five congressional elections held after Jefferson's
elevation to the presidency, North Carolina's steady Republicanism
was amply demonstrated. The elections of 1803, 4 1804, 1806, 1808
and 1810 gave evidence that the Federalists could not repeat their
pretended triumph of 1798. Only in 1808, when they could use
the Embargo as they were using it in the presidential election of the
same year, did there seem to be anything that remotely resembled a
1 An exception to this Republican triumph is to be found in the election of Federalist
governors in 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801 and 1807. Davie was elected by the Federalist As¬
sembly of 1798, while Benjamin Williams, a mild Federalist, was chosen in the four latter
years.
*The members elected this year were William Barry Grove, Archibald Henderson, Joseph
Dickson, William H. Hill, Willis Alston, David Stone, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Nathaniel
Macon, Richard Stanford and Robert Williams of Rockingham, Federalists claimed that
all but the last three represented their principles. See North Carolina Journal, Aug. 20,
Oct. 1, 1798. However, only the first four proved consistent Federalists in Congress.
* The delegation of 1800 was the same as that of 1798 with two exceptions. Richard
Dobbs Spaight was displaced by the uncompromising Federalist, John Stanly, in the Newbern
District and Joseph Dickson, Federalist, was defeated by James Holland, Republican, in
the Morgan District.
* This election was held in 1803 instead of 1802 because the Assembly of 1801 had failed
to pass a law redistricting the state for the twelve members to which, instead of the former
ten, North Carolina was entitled by the Census of 1800. The necessary law was passed by
the Assembly of 1802 and the elections were held in August, 1803.
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