The 1800 triumph of Republicanism also meant the ascendancy of the slaveholding south. Three Virginia slaveholders-Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe-were to control the White House for the next twenty-four years. These aristocratic exponents of "democracy" not only owned hundreds of human beings but profited from the Constitution's least democratic features: the legality of slavery and the ability of southern states to count three-fifths of their captive populations in calculating their electoral votes. {Without this so-called federal ratio, John Adams would have defeated Thomas Jefferson in 1800.}
( Ron Chernow )
[ Alexander Hamilton ]
www.QuoteSweet.com