The United States on Eve of 1800 Election

Creating the Declaration of Independence | Creating the United States Constitution | Creating the Bill of Rights

Forging a Federal Government | Demand for a Bill of Rights | Formation of Political Parties | Election of 1800 | Peaceful Transition

Amos Doolittle. A New Display of the United States. New Haven: 1799. Woodcut on wove paper. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (98)
[Digital ID# ppmsca-15716]

This partriotic engraving was created just before the contentious election of 1800, in which Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams. The sixteen states then in the union surround President Adams. Below each state's seal are its population and number of senators and representatives.

Over the top is the defiant motto, "Millions for our Defense Not a Cent for Tribute," a slogan that became popular during the late 1790s when the U.S. experienced tensions with its Revolutionary War ally France. Americans were angered by French demands for tribute and France's seizures of U.S. merchant ships.