The Library of Congress | American Memory
»Lawmaking Home » Special Presentation
Presidential Elections
and the Electoral College
The Proceedings of the
Electoral Commission of 1877
Congressional Record - Volume 5, Part 4
This presentation highlights volume 5, part 4 of the Congressional Record. A wide variety of materials on presidential elections and the electoral college may be found in A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. Just a few of the many searches that will produce useful hits include:
Additional Library of Congress online resources related to presidential elections and the electoral college include the following Today in History Web pages:
- On April 30, 1789, George Washington delivered his first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress, assembled in Federal Hall in the nation's new capital, New York City.
- On February 17, 1801, presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson won the support of a majority of congressional Representatives, displacing incumbent John Adams.
- In 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes, who was born on October 4, 1822, became the nineteenth U.S. president after a bitterly-contested election against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York.
- On November 5, 1844, Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig party candidate Henry Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States.
- Americans observed the first uniform election day on November 7, 1848, in accordance with congressional legislation passed earlier that year.
- On March 19, 1860, William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1896, was born. He lost the electoral college vote to William McKinley despite his diligent campaigning.
- On Monday, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the sixteenth president of the United States by Chief Justice of the United States Roger B. Taney.
- President Wilson was inaugurated to his second term on March 5, 1917. Until the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, March 4 was the official day for presidential inaugurations. "I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations contains items from each of the 54 inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to George W. Bush's inauguration of 2001.
-
Related Information
- Students and researchers on the subject of the presidential elections and the electoral college may find it useful to consult the Law Library of Congress Research Guide to Election Resources, a resource guide to both electronic and printed materials on the subject.
- The National Archives and Records Administration has created the Electoral College Web Site.
- The United States Supreme Court offers all the major documents relating to the Florida Election Cases pertaining to the 2000 Presidential election.
- The Committee on House Administration of the United States House of Representatives has published a Congressional Research Service memorandum Overview of Electoral College Procedure and the Role of Congress.
Harper's Weekly was a leading weekly newspaper and HarpWeek offers an educational Web site on the Electoral College Controversy of 1876-1877.
»Lawmaking Home » Special Presentation
The Library of Congress | American Memory