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suspicion that I could submit to be instrumental in counter-acting the wishes and expectations of the United States—and I now constitute you my proxy, to declare these sentiments if the occasion shall require.”
    But behind the scenes Burr worked to the opposite purpose, lining up Federalist votes for himself and encouraging all who wished to defect from Jefferson, who maintained the gentlemanly aloofness for which he was noted.
    The election went to the House, where, under the rules of that day, the choice would be made between the two top contenders, Jefferson and Burr. One hundred and six representatives were eligible to vote, representing sixteen states, with nine state votes being required for election.
    The balloting started on Wednesday, February 11, 1801, in a snowstorm. Two representatives were absent, and two states had deadlocked delegations. The first ballot showed Jefferson 8, Burr 6, deadlocked 2. Jefferson had failed of election by one vote, and his gleeful opponents believed they could muster enough opposition to keep him from the Presidency.
    Since the inconclusive vote established on the first ballot was to maintain throughout the election, and since it couldhave been duplicated in principle in 1969, it will be instructive to analyze what happened:
    For Jefferson:
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee—principally southern states with the addition of three big states in the north.
For Burr:
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, South Carolina—principally New England states plus one border and one southern.
Deadlocked:
Vermont, Maryland—two accidental ties.
    New Jersey’s vote for Jefferson was extremely tenuous, since that state was divided three to two, with a swing man who was notoriously undependable; no one knew which way he would vote next and it was said that the New Jersey count should be recorded permanently as 2½ to 2½. The two ties were of interest in that Vermont’s was due to the personal disgust her two representatives felt for each other, while Maryland was prevented from voting for Burr only by the courageous presence of a man who was so near death that he was kept in a cot off the voting chamber. A crucial question before each ballot was, “Is Joseph Nicholson still alive?”
    A second vote was taken, and the results stood the same. All that night the House balloted, twenty-five times, without a change in the stubborn line-ups. The two Vermont men refused to compromise, or even to speak to each other, and Joseph Nicholson continued to rise from what all judged to be his deathbed to prevent Maryland from going to Burr.
    In the cold dawn of Thursday morning it became evident that the House was not going to settle this issue at one sitting, so in direct violation of the Constitution, which required them to stay till the job was done, they recessed till eleven that morning. At that hour the same results were forthcoming, so they recessed again.
    At noon on Saturday the voting resumed, with the same result: Jefferson 8, Burr 6, deadlocked 2. No President.
    The twenty-eighth ballot produced the same results, as did the thirtieth and thirty-first, but as the thirty-second was called, the dramatic break that all had waited for arrived. From the North Carolina delegation a gentleman rose, and in a voice quaking with emotion, announced that it was time for principle to overcome private interest and proposed to switch his vote from Burr to Jefferson. There were cheers and huzzahs until someone pointed out that since North Carolina was already for Jefferson, the switch signified nothing. Score on the thirty-second ballot: 8–6–2, with North Carolina voting for Jefferson, as she had done thirty-one times previously. The score on the thirty-third was the same, and the delegates broke up for a recess which would carry over Sunday.
    It seems extraordinary, at this distance and with what we now know, that these