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  3. To broaden their voting appeal in the Presidential election of 1796, the Fede

To broaden their voting appeal in the Presidential election of 1796, the Fede

游客2023-12-18  53
问题    To broaden their voting appeal in the Presidential election of 1796, the Federalists selected Thomas Pinckney, a leading South Carolinian, as running mate for the Newt Englander John Adams. But Pinckney’s Southern friends chose to ignore their party’s intentions and regarded Pinckney as Presidential candidate, creating a political situation that Alexander Hamilton was determined to exploit. Hamilton had long been wary of Adams’s stubbornly independent brand of politics and preferred to see his running mate, over whom he could exert more control, in the president’s chair.
   The election was held under the system originally established by the Constitution. At that time there was but a single tally, with the candidate receiving the largest number of electoral votes declared President and candidate with the second largest number declared Vice- President. Hamilton anticipated that all the Federalists in the North would vote for Adams and Pinckney equally in an attempt to ensure that Jefferson would not be either first or second in the voting. Pinckney would be solidly supported in the South while Adams would not. Hamilton concluded if it were possible to divert a few electoral votes from Adams to Pinckney, Pinckney would receive more than Adams, yet both Federalists would outpoll Jefferson.
   Various methods were used to persuade the electors to vote as Hamilton wished. In the press, anonymous articles were published attacking Adams for his monarchial tendencies and Jefferson for being overly democratic, while pushing Pinckney as the only suitable candidate. In private correspondence with state party leaders the Hamiltonians encouraged the idea that Adams’ popularity was slipping, that he could not win the election, and that the Federalists could defeat Jefferson only by supporting Pinckney.    Had sectional pride and loyalty not run as high in New England as in the deep South, Pinckney might well have become Washington’s successor.  New Englanders, however, realized that equal votes for Adams and Pinckney in their states would defeat Adams; therefore, eighteen electors scratched Pinckney’s name from their ballots and deliberately threw away their second votes to men who were not even running. It was fortunate for Adams that they did, for the electors from South Carolina completely abandoned him, giving eight votes to Pinckney and eight to Jefferson.
   In the end, Hamilton’s interference in Pinckney’s candidacy lost even the Vice-Presidency of South Carolina. Without New England’s support, Pinckney received only 59 electoral votes, finishing third to Adams and Jefferson. He might have been President in 1797, or as Vice-President a serious contender for the Presidency in 1800; instead, stigmatized by a plot he had not devised, he served a brief term in the United States Senate and then dropped from sight as a national influence. [br] It can be inferred that had South Carolina not cast any electoral votes for Jefferson, the outcome of the 1796 election would have been a______.
选项 A、larger margin of victory for John Adams
B、victory for Thomas Jefferson
C、Federalist defeat in the Senate
D、victory for Thomas Pinckney
答案 A
解析 这也是一道推论题。文章的倒数第二段谈到South Carolina共有16票，8票投给Pinckney，另外8票投给Jefferson，所以每个选举人的两票分别投给了上述的两位候选人。如果他们没有投Jefferson票的话，那他们会投给谁呢?他们要么投给Adams，要么投给另外一个不知名的候选人，不管怎样，Jefferson会失去选票，而Adams则不会。这样一来，当然Adams的赢面就大了。A的内容正是表达了这层意思，因此是对的。B的内容与问题相矛盾，所以是错的。C根本没有提Senate的选举，答非所问。最后，D也是错的，因为New Englanders的地方色彩很重，尽管不投Jefferson的票，他们也不会投Pinckney的票。
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