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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  25
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] The passage supplies information that answers which of the following questions?
选项 A、How many votes were cast for John Adams in the 1796 Presidential election?
B、Under the voting system originally set up by the Constitution, how many votes did each elector cast?
C、Who was Jefferson’s running mate in the 1796 Presidential election?
D、What became of Alexander Hamilton after his plan to have Thomas Pinckney elected President failed?
答案 B
解析 这是一道细节题。B是正确的答案，在文章的倒数第二段，作者提到了每个选举者可投两张票(threw away their second votes to men who were not even running)。A提及的内容文章中并无提及，因此是错误的。C问的是谁是Jefferson的竞选搭档，文中没有提到，故是错的。最后，D的内容在文章中也没有讲到，是错的。至于Hamilton在Pinckney落选之后如何，我们不得而知。
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