FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2026-024

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (February 17, 2026) – This issue of Fun with Maps looks at an oddity in election of Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States 225 years ago.

THE BURR DILEMMA

Two hundred twenty-five years ago – February 17, 1801 – the House of Representatives had to cast the tie breaking vote to elect Thomas Jefferson President of the United States.

Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican Party candidate, ran against John Adams, the Federalist Party candidate and incumbent President.  This was a rematch of the candidates of the 1796 election, with an opposite result.

Unlike previous elections where the person with the second highest number of votes became Vice-President, for this election the candidates had running mates – Thomas Jefferson with Aaron Burr and John Adams with Charles Coatesworth Pinckney.

Interestingly, the electoral college voters each were casting two votes, and they could designate each of their votes for any of the four men running.  So, Jefferson’s VP running mate, Burr, managed to get an equal number of Presidential votes to Jefferson, 73.   This screwy system was fixed in 1804 with the 12th Amendment.

This is the same Burr who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel a few years later.

Here is Hondius’s 1606 map of today’s Virginia and the Carolinas. 

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.