When Congress seemed as stalemated in electing a president as was the electoral college, furious maneuvering ensued between Federalists and Republicans. In an act of creative statesmanship James Bayard (1767–1815), a Delaware Federalist congressman and a relative of Samuel Harrison Smith (1772–1845), a key Jefferson Republican ally, struck a deal with Jeffersonians to protect Federalist programs and officeholders. The solution secured Jeffersons election on the thirty-sixth ballot in the House of Representatives.