Fred Lucas - Tainted by Suspicion

He wasnt a candidate, but Alexander Hamilton was possibly the leading political player in the election of 1800. As the nations first Treasury Secretary wielding immense power in the first presidential administration, he set out to be a kingmaker in crowning the third president of the United States. He perhaps crowned the king he and most American political observers least expected.

King is a term that must be used judiciously, considering the American Revolution was about casting off the shackles of the British crown. Ultimately, for all his brilliance, Hamilton was a man who carried deep vendettas, and made the political personal.

As revered as George Washington was, few seemed moved by his warning against factions during his farewell address. The first president was twice elected by acclamation, but for all practical purposes governed as a Federalist. He was far removed from the fierce electioneering that had devolved into factionalism by the time the first contested presidential election came.

In 1796, Vice President John Adams, carrying Washingtons view of federalism, and former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, leader of the anti-federalist Democratic-Republicans, tangled in the first contested presidential campaign. The two factions were fairly unorganized that year, but each side would demonstrate the strategy of regional balance early. Adams, a New Englander, had Thomas Pinckney, a distinguished diplomat from South Carolina, as his running mate. Jefferson, the Virginian, had New Yorker Aaron Burr at his side. Four years later, the names were the same and the only thing that would change is that the Federalists picked the younger brother of Pinckney, Charles, to run with Adams in 1800.

It ended in the election of Adamsthe ideological successor to Washington, winning the presidency with 71 electoral votes to Jeffersons 68. Jefferson, as the second runner up, became vice president. The fact that two opponents would govern together was, to some, evidence of a constitutional flaw.

Without disputing the matter, Jefferson accepted the vice presidency, believing it a good idea to work with a moderate Federalist against the Hamiltonians. Jefferson wrote to Madison:

It is to be considered whether it would not be on the whole for the public good to come to a good understanding with him.

The United States had begun trading with Britain, with which France was at war. The French insisted that anyone trading with Britain was an act of war. French navy officials began boarding American trade ships and seizing cargo.

The Directory, the pre-Napoleon ruling regime in France, refused to accept an American envoy to the country and decided to cut commercial relations with the young country seeking to establish an economic foothold. French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand asserted in 1798 that France refused to negotiate with America unless the government would first pay a substantial bribe.

Adams reported the apparent act of extortion to Congress, and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which the Frenchmen were referred to only as X, Y, and Z. One of the first American political scandals to have a name was the XYZ Affair. The bribery scandal pumped up the popularity of the Adams administration and led to a Federalist landslide in the 1798 midterm elections. Congress approved money for the naval conflict with France and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, the latter which led to the demise of Adams. It was an attempt to curb criticism of the administration, but resulted in making him more unpopular.

Adams and his Federalist administration led the nation into a quasi-naval war with France, in what might have marked an early divide about hawkish foreign policy vs. more restraint. His vice president, Jefferson, strongly opposed the military involvement against the French, whom he had sympathies for. But Jefferson also had troubles with militarizationwhich he feared would empower the federal government to oppress the public.

As vice president, Jefferson was still one of the authors of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions that declared the Alien and Sedition Act to be unconstitutional, and there was broad belief that states could nullify federal laws.

Under the Alien and Sedition Actlater found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court after it had already expiredthe president was allowed to expel or imprison any immigrant who was considered to be dangerous and or treasonous. It further authorized prison terms or fines for anyone who distributed any false, scandalous, and malicious writings that could promote the overthrow of the government. This gave the government very broad interpretation, which is difficult to imagine today. The Adams administration had 15 opposition newspaper editors jailed. But framed in the context of the fears of the revolutionary bloodletting in France, to some, it might seem comparable to the USA Patriot Act in post-9/11 America, or surveillance by the National Security Agency.

However, Adams proved to be a moderate on the defense front. The quasi-war with France never turned into anything more, as Adams negotiated a peace with France. That enraged Hamilton, who had a distinguished record on the battlefield in the Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of Major General, and serving on the staff of General Washington.

A great founder, Adams had a tumultuous four years in office and always watched his back for Vice President Jefferson. The 1796 campaign certainly had its moments of mudslinging between the two men who would both die on the Fourth of July, but the political discourse of an 1800 rematch devolved to political warfare. It would be the last time the vice president challenged a president, primarily because of the constitutional change prompted by these controversial elections.

There was no set national Election Day at the time for all states to select their electors. In the absence of popular voting, states were left to decide themselves. The only real Election Day would be on Wednesday Dec. 3, when electors would meet in their respective state capitals and cast their votes.

Adams was the only candidate to have never owned slaves. At that time, one in six Americans living in the country were enslaved. There was of course Jeffersons complex approach of being personally opposed to slavery but still owning slaves. Pinckney of South Carolina was also a slave owner. Even Burr, the New Yorker, had previously owned slaves. Every state had at least limited slavery except for Adams own Massachusetts and nearby Vermont.

Born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735, Adams was a Harvard-educated attorney who served in the Continental Congress. He served as a diplomat in France and Holland during the Revolutionary War, a cause he strongly supported. He returned to the United States to be elected as the first vice president of the United States, under George Washington.

The most influential member of the Washington administration was most definitely Hamilton, and Adams was aware of this. The vice president told his wife Abigail Adams:

My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.

Though Jefferson was obviously not his choice to be part of his administration, it might have given Adams some relief that his foe was cast into insignificancy.

Born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres from his mother. He studied at the College of William and Mary. In 1772 he married a widow, Martha Wayles Skelton, and the two lived in his famous Monticello home in Charlottesville, Virginia.