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A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Burr v. Hamilton”
The all-important state senate election in New York boiled down to a political faceoff between the two men organizing the local New York City politics on behalf of the Republicans and the Federalists. The Republican figure was Aaron Burr, and the High-Federalist standard bearer was Alexander Hamilton.
The two men both served under Washington in the Revolutionary War, and both were ambitious, but of the two, only Hamilton earned Washington’s respect. After independence, they became rivals in New York’s political scene, and as the election of 1800 approached, they were eager to face off as competitors in organizing the election of the New York House of Representatives campaigns.
New York, which gave the right to pick the all-important electoral college representative to the incoming state representatives, had long been a Federalist stronghold. Almost all of the seats were districted in populous New York City, making that city’s election the deciding front for the battle for the statehouse.
Hamilton expected that Federalists would build on a long history of success in New York and would again win a majority of seats in the state house, enabling them to select a pro-Federalist electoral college voter. But he let the opportunity go to his head. In hoping to select not only Federalist, but High-Federalist electoral college voters—as part of a scheme to put Pinckney ahead of Adams in the ultimate electoral college vote count—Hamilton arranged for the most loyal High Federalists to run for each district on behalf of his party, rather than picking the strongest candidates. Burr, seeing an opening, put together a strong set of Republican candidates and organized a vast grassroots campaign to make sure Republican voters got to the polls. The result was a stunning upset. Burr’s Republican candidates took a majority of seats in the New York state house, putting New York’s electoral college votes in the Republicans’ hands.
According to Larson, “Federalists took their defeat particularly hard because they had not anticipated it” (105). Hamilton even contacted the Federalist governor of New York, asking him to consider calling a last-minute session of the current, Federalist dominated state senate. His aim was to empower the outgoing governor, rather than the incoming representatives, to choose the electoral college representatives for the presidential election. This would have effectively undermined the impact of the New York votes on the presidential election. Governor Jay, seeing this request as anti-democratic, declined to pursue the suggestion.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Caucuses and Calumny”
In the wake of the April election in NYC, the balance of power shifted within the Republican party: “Having orchestrated the Republican victory in the New York City election, Aaron Burr promptly set out to claim his reward—designation as the party’s choice for Vice President” (112). He hitched himself to Jefferson, navigated the caucuses successfully, and was ultimately selected as the VP nominee. The opposition, according to Larson, took a more complex approach:
The Federalist caucus, though on its surface less contentious, involved more convoluted subcurrents than the Republican one. For Jefferson’s running mate, Republicans had chosen someone already known for his independent ambition […] In contrast, for their second candidate, Federalists tapped a reliable subordinate and party loyalist, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (119).
Hamilton refused to relent on his long-term scheme to overthrow Adams. Despite his humiliating defeat in the New York City elections, Hamilton continued to negotiate with fellow Federalists, trying to whip up votes so that Pinckney would be the presidential choice over Hamilton. Adams caught wind of the plot, and, enraged, he fired two High Federalists from his cabinet. A schism opened up within the Federalist party: “So public was the break between Adams and the High Federalists that the Aurora ran an article asserting that there were now three parties represented in the U.S. Senate—Republicans, Adamites, and Pickeronians” (129). The partisan politics had split into further factions. With each new rift, the perceived stakes of the outcome of the election were raised, and, accordingly, the tactics of the participants became even more intense.
Chapter 6 Summary: “A New Kind of Campaign”
In mid-1799, the national capital was relocated to Washington D.C., so Adams, the sitting President, made a southward trip from Philadelphia to move his home: “In effect, Adams’s monthlong journey to the nation’s capital became the first presidential campaign trip in American history. It visibly boosted the President’s sagging spirits” (142). Giving stump speeches on this trip, Adams relived some of the popularity he had enjoyed in his war days, a refreshing experience after years of serving as an unpopular president, fending off accusations that he was sympathetic to the British model of monarchical government.
Meanwhile, Republicans were organizing into a disciplined and cohesive political unit, so as to make a credible challenge to the incumbent party. As part of his campaign organization effort, Jefferson set forth what he called his "political faith," or governing principles. He emphasized, in particular, his zeal for religious liberty and the freedom of any sect to worship without persecution:
These principles […] fit into three basic categories: restoring civil liberties; curbing the excessive growth and power of the national government, particularly of its executive branch; and protecting states’ rights. They became the chief Republican campaign themes. In announcing them, Jefferson sought to rebut Federalist charges that he would overturn the constitutional and religious order (155).
While Jefferson returned to Monticello for the summer, “Burr was as hyperactive as usual” (159), making a trip to New England to court votes there, despite the fact that the region leaned heavily towards the Federalists. For the most part, however, he concentrated his efforts in Virginia, where partisan tensions were at a high and where people were even arrested for rioting. According to Larson, by the end of the summer, the national attentions were fixed on Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia: “Everyone now knew that these elections would decide the presidency” (163), either by choosing electors for the electoral college or by choosing the representatives who would make that choice on the people’s behalf.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
While the early chapters of the book hinted at the political drama about to unfold, it is not until Chapters 4 through 6 that Larson reveals the ways in which the election of 1800 was truly extraordinary.
The unexpected turns of events began with the upset victory of the Republicans in the New York elections. By winning the city of New York, the Republicans gained enough New York representatives to be able to choose a Republican elector to the November vote of the electoral college, all but securing New York, an old Federalist bastion, for their side.
Hamilton, whose ambitious attempt to use the New York election to tip the New York electoral college votes away from Adams, in favor of High-Federalist Pinckney, came out of his loss in New York nonetheless determined to keep Adams out of office. While Chapter 5 documents this fixation, Chapter 6 is where Larson truly delves into the extent of Hamilton’s determination to undermine Adams’s campaign. Larson portrays the significance of Hamilton’s fixation by showing both Hamilton’s actions and the ways in which they spurred Adams to launch the traveling outreach program considered the nation’s first presidential campaign.
The section, overall, represents an attempt to put the convoluted events into a straightforward chronology, while still portraying the long-term resentments the complicate the relationships, particularly those between Adams-Hamilton and Hamilton-Burr. This section charts the ways in which the history of their relationships shapes the present debates, while hinting at the fact that there are still more repercussions of the old enmity to unfold.
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