After the presidential election of 1800, Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, faced a dilemma. President John Adams, a fellow member of the Federalist party, had lost his re-election bid. Hamilton and Adams had never much liked one another, and had always been rivals, but Hamilton, despite his dislike of Adams and reservations about his character and competence, had reluctantly supported him simply because the alternatives were, in his mind, infinitely worse.
Unfortunately, despite Hamilton’s attempts to sway electors
(some of which were highly dubious, both legally and constitutionally), the
Electoral College ended up with a four-way split in its vote. As a result, Adams
didn’t just lose the election; he came in third place, with just 65 votes, five
short of the 70 needed to win at the time. His running mate, Charles Pinckney,
came in just behind him at 64 votes.
Running against Adams was Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican who had served as the Secretary of State under Washington, and, due to a quirk in the electoral process that was later rectified with the 12th Amendment, was also Adams’ own Vice President, despite being from opposing parties. Jefferson and Hamilton had long been bitter rivals, and had a mutual, strong disdain for each other. Hamilton’s tepid endorsement of Adams was borne out of his hatred for Jefferson, as well as fears that Jefferson might do great damage to the republic if elected. However, though Jefferson fared better in the electoral vote than Adams, with 73 votes, he hadn’t technically won the election; rather he had tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr, another bitter political rival of Hamilton’s.
