It is February 14th. Welcome to Episode 45 of History in a Year. Today, the training wheels come off. George Washington is gone, and for the first time in American history, we have a real, contested presidential election. It is John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson. Best friends become bitter enemies as the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans tear each other apart in the press. We witness the dirty tricks, the foreign interference, and the massive flaw in the Constitution that results in the most awkward administration in history: A President and Vice President from opposing parties.
STEPHEN:
Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH:
Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
It is February 14th. Happy Valentine’s Day! Welcome to Episode 45.
LEAH:
And what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than by watching two old friends break up and try to destroy each other?
STEPHEN:
That’s right. Yesterday, we saw George Washington step down. He walked away from power.
LEAH:
And the moment he left, the vacuum was filled by chaos. For the first time, there was no unanimous choice for President. There was no “Father of the Country.” There were just two political parties who hated each other’s guts.
STEPHEN:
The Election of 1796 is the first real presidential election.
LEAH:
In one corner, representing the Federalists, we have John Adams.
He was Washington’s Vice President for eight years. He was a revolutionary hero. He was brilliant. But he was also short, fat, insecure, and incredibly annoying.
STEPHEN:
And in the other corner, representing the Democratic-Republicans, we have Thomas Jefferson.
He was the author of the Declaration. He was the champion of the common man. But he was also seen by his enemies as a dangerous radical who loved the French guillotine a little too much.
LEAH:
Now, candidates didn’t “campaign” back then. It was considered undignified to ask for votes. You were supposed to sit on your front porch and pretend you didn’t want the job.
STEPHEN:
So, Adams stayed at his farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. Jefferson stayed at Monticello in Virginia.
LEAH:
But their surrogates? The newspapers? They went to war.
STEPHEN:
The attacks were vicious.
The Republicans called Adams “His Rotundity.” They said he wanted to marry his children to the Royal Family of England and start an American monarchy. They said he was a tyrant in waiting.
LEAH:
The Federalists attacked Jefferson just as hard. They called him an atheist. They called him a coward (remembering how he fled from the British during the war). They said if Jefferson won, he would burn all the Bibles in America and set up a guillotine in Philadelphia.
STEPHEN:
And then, things got complicated because of Alexander Hamilton.
LEAH:
Hamilton wasn’t running for President (he was too controversial). But he was the leader of the Federalist party. And he hated John Adams. He thought Adams was uncontrollable and crazy.
STEPHEN:
So Hamilton hatched a scheme.
LEAH:
This gets a little technical, but you have to understand the flaw in the Constitution back then.
Under the original rules, every Elector in the Electoral College got two votes.
The person with the most votes became President.
The person with the second-most votes became Vice President.
STEPHEN:
Hamilton’s plan was sneaky. He told the Federalist electors: “Hey, everyone vote for John Adams… but also vote for his running mate, Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina.”
LEAH:
He hoped that if every Federalist voted for Pinckney, but a few of them “forgot” to vote for Adams, then Pinckney would accidentally end up with the most votes and become President. Hamilton thought he could control Pinckney.
STEPHEN:
But Adams found out. He was furious. His supporters in New England decided to retaliate. They voted for Adams, but they refused to vote for Pinckney. They threw their second votes away.
LEAH:
This split the Federalist vote. And while the Federalists were infighting, the French decided to get involved.
STEPHEN:
The French ambassador, Pierre Adet, openly campaigned for Jefferson. He threatened that if Adams won, France would declare war on the United States.
LEAH:
This actually backfired. Americans don’t like being told what to do by foreign powers. It pushed a lot of voters toward Adams just out of spite.
STEPHEN:
So, the votes were counted in February 1797. And the result was a mess.
LEAH:
John Adams (Federalist): 71 votes.
Thomas Jefferson (Republican): 68 votes.
Thomas Pinckney (Federalist): 59 votes.
Aaron Burr (Republican): 30 votes.
STEPHEN:
John Adams won. By just three votes. He was the President.
LEAH:
But look who came in second. Thomas Jefferson.
Because of that weird rule in the Constitution, the runner-up became the Vice President.
STEPHEN:
So now, you had a Federalist President and a Democratic-Republican Vice President.
LEAH:
Imagine if Donald Trump was President and Hillary Clinton was his VP. Or if Joe Biden was President and Donald Trump was his VP. That is exactly what happened in 1796.
STEPHEN:
At first, they tried to make it work. Jefferson sent Adams a nice letter. Adams thought, “Maybe we can govern together like the old days.”
LEAH:
But the cabinet—who were all loyal to Hamilton—told Adams, “No way. Jefferson is the enemy. You can’t trust him.”
STEPHEN:
So Adams shut Jefferson out. He didn’t invite him to cabinet meetings. He didn’t ask his advice. Jefferson was stuck in the Vice Presidency with nothing to do but preside over the Senate and plot his revenge for the next four years.
LEAH:
And poor John Adams. He finally got the job he wanted. But he inherited a nightmare.
STEPHEN:
France was furious that he won. They started seizing American ships. His own party (led by Hamilton) was plotting against him. His Vice President was leading the opposition.
LEAH:
Adams later said, “No man who ever held the office of President would ever congratulate a friend on obtaining it.”
STEPHEN:
And to make matters worse, Adams has a very specific personality problem. He is brilliant, but he is notoriously thin-skinned.
LEAH:
Join us tomorrow for Episode 46. His Rotundity. We do a deep dive into the character of John Adams—the most underappreciated, misunderstood, and self-sabotaging Founding Father. We look at his prickly personality, his incredible diary, and why he was the only person who could have followed Washington.
STEPHEN:
I’m Stephen.
LEAH:
And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN:
You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.