164 Chapter 5 The Federalist Era: Nationalism Triumphant
it to cool political passions. Instead, in the words of
Federalist congressman Fisher Ames, people took it as
“a signal, like dropping a hat, for the party racers to
start.” By the time the 1796 presidential campaign
had ended, many Federalists and Republicans were
refusing to speak to one another.
Jefferson was the only Republican candidate
seriously considered in 1796. The logical Federalist
was Hamilton, but, as was to happen so often in
American history with powerful leaders, he was not
considered “available” because his controversial poli-
cies had made him many enemies. Gathering in cau-
cus, the Federalists in Congress nominated Vice
President John Adams for the top office and Thomas
Pinckney of South Carolina, negotiator of the popu-
lar Spanish treaty, for vice president. In the election
the Federalists were victorious.
Hamilton, hoping to run the new administration
from the wings, preferred Pinckney to Adams. He
arranged for some of the Federalist electors from
South Carolina to vote only for Pinckney. (Pinckney,
who was on the high seas at the time, did not even
know he was running for vice president!) Catching
wind of this, a number of New England electors
retaliated by cutting Pinckney. As a result, Adams
won in the electoral college, seventy-one to sixty-
eight, over Jefferson, who thus became vice presi-
dent. Pinckney got only fifty-nine electoral votes.
That Adams would now be obliged to work
with a vice president who led the opposition
seemed to presage a decline in partisanship. Adams
actually preferred the Virginian to Pinckney for the
vice presidency, while Jefferson said that if Adams
would “relinquish his bias to an English constitu-
tion,” he might make a fine chief executive. The
two had in common a distaste for Hamilton—a
powerful bond.
However, the closeness of the election indi-
cated a trend toward the Republicans, who were
making constant and effective use of the charge
that the Federalists were “monocrats” (monar-
chists) determined to destroy American liberty.
Without Washington to lead them, the Federalist
politicians were already quarreling among them-
selves; honest, able, hardworking John Adams was
too caustic and too scathingly frank to unite them.
Everything seemed to indicate a Republican victory
at the next election.President Jefferson speaking with merchants who complained that the Non-Intercourse Act had killed trade.