H . W. Brands here undertakes to tell the story of American federal politics down through the Revolution of 1800. He does so chiefly through the writings, public and private, of the Federalist era’s four leading political figures. His approach will pay dividends for those new to the period, as the four of them were remarkable writers and thinkers, besides alluring politicians.
The story opens with the protagonists’ uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election of 1800. Thomas Jefferson’s Republican party has won, but the Electoral College could make either Republican candidate, Jefferson or Aaron Burr, president. Alexander Hamilton writhes at the thought of the choice. President John Adams takes it worse. Characteristically, Hamilton makes his decision: it must be Jefferson, for Burr is an American Catiline. Of Jefferson, he can say, “His politics are tinctured with fanaticism . . . he is too much in earnest in his democracy . . . he has been a mischievous enemy to the principal measures of our past administration . . . he is not scrupulous about the means of success, nor very mindful of truth . . . he is a contemptible hypocrite.” Still, the Virginian is preferable to Senator Burr.
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