ABSTRACT
Amer ica had a choice not just between two men but between two pol i t ica l par t ies , Federalist and Republ ican , and between two compet ing visions for A m e r i c a . T h e contes t was one of the most squal id in Amer ican history. Each man perceived the other as an agent o f c o r r u p - t ion, disorder, and foreign subversion. Federal ists warned that J e f fe rson would reverse Federal ist ini t iat ives , destroy H a m i l t o n ' s f iscal system, ruin the economy, and cripple federal strength by remanding authori ty to the s tates . T h e y cal led him a " J a c o b i n " (with all the i n t i m a t i o n s of the Paris ian m o b rule and terror) and charged that he was a radical who would p r o m o t e social bedlam in A m e r i c a , br inging the same havoc to this country that the French Revolut ion had brought to France . Some of the Federal ist a t tacks were venomously persona l : they portrayed
Presidential elections, 1800
Jefferson as an atheist, drunkard, and adulterer, and unleashed the rumor that Jefferson was having an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. (This last charge has recently been supported by DNA evidence.)
Republicans fired off salvos of their own. They blasted Adams's policies such as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which stifled domestic opposition to Federalist policies and aimed to destroy the Republican Party. They charged that Adams was plotting to turn himself into a king, and started a rumor that he planned to marry one of his sons to a daughter of King George III, thereby reuniting America with England. Although Jefferson did not author any of the strictures against Adams, he encouraged friends to write them, helped to distribute pamphlets, and gave financial support to Republican newspapers.
