136 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



press as to seem to justify all that had been said by 

 Republicans as to the dangerous aims and tendencies 

 of the Federalist party. 



During the two years preceding the election of 1800 

 the Federalists steadily lost ground, and the very war 

 fever which had for a moment so powerfully aided them 

 now gave rise to dissensions within their own ranks. 

 Between Hamilton and John Adams there had been 

 for some time a feeling of jealousy and distrust, not 

 based upon any serious difference of policy, but simply 

 upon the fact that one party was not large enough to 

 hold two men of such aggressive and masterful tem- 

 perament. As is apt to be the case with mere personal 

 differences, in which no question of principle is 

 involved, it was marked by pettiness and silliness on 

 both sides. As in those days the electoral tickets did 

 not distinguish between the candidates for the presi- 

 dency and the vice-presidency, it was possible to have 

 such a thing as a tie between the two candidates of the 

 same party; it was even possible that through some 

 accident or trick the person intended by the party for 

 the second place might get more electoral votes than 

 his companion and thus be elected over him. In 1796 

 the Federalist candidates were John Adams and 

 Thomas Pinckney, and the advice given privately by 

 Hamilton to his friends was such as would, if not 

 thwarted, have made Pinckney President and Adams 

 Vice-president. Hamilton's conduct on this occasion 

 was certainly -wanting in frankness, and when Adams 

 discovered it he naturally felt ill used. The relations 

 between the two were made more uncomfortable by 

 the fact that Hamilton, although now in private life, 

 seemed to have more influence with Adams's cabinet 



