138 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



welfare of the country, and in all American history it 

 would be hard to point to a nobler act. 



The ensuing year, 1800, was one of dire political 

 confusion. In the spring election in New York Ham- 

 ilton contended unsuccessfully against the wiles of 

 Aaron Burr; a Republican legislature was chosen, 

 and in the autumn this legislature would of course 

 choose Republican electors for President. Political 

 passion now so far prevailed with Hamilton as to lead 

 him to propose to Governor Jay to call an extra ses- 

 sion of the old legislature and give the choice of 

 presidential electors to districts. This would divide 

 the presidential vote of New York and really defeat 

 the will of the people as just expressed. Jay refused 

 to lend himself to such a scheme. That Hamilton 

 should ever have entertained it shows how far he was 

 blinded by the dread of what might follow if Jefferson 

 and the Republicans should get control of the national 

 government. 



Yet in spite of this dread he took the very rash step 

 of writing a pamphlet attacking Adams, and advising 

 Federalists to vote for him only as a less dangerous 

 candidate than Jefferson. This pamphlet was intended 

 only for private circulation, but Burr contrived to get 

 hold of it, and its publication helped the Republicans. 



Even with all this dissension among their antago- 

 nists, the Republican victory of 1800 was a narrow 

 one. Adams obtained sixty-five electoral votes. The 

 Republican candidates, Jefferson and Burr, each ob- 

 tained seventy-three, and it was left for the House of 

 Representatives to decide which of the two should be 

 President. Nobody had the slightest doubt that the 

 choice of the party was Jefferson, and that Burr was 



