Adams Vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election (Pivotal Moments in American History)

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Summary: THE GREATEST BATTLE IN POLITICAL HISTORY
Review:
"Adams vs. Jefferson" by John Ferling is about the election of 1800 which was perhaps the most important demarcation point in human political history. It was the point at which the meaning of the American Revolution was decided. It featured Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans who believed, as modern Republicans do, that the American Revolution was a revolution for freedom, freedom from government. Jefferson believed, "the gov't which governs best, governs least." On the opposing side were the Democrats (called Federalist at the time) led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams who believed the Revolution was merely a revolution for freedom from the British govt. Republicans feared they were American monarchists. In fact John Adams was pulled around in a regal chariot reminiscent of George III and Alexander Hamilton had many schemes to dramatically increased the power of the Federal gov't.

The Republicans won the bitter and close election thus vanquishing the Democrats for 133 years until the Great Depression seemingly gave them an ideal opportunity to consolidate power in their federal hands where in theory it would be used to provide deliverance from economic calamity. Instead it led directly to 10 years of depression and 5 years of world war. The Democrats got another big chance in the 1960s when they promised to help long suffering blacks. It led to welfare and other programs that all but destroyed the black family and culture in America.

The value of freedom was always obvious to some, but from Jefferson forward and back, there were always Democrats who schemed to gather power under one guise or another, and who always then failed, sometimes at the cost of millions of lives, in direct proportion to how much power they succeeded in gathering. Jefferson established the first significant Republician beachhead in human history against the ever threatening Democrats and to this day his spirit keeps America, as Ronald Reagan famously said, "the last best hope for freedom on earth."

For those who might want to trace the history of the Parties throughout American History I recommend "The Life Of The Parties" And for those who might want to focus on the just difference between the parties I recommend "Understanding the Difference Between Democrats and Republicans".











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Summary: Another great work by John Ferling.
Review: "Adams vs. Jefferson" is yet another masterful work by one of the rising scholars of the Early American Republic period. Those who dabble in history, as well as the scholar, will find something of worth.

However, I must admit to being a trifle confused by some earlier reviews. It seems that my copy doesn't mention George W. Bush or Karl Rove. I can only conclude that Mr. Ferling wanted his book to represent the time period represented on the title, and that he didn't want to use his work as a Bush-bashing screed, as other reviewers might have wished.

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Summary: 1800 changed America forever...
Review: A not so often appreciated turning point in American history is the election of 1800. It signaled the end of the Federalist party, the rise of party politics, and the beginning of a new path for the nascent union. This short book gives voluminous details of this important campaign in a very readable and exciting narrative. And the campaign was not without its excitement. It unfolds as though it had been written for a novel or a movie script. Almost all of the people involved met surprising or engaging ends. Not only is this book good history, it's also a great story.

The book gives overviews of the political careers of all of the major players in the election of 1800. Not only Adams and Jefferson, but C.C. Pinckney, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton. By way of these summaries, the administrations of George Washington and John Adams also receive good summaries. This gives the reader a pretty good idea where the nation stood as 1800 approached. The crises of Adams' presidency, such as the war scare with France in the late 1790s, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Alexander Hamilton's control issues all loomed. John Ferling spoke about the book in Minnesota this past October. He said that while researching this book his assessment concerning Jefferson and Adams increased tremendously (he even alluded that he previously held a somewhat negative view of Jefferson), while his view of Alexander Hamilton decreased greatly. The book does depict Hamilton as a power-hungry, potentially menacing schemer that actually held the strings behind Adams' cabinet. Thus Hamilton is to blame for the provisional army and the Alien and Sedition Acts, not Adams. Ferling also says that part of the American legacy is indebted to Hamilton, but overall Hamilton fares badly in this text. John Adams fares rather well (which will surprise readers of Rosenfeld's "American Aurora" where Adams is pretty much equated with despotism, incompetence, and monarchy). Here Adams seems more like a very capable politician - apart from some obvious blunders - caught inbetween the different factions of his own Federalist party (the "Ultras" who follow Hamilton, and the more moderate). Another surprising fact is Adams' uniqueness amongst the other players of never having owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson's ups and downs also receive a fair showing: His slaves, his monetary excesses, his suffocating debt, his weakness as a public speaker, and his affair with his slave Sally Hemmings. The major players receive farily balanced portraits. None are totally romanticized or completely demonized.

Those who think that dirty politics and negative advertising are endemic to modern American elections will receive a shock. The election of 1800 was rife with schemes, defamations, backstabbing, rumors, and questionable polling practices. In many ways it resembled modern elections in its tireless hurling of mud and brickbats across party lines. Ferling discusses the role of the press in this process. Each side had its newspaper that fired accusations at its opposition. This greatly resembles the current publishing wars between the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter, Micheal Moore, and Al Franken. Dirty politics are in no way the exclusive capital of the modern age.

The election itself reached the pinnacle of nail-biting intensity. A tie in the electoral vote, a deal struck between the tied contenders gets broken, the election goes to the house who vote over thirty times, threats of civil war loom, and finally a sole member of the opposition rises to the occasion to keep the situation from spiraling completely out of control. How the exchange of power in 1801 occurred without bloodshed approaches the miraculous. The book outlines the amazing details.

Readers will leave this book with a deep appreciation of the importance of the election of 1800. America would never be the same again, and many of the major players meet interesting, almost jaw-dropping, ends. Highly recommended for readers wanting to know the pivotal events that shaped the early United States.

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Summary: Nothing you couldn't already find in any US history textbook
Review: Gotten up for the 2004 election this book on the 1800 election is a good read but offers nothing new. It has all been done before. One might think that you could get some relief from the fact that even in 1800 men as "noble" as Adams, Jefferson, and Hamilton could engage in shenanigans which would make even Dubya Bush blush, in other words that we have not declined as much as we thought. But we have. The passions of Adams, Jefferson and Hamilton were much nobler and enlightened than anything Karl Rove & Co. can concoct. The only value in the book is that you do come away with a feeling of gratitude that the election of 1800 held despite predictions of the end of the Federal Union. America has survived much, not to mention the evil Civil War which only an evil people and leadership could allow to occur. Let's hope it can survive what this new electoral cycle may bring: the re-election of a man who has been called unfit for work even in local animal control or the election of an aloof New Englander about whom you can only admire his wife.

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Summary: Highly entertaining....unless you're a Hamilton fan
Review: I started this book in the heat of the Bush vs. Kerry campaign and, after a two-month hiatus (unrelated to the quality of the book), finished it this week after attending an Alexander Hamilton museum exhibit in New York City. The book was a great and very interesting read, and I was most surprised by the similarities between the campaign process of 1800 and that of today.

The book devotes much of its space to the political background and relationship between Adams and Jefferson, but also spends a great deal of time on the other major players -- most notably Hamilton, Madison, Burr, and Washington to a lesser extent. It makes very clear the dislike and distrust between most members of the Federalist and Republican parties, and conveys the contempt that some of the more extreme members had for one another in the early government. While the author does a good job of providing the good as well as the bad in most of the major subjects, the same cant be said for his treatment of Hamilton. Ferling paints Hamilton as a calculating, scheming villain, a monarchist, a puppet master at times, and much more. I'm sure Hamilton was indeed regarded as such by many at the time, but I found it ironic that a week before completing the book I had just spent three hours at an exhibit glorifying the life and contributions of this "American hero." Unlike with Jefferson and Adams, there are no positives in regards to Hamilton to counteract all the negatives Ferling wrote about.

Overall, I enjoyed the book despite the bias. Needless to say, fans of Hamilton most likely will not feel the same way, while Jefferson fans may agree with my sentiments.

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Summary: WINNING THE PRESIDENCY
Review: If you thought the 2004 Presidental battle between Kerry and Bush was fierce, read about the tension, and bitterness between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. That tumultous election of 1800 ended in a stalemate in the Electoral College. Author, John Ferling thoroughly researched this historical political slug-fest, and indicates, "tensions ran so high that the Republicans threatened civil war if the Federalist denied Jefferson the presidency." The book gives readers an extensive look at the fiesty fore- fathers of America, and the crucible of the polical process. Highly recommended reading.

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Summary: A Critical Election Revisited
Review: It was a critical point in American history. Two parties, with profoundly different visions for the country, squared off. The candidates were titans of their times. The conservative stretched the Constitution to its limit in order to maximize the powers of the federal government. The Liberal had strong egalitarian leanings.

The election campaign give bar room brawls a good image. Each side slung mud. The vote challenged the Electoral College system.

The year - 2004, you say. You would be wrong. The year was 1800. John Adams faced off against Thomas Jefferson. Once close friends, they were now bitter enemies.

John Ferling, professor emeritus of history at State University West Georgia, breathes life into the personalities and this bitter campaign. Jefferson's election, he concludes, consummated the American Revolution. Jefferson's election assured true separation from Great Britain and the democratization of the United States.

Time spent with this book will reinforce the idea that the more things change, the more they remain the same. As you read this book, you will find yourself wondering whether you are reading the headlines in today's newspapers or browsing 204 year old history.

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Summary: Adams vs. Jefferson
Review: Prof. Ferling has a cumbersome literary habit of beginning many of his sentences with a subordinate phrase. After 6 chapters of this as he set the background, I found I had to often read sentences twice to capture his main point. Often, it was worth it as his research and quality of his profiles for each of the 1800 Presidential candidates is excellently researched and recorded, but it became tiresome reading.

I finally skipped the background and jumped forward to the final chapters. I believe his editors let him down and turned a potentially great work into a laborous reading.

Ferling (and his editor(s) are no McCullough nor Ambrose!

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Summary: Battle of the Titans.
Review: The election of 1800 is notable for many reasons. It was an electoral tie, it led to the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it was an election in which both sides feared that the election of the other party could lead to the end of the United States. Of even more importance however was that this election signaled a basic realignment of the American electorate and a growing sense of tension between Northern Merchant interests and Southern agrarian interests. The election of 1800 also marked the first time that a member of the opposition party had ousted the sitting head of state without bloodshed and for all intents and purposes this election ended the political career of Alexander Hamilton. For these reasons this election is one of the most important events in American history and a book like this is long overdue.

When I first picked up this book I was afraid I was not going to like it at all. After having read some of the reviews of this book I decided that Mr. Ferling had written this work in a dry, pompous academic style and for some reason the dust jacket reinforced that idea. I am pleased to say however that I really enjoyed this book and found it to be well written and very well researched. The author has gone through numerous collections of personal correspondence, Congressional records, and apparently even court transcripts so that he might properly tell this story. Unfortunately some of the facts about this election will never be known due to closed door caucuses and purposely destroyed correspondence. Where the evidence survives however, Ferling has sniffed out the story and given us a lively account of this fascinating election.

I was glad to find that the author was very even handed in his approach to this topic. Since he had previously written a biography of John Adams I would not have been surprised to find that Mr. Ferling was unable to shed the all too common biographers bias toward their subject. Happily however, Mr. Adams' faults are discussed just as often as those of Jefferson and Burr are. Alexander Hamilton is the only major player in this story that comes across in an almost entirely negative light but even friendly Hamilton biographers agree that this was not Hamilton's finest hour.

It is certain that John Adams is slowly being rehabilitated by history and this book like most recent studies of this time period is fairly complimentary of the second President. On the other hand Jefferson's reputation has been on a downward spiral but thankfully Mr. Ferling does not add to Jefferson's current woes. This election may not have been the Virginian's finest hour either, but as the author points out the most questionable of Jefferson's actions may have been in the best interest of his country. Sometimes moderation is indeed a virtue and we all might do well to remember that lesson and apply it to today's problems.

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Summary: Solid retelling of a well-known story
Review: This is a good book about the election of 1800 (and the prior one of 1796), concentrating more than other treatments I've read on how the failure of Adams's administration was due to the Federalist split into pro-Hamilton and pro-Adams factions. It identifies three interesting factors in Adams's loss. First, the Hamiltonian faction was more ideologically and personally united than the Adams faction, which was essentially the leftovers rather than a movement. Second, there was a horrendous miscalculation in the election of the New York legislature (which chose the Presidential electors) in the spring -- the corresponding, phenomenally successful, Republican campaign was run by Aaron Burr, which effectively guaranteed him a slot on the ticket with hilarious consequences. Third, because both of the party's candidates, Adams and Pinckney, were in the running for President (rather than one for President and one for Vice-President) intra-party politics were much more likely to get out of hand during the course of the campaign.

The book's good fun, and sympathetic to everyone (particularly Adams, as is fashionable these days). Its treatment of the sideshow after the election, when Jefferson and Burr tied in electoral votes and the House went through 36 ballots before choosing Jefferson, is thorough and enjoyable, though it doesn't really resolve the two mysteries of why Burr provoked the struggle and why he then blinked. I enjoyed it but felt that it was written to sell rather than to answer questions that were burning inside the author's head -- his earlier A Leap In The Dark seemed much more driven by genuine passion.