The Words That Made Us by Akhil Reed Amar

Author:Akhil Reed Amar [REED AMAR, AKHIL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

WASHINGTON BADE FAREWELL IN 1796, and in the ensuing election, Americans pushed the two most notable remaining icons of 1776, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in that order, into the presidency and vice presidency. Neither man in 1796 chose the other as his political teammate. On the contrary.

Federalists encouraged Adams to team up with South Carolinian Thomas Pinckney, who had won the West—or at least, western navigation of the Mississippi—in the popular 1795–1796 Pinckney Treaty. Republican darling Jefferson, in turn, partnered with New Yorker Aaron Burr. Neither of the two fledgling parties got its wish. America in effect split the difference, giving Adams the most electoral votes and Jefferson the second most. As a result, Adams’s main and closely matched rival ended up as his vice president, creating a far more fraught dynamic than when he himself had played distant and loyal second fiddle to Washington.

In an effort to rekindle the spirit of 1776, Adams tried to extend an olive branch to Jefferson, praising him to those who would likely forward the compliments to their intended recipient.14 At first, Jefferson was tempted to reciprocate. In late 1796, he drafted a buttery letter to Adams that ended with the wish “that your administration may be filled with glory and happiness to yourself and advantage to us [America].” Acknowledging that “tho’, in the course of our voyage thro’ life, various little incidents have happened or been contrived to separate us,” Jefferson proclaimed that he (referring to himself in the third person) “retains still for you the solid esteem of the moments when we [back to first person] were working for our independance, and sentiments of respect and affectionate attachment.” This smooth playing of the 1776 card reflected Jefferson at his most gracious and clever. Nostalgic references to the high point of Adams’s own life were always the most direct way to Adams’s heart. Jefferson’s letter also contained a snide aside about Hamilton, whom Jefferson loathed and whom, he believed, Adams likewise distrusted: “It is possible that you may be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the subtlety of your archfriend of New York [a sarcastic reference to Hamilton], who has been able to make of your real friends tools to defeat their and your just wishes.”15 Translation: We have a mutual enemy. Let’s reunite?

Specifically, Jefferson was tipping off Adams that Hamilton had been secretly angling to elect Pinckney over Adams, just as Hamilton in 1789 had encouraged strategic balloting at Adams’s expense. Whether or not Hamilton was in fact trying to deceive pro-Adams Federalist electors in the process—frustrating their true and “just wishes,” as Jefferson claimed—Jefferson wanted Adams to believe that this was so, and to trust Jefferson as a loyal informer.

Jefferson sent the letter to Madison, his informal campaign manager, to be forwarded to Adams at Madison’s discretion. In a fateful decision that may have sharply bent the course of history, Madison opted to pocket the letter, offering Jefferson several reasons. He was unsure how the prickly Adams might respond to several particular passages, including the warning about Hamiltonian machination.

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