Editing Alexander Hamilton (section)

==1800 presidential election==
{{main|1800 United States presidential election}}
[[File:Aaron Burr post-failure.jpg|thumb|Prior to running for [[Governor of New York]], Hamilton's foe [[Aaron Burr]] was shut out of [[Presidency of Thomas Jefferson|President Jefferson's administration]] and the Democratic-Republican Party.]]

In November 1799, the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]] had left one Democratic-Republican newspaper functioning in New York City. When the last newspaper, the ''New Daily Advertiser'', reprinted an article saying that Hamilton had attempted to purchase the ''[[Philadelphia Aurora]]'' to close it down, and said the purchase could have been funded by "British secret service money". Hamilton urged the New York Attorney General to prosecute the publisher for [[seditious libel]], and the prosecution compelled the owner to close the paper.<ref>James Morton Smith, ''Freedom's Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties'' (Ithaca, repr. 1966), pp. 400–417.</ref>

In the [[1800 presidential election]], Hamilton worked to defeat both the Democratic-Republicans and also his party's own nominee, John Adams.<ref name=schachner />{{rp|392–399}} Aaron Burr had won New York for Jefferson in May via the New York City legislative elections, as the legislature was to choose New York's electors; now Hamilton proposed a direct election, with carefully drawn districts where each district's voters would choose an elector—such that the Federalists would split the electoral vote of New York. Jay, who had resigned from the Supreme Court to become Governor of New York, wrote on the back of a letter, "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt," and declined to reply.<ref>Monaghan, pp. 419–421.</ref>

Adams was running this time with [[Charles Cotesworth Pinckney]], the elder brother of former vice presidential candidate Thomas. Hamilton toured New England, again urging northern electors to hold firm for Pinckney in the renewed hope of making Pinckney president; and he again intrigued in South Carolina.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|350–351}} Hamilton's ideas involved coaxing middle-state Federalists to assert their non-support for Adams if there was no support for Pinckney and writing to more of the modest supports of Adams concerning his supposed misconduct while president.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|350–351}} Hamilton expected to see southern states such as the Carolinas cast their votes for Pinckney and Jefferson, and would result in the former being ahead of both Adams and Jefferson.<ref name=schachner />{{rp|394–395}}

In accordance with these plans, and a recent personal rift with Adams,<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|351}} Hamilton wrote a pamphlet called ''Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States'' that was highly critical of him, though it closed with a tepid endorsement.<ref name=schachner />{{rp|396}}

Jefferson defeated Adams. But both he and Aaron Burr received 73 votes in the Electoral College. With Jefferson and Burr tied, the [[U.S. House of Representatives]], under electoral laws of the time, had to choose between the two candidates.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|352}}<ref name=schachner />{{rp|399}} Several Federalists who opposed Jefferson supported Burr, and for the first 35 ballots, Jefferson was denied a majority. Before the 36th ballot, Hamilton threw his weight behind Jefferson, supporting the arrangement reached by [[James A. Bayard (politician, born 1767)|James A. Bayard]] of Delaware, in which five Federalist representatives from Maryland and Vermont abstained from voting, allowing those states' delegations to go for Jefferson, ending the impasse and electing Jefferson president rather than Burr.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|350–351}}

Even though Hamilton disliked Jefferson and disagreed with him on many issues, he viewed Jefferson as the [[lesser of two evils]]. Hamilton spoke of Jefferson as being "by far not so a dangerous man" and of Burr as a "mischievous enemy" to the principal measure of the past administration.<ref>Harper, p. 259.</ref> It was for that reason, along with the fact that Burr was a northerner and not a Virginian, that many Federalist representatives voted for him.<ref>Isenberg, Nancy. ''Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr'', New York: Penguin Books, 2007, pp. 211–112.</ref>{{contradictory inline|date=October 2022}}

Hamilton wrote many letters to friends in Congress to convince the members to see otherwise.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|352}}<ref name=schachner />{{rp|401}} In the end, Burr would become vice president after losing to Jefferson.<ref name=Monticello>{{cite web |last1=Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia |title=Aaron Burr |url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/aaron-burr |website=Monticello.org |publisher=Thomas Jefferson Foundation |access-date=December 3, 2019 |archive-date=December 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203172527/https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/aaron-burr |url-status=live}}</ref> However, according to several historians, the Federalists had rejected Hamilton's diatribe as reasons to not vote for Burr.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|353}}<ref name=schachner />{{rp|401}} In his book ''American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of US Foreign Policy'', historian John Lamberton Harper stated Hamilton could have "perhaps" contributed "to a degree" in Burr's defeat.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harper |first=John Lamberton |date=2004 |title=American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of US Foreign Policy |location=Cambridge, New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=260–261 |isbn=978-0-521-83485-8 |quote=The result could be seen as a moral victory for Hamilton, but had he actually contributed to it? The answer is perhaps and to a degree. Bayard wrote him afterward, "Your views in relation to the election, differed very little from my own, but I was obliged to yield to a torrent [of anti-Jefferson sentiment] which I perceived might be diverted, but could not be opposed." Bayard was no doubt familiar with the terms of the deal Hamilton had wished to make with Jefferson. In fact, though Jefferson would later deny it, before changing his vote Bayard had received assurances through Jefferson's friend, Congressman Samuel Smith of Maryland, similar to those Hamilton had proposed. But Bayard, as he recounted to things Hamilton, had also sought assurances from Burr. |quote-page=260}}</ref> Ron Chernow, alternatively, claimed that Hamilton "squelched" Burr's chance at becoming president.<ref name=chernow638>Chernow, p. 638.</ref> When it became clear that Jefferson had developed his own concerns about Burr and would not support his return to the vice presidency,<ref name=Monticello /> Burr sought the New York governorship [[1804 New York gubernatorial election|in 1804]] with Federalist support, against the Jeffersonian [[Morgan Lewis (governor)|Morgan Lewis]], but was defeated by forces including Hamilton.<ref>ANB, "Aaron Burr".</ref>