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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Battle of the Titans., November 11, 2004
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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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read for all Americans, March 20, 2006
Think the last two presidential elections have been nail biters? Then you should take a look at the presidential election of 1800. That election ended in an electoral college tie and took 36 votes by the House of Representatives to pick a President. Today's elections have nothing on what it took to decide the winner back then.
John Ferling gives readers a fresh and contemporaneous look at the election of 1800 and the events that led up to it in, Adams vs Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800. He shows how this election was really the final battle of the war for American Independence. The book covers the moves made by all the major players of the day including men like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
It was a titanic battle between the most powerful politicians of the era. It was a time when political parties were just beginning to form and there was more than just two candidates for the office. In fact, most politicians felt that the office of President should seek out the man instead of the man actively running for the office. I know - that's a radical thought today.
Adams was the sitting President and like so many modern Presidents he started his term in a flurry of success only to stumble down the stretch. Jefferson was `retired' from political life on his Virginia plantation, Monticello when his supporters began to push him to run. Because of a flaw in the Constitution the electoral college locked in a tie between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, with Adams eliminated from the race entirely.
Adams and Jefferson were both heroes of the American Revolution, but both men also had issues with their reputations. The parties exploited the flaws of the opposition in ways that make more modern elections seem tame and civilized. There was name calling, back room deals for votes, and outright voter fraud in many places. The two men had been the best of friends during the Revolution, but this race caused a bitterness that kept them from speaking to each other for nearly twenty years.
Adams vs Jefferson is worth reading to get a better understanding of how many problems our nation had in the early part of its history. It's an important story that never seems to be taught in our schools. This election led to the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it laid the groundwork for the Civil War, it was first time that a member of the opposition party had ousted the sitting President without bloodshed and it killed the political career of Alexander Hamilton; confidant to George Washington, the founder of the national bank and architect of our monetary system.
This book should be required reading for anyone that is registered to vote.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1800 changed America forever..., December 26, 2004
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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