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12 Introduction mentor and confidante, Hamilton drafted Wash- ington’s Farewell Address, emphasizing the themes that had consumed the pair’s attention throughout Washington’s two presidential terms—the bless- ings of union and the threats that endangered it. In contrast with the amicable and close relation- ship Hamilton had maintained with Washington, his relationship with John Adams, the nation’s second president, was far more tenuous. Hamil- ton thought Adams disagreeable and impulsive, and Adams disdained Hamilton’s low birth, dis- trusted his ambition, and resented his influence with Washington. Shortly after John Adams was elected as the nation’s second president, tensions with France began to escalate. The French, viewing the U.S. Jay Treaty with Great Britain as a threat to their own commercial power, increased their practice of privateering American ships. Adams responded by sending a diplomatic mission to France, consist- ing of John Marshall, Charles Cotesworth Pinck- ney, and Elbridge Gerry. When French officials rejected overtures of peace by publically degrading these notable emissaries, war seemed inevitable. Adams correspondingly began to rebuild the mili- tary, nominating Washington as its commander in chief. Only after Washington insisted did Adams begrudgingly appoint Hamilton as the second in command with a rank of major general. In 1799, Adams greatly astounded and angered Washington, Hamilton, and other leading Feder- alists, when he seemingly abandoned overnight his tough, saber-rattling stance toward France and instead dispatched a peace delegation to France without consulting anyone in his cabinet or his party. While historians have argued that Adams’s decision to pursue peace at any cost proved profit- able in the end, the secretive, unilateral manner in which he conducted the mission, which resulted in a lop-sided agreement in favor of France, aggra- vated the growing divisions in his party. When members of his cabinet and fellow Federalists expressed skepticism at his peace overtures, Adams publically questioned their patriotism and loyalty, vindictively fired a couple prominent members of his cabinet, and cut off further interaction with his fellow partisans, retreating to his home in Quincy for more than half the year. Following Washington’s death in December 1799, Hamilton became even less restrained in his deal- ings with his perceived adversaries, most notably President Adams. In the election of 1800, Ham- ilton secretly opposed Adam’s bid for reelection, hoping to convince fellow Federalists to support vice-presidential candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney over Adams for the presidency. Exhib- iting an extreme lack of foresight, Hamilton cir- culated a letter enumerating Adam’s “defects of character” among leading Federalists. The letter eventually made it into the hands of Republi- can vice-presidential candidate Aaron Burr, who ensured that it was widely published as evidence of the Federalists’ lack of faith in their own candidate. Although it is unclear whether or not Hamilton’s ill-timed letter directly diminished Adam’s chance at reelection, it clearly contributed to Hamilton’s own political decline and to the downfall of the party he had helped create. When the election results came in, Adams and Pinckney narrowly lost to the Democratic-Repub- lican ticket of Jefferson and Burr, who tied with seventy-three electoral votes each. The tie resulted in a crisis when Burr—although clearly intended as the Republican’s vice-presidential candidate— refused to accede the presidency. Consequently, the Federalist-controlled House of Represen- tatives was forced to resolve the dilemma in a series of run-off elections. While most Federal- ists decided to cast their lot with Burr, Hamilton’s disdain for the largely unprincipled Burr was even greater than his long-standing hatred for Jefferson. He, thus, worked furiously to persuade Federalists to cast blank ballots instead of giving their votes to Burr. Eventually, after the House had gone through multiple rounds of balloting, Hamilton convinced Congressman James Bayard of Dela- ware, the only state with a single vote, to cast a blank ballot and Jefferson was elected president.