Thomas Jefferson was a cad, a fool, and was totally naive about revolutionary France. As a Federalist, I read his irresponsible rhetoric on revolutions and on national unity and am horrified. He was terrifically hypocritical penning beautiful words about human rights while abusing his slaves.
In the election of 1776, I would have been an Adams’ man, despite his flaws, against Jefferson. I could be sure the Virginians would muck things up to get us into a war with our natural ally Great Britain. His religious views were offensive . . . the Jefferson “Bible” being one of his greater acts of religious vandalism. If hashtags had existed, I would have been #neverJefferson in 1796, but in 1800 I would have made him President if I could.
Why?
It turns out that “anybody but Jefferson” included the world of reasonable and sane human beings. Any sane, decent patriot was more fit than Jefferson. In a weird turn of events, too complicated to describe, a worse man, Aaron Burr, almost became President.
Why was he worse?
Jefferson was a very bad man, but an able politician. There was no doubt he knew how to make the government work or about his service to the nation. In terms of knowledge of America, it is safe to say that at that stage of our existence, Jefferson had lived the short history of the United States of America.
He was no George Washington, but then who was? He was highly skilled at governance, but wrongheaded. His policies were bad, so bad that they led to serious problems that may have contributed to the Civil War and certainly caused us to fight the useless War of 1812. Elect Jefferson and he would leave the nation in a worse position than he found it, but he would know what he was doing. In fact, he stumbled onto the Louisiana Purchase while in office and his competence overcame his foolish philosophy and he doubled the size of the United States of America. He knew how to do the job.
Surely any Federalist would have done a better job than Jefferson. Alexander Hamilton was the wizard of finance who kept the United States of America out of financial ruin and put us in a position to become a unified economic power in the world. He was flawed (though he makes a great musical), but better than Jefferson. John Adams had made a hash of civil liberties, but he was better than one bad law. He mostly represented a fourth Washington term and that was a good thing.
So why Jefferson?
People preferred Jefferson to any Federalist, but with Jefferson came the loathsome Aaron Burr. This schemer, land speculator, and general self-serving buffoon could ingratiate himself with powerful people, but nobody was ever in any doubt: Burr was for Burr. If anybody could have mastered cable news, Burr could have. He was willing to shout Federalism if it gave him power or buy a Democrat-Republican if it gave him power. When a flaw in the Constitution gave him a shot at the Presidency (ballots for Vice-President and President were counted together), he made his play.
Hamilton ended up being a decisive vote to put his much loathed enemy, Thomas Jefferson, in the White House. Why? Better a competent, qualified man with bad politics, than a narcissistic demagogue with no principles.
Alexander Hamilton also knew that for a Federalist to be responsible for a bad government was toxic to the ideas of the Party. Better to lose than to win one election while forever tainting the name of Washington’s Party.
Hamilton put it best:
If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.”
History does not exactly ever repeat, but Hamilton is right. Better a person with experience and wrong values, than a person whose only values are personal peace and affluence. Apply as needed.
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