The election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, a political brawl between the Federalists and Republicans, may have been decided by Jefferson hiring a spy to spread untruths about the Adams administration to the press
Jefferson wins
in a four-way contest after hiring a secret character assassin to
spread lies and rumors about John Adams. Federalist pamphlets
and newspapers decried Jefferson as a 'hopeless visionary, a
weakling, an intriguer intoxicated with French philosophy,' and
more French aristocrat than American citizen, a poser of the
highest order.
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A political flyer calling on Republicans to unite behind
Jefferson or risk losing the nation back to the English tories.
He was accused of favoring
states' rights over the Union, charged with infidelity to the
Constitution, and labeled a spendthrift and libertine. All of
these charges would, in time, prove to be true.
One New York paper assured its
readers that a Jefferson victory would mean civil war, which was
also true. Jefferson's refusal to embrace a central
government over state's rights established policies that, in the
words of one historian, surveyed the road to the Civil War half a
century later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1800
Electoral
votes: Jefferson and Burr, 73 each
Adams, 65; Charles
Cottsworth Pinckney, 63
Adams lost NY
to Jefferson by 250 votes thanks to a 52 page diatribe published by
Alexander Hamilton. Had Adams won NY he would have won the
election, 71-61.
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