Whoever was chosen to follow in the footsteps of the "Father of his country" was bound to face challenges. Alexander Hamilton was far too controversial to get the nomination, but his influence was still very strong within the Federalist party. His attempt to manipulate the election of 1796 backfired, which angered newly elected President John Adams. Hamilton tried to control the Adams administration from the outside and eventually contributed to the Federalist party's loss of control of the government.
Adams, the combative, argumentative revolutionary, was a brilliant political thinker whose knowledge of the law was exceeded by few, though he lacked a personality conducive to running a smooth administration. Even with Abigail as his loving and trusted adviser, he felt the stings of political attacks very sharply, and had difficulty holding his temper. He made a tactical mistake by retaining Washington's cabinet out of fear of offending his predecessor. He would have been better served by selecting his own men, especially as Hamilton had ties with the cabinet that facilitated his attempts at manipulation. Nevertheless Adams managed the difficult years of his presidency with considerable skill, at one point threatening cantankerous Federalists in Congress with resignation, suggesting they might have a much harder time dealing with Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who by then had made it clear that he opposed many of Adams's Federalist policies.
Until the Constitution was amended in 1804, the winner in the Electoral College became president and the runner-up vice president, thus virtually guaranteeing that the president and vice president would be of different parties, a clearly untenable condition.
World History
