Federalist Successor.

President George Washington's announcement that he would retire from office in September 1796 paved the way for the nation's first contested presidential election. Federalist members of Congress publicly agreed on a party ticket of Vice President John Adams of Massachusetts as their presidential candidate and Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina, negotiator of the Pinckney Treaty with Spain, as their vicepresidential candidate. Unfortunately, Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution did not provide separate ballots for electing the president and vice president, so the Federalists had no guarantee that the electors would endorse their proposed ticket. In addition former secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who disliked Adams's moderate Federalism, not to mention his friendship with the Republican Thomas Jefferson, privately tried to arrange Pinckney's election as president. Hamilton suggested that northern electors give equal support to Adams and Pinckney, supposedly to prevent Jefferson's...