Who the Hell Could Possibly Replace George Washington?

In this episode, John discusses the circumstances surrounding the presidential election of 1796. John explains how the Democratic Republican Party and the Federalist Party had become more or less fully formed partisan organizations by the time the election was to take place and what the issues were that divided the two of them. John goes into detail about how each party viewed itself, its place in American Politics and each party’s vision for the future of the United States as the election approached.John then goes on to discuss what actually happened in the presidential election of 1796 and how it was that John Adams ended up as the winner. John reviews the mechanism of the electoral college and how it functioned quite differently from today; he closes with a brief discussion of the rift between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton within the Federalist Party.