er respect Burr's victory in New York was important. It made him
the logical and most available candidate for the vice-presidential
nomination. By general consent Jefferson became for the second time the
candidate of his party for the Presidency. On May 11, the Republican
members of Congress met in caucus and unanimously agreed to support Burr
for the Vice-Presidency. Already wiseacres were figuring out the
probabilities of a Republican victory.

It was a chastened group of Federalist Congressmen who met in caucus on
May 3, after the disheartening tidings from New York. Though their
hearts misgave them, they still supported John Adams. To carry South
Carolina, they agreed to support Charles C. Pinckney for the
Vice-Presidency; but rumor had it that many Federalists would be glad to
see Pinckney outstrip Adams,--a hope which in the course of the summer
was frankly avowed by Hamilton. In a letter which he had privately
printed for circulation among the Federalists, Hamilton declared without
disguise his hostility to Adams. The imprudence of this act was apparent
when Burr seized upon a copy of the letter and scattered reprints far
and wide as good campaign material.

[Map: Presidential Election of 1800 Popular Vote by Counties]

The effect of Hamilton's indiscretion was probably slight. Adams carried
all the electoral votes in the New England States, leading Pinckney by a
single vote. The Federalists were completely successful also in New
Jersey and Delaware. Through the tactics of thirteen Federalists in
the Senate of Pennsylvania, they won seven of the fifteen electoral
votes of that State. In Maryland they divided the electoral vote evenly
with their opponents. In North Carolina, they secured four of the twelve
votes; but in South Carolina they were completely discomfited. Instead
of carrying his own State for the ticket, Pinckney was outgeneraled by
the strategy of his cousin Charles Pinckney, who effected an
irresistible combination of the Piedmont farmers and the artisans of
Charleston. The loss of South Carolina was irretrievable and decisive.
The Federalists had to concede the defeat of their ticket.

The exultation of the Republicans was at first unbounded. "The election
of a Republican President," wrote the editor of the Schenectady
_Cabinet_ triumphantly, "is a new Declaration of Independence, as
important in its consequences as that of '76, and of much more difficult
achievement." But the elation of the Jef