dismissal, because of the loss of New York, made Hamilton thirsty for
revenge. Pickering suggested "a bold and frank exposure of Adams,"
offering to furnish the facts if Hamilton would put them together, and
agreeing to arrange with George Cabot and other ultra Federalists of
New England, known as the "Essex Junto," to throw Adams behind Charles
C. Pinckney in the electoral vote. Their plan was to start Pinckney as
the second Federalist candidate, with the hope that parties would be
so divided as to secure his election for President. It was nothing
more than the old "double chance" manoeuvres of 1796, when Thomas
Pinckney was Hamilton's choice for President; but the iniquity of the
scheme was the deception practised upon the voters who desired Adams.

Of course, Adams soon learned of the revival of this old conspiracy,
and passionately and hastily opened a raking fire upon the "Essex
Junto," calling them a "British faction," with Hamilton as its chief,
a designation to which the Republican press had made them peculiarly
sensitive. This aroused Hamilton, who, preliminary to a quarrel,
addressed the President, asking if he had mentioned the writer as one
who belonged to a British faction. Receiving no reply, he again wrote
the President, angrily repelling all aspersions of the kind. This the
President likewise ignored.

Then Hamilton listened to Timothy Pickering. Fiery as his temper had
often proved, and grotesquely obstinate as he had sometimes shown
himself, Hamilton's most erratic impulse appears like the coolness of
Jay when contrasted with the conduct upon which he now entered. The
letter he proposed to write, ostensibly in justification of himself,
was apparently intended for private circulation at some future day
among Federal leaders, to whom it would furnish reasons why electors
should unite in preferring Pinckney. It is known, too, that Hamilton's
coolest and ablest advisers opposed such a letter, recalling the
congressional caucus agreement, which he had himself advised, to vote
fairly for both Adams and Pinckney. Besides, to impair confidence in
Adams just at that moment, it was argued, would impair confidence in
the Federal party, while at best such a letter could only produce
confusion without compensatory results. But between Adams and
Jefferson, Hamilton now preferred the latter. "I will never be
responsible for him by my direct vote," he wrote in May, 1800, "even
though the consequence be the election