In the United States Census of 1800, 5.3 million Americans
were counted. Nearly 1 million of these were slaves, and factoring
in for children, women, the aged, and the infirm, only 1 million
of this number were able-bodied males. By contrast, Britain boasted
15 million inhabitants, and France 27 million. Of the major American cities,
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore combined numbered
only 180,000 strong, and no other town could claim a white population
of more than 10,000.
Washington, still very much in the midst of construction,
would serve as the new capital to the first administration of a
new century. The contestants in the presidential race were the
same as they had been four years earlier: the incumbent John Adams
leading the Federalist bid, with South Carolinian Charles Pinckney
in tow, and Jefferson at the head of the Democratic- Republican
ticket, alongside Aaron Burr, a New Yorker known for his unctuous
political maneuverings.
Though tradition held that the candidates themselves refrain from
public campaigning, the respective parties were quite capable of
conducting a brutal campaign on their own. Jefferson himself secretly
backed the scandal-mongering of a journalist named James Thompson
Callender, whose efforts to defame the character of President Adams
landed him in prison under the terms of the Sedition Act. Jefferson
later denied all affiliation with Callender, but during the campaign
itself he had even more pointed attacks to defend.
The Federalist press jumped on Jeffersons liberal views
of religion at once, styling him as an immoral atheist who supported
the destruction of society and the rise of anarchy. Due to his
affiliations with France, they suggested that he too would effect
the type of bloody reign of terror that had occurred there, eventually
rising up to a position of unmitigated power as Napoleon Bonaparte
had done in the previous year (See the Napoleon
SparkNote).
Suspected by Federalists of corrupt and subversive tactics,
Jefferson wrote a letter to New England clergyman Cotton Mather
Smith insisting on his honesty and integrity. This was not enough
to ward off a damaging attack on his character by Yale President
Timothy Dwight, who delivered a famous sermon railing against Jeffersons immorality.
As President, Jefferson would later attempt to defend his religious
perspective by producing a study of the life and morals of Jesus,
known today as The Jefferson Bible. But by denying
the divinity of Jesus, Jefferson likely lost more supporters than
he won in the effort.
Throughout his campaign and well into his administration,
the atmosphere in the press was markedly anti-Jefferson. In the
months leading up to his election, Federalists circulated false
rumors of Jeffersons death in order to try to undermine his campaign.
Despite such underhanded tactics, Jefferson refused to show a
hint of bitterness, and chose to focus instead on his commitment
to a limited and unobtrusive government. In one letter from the
period, he explained his preference for an overarching media over
an overarching government. This commitment to democracy continued
to stoke his popularity at a grassroots level, which ultimately
proved more important to Jeffersons chances than the support of
the intelligentsia.
