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However, regional politics, Republican organization, and Federalist folly do not tell the entire story. Jefferson won the vote of every city in the east, including Philadelphia and New York. Artisans and small business owners increasingly turned away from the Federalists, who they saw as elitist and aristocratic, and toward the Republicans, led by Jefferson, who though he was an aristocrat, symbolized for many the spirit of equality and meritocracy.

Jefferson would later describe his victory in the election of 1800 as the "Revolution of 1800." He considered it "as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form." Jefferson and the Republicans saw themselves as the saviors of the nation, freeing it from the tyrannical grips of a party bent on elitism and tending toward monarchy. While there was certainly a vast difference between the Feederalist style of government and the Republican style which Jefferson would bring to the national government, most historians think that to frame the transition as one from incipient monarchy to virtuous republicanism is to exaggerate the circumstances a great deal. John Adams was certainly not in pursuit of monarchy. He very much believed in the principles of democracy. However, he came from a school of thought that considered all men to be basically evil, and he sought to place the power of government in the hands of the least evil and most rational, which he thought to be represented by the political and social elites. Jefferson, for his part, most likely similarly considered men to be driven by self-interest and greed. However, he was from the school of thought which believed that the pursuit of self-interest could lead to social benefits, and thought that government should not limit the governed so much that they could not undertake this pursuit. The difference in ideology was thus not as stark as Jefferson would have painted it, and he would soon find out that the president is beleaguered by challenges whether he be a Federalist or Republican.

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