I am reading the iTunes ePub version (a gift from my wife) of “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power”. It is longish and thoroughly footnoted and cited. Jefferson and others of the day wrote a great many letters. It was like picking up the phone was to later generations. If you had (or wanted) news, you wrote to someone. In Jefferson’s years in politics, he wrote 10-12 letters a day. Likely received a great many as well.
Having not studied American History since high school, I had little appreciation for just how tumultuous and precarious those early days of the republic were. The Federalists, it seemed, longed for monarchy and thought the republic under the Constitution just a stepping stone on the way to a British-like system of government with hereditary power. The republic, they said, could not last with elected leaders. Only power passed from father to son could ensure a smooth transition of power. Under the Constitutional system, the republic would soon be in chaos, they believed. Republics tended to fall to military dictatorships. The Federalists were monarchists and wanted to cast off the republican form of government.
In the Washington administration, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President John Adams were both Federalists. Jefferson a Republican and secretary of state, was constantly at odds with both, fearing a return to hereditary power both in the first magistrate (president) and the senate or that senate appointments would be for life.
The Federalists (also known as the Anti-Republicans), though few in number, consisted of British merchants, American merchants with strong business ties to Britain, speculators and bankers (whom Hamilton was in a position to favor), many officers of the Federal government and office seekers willing to set aside principle to attain office. They were concentrated in the cities where it was relatively easy for them to meet with like-minded persons and had influence over newspapers far in excess of their numbers.
The Republicans, those favoring elected, not hereditary government, were farmers, laborers, small businessmen and land owners and were widely dispersed. It was much harder for the Republicans to organize.
And so it goes… The Anti-Republicans are still concentrated in the cities and hold sway over news media while the rest of us, scattered throughout “flyover country” are just trying to ensure the form of government created by the Constitution.
One thing that has changed: In the first contested presidential election (Washington had run unopposed), the candidates (including Jefferson) did not campaign, it being unseemly to demonstrate a lust for high office. Rather, candidates let it be known that they would be available to serve, if called. Campaigning was done by supporters and electors in the various states.