James Madison: A Life Reconsidered Read Free Page A

of governing themselves.” This second party, he wrote, was “the Republican party, as it may be termed.” 18 It was a designation that would cause confusion for generations of students because Madison’s Republican Party is unrelated to today’s, which came into being during the decade before the Civil War. The name was cleverly chosen, however, to indicate that Republicans adhered to the idea of the Republic as set forth in the Constitution. The opposing party, Madison suggested, should be known as Antirepublicans, but the Federalists, not surprisingly, preferred the name they’d had since the battle over the Constitution.
    The fledgling Republicans tried out their wings in 1792. Once it was evident that George Washington was a candidate for the presidency, all idea of a contest for the top office was abandoned, but Republicans thought they saw a ripe target in Vice President John Adams. He had not only made himself ludicrous with his emphasis on high-sounding titles but actually written a series of essays in which he had praised the idea of hereditary succession. In the search for an alternative to Adams, Madison’s name was mentioned—presumably by Republicans who failed to understand that Virginia’s electors could not vote for both him and George Washington. The early favorite, however, was longtime New York governor George Clinton. Not only was he firmly opposed to everything Alexander Hamilton stood for, but with his flyaway hair and bulbous nose he looked the populist part. But in October, Republicans from New York and Pennsylvania wrote to Madison and Monroe to tell them that Aaron Burr had mounted a campaign. Where did they stand now that there was a choice? They remained with Clinton, as did Republicans who caucused in Philadelphia. John Beckley, clerk of the House and a reliable source of party intelligence, wrote to Madison that the caucus had dropped “all thoughts of Mr. Burr.” Beckley, who had been in New York, also warned Madison about Hamilton. “It would be wise to be watchful; there is no inferior degree of sagacity in the combinations of this
extraordinary
man, with a comprehensive eye, a subtle and contriving mind, and a soul devoted to his object.” 19
    In an age when it was difficult even to get out the news that Adams had an opponent, Madison knew that a Clinton victory was unlikely. But the Republicans hoped to make a good enough showing to provide Adams with some useful enlightenment. “As the opposition to him is leveled entirely against his political principles and is made under very great disadvantages,” Madison wrote, “the extent of it, whether successful or not, will satisfy him that the people at large are not yet ripe for his system.” 20 In the end Clinton received fifty electoral votes to John Adams’s seventy-seven, which was impressive. Washington remained as popular as ever. For the second and last time in American history, the vote of the Electoral College for a presidential candidate was unanimous.
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    AMONG HAMILTON’S FOES it was widely believed that he had used his office to enrich himself. John Beckley told Madison that he thought he had “a clue to something far beyond mere suspicion on this ground,” and at the end of 1792 a scandal seemed about to break. 21 Three members of Congress received information that Hamilton had been providing money to James Reynolds, a shady character who had been jailed for fraud, and that the payments had to do with speculation. Since one of the members apprised of this was Senator James Monroe, it is likely that Jefferson and Madison were aware of the charges almost immediately—and were as stunned as Monroe when Hamilton confessed that yes, he had been paying Reynolds, but it had nothing to do with speculation. Rather, for more than a year, Hamilton, husband of the lovely Elizabeth Schuyler, who had recently borne him his fifth child, had been involved in an affair with Reynolds’s wife. He had been