The Election of 1800- Hamilton Reactions | Music Mondays!

[@lindseysquire8417]

I adore the part where the ensemble is singing about wanting to know how Hamilton will be voting, and Hamilton just says "It's quiet uptown". He's still trying to process his son's death, and Lin showed that in three words.

[@Cityweaver]

Hamilton may be the lead of the story, an underdog that America always likes to root for, but this song actually highlights his more meritocractic outlook on things that's the very reason why people (Jefferson and Adams) would accuse him of being pro-monarchy and an authoritarian. Hamilton is actually annoyed that Burr is openly campaigning, because of the result it creates: A man who has literally done nothing politically important in his entire life is able to run fairly successfully against the author of the Declaration of Independence. Both Hamilton and Burr placed high importance on education, but Hamilton fought for merit to be recognized above all else and Burr cynically believed that the world didn't actually appreciate intelligence, ie, his views on women: If the world were a fairer place then women would be fairly educated and given means for survival. Burr's fans call him a protofeminiest, but it's more accurate to say that he was such a meritocractic man that he wanted women WORTHY of education to receive one. I know this all seems like a tangent, but what I'm getting at is that Ham and Burr agreed on so much and Ham ultimately considered Burr "dangerous and amoral" because he wasn't willing to fight, not because they actually disagreed.

[@MrAntonla]

Copied from a comment I made on another video: Actually, it was a bit more complicated than portrayed in Hamilton. The Election of 1800 was the first election where presidential candidates had a running mate. Incumbent president John Adams was the presidential candidate of the Federalist Party who chose Charles C. Pinckney as his running mate. The Democratic-Republican party chose incumbent vice president Thomas Jefferson as their presidential candidate with Aaron Burr as his running mate. Each elector cast to ballots with no differenciation between the ballot for president and the ballot for vice president. Thus, each party had a plan for one of of their electors to vote for another person on one of his ballots to allow the presidential candidate to get one more electoral vote than the vice presidentiel candidate. The Democratic-Republican plan failed, however, and each of their electors voted for both Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, which caused a tie in the Electoral Collage. When the Electoral Collage can't decide on the president, it is up to the House of Representatives to break the tie, which eventually happened after 36 ballots! Now, Aaron Burr did become Vice President, but the rules were changed in 1804, when the requiered 3/4th majority of the state legislatures ratified the 12th ammendment, where it is decided that every elector casts a vote for President and a vote for Vice President

[@bbomb1319]

Haha, I saw the original comment, that’s so funny

[@lindseysquire8417]

I wish Lin could have fit all of this into the song, but I mean the drama coming from the simplified version is amazing, so it's a fair trade.

[@jesseclark3697]

Also when it went to the House, the Federalist party had the majority in that vote so they got to pick which of the two people in the opposing party they wanted as president. Adams was the leader of the party but just lost the election, so nobody really wanted to hear what he had to say. Hamilton was the next highest member of the party, which is why his endorsement was so valuable.

[@DylanSargesson]

The original/workshop version of the song does a better job at getting to some of these specifics - but the final version works better as a song

[@poggies7639]

The running mate thing was actually in the next election, I was corrected by a historian who specialises in the early American republic for thinking the same thing you did. Jefferson pushed for it to be changed in response to burr being his VP

[@crisa787]

Washington died in 1799 since wasnt around. The two parties were Federalist and Democratic-Republicans. John Adams came in 3rd leaving Jefferson and Burr as the 2 options. The federalists didnt want to support either and Hamilton had enough power still to convince the Federalists voters.

[@disableddragonborn]

Alex is the type who has many friends, but is a friend to none. He's a parasite. The entire show, he kept nagging Burr to pursue his goals rather than wait for them, but gets mad when Burr actually does. He went from "When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game, but you don't get a win unless you play in the game. Oh, you get love for it, you get hate for it, you get nothing if you wait for it," "The Room Where It Happens", to viewing it as a personal attack when Burr got elected to Senate. Burr was right when he said he learned it from Alex, and while Alex may have been a fool who constantly ran his mouth off (and eventually wound up dead because of it, as Burr warned) he was not stupid, so he would know that Burr *_did_* learn it from him. If Burr were a modern politician, he'd have a great chance of winning an election, since his lack of divisiveness would make him considered a moderate. (And yes, I am an avid Burr supporter, in case you can't tell. 🤣)

[@53ra]

I know this is a 5 month old comment, but the reason in the musical why Hamilton doesn't support Burr here is because Burr doesn't have any belief he stands for. He states in the song that he's willing to do anything to achieve his goals, and earlier in the musical states that he'll take his time to see which way the "wind will blow", which means he doesn't have a solid belief and will just go with popular crowd. Burr's indecisiveness is probably what cost him the win and Hamilton's endorsement. Hamilton would never side with someone who doesn't stick with their beliefs, and that's what he was trying to get Burr to do, not nagging him to simply pursue his goals

[@disableddragonborn]

@@53ra The justification for endorsing a man whose values he claims are antithetical to him just being because Burr was smart enough to not be divisive is insane. He did, however, prove Jefferson right about one thing. "He knows nothing of loyalty." Not to Eliza, not to his friends, (both Burr and the friend he told he'd fight for freedom with but let him rot in prison, Lafayette) and not even to his own alleged values. Despite Hamilton's sabotage, Burr achieved the second highest office in American government. Hamilton destroyed his own political party.

[@disableddragonborn]

I'll be honest, had it been me in the position Alex was in in terms of the endorsement, I'd refuse to be the one to ultimately decide the results, and instead I'd endorse Adams, purely because Adams had no chance of winning. "My fellow federalists, you have been asking to hear my voice and who I want to become the next president. To that I say, go fuck yourselves, don't put me in that position, and since you are demanding I endorse someone, I endorse John Adams."

[@disableddragonborn]

The show glosses over the fact that it wasn't the endorsement of Jefferson that earned Alexander a bullet between the ribs. He slandered VP Burr and refused to apologize. The letters sound even more arrogant and stubborn than even Lin could portray. Alexander Hamilton was cartoonishly petty and rude.

[@allura9163]

In those early days of the country, they needed a president who would be proactive, not reactive. Sorry, Burr. *Shrug*

[@AnaA-ko8bc]

Washington died

[@AnaA-ko8bc]

You should watch John Adams Mini series on hbo

[@ms_scribbles]

It simplifies a lot, I know, but in the play, Hamilton pretty succinctly lays out Burr's biggest flaw. The real Aaron Burr was a snake, slithering his way through politics without the firm convictions of the Founding Fathers. He simply bent to whatever wind was blowing at the time, to the point where nobody on *either* side truly trusted him. Not Washington, not Jefferson, not Adams. Nobody. His only passion in his political life was power, pure and simple. Some people go, "but he was a feminist!" I'm sorry, but I might accept that argument if he spent more time working on that endeavor than he did stabbing everybody in the back and committing murder and later fucking TREASON. (Though he did get off on a technicality on both counts.)