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The Election of 1800 is seen by some to be one of the most pivotal elections in US history, where President John Adams and the Federalist Party faced against Vice President Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic Republican Party. The Federalists at this time were in danger of schisming between Adams and the other leading figure in the party at the time, Alexander Hamilton, and consequentially the "Compromise of 1800" within the Federalists saw Adams running for re-election with Hamilton named as his running mate, with the express guarantee that if Adams won, then Hamilton would become Vice President alongside him. In a hard-fought campaign, the chaos of the French Revolution and the Quasi-War on the high seas was the main focus for the Federalists, while Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans leveraged the Alien and Sedition Acts as an example of Adams being unfit for office. In the end, a very narrow victory in the electoral college allowed Adams a second term, and as promised Hamilton became Vice President.

In the years that followed, Adams and Hamilton began to cooperate more where they had once been opponents, though this was clearly teeth-clenched teamwork in a desire to curry relations with the United Kingdom. While the French Revolution had ostensibly begun as a movement for freedom and equality, its descent into terror and the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte as "First Consul" led to the Federalists denouncing the Revolution as a corruption of its own values. In fact, it was during this time that the United States began to openly support the United Kingdom in their struggle against the French Revolution, to the point that American mercenaries soon began to fight on the front lines during the War of the Second Coalition.

All the while, the Federalist view of a strong central government began to take further hold, especially as the Federalists had reached a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. This was especially reinforced in 1801, when the case of Jefferson vs. United States took the shape of Thomas Jefferson challenging in the Supreme Court that the victory of Adams in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote invalidated his election as President, but the Federalist-staffed Supreme Court would rule against Jefferson and establish a precedent for the Supreme court to hold a decisive interpretation of the laws of the United States. With the Supreme Court on his side, Adams would proceed to expand the powers of the Federal Government at the behest of Hamilton, strengthening the National Bank and expanding Federal authority over the states.

In 1803, Napoleon would declare himself Emperor of France, and it was at this point that Hamilton now began to speak out in favor of declaring war on France, now that it had begun to extensively harass US shipping and had now fully betrayed its revolution by establishing a monarchy. Adams, meanwhile, had been focused more on domestic policy, and was not in favor of such a war, but the Election of 1804 would prove a turning point. Not only was the idea of Adams running for a third term frowned upon, but Hamilton increasingly agitating in his own favor combined with Adams losing support in the party led to Adams begrudgingly standing aside for the party to nominate Hamilton as its candidate for Presidency, while Jefferson again attempted to run on the Democratic Republican platform.

By now, Hamilton's increasingly populist rhetoric in favor of overseas involvement with Europe had thoroughly divorced from Washington's isolationist policies, and had also combined with his wider desire for US protection of movements such as the Haitian Revolution and wider efforts in European colonies towards independence. In essence, Hamilton had positioned himself as a very foreign-policy oriented candidate, and the increasing tensions between the United States and France gave Jefferson's urging for reconciliation with France and hostility towards Britain a bad view in the eyes of many. Thus, on a similarly narrow vote, but this time with both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote in his favor, Hamilton was elected as the nation's third president. Within months of his inauguration, he and the now Federalist-dominated Congress voted to declare war on France, specifically citing French harassment of American shipping as the causus belli.

Although the now-ongoing War of the Third Coalition wouldn't see American soldiers fighting in large numbers in Europe itself (though American soldiers did undoubtedly volunteer to fight the French directly), the primary American contribution to the war was naval, with the United States Navy proving a formidable force in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic, especially as American ships proved a decisive factor in the Battle of Trafalgar. More consequential, however, was the American invasion of the French colony of Louisiana. Although the region was sparsely populated outside of its southern areas centered around New Orleans, the American forces would soon press deep into the interior and secure the whole of the river. Shortly afterward, the United States would unilaterally (and in one sense, illegally) declare the annexation of Louisiana, a claim recognized by the United Kingdom and the rest of the Coalition. It was also during this war that the United States conquered and occupied Florida from Spain, which was aligned with Napoleon.

Though the US' conquest wouldn't be officially recognized by France until the wider end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, for all intents and purposes Hamilton had more than doubled the United States' territory and won a major victory in the young nation's first declared war, winning him major acclaim and boosting his popularity. The initial end of hostilities with France had come in 1805, though during which time the US would continue to openly harass the French in the Atlantic and support the new Fourth Coalition, severely hampering Napoleon's wider ambitions across Europe. Riding this popularity as both an expansionist and a wartime victor, Hamilton would cruise to a much broader victory in the 1808 election. It was at this time that the Democratic Republican Party would finally break down, being replaced by the New Democratic Party under the oversight of Aaron Burr, the long-time rival of Hamilton and three time Vice Presidential candidate under Thomas Jefferson.

Cruising into his second term without much issue, Hamilton had initially intended to act in support of the Fifth Coalition by invading New Spain and expanding the United States further. However, the seemingly unchallenged success of the Federalists was finally brought to a halt when the Supreme Court of Georgia, long a center of Democratic Republican and now New Democratic support, declared that the Tariff Act of 1809 was unconstitutional and thus null and void. Sparking a new internal crisis, the "Nullification Crisis" was largely a partisan issue, based around arguments between federal supremacy favored by the Federalists and state supremacy favored by the New Democrats. Indeed, Burr himself was one of the biggest supporters of Georgia at this time, in his capacity as President Pro Tempore of the Senate. However, the matter would soon go to the Supreme Court, wherein the now firmly Federalist-aligned Court ruled in favor of the Federal Government and that the individual states could not nullify Federal laws.

Although the matter continued to firmly establish the supremacy of the Federal Government, Georgia was not satisfied and threatened secession, under the justification that the Federal Government was becoming increasingly tyrannical over the states, an opinion broadly supported across the southern states. Although the 1808 Election swung both houses of Congress back in favor of the Federalists who then passed a bill authorizing the president to use force to quell secessionist dissent in Georgia, the matter was resolved peacefully when a new compromise Tariff Bill of 1810 was passed, calming the matter for the time being. That accomplished, Hamilton could now turn his attention towards foreign affairs once again, now acting with a Congress and government firmly behind him.

Though the matters of European affairs were now out of most people's mind, Hamilton had a new focus: treaties with the United Kingdom, particularly over Canada. Meeting in 1811, the Treaty of Baltimore (also known as the Monroe-Ashburton Treaty) settled that the United States would cede its claims in northern Maine and the Red River Basin, and in exchange for further assistance in the War of the Sixth Coalition, the United Kingdom agreed to cede the northern portion of the Oregon Territory to the United States, along with agreeing to abstain from "intervention" of any kind in Britain's colonies, the implied context being that while Hamilton had in the space of his presidency alone stretched the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific, his obviously expansionist policies would not be directed toward British North America.

By 1812, Hamilton like Washington and Adams before him would refrain from seeking a third term, making way for his Secretary of State James Madison to seek the Federalist nomination, while Burr stood on the New Democratic nomination. This time around, Burr won the Presidency in the Electoral College but not the Popular Vote, nonetheless becoming President while Madison stood aside. The first non-Federalist president after 24 years of Federalist rule, Burr would attempt to begin rolling back the Federal Government, and focus more on domestic issues. This came at an ideal time, as a new issue had come up: the expansion of slavery into the territories, especially as Louisiana was admitted as a slave state, but the new territories proved to be non-ideal for slavery's expansion. Regardless of Burr's opinions though, the Federal Government was now firmly entrenched and expected to play a role in this as an arbiter. Like it or not, the Federal Government was now firmly established as the primary arbiter of power in the United States, which was now no longer just a collection of states in union with each other, but a single, United States of America.

Description
The Election of 1800 is seen by some to be one of the most pivotal elections in US history, where President John Adams and the Federalist Party faced against Vice President Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic Republican Party. The Federalists at this time were in danger of schisming between Adams and the other leading figure in the party at the time, Alexander Hamilton, and consequentially the "Compromise of 1800" within the Federalists saw Adams running for re-election with Hamilton named as his running mate, with the express guarantee that if Adams won, then Hamilton would become Vice President alongside him. In a hard-fought campaign, the chaos of the French Revolution and the Quasi-War on the high seas was the main focus for the Federalists, while Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans leveraged the Alien and Sedition Acts as an example of Adams being unfit for office. In the end, a very narrow victory in the electoral college allowed Adams a second term, and as promised Hamilton became Vice President.

In the years that followed, Adams and Hamilton began to cooperate more where they had once been opponents, though this was clearly teeth-clenched teamwork in a desire to curry relations with the United Kingdom. While the French Revolution had ostensibly begun as a movement for freedom and equality, its descent into terror and the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte as "First Consul" led to the Federalists denouncing the Revolution as a corruption of its own values. In fact, it was during this time that the United States began to openly support the United Kingdom in their struggle against the French Revolution, to the point that American mercenaries soon began to fight on the front lines during the War of the Second Coalition.

All the while, the Federalist view of a strong central government began to take further hold, especially as the Federalists had reached a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. This was especially reinforced in 1801, when the case of Jefferson vs. United States took the shape of Thomas Jefferson challenging in the Supreme Court that the victory of Adams in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote invalidated his election as President, but the Federalist-staffed Supreme Court would rule against Jefferson and establish a precedent for the Supreme court to hold a decisive interpretation of the laws of the United States. With the Supreme Court on his side, Adams would proceed to expand the powers of the Federal Government at the behest of Hamilton, strengthening the National Bank and expanding Federal authority over the states.

In 1803, Napoleon would declare himself Emperor of France, and it was at this point that Hamilton now began to speak out in favor of declaring war on France, now that it had begun to extensively harass US shipping and had now fully betrayed its revolution by establishing a monarchy. Adams, meanwhile, had been focused more on domestic policy, and was not in favor of such a war, but the Election of 1804 would prove a turning point. Not only was the idea of Adams running for a third term frowned upon, but Hamilton increasingly agitating in his own favor combined with Adams losing support in the party led to Adams begrudgingly standing aside for the party to nominate Hamilton as its candidate for Presidency, while Jefferson again attempted to run on the Democratic Republican platform.

By now, Hamilton's increasingly populist rhetoric in favor of overseas involvement with Europe had thoroughly divorced from Washington's isolationist policies, and had also combined with his wider desire for US protection of movements such as the Haitian Revolution and wider efforts in European colonies towards independence. In essence, Hamilton had positioned himself as a very foreign-policy oriented candidate, and the increasing tensions between the United States and France gave Jefferson's urging for reconciliation with France and hostility towards Britain a bad view in the eyes of many. Thus, on a similarly narrow vote, but this time with both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote in his favor, Hamilton was elected as the nation's third president. Within months of his inauguration, he and the now Federalist-dominated Congress voted to declare war on France, specifically citing French harassment of American shipping as the causus belli.

Although the now-ongoing War of the Third Coalition wouldn't see American soldiers fighting in large numbers in Europe itself (though American soldiers did undoubtedly volunteer to fight the French directly), the primary American contribution to the war was naval, with the United States Navy proving a formidable force in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic, especially as American ships proved a decisive factor in the Battle of Trafalgar. More consequential, however, was the American invasion of the French colony of Louisiana. Although the region was sparsely populated outside of its southern areas centered around New Orleans, the American forces would soon press deep into the interior and secure the whole of the river. Shortly afterward, the United States would unilaterally (and in one sense, illegally) declare the annexation of Louisiana, a claim recognized by the United Kingdom and the rest of the Coalition. It was also during this war that the United States conquered and occupied Florida from Spain, which was aligned with Napoleon.

Though the US' conquest wouldn't be officially recognized by France until the wider end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, for all intents and purposes Hamilton had more than doubled the United States' territory and won a major victory in the young nation's first declared war, winning him major acclaim and boosting his popularity. The initial end of hostilities with France had come in 1805, though during which time the US would continue to openly harass the French in the Atlantic and support the new Fourth Coalition, severely hampering Napoleon's wider ambitions across Europe. Riding this popularity as both an expansionist and a wartime victor, Hamilton would cruise to a much broader victory in the 1808 election. It was at this time that the Democratic Republican Party would finally break down, being replaced by the New Democratic Party under the oversight of Aaron Burr, the long-time rival of Hamilton and three time Vice Presidential candidate under Thomas Jefferson.

Cruising into his second term without much issue, Hamilton had initially intended to act in support of the Fifth Coalition by invading New Spain and expanding the United States further. However, the seemingly unchallenged success of the Federalists was finally brought to a halt when the Supreme Court of Georgia, long a center of Democratic Republican and now New Democratic support, declared that the Tariff Act of 1809 was unconstitutional and thus null and void. Sparking a new internal crisis, the "Nullification Crisis" was largely a partisan issue, based around arguments between federal supremacy favored by the Federalists and state supremacy favored by the New Democrats. Indeed, Burr himself was one of the biggest supporters of Georgia at this time, in his capacity as President Pro Tempore of the Senate. However, the matter would soon go to the Supreme Court, wherein the now firmly Federalist-aligned Court ruled in favor of the Federal Government and that the individual states could not nullify Federal laws.

Although the matter continued to firmly establish the supremacy of the Federal Government, Georgia was not satisfied and threatened secession, under the justification that the Federal Government was becoming increasingly tyrannical over the states, an opinion broadly supported across the southern states. Although the 1808 Election swung both houses of Congress back in favor of the Federalists who then passed a bill authorizing the president to use force to quell secessionist dissent in Georgia, the matter was resolved peacefully when a new compromise Tariff Bill of 1810 was passed, calming the matter for the time being. That accomplished, Hamilton could now turn his attention towards foreign affairs once again, now acting with a Congress and government firmly behind him.

Though the matters of European affairs were now out of most people's mind, Hamilton had a new focus: treaties with the United Kingdom, particularly over Canada. Meeting in 1811, the Treaty of Baltimore (also known as the Monroe-Ashburton Treaty) settled that the United States would cede its claims in northern Maine and the Red River Basin, and in exchange for further assistance in the War of the Sixth Coalition, the United Kingdom agreed to cede the northern portion of the Oregon Territory to the United States, along with agreeing to abstain from "intervention" of any kind in Britain's colonies, the implied context being that while Hamilton had in the space of his presidency alone stretched the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific, his obviously expansionist policies would not be directed toward British North America.

By 1812, Hamilton like Washington and Adams before him would refrain from seeking a third term, making way for his Secretary of State James Madison to seek the Federalist nomination, while Burr stood on the New Democratic nomination. This time around, Burr won the Presidency in the Electoral College but not the Popular Vote, nonetheless becoming President while Madison stood aside. The first non-Federalist president after 24 years of Federalist rule, Burr would attempt to begin rolling back the Federal Government, and focus more on domestic issues. This came at an ideal time, as a new issue had come up: the expansion of slavery into the territories, especially as Louisiana was admitted as a slave state, but the new territories proved to be non-ideal for slavery's expansion. Regardless of Burr's opinions though, the Federal Government was now firmly entrenched and expected to play a role in this as an arbiter. Like it or not, the Federal Government was now firmly established as the primary arbiter of power in the United States, which was now no longer just a collection of states in union with each other, but a single, United States of America.