men possessed independent fortunes.  Hamilton had manifested his ability from the first to equal the income of the wealthiest, did he give his unbroken services to the pursuit of his profession.  But he had lived for years upon a pittance, frequently driven to borrow small sums from his friends, that he might devote his energies entirely to his country.  And no man ever gave more generously or with less thought of reward; although he would have been the last to deny his enjoyment of power.  For a born leader of men to care little whether he had a few trusted friends or an army at his back, would merely indicate a weak spot in his brain.

It was quite natural, therefore, that he thought upon John Adams’s idiosyncrasies with considerable disquiet.  Nevertheless, with the high priest of Jacobinism in the field, his first object was to secure the office for the Federalist party.  The race was too close for serious consideration of any other ultimate.  He counselled every Federalist to cast his vote for Adams and Pinckney; better a tie, with the victory to Adams, than Thomas Jefferson at the head of the Nation.  Of course there was a hope that Pinckney might carry the South.  But the Adams enthusiasts dreaded this very issue, and threw away their votes for the Vice-Presidency.  Pinckney’s followers in the South pursued the same policy.  The consequence was that Adams won by three votes only.  Again his pride was bruised, and again he attributed his mortification to Hamilton.  If he had disliked him before, his dislike in a constant state of irritation through the ascendency and fame of the younger man, he hated him now with a bitterness which formed a dangerous link between himself and the Republican leaders.  The time came when he was ready to humiliate his country and ruin his own chance of reelection, to dethrone his rival from another proud eminence and check his upward course.  Another source of bitterness was Hamilton’s continued leadership of the Federalist party, when himself, as President, was entitled to that distinction.  But that party was Hamilton’s; he had created, developed it, been its Captain through all its triumphant course.  Even had he been content to resign his commission,—­which he did not contemplate for a moment,—­the great majority of the Federalists would have forced it into his hand again.  Adams declared war.  Hamilton, always ready for a fight, when no immediate act of statesmanship was involved, took up the gauntlet.  Adams might resist his influence, but the Cabinet was his, and so were some of the most influential members of Congress, including Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts, the president pro tem. of the Senate.  It was some time before Adams realized the full extent of this influence; but when he did discover that his Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, his Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, and his Secretary of War, James M’Henry, were in the habit of consulting Hamilton upon every possible question before giving the President their valuable opinions, and that upon one occasion, at least, a letter of Hamilton’s had been incorporated by the Secretary of War into a Presidential Message, he was like to die of apoplexy.  He wrote, in his wrath:—­