During the 1800 election, Thomas Jefferson managed to defeat the incumbent, John Adams, and assumed the presidency. In terms of elections, however, the 1800 election itself was a fascinating election as it was a hotly contested election and was effectively the first time that political parties launched smear campaigns against each other during an election. The Republican Party attacked the Federalists for being anti-freedom and monarchist and tried to persuade the public that the Federalists were abusing their power through acts such as the Alien & Sedition Acts and the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion (Tindall and Shi 315). Federalists, on the other hand, attacked Jefferson for his atheism and his support of the French Revolution and warned that his election would cause chaos (316). By the end of the presidential election, neither Adams nor Jefferson had emerged with their reputations fully intact. However, rather than an election between Adams and Jefferson, the election of 1800 ultimately came down to a deadlock between Jefferson and his vice presidential candidate, Aaron Burr, who each had seventy-three electoral votes, resulting in l he election was sent to the House. of the Representatives. Ultimately, the deadlock was resolved only by Alexander Hamilton, whose immense hatred for Burr allowed Jefferson to claim the presidency. However, the election of 1800 was more than just a presidential election. The election of 1800 was the first peaceful transfer of power from the incumbent party to the opposition and represented a new step in politics, as well as a new direction in foreign policy that would emerge from Jefferson's policies and, to that extent, the election of The 1800s were a revolution. For several reasons, Jeffer... half the paper... the last of these ideas was significant, it didn't really change the way the nation operated as a whole. For all his speeches, Jefferson did little to change the Federalist policies established by his predecessors and ultimately ended up embracing many of them. Yes, the election represented change, but was the election really the “Revolution of 1800,” as some have claimed? Perhaps the greatest evidence against this idea is that the national government has existed in much the same form since it was established by the Constitution. Works Cited "Jefferson's Revolution of 1800." shmoop. November 1, 2009. .Hofstadter, Richard. The American political tradition and the men who made it. New York: Vintage, 1989. Tindall, George B. and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. 7th ed. New York: WW Norton & Company Inc., 2007.