The Whig Campaign
Adams passes the last week of October on Long Island, where he meets with leadings citizens and representatives of every trade, and delivers impromptu addresses to the electors of the city. Over dinner, he recounts the achievements of the government, emphasizing the tariff and forthcoming commercial agreements with Denmark and Portugal. He likewise laments the failure of the Military Act by a single vote in the Senate, and subtly remarks how common such defeats might have become had the Assembly adopted Mr. Jay's plan to establish a Senatorial veto. In his public addresses, Mr. Adams vociferously defends the government's position on Westsylvania: so long as peaceful settlement was possible, the government sought peace; but the stubbornness of the Pennsylvania government and the mutiny of the militia made this impossible. He reminds the electorate that he was the first to propose the declaration of martial law and the commission of General Hamilton to lead the federal forces, and obliquely rebukes pernicious rumors in the press that the government is somehow to blame for the intransigence of the Pennsylvania government.
Adams' surrogates in the city, and leaders of the local Whig organizations, take a more forceful tone. At public gatherings—bonfires, musters, and mass meetings—and in the press, they decry the Hamiltonian opposition for their constant reversals, and draw a pointed contrast between Hamilton's conduct as commander of the army and his faction's program in the National Assembly. They note the passage of the Land Act and the Tariff, and the proposed commercial agreements with Denmark and Portugal—all government measures—and their expected effect of improving the county's economy, especially trade. They likewise trumpet the Declaration of Rights as a triumph of American republicanism, and repeat the usual cautions against British influence over the opposition. To this last point, they observe that Gouverneur Morris, now leader of the Hamiltonian faction, is a "former" Tory who once ascribed to an explicitly monarchist manifesto. The Tories and Hamiltonians being indistinguishable, the Whig candidate is the only choice for the friends of American liberty.
Every effort is made to mobilize friendly voters, to convince the persuadable, and to loudly rebuke criticisms of the government from the Tory and Hamiltonian press.
