On Adams & Jefferson assuming the Presidency and Vice Presidency...

Item # 707369

February 18, 1797

GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES & PHILADELPHIA DAILY ADVERTISER, Feb. 18, 1797

* John Adams & Thomas Jefferson
* United States President and VP

Page 3 has a lengthy address: "To the Honorable the Congress of the United States" being: "The memorial & petition of the owners of land in the state of Tennessee that was purchased from the state of North Carolina & has since been yielded to the Indians for hunting ground."
Page 2 has an interesting speculation as to when the United States will be "filled up" with its maximum population. Another item notes that: "It is now reduced to a certainty that Mr. Adams is the president of the United States, and Mr. Jefferson the Vice President...Each being thus perfectly satisfied in the choice made by the people of the United States, what may we not expect from their united talents and patriotism."
Four pages, wide never-trimmed margins, very nice condition.

background: The 1797 inauguration of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson marked a structural crisis in the early American Republic, as the original Electoral College system inadvertently forced two bitter ideological rivals into the same administration. Following the formal vote count in February, Adams assumed the presidency as a Federalist committed to a strong central government, while Jefferson, the runner-up, took the vice presidency as the leader of the Democratic-Republicans, who championed agrarianism and states' rights. This "accidental" coalition proved nearly impossible to manage; despite their deep personal history as co-authors of the Declaration of Independence, the two men held diametrically opposed views on the French Revolution and the limits of federal power. Jefferson ultimately spent his term as a "loyal opposition" figure, frequently undermining Adams's policies from within, a friction that eventually paralyzed the executive branch and necessitated the passage of the 12th Amendment to ensure future Presidents and Vice Presidents would run on a unified ticket.