Before Trump-Biden, it was Jefferson and Hamilton. They showed how to transfer power 

Many pundits have recently commented that the current election is the most important in our lifetime and maybe in the history of the nation. The first part of that statement is probably a correct assessment, but to say that this is the most important election ever in our nation’s history is incorrect.

That honor goes to the election of 1800; where a close election (at least in the Electoral College) threatened the political stability of the young nation. The clear choice of the people in that election was Thomas Jefferson, leader of the Democratic-Republic party (and then vice president of the United States) over his political rival and one-time friend, the Federalist president John Adams.

What made this election so crucial to our nation’s survival was that it marked the first peaceful transfer of power in the world’s history. What made it even more remarkable was that Jefferson’s political rival Alexander Hamilton — the true leader of the Federalist Party — would be the one to cement Jefferson’s victory.

The election was in doubt because Jefferson’s running mate, Aaron Burr, had received as many electoral votes as Jefferson in the Electoral College in order to keep Adams from becoming Jefferson’s vice president, in a quirk of the original process under the Constitution. When Burr refused the release his electors to make Jefferson president, he put in motion a political firestorm that opened the door to a Federalist victory. Hamilton could have kept the Electoral College from choosing anyone for president and taken his chances in the House of Representatives. where the Federalists had more support. Instead, Hamilton endorsed Jefferson as the more politically sincere candidate over Burr, giving Jefferson the presidency and cementing a longstanding hatred with Burr.

The fact that political rivals could envision allowing their opponents to simply take over and possibly undo everything they had worked for was inconceivable for most, yet that is exactly what happened. Hamilton understood that the will of the people mattered even if their votes did not technically choose the president. This is remarkably different in tone from what is now emerging from members of the Trump campaign and administration officials, including the president and vice president, who have both avoided full-throated promises of a peaceful transfer of power.

Many Republicans are hard at work trying to devise plans that would allow their party to retrain power or at least invalidate the votes of many people who simply followed the voting regulations open to them. This current trend would be akin to Hamilton instructing the Federalist members of Congress to simply vote for their candidate Adams over Jefferson and ignore the results of the election. Hamilton saw this as impossible as supporters of Jefferson, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas McKean, were already calling for the use of troops to seal Jefferson’s victory in response to any Federalist tricks. The possibility of open warfare between the political parties was a real possibility. Instead, Hamilton took the harder road, supported the rival faction, and relinquished power for the good of the nation.

We stand at such a juncture once again where members of one party may need to stand aside and allow their political rivals to take power even if there was a possible path to retaining that power. To continue to ignore the will of the people where the candidate with the most votes is unable to take office or conduct the affairs of the nation due to their opponent’s machinations undoes that which made America an exceptional nation.

What America has done, that other nations before were incapable of, was to allow others to peacefully undo what was put in place in accordance with the wishes of the people. Without this tradition, America is simply another nation that lurches from political crisis to political crisis and will eventually tear the nation apart.