Today I was looking up the first presidential election to look at the electoral votes and I noticed something interesting. Apparently because he thought that Adams and Washington were going to get even number of votes and embarrass the Contitution, Hamilton schemed to get other electors to vote for other candidates to prevent a split. This strategy would probably have been flawed anyway, since an Anti-Fed like George Clinton would have gotten at least a few votes.
Nevertheless, why didn't it ever occur to Hamilton to just run himself, and possibly beat Adams to the Vice Presidency? Instead of creating scheme after scheme and deteriorating the Federalist Party, would it have been wrong to just run against Adams and prove who's the real leader of the Federalists once and for all? It's just boggling how much Hamilton clashed with Adams and sidelines him when Hamilton clearly missed the boat and had to play for it...
Thus, would Hamilton be able to beat Adams to the Vice-Presidency or not? If so, would it allow him to run for President in 1796 and win?