Alien and Sedition laws as well as the new taxes and proved highly effective in mobilizing popular discontent. The election hinged on New York as its electors were selected by the legislature and given the balance of North and South, they would decide the presidential election. Aaron Burr brilliantly organized his forces in New York City in the spring elections for the state legislature. By a few hundred votes, he carried the city—and thus the state legislature—and guaranteed the election of a Republican president. As a reward, he was selected by the Republican caucus in Congress as their vice presidential candidate. Alexander Hamilton, knowing the election was lost anyway, went public with a sharp attack on Adams that further divided and weakened the Federalists. Members of the Republican Party planned to vote evenly for Jefferson and Burr because they did not want for it to seem as if their party was divided. The party took the meaning literally and Jefferson and Burr tied in the election with 73 electoral votes. This sent the election to the House of Representatives to break the tie. The Federalists had enough weight in the House to swing the election in either direction. Many would rather have seen Burr in the office over Jefferson, but Hamilton, who had a strong dislike of Burr, threw his political weight behind Jefferson. During the election, neither Jefferson nor Burr attempted to swing the election in the House of Representatives. Jefferson remained at Monticello to oversee the laying of bricks to a section of his home. Jefferson allowed for his political beliefs and other ideologies to filter out through letters to his contacts. Thanks to Hamilton's support, Jefferson would win the election and Burr would become his vice president. Conflict between the parties continued in the election's aftermath. Shortly before Jefferson took office, outgoing president Adams appointed nearly 60 men to newly created federal judgeships and justice of the peace positions. Not all of the appointees' commissions were delivered before Jefferson took office, and Jefferson refused to allow his new Secretary of State, James Madison, to deliver them, believing the undelivered commissions were void. A lawsuit filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by William Marbury, one of the appointees whose commissions had not been delivered, resulted in the Supreme Court's 1803 decision Marbury v. Madison, which is generally regarded as the most important constitutional law decision in American history.