We’ve rarely had such a nasty jerk in the White House as John Adams. He turned on Hamilton (and everyone else) many a time, to the point that Hamilton finally crossed the party line and endorsed Jefferson over Adams.
Adams (at the encouragement of his wife Abigail) had tried to round up his political opponents at newspapers and jail them under the Alien and Sedition Act, because at heart he was a fascist.
Jefferson, brilliant as he was, was also a sneaky bastard, possibly due to the influence of James Madison, with whom he was close. He had the good sense to burn his personal papers before his death.
Adams lost his reelection bid, appointed a bunch of judges he thought would be hostile to Jefferson’s policies, and blew town before Jefferson was sworn in.
The whiny little bitch did one service for the country that was his greatest — he was the poor bastard who followed George Washington.
The remarks about “foreign influence” probably were Adams’ barbs directed at Jefferson, whom he (through proxies) accused of being too much under French influence.
Wow .. such vitriol to read on a Sunday morning.
All these demeaning adjectives used to describe
John and Abigail Adams is certainly new to me.
David McCullough wrote of his flaws, as all humans have, but the overriding influence and impact that Adams had on the early days of this nation is mighty.
There’s always rivalry among power players and men of power, vision and egos. I accept McCullough’s well-researched analysis of the life of Adams and the conclusion that he was a patriot and pivotal to the founding and early survival of this country.
They all played their parts, that .. at the time in all the various areas of government.. were so key in the tenuous first days and years of creating a country from square one. And Hamilton sure doesn’t appear to have been such a prince of a man and to be that saintly and worthy of descimating and trampling Adams’ reputation and documented record of contributions and achievements.
“During his tenure as Treasury secretary, Hamilton clashed repeatedly with another cabinet member, Thomas Jefferson.
Hamilton favored a powerful central government while Jefferson feared it; Hamilton favored closer relations with Britain, and Jefferson, with France. The men would both resign their Cabinet posts before the end of Washington’s first term. They would remain lifelong political enemies.
Hamilton might have risen to the presidency if not for a scandal in 1797. A pamphlet published that year revealed Hamilton’s affair with a woman named Maria Reynolds and linked him to a scheme by Reynolds’ husband to illegally manipulate federal securities.
To prove his innocence, Hamilton resorted to publishing love letters he had written to Maria Reynolds. This cleared Hamilton of financial impropriety, but badly damaged his reputation. The scandal did not stop George Washington from appointing Hamilton acting commander of the U.S. Army in 1798 when the country was on the brink of war with France.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande06.html
We’re all failed, flawed human beings, no?