John Adams

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• 6/6/2021
  

  America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power

  by Akhil Reed Amar

  While the selection of Thomas Jefferson as the third president in 1801 (after an electoral college deadlock) is touted as a crucial peaceful transfer of presidential power from one party to another, the transition was far more fraught with peril than most realize. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  12/7/2020
  

  How John Adams Managed a Peaceful Transition of Presidential Power

  by Sara Georgini

  John Adams handed over power to Thomas Jefferson in 1801, but his actions demonstrated that power truly remained in the hands of the people.

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  9/29/2020
  

  On the Peaceful Transfer of Power: Lessons from 1800

  by Sara Georgini

  Adams lost the presidency amid violent factionalism, a seething press, rampant electioneering, and the eruption of party politics, yet became a champion for the peaceful transfer of power. 

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• 8/23/2020
  

  John Adams Knew When to Go Home

  by R.B. Bernstein

  One thing that John Adams never did was to voice a word of regret about leaving the presidency at his term’s end. None of his successors has ever violated or dishonored the precedent he established. And, if we are fortunate, none ever will.

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• SOURCE: The Washington Post
  9-8-18
  

  The thin-skinned president who made it illegal to criticize his office

  Though Adams was a Founding Father of the United States’ democracy, he couldn’t abide personal scorn.

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• 5/6/18
  

  The Founders Worried too, About Foreign Meddling in Our Elections

  by Jeanne Abrams

  John Adams went so far as to advocate the holding of fewer elections on the grounds that would give foreigners less opportunity to interfere.

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• 3/4/18
  

  Worried About Political Partisanship?

  by Gordon S. Wood

  Adams and Jefferson showed that even the harshest partisans can enjoy a warm friendship. (It helped that they had a common enemy.)

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• 7-2-17
  

  We celebrate Independence Day on the wrong date for the right reasons

  by Joseph J. Ellis

  John Adams’s choice, July 2, makes more sense. That was the day independence was officially decided. But we are right to celebrate the fourth since that's the date Americans always have.

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• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  3-3-17
  

  The Press Was the Enemy of the People in John Adams’s Era

  by Jeff Biggers

  Federalists even passed a law allowing the authorities to jail journalists.

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• 3-3-17
  

  Why It’s Important to Remember the Way We’ve Remembered the Boston Massacre

  by Eric Hinderaker

  The people who turned Crispus Attucks into a hero of the Revolution.

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• 11-20-16
  

  5 Steps Obama Can Take to Thwart Trump and Advance the Liberal Agenda

  by Donald Johnson

  Obama may be on his way out, but like John Adams, there’s a lot a president can do in his final days in office.

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• 11-16-14
  

  Why Naming John Marshall Chief Justice Was John Adams’s “Greatest Gift” to the Nation

  by Harlow Giles Unger

  “I had never before heard myself named for the office and had not even thought of it. I was pleased as well as surprised and bowed in silence. Next day I was nominated.”