Show AN UNHAPPY PRESIDENT 0 1 W 1788 john adams adam elected vice president 1792 reelected re elected vice president 1796 elected president 1797 inaugurated second preal dent aged 61 1800 concluded peace with france defeated tor for second term by jefferson Jef fenon 1820 member of massachusetts constitutional convention ca 1826 1820 july 4 died aged 00 90 b 0 o notably john adams adam 9 was the P PROBABLY unhappiest man who ever sat oat in tile presidential chair one 0 of f a dozen unwanted presidents denta who were taken only because the men that were wanted could not be elected this humble role embittered all the remaining days of the proudest man in the line of our chief magistrates it was hard enough for adams to 1 be e the understudy even of george while serving as vice president when lie became president it was na maddening to his ego that he should be expected to play second fiddle fiddie to alexander hamilton the master spirit of the old governing class left over from colonial times atud which controlled the federalist party the president dent made the fatal nil mistake of keeping washington I 1 ca cabinet bainet which really lint had passed ln ander der the control of hamilton who presumed to direct the new administration very ery much es as a tammany boss puts a tammany mayor through his paces like aristocracies everywhere tilt federalists were thrown into a state of panic by the french revolution resolution tind and by the alie rise of tile the democracy in our yet aristocratic republic in ili their martin alarin they frantically rushed through congress the alien and sedition nets acts which became only millstones about their necks sinking their party forever not satisfied with shuttling shutting the revolution out of the new world many of them were for joining the monarchical coalition against it in the old world in an uproarious api upi carious quarrel with the absurd french durec ill rectory the militia was called out and washington summoned to command it after which the president astonished the jingoes jingles by suddenly throwing them over oer find returning to a pacific policy As lie ho had been the first minister to england john adams was also tile the first president to take up his residence in washington As mrs adams lind had been the wife of the first american envoy in london she was also the first arst mistress tresa of the white house it if for only a 0 few months on the way from philadelphia she and the president lost their trail in the wilderness until a S straggling trag gling black came to their assistance sis si the capitol was yet unfinished and out of a desolate bog for far off the unfinished white house rose to view there was neither a fence n nor 0 r V a tree a bout about the structure and the presidents nearest neighbor dwelt half a in mile ile away sirs mrs adams had a hard time to get woodi woods enough to keep keel her family warm in the big bleak mansion and site she smiles at us stilt still as her ter letters tell us of how site she hung her washing to dry in the great east room after sitting at his desk until midnight hastily signing appointments to forestall his successor adams drove droe ou out t of washington at the dawning of tile the day of jeffersons inauguration ile he had bad no smiles to bestow on tho the triumph of his rival and few enough to light his own pathway through his bis remaining years after hla his brave good helpmeet had been taken from him he lived on oil eight years more lived to see what no other ex president has seen a son eon in the white house at ninety as ai ho he lay dying in the busset of the he fiftieth fourth of july we are told that his thoughts turned to the first and most glorious fourth and that his lips murmured thomas aa jefferson still survives the author of the declaration really had aled a few hours hoins before and in ili their flight from earth the of tho the two old patriots of 70 were une strangely united figgin 1120 1920 hr bir janive moreao Mor Kao |