John Adams: A Controversial President

A patriot by some accounts, a tyrant by others, John Adams makes it to the top of a list of the most controversial presidents in American history. John Adams, born on October 30, 1735, in Braintree, Massachusetts was the vice president to George Washington and then later became the second president and the first and only Federalist president of the United States of America from March 4, 1797, to March 4, 1801. Before his presidency, he served as America's first minister to Great Britain from 1785 to 1788. He served in Congress from 1774 to 1777 and served in ninety committees and chaired twenty of them while in Congress. Constantly separated from his wife and children, John Adams was one of the most involved congressmen. He was also elected as part of the Constitutional Convention in Massachusetts. He is considered to be one of the Founding Fathers and also helped write the Declaration of Independence.When Adams was elected President in 1726, the Federalists controlled the two houses of Congress, the judiciary, which included the supreme court, and the Presidency. What we now consider as “conservative” ideology first began with John Adams and a fellow Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who both believed that America could achieve stability only if it were ruled by an aristocracy.
John Adams got dirty and called Thomas Jefferson a “mean-spirited, low- lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian Squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.”[CNN] Now you would think that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had been enemies for years, but in fact, they were very good friends before the campaign, so good that John Adams chose him to be his Vice President. Coincidentally, these frenemies died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of