I used to have respect for HBO, but starting tonight, I am convinced that that once-fine cable network has gone completely berserk, by airing a hagiographical puff-piece multi-week series about the pathetic, despicable, obnoxious and disliked John Adams (F-Mass), who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, as an ambassador to various monarchical European colonial powers, as Vice-President and as a failed one-term President whose chief claim to fame was signing the odious Alien and Sedition Acts whilst leading the formation of a political party that, in classic Rove-like behavior, deliberately competed with the Democratic Party (then known as the Republicans) formed by the heroic Thomas Jefferson. I strongly urge all thinking sentient kossacks to not be bamboozled and/or hoodwinked by HBO's blatant use of the okie-doke and accepting this revisionist docudrama as anything other than psuedo-historical drivel.
Given all the abominable acts undertaken throughout Mr. Adams' life, it is hard to know exactly where to start in describing his atrocious life and legacy. He was born on October 30, 1735 to John Adams and the former Suzanna Boylston in Braintree in the British colony of Massachusetts. Instead of helping his family on the farm, however, he insisted on wasting his father's hard-earned money by pursuing, in a patent ego-driven self-aggrandizing fashion, a snooty high-blown education by attending Harvard College and, later, becoming a rapacious lawyer, a profession which, since Dickensian times, was known to prey on the poor and dispossessed, particularly debtors. As the first member of his family to attend college, he commonly lorded it over his less-educated relatives.
In perhaps the luckiest moment of his life, he somehow convinced the beautiful vivacious Abigail Smith to marry him in 1764. Abigail, the real brain in the family, was wise, learned, passionate and patriotic - if it had not been for her, John would never have held his tongue and would certainly have alientated everyone. Together, they had 5 children, but most of the time, their entire upbringing was left to Abigail while, in a classic case of abandonment, John spent roughly 14 years galivanting around the world in merriment. It was Abigail who managed the farm, it was Abigail who did all the necessary relationship-maintenance with family, friends and neighbors. During that time, all Abigail got was some letters while John had all the fun.
John's first notorious action was defending - yes DEFENDING - the murderers of Crispus Attucks, the first great African-American hero, after the horrific 1770 Boston Massacre. Instead of following the clearly expressed wishes of the majority of Boston residents, who, quite justifiably, wanted a summary trial and execution, Adams insisted on using legal technicalities, procedural gimmicks and legal trickery to forestall a speedy trial in cahoots with imperialistic British authorities. At this time, despite having penned the mind-numbing Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal law, he was a notorious "conservative" who vehemently disagreed with the growing independence movement.
In 1774, using political trickery and clout-based influence peddling, he got himself elected to the Continental Congress where he immediately, and quite cynically pulled a 180 and pretended that it was he, and not his beer-making cousin Sam or the prudential John Hancock (who could barely sign his name), that was the real fiery radical advocating independence. There, his reputation for being obnoxious and disliked grew exponentially. Coincidentally, this assignment allowed him to be absent from the tremendous events at Lexington and Concord, where the real Sons of Liberty made their stand. At Philadelphia, he bulldozed his way onto the committee assigned to draft the Declaration of Independence and constantly hectored his colleagues and nit-picked their word choices. (As an example, he excoriated Thomas Jefferson for using "inalienable" and insisted on the inclusion of the far less grammatical "unalienable" when describing human rights). He routinely lambasted his Southern colleagues for daring to disagree with him, he alienated all, but particularly John Dickinson, to the extent that the heroic Benjamin Franklin had to use all his wiles to repair the relentless rhetorical damage that Adams commonly inflicted. It was truly a miracle that the Congress was able to pass the Declaration due to Adams' incessant meddling and gratuitous insults.
After spending roughly 18 months annoying his colleagues and constantly demanding that Abigail send him saltpeter, he transhipped to France to be an American Commissioner, where he failed miserably by annoying virtually everyone with his uncouth ways. Needless to say, France didn't join the war at that time, Adams was recalled, and Benjamin Franklin was sent to clean up Adams' mess. He quickly returned home, just in time to get the credit, despite most of the work being done by others, for the drafting of the Massachusetts constitution.
Somehow, despite his annoying personality, Congresss decided to send him to Europe again in 1779 as a commissioner to seek peace with Britain (like that was going to happen). After a diplomatic blow-up in Paris, where he yet again undermined everything that Franklin had been working for, he went to Holland, where he lucked out and secured Dutch recognition as well as a small loan. Then, he returned to Paris in October 1782, where he once again annoyed both Franklin and Jefferson by stopping all negotiations until his pet project - American fishing rights in Newfoundland - got addressed; thus delaying the peace treaty (and undoubtedly causing numerous deaths) for another year. Finally, despite Adams, Franklin secured French intervention; the war ended and a peace treaty was signed. For two more years, Adams stayed away from Abigail and his family and enjoyed the delights of Europe - most notably becoming the first American ambassador to the Court of St. James, which, of course, annoyed the Brits so much that they: (1) delayed signing a treaty of amity and commerce; and (2) decided to invade America yet again a couple of decades later.
When he returned to America in 1788, because of Franklin and Jefferson's hard work, all of the commissioners were regarded favorably, including Adams; thus laying the groundwork for Adams' future political career. Of course, this meant that he was largely NOT PRESENT while the U.S. Constitution was drafted and ratified. Nonetheless, having bamboozled the electorate, he somehow was elected Vice-President, the heir apparent to George Washington.
Hi immediately set about insulting his office; describing his high office as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Because of his obnoxious behavior, the Senate, quite understandably, immediately passed rules which made Adams pretty much irrelevant except as a rote Presider for the next 8 years. Nonetheless, Adams largely (cynically) supported the mercantilist ambitions of Alexander Hamilton, who, contrary to Washington's expressed wishes, immediately began to factionalize the country into partisan divisions in order to maneuver Jefferson and his supporters out of effective power. The most notorious example of Hamilton's theory was the creation of the Bank of North America, later the first Bank of the United States, with a charter lasting until 1816 which was relentlessly opposed by Jefferson's "party" because of the vast concentrations of wealth and adherence to the Gold Standard, which made credit generally unavailable to all but the well-off. Instead of having regional district banks, the entire monopolistic apparatus was centered only in Pennsylvania.
As a Federalist, Adams prevented the promotion of the visionary Jefferson from Secretary of State to the Presidency by insisting on running himself for the Presidency, which he barely won. Instead of being a "uniter" rather than a "divider," Adams then embarked upon 4 of the most controversial years in American history. The XYZ affair was perhaps the most noted, wherein American commissioners returned from France with lurid stories of deceit and bribery. Adams reacted angrily, demanding that the country be out on a war footing and he signed all 4 of the Alien and Sedition Acts, including: (1) the Naturalization Act - a relentless anti-immigrant piece of legislation; (2) the Alien Act - which authorized Adams to deport anyone he disliked; (3) the Alien Enemies Act; and (4) the worst of the bunch, the Sedition Act which criminalized the publication of anything "false or scandalous" against his government (imaging what Adams would have done to Dkos). The point of all this was to maginalize any Jefferson-led opposition by abrogating the First Amendment. Some might say that it was a police state action that sought to outlaw political dissent against the quasi-war with France.
Luckily, Adams was not re-elected, but his parting shot was the "midnight" appointment of Federalist judges, who would remain, like Clarence Thomas, on the bench for 4 decades after Adams was gone. He finally returned to the long-suffering Abigail and lived in Quincy until his death. Unlike the other "Framers," Adams' likeness was never placed on any U.S. currency.
In order to clean up his historical record, he then engaged in a 14-year correspondence with Jefferson and they both died on July 4 1826, 50 years after the inalienable-unalienable argument. Characteristically, Adams's last words "Thomas Jefferson still lives" were inaccurate, for Jefferson actually predeceased Adams.
I'm just guessing here, but my suspicions are that this new mini-series will glorify Adams and everyone will like him now.
I dissent.