Episode Details

John Adams was the most intellectually gifted of the founding fathers and possibly the least suited to politics. He was vain, honest to the point of self-destruction, and so obsessed with constitutional theory that he alienated nearly everyone who could have helped him govern. America called him a tyrant. He called himself a farmer.

This episode traces Adams from his Massachusetts farm through the revolution, his vice presidency under Washington, his single turbulent term as president, and the Alien and Sedition Acts that cost him reelection.

• He defended the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre because he believed everyone deserved legal representation
• He signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which criminalized criticism of the government and damaged his legacy
• He and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day — July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
• He was the first president to live in the White House, moving in before it was finished