PRESIDENTS DAY: JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS (1797 TO 1801) portrait by John Trumbull

The many who believed that George Washington would refuse to transfer power and thus become a new American monarch misjudged him badly. Washington had to be coaxed to run for a second term, dreading four more painful years of bitter exchanges between emerging political parties and rabid insults from partisan newspapers. His health was declining and retirement to Mount Vernon, his Virginia estate, beckoned. Washington set the precedent of a two term service limit when he finally retired at the end of his second term.

Washington’s vice president, John Adams, scored a narrow victory over his secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, in the 1796 election and they became, respectively, the second president and vice president of the new country. Adams spoke with a lisp and was thought by some to be arrogant, opinionated and pretentious, but Washington was pleased to transfer power. Adams wrote after his inauguration that Washington was “as serene and unclouded as the day. He seemed to me to enjoy a triumph over me. Methought I heard him say, ‘Ay! I am fairly out and you are fairly in! See which one of us will be happiest!” (The peaceful transfer of power, now considered a hallmark of American democracy, was called into question more than two centuries later when Donald J. Trump refused to accept losing the 2020 Presidential election to Joseph Biden and incited thousands of his followers to storm the United States Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the vote.)

During Adam’s presidency, he and Jefferson clashed strongly over policy choices facing the nation. Adams, a Federalist, favored increasing the power of the federal government and strengthening a relationship with Great Britain, while Jefferson, a Democratic Republican, distrusted the growing federal power over the states and preferred an alliance with France. (It should also be pointed out that Washington and Jefferson both were southern slave holders while Adams was a New England farmer who found slavery repugnant. Slavery was an issue from the get go.)

After four years, the 1800 presidential campaign was a rematch that ended with Jefferson defeating Adams. While Jefferson won the popular vote, both received the same number of electoral votes, and the tie sent the decision to the House of Representatives where Jefferson finally became president on the 36^th ballot. Adams and Jefferson were life long political rivals and, in one of history’s stranger coincidences, both died on July 4, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

In addition to on their farm in Quincy, Massachusetts, John and Abigail Adams lived at different times in London, Paris, Philadelphia and Washington DC. But despite extensive exposure to fine dining, the Adams showed little interest in food. This could be explained by Abigail’s economy; the President’s $25,000 annual salary may have necessitated modest meals at home. Nevertheless, the stalwart New England couple found themselves, as the first residents of the newly built White House, obliged to provide the fledgling nation with an appropriate celebration. The largest, most elaborate party of their tenure was a reception held when the residence first opened to the public, on New Years Day, 1801. The menu included tea, coffee, punch, wine and a vast array of desserts: assorted fruits, cakes, creams, curds, jellies, sweetmeats, syllabubs, tarts, and trifles. Abigail also served floating islands, a French dessert that Jefferson called snow eggs.

John Adams himself preferred simpler food, the cuisine of a New England farmer. Even when working with colleagues accustomed to epicurean pursuits, he preferred a humble boiled dinner and hard cider (Adams liked sipping a good hard cider, which he made from his own apple orchard. He drank a “gill” of hard cider, a unit of measurement equal to a quarter of a pint, every morning as a student at Harvard and early in his presidency. He attributed the health of Harvard students to their use of cider, as well as early rising and diet.) His wife, Abigail, managed the family farm and offspring during the long periods when Adams was away, and her cooking centered on the produce from her orchard, garden and fields. She enjoyed preparing simple treats like apple pan dowdy. Adams wrote to her after moving into the still unfinished White House “Before I end my letter, I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it, may none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.” More than a century later, in the final year of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt had the words inscribed in gold just under the mantel on the fireplace in the State Dining Room; the inscription is still there.