For almost a century now, January 20 has been Inauguration Day, the day power passes from one president to another, a day filled with quaint civic rituals to solemnize the tradition of the peaceful transition of political power, something we generally took for granted as being as American as apple pie - that is, until six years ago. Then we discovered - and have continued to learn ever since - just how fragile republican government really is and the variable human factors on which republican government, constitutionalism, the rule of law, elections, and the peaceful transfer of power all actually depend. What better time than this, therefore, to revisit the often overlooked but actually quite significant presidency of John Adams, who set so many important presidential precedents, not least that of the peaceful transition of power from one party to another.
There are numerous good biographies of Adams, but they have largely tended to highlight other (more seemingly successful) aspects of his storied career and focus less on his one-term presidency. In contrast, Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, focuses almost entirely on Adams as our second president in her new book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Adams served as our first Vice President, under George Washington, who himself set many presidential precedents, including that of excluding his Vice President from serious participation in the Administration. According to Chervinsky, Adams' first of many critical contributions to the new nation's survival was simply proving "that someone else could be president" after Washington left office. "Washington established countless executive precedents, but until they were repeated, they were little more than historic anomalies. Adams forged the parameters of the presidency for everyone that followed."
Key among those parameters, was Adams' forceful assertion of presidential authority over the military and the executive branch itself. "Adams' cabinet secretaries conspired with other Arch Federalists to weaken the presidency, and undermine civilian leadership of the military." Adams successfully reasserted the presidential claim to control the military as a civilian, successfully countered cabinet subversion of his foreign policy initiatives, and by removing recalcitrant cabinet secretaries definitively established presidential power over the cabinet. Also, again at the cost of fracturing his Federalist party and imperiling his own re-election, he secured peace with France. The Treaty of Mortefontaine "represented the pinnacle of Adams' lengthy foreign policy career and validated his economic instincts." Likewise in his attention to the judiciary, Adams recognized "the long-term importance of the bench."
Chervinsky's account of the Adams' administration is detailed and highlights many ways Adams' semingly transitional presidency has left a long legacy. But perhaps the most significant - especially in the light of our recent history - was his commitment to republican government, constitutionalism, the rule of law, elections, and the peaceful transfer of power, all of which he demonstrated in his response to the electoral crisis of 1800. That election took place over a period of time. It "was actually a series of elections, first at the state level to control legislatures, then is siew of tates with direct elections for electors, and finally at the electoral college level." Given our recent experience of states' competing to reapportion congressional districts in time for the 2026 midterm elections, her account of the various maneuvers in 1800 to alter the ways electors were to be selected in order to maximize one or other party's advantage seems especially timely. So is the role of personalities and personal relationships. "Government was a small world int he eighteenth century, and politicians often knew each other or were related." While the family backgrounds of contemporary politicians may be much more diverse, modern media has made politics a small world agin in a different way, whcih also highlights personalities and personal relationships.
Famously, the election of 1899 resulted in a tie which threatened the very survival of the system. "Jefferson flirted with political violence and came perilously close to upending democratic institutions." In the end, however, Adams and Jefferson "put aside petty grievances nad worked together, honoring their commitment to basic civic virtue." Everyone knows Adams did not attend Jefferson's inaugural (which he was not particularly expected to do), but Chervinsky details the ways in which he and the executive departments cooperated with and assisted the incoming administration, another valuable precedent.
Sandwiched in between Washington and Jefferson, Adams never. made to Mount Rushmore. His actual contributions as president deserve to be remembered, however, and the precedents he set - especially in regard to republican government, constitutionalism, the rule of law, elections, and the peaceful transfer of power have served the U.S. very well. In view of more recent events and our present sleepwalking flirtation with despotism, those precedents deserve to be recalled, and their author deserves to be better remembered and honored.
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