John Adams; History Lesson #2

Who do you think the following quote is talking about; “He is distrustful, obstinate, excessively vain, and takes no counsel from anyone.” If you said Donal Trump you’re wrong, though I can’t say why. It was actually said by Thomas Jefferson about John Adams. Jefferson was Adams Vice-President. John Adams was the first Vice-President to be elected President. Being elected after Washington must have been a tough act to follow. It must be distracting, trying to fight a war with France while they are building a city named after your predecessor right next door. Even if it's in a swamp. The city planners showed good foresight; there's no need to waste good land on something that's going to become a swamp anyway. Speaking of the war with France; it was an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. A couple of our ships bitch-slapped a couple of theirs and that was it. It ended on September 30 1800 with the Treaty of MortFontaine in Paris. It was called that because it was negotiated by some guy named Mort Fontaine. Adams passed the Sedition Act, which enabled the government to fine or imprison anyone for "publishing malicious or false writings against Congress, the President or the government." This pretty much covered everything; if you write something about the government that's not malicious than it's obviously false. When someone pointed out that this law effectually nullified the Bill of Rights, Adams replied; "You're under arrest." Not really, but he probably wanted to. Every president since has condemned this act, while secretly wishing he had thought of it first. President Obama tried to get something similar passed, calling it the Fox News Act. Adams helped pass the Judiciary Act, which reduced the number of Supreme Court Justices to five. They also shortened the name from Supreme Court to just The Supremes. People got really ticked off when George Bush appointed one guy to a Federal Judgeship when Congress had its back turned (motto-don’t go on vacation every other week). John Adams used such a loophole to appoint 200 Judges just days before Jefferson was sworn in, making Mr. Bush pale in comparison. Which is hard to do because George Bush gets a lot more sun in Texas than John Adams ever got in Massachusetts. John Adams was the first President to live in the Executive Mansion. He lived there just long enough to unpack his dishes before he was defeated by Thomas Jefferson. Always a gracious loser, he left DC and skipped Jefferson’s inauguration, a practice Donald Trump reestablished.