Time for the second week of our presidential rankings, we have a very interesting subject this week in John Adams.
You can find the first week’s George Washington thread here Ranking the US Presidents Week 1: George Washington - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
John Adams
John Adams’s stock has risen somewhat in recent years with the success of David McCullough’s biography and the HBO miniseries based upon it. While McCullough has created many new students of our complicated second president, we are ultimately still learning about a respectable man who was by many measures a failure during his single term
Adams still has his detractors, it would impossible to discuss the Adams presidency without mentioning the stain that is the alien and sedition acts. But then it is hard to ignore his success in avoiding serious international conflict at a time when his own party was itching a confrontation with France, a hawkishness that could have only been agitated further had Adams not treated the XYZ matter with such care.
In fact most of Adams’s failures can be attributed to his difficult personality and his stubborn independence, qualities that may not be suited for the presidency, but ones that still win him admirers.
Perhaps most interesting though, Adams is still our invisible founder. He does not have the high profile that his contemporaries do in our American conscious, despite his equally great accomplishments. His story is little known outside of those interested in history, as opposed to George Washington or Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, figures who all American school children are well acquainted with. This fact continues to make him compelling to so many of us, we want to know why.
Leadership Qualities- 3/10
Really pretty terrible.
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Accomplishments and Crisis Management- 5/10*
While there was some good such as the XYZ affair and creating the navy and such, dealing with problems with those awful acts makes his record mixed at best.
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Political Skill- 4/10*
Politicking mostly involves getting people to like you, this was not his strong point.
Character and Integrity- 9/10
The more I read about Adams as a person, the more I find him to be a wonderful human being who truly wanted what was best for his country. He was willing to devote his life in service of that goal. His relationship with his wife is really a beautiful American story.
Adams also has the benefit of being one of the presidents who left the most personal writing behind for us. His correspondence with Abigail and Jefferson are absolute pleasures to read. I think very highly of Adams as a man.
Foreign Policy- 7/10
Very measured.
Domestic Policy- 3/10
Not so measured.
I know there are a variety of opinions of this president, so let’s do it!