Home » History » American Presidents » JOHN ADAMS: OBNOXIOUS AND DISLIKED

JOHN ADAMS: OBNOXIOUS AND DISLIKED

© John S. Cooper

John Adams, our first vice-president and second president, is remembered for many things. He was the leading patriot in the Continental Congress, being the most outspoken advocate for independence. It was John Adams who nominated George Washington to be commanding general of the Continental Army. John Adams was the chairman of the committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence. But not much is remembered about John Adams personally. He was not an easy person to like.

Anyone who has seen the Broadway play or hit movie "1776" knows the running joke about John Adams being obnoxious and disliked. This was very true. Alexander Hamilton said Adams was "petty, mean, erratic, egoistic, eccentric, jealous, and had a mean temper." Adams called himself "puffy, vain, conceited."

One of Adams' cabinet members said that in personal relationships, Adams was a born loser. "Whether he is spiteful, playful, witty, kind, cold, drunk, sober, angry, easy stiff, jealous, cautious, close, open, it is always in the wrong place or to the wrong person."

Adams entered Harvard at the age of 16. After graduating, he became a master of the grammar school in Worcester, Massachusetts. He did not enjoy teaching, and found it barely tolerable. He had in his class fifty boys ranging in age from five to fifteen. Adams referred to them as "little runtlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master." He called his classroom a "school of affliction."

While courting his future wife, Abigail Smith, Adams sent to her a "Catalogue" of her "Faults, Imperfections, Defects, or whatever you please to call them." In his Catalogue, he said she was not a good card player, and held her cards awkwardly in her hands. She was too prudish, and blushed too easily when she heard other people speaking frankly. She had not learned to sing, and she had not developed a "stately strut" but instead walked with "toes bending inward." He also stated that she often sat with her head hanging "like a Bulfish" and her "Leggs across."

Abigail responded with good humor. She answered him by saying "I must confess I was so hardened as to read over most of my Faults with as much pleasure, as another person would have read their perfections. Lysander must excuse me if I still persist in some of them, at least till I am convinced that an alteration would contribute to his happiness." She also told Adams in reply, "You know I think that a gentleman has no business to concern himself about the Leggs of a Lady."

The copyright of the article JOHN ADAMS: OBNOXIOUS AND DISLIKED in American Presidents is owned by . Permission to republish JOHN ADAMS: OBNOXIOUS AND DISLIKED in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.