I am re-reading McCullough's beautiful biography of John Adams, and have come to the part where John Adam's leaves the office of the Presidency. I was struck by these passages:
Whatever Adam's state of mind, he was leaving his successor a nation "with its coffers full," as he wrote and with fair prospects of peace with all the world smiling in its face, its commerce flourishing, its navy glorious, its agriculture uncommonly productive and lucrative...
...In his four years as President, there had been no scandal or corruption. If he was less than outstanding as an administrator, if he had too readily gone along with the Alien and Sedition acts, and was slow to see deceit within his own cabinet, he had managed nonetheless to cope with a divided country and a divided party, and in the end achieved a rare level of statesmanship. To his everlasting credit, at the risk of his career, reputation, and his hold on the presidency, he chose not to go to war when that would have been highly popular and politically advantageous in the short run. As a result, the country was spared what would almost certainly have been a disastrous mistake...
These words struck me as I think of the great damage done to the United States by that abysmal gnome of a beast that now occupies the White House. In a way, a wish of Adams' for his country seems most violated under the present circumstances. He was the first President to occupy the White House, of which he wrote, upon moving in: "I pray heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."
Yet another founding father betrayed...