The Federalists: The Lives and Legacies of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams

As President from 1788-1796, Washington set every precedent for the executive branch of the new government, from forming a “Cabinet” to limiting himself to two terms. He even set precedents with his farewell address, which helped guide the policies of subsequent presidents.

John Adams has become one of the more popular presidents in history relatively recently, but it was not always so. For most of his life he was seen as a bit of an outsider, different from his fellow first presidents in his temperament, birth, life and politics. Adams and his son were the only presidents out of the first seven who were born north of the Mason Dixon line, and he was not an easy man to understand or work with. Not only did he have few friends, but he also often fell into long term quarrels with those he had.

Politically, Adams shared Washington’s preference for Britain as well as his preference of non-interference. However, while he was certainly the more significant man in his work and his governing, he could never seem to move out of Washington’s shadow. Even worse, his presidency was seen as threatening to the very essence of American liberty with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and his loss to Jefferson in 1800 was a repudiation of the Federalists that left Jeffersonians in power until John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824. His presidency is still viewed relatively unfavorably.

Adams remained a celebrated figure in Boston for all the work he did in Massachusetts before and after the Revolution, but his national reputation has experienced quite a renaissance over the past decade, beginning with David Mccullough’s best selling biography in 2001, followed in 2008 by the popular HBO series based on it. Then, in 2010, Dearest Friend, a record of the correspondence between Adams and his wife Abigail solidified his position as one of the most darling Founding Fathers of the 21st Century.

The Founding Fathers have been revered by Americans for over 200 years, celebrated for creating a new nation founded upon the loftiest ideals of democracy and meritocracy. But if the American Dream has come to represent the ability to climb the social ladder with skill and hard work, no Founding Father represented the new America more than Alexander Hamilton.

Unfortunately, one of the best known aspects of Hamilton’s (1755-1804) life is the manner in which he died, shot and killed in a famous duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. But Hamilton started as an orphaned child in the West Indies before becoming one of the most instrumental Founding Fathers of the United States in that time, not only in helping draft and gain support for the U.S. Constitution but in also leading the Federalist party and building the institutions of the young federal government as Washington’s Secretary of Treasury.