Adams was one of the great heroes of the move toward American independence and revolution; of that there is no debate. But despite recent attempts by apologist historians, his presidency can only be seen as a failure. Adams was one of a then-dying breed of statesmen who had no stomach for democracy. The Sedition Act, a blatant affront to the First Amendment, was borne out of Federalist fear that the Jeffersonians, if they rose to power, would give power to the common rabble and undermine rule by the learned aristocracy, who (they felt) knew better than the average American how to govern. Federalists like Adams and Hamilton thought that Americans should leave governing up to them; they would have been just as happy setting up an aristocratic system of rule by appointed elites. Jefferson and Madison, meanwhile, believed in the wisdom of the people to govern themselves and make intelligent decisions at the polls about which leaders should represent them. Adams, quite simply, was on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of freedom.
