Ben Franklin's World

Episode 403: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, From Crisis to Peace: Re-Evaluating the Presidency of John Adams

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Did you know that John Adams, not George Washington, solidified the precedents of the executive branch and the presidency?

Lindsay Chervinsky, an award-winning presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, has written a book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. She joins us to investigate the presidency of the United States’ second president, John Adams.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.

Episode Summary

Lindsay Chervinsky is a presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She’s an award-winning historian who regularly writes for The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, Time, and The Washington Post. She is the author of two books, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic.

During our investigation of John Adams’s presidency, Lindsay reveals precedents that George Washington set for the presidency that John Adams solidified for the future. The political and international crises John Adams inherited, including tensions with Great Britain and France and vicious political discord between the Federalist and Democratic-Republic parties. And, how John Adams navigated these crises to secure peace with France and the peaceful transition of power between political parties in the United States.

What You’ll Discover
  • Preview of the work of President John Adams and his administration
  • Washington’s retirement
  • Work of the President’s Cabinet
  • Adams’ lack of training in the inner workings of the Executive Branch
  • Filling John Adams’ Cabinet
  • Adams’ relationship with his Cabinet secretaries
  • Relations between the United States and France in 1791
  • John Adams’ decision to keep the United States neutral
  • Adams’ skill as a diplomat
  • 1791 peace delegation to France
  • The XYZ Affair and what this affair meant for American neutrality with France
  • Secretary of State Timothy Pickering
  • The United States creates a standing army
  • The Crisis of 1798
  • The Alien and Sedition Acts
  • 1799 peace delegation to France
  • Alexander Hamilton’s unofficial role in John Adams’ Cabinet
  • The Election of 1800
  • How the House of Representatives Decided the Election of 1800
    • Links to People, Places, and Publications
    • Lindsay Chervinsky
    • Lindsay’s Substack
    • Chervinsky, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic
    • Chervinsky, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution
    • George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
    • Transcript

      •  

      Time Warp Question

      In your opinion, what might have happened if John Adams had been elected to a second term as president?

      Complementary Episodes

      Episode 040: For Fear of an Elected King

      Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
      Episode 188: The Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798
      Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson
      Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton
      Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of An American Institution

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      The post Episode 403: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, From Crisis to Peace: Re-Evaluating the Presidency of John Adams appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.

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