00:14I'm scared, Grandma.
00:15There's no need to be.
00:17We shall be there soon enough.
00:47Not another step.
00:48Your husband sent me.
00:50Don't shoot.
00:54Apologies.
00:57We have had quite the journey.
01:00How far is it to the city of Washington?
01:02You've arrived, Mrs. Adams.
01:14Saints preserve us.
01:27You, sir.
01:29Paper.
01:37When will it be ready?
01:40Will what be ready?
01:42The house.
01:44Oh, I see.
01:45My team's working around the clock as fast as you can, sir.
01:48Damn it all!
01:52It's not fast enough.
01:55My wife will be arriving any minute, and I'm going to have to show her around a cesspit.
02:01Give me that.
02:04I want you to be the one to explain to my wife why the presidential house looks like it was
02:17hit by a tornado.
02:21When the White House was built, it was started in 1792, and when the first president moved in, it was
02:28John Adams.
02:29He arrives in November, November the 1st, 1800.
02:32When Adams moves in, America was still a very young country.
02:38John Adams is actually living in a construction site.
02:41So around him, as he's trying to conduct the business of the United States, they're still putting up the walls.
02:49Lord knows I love her, my wife, Claxton, but she can be a banshee when the wind takes her.
02:57I fear for you.
03:01I genuinely do.
03:09Come on, guys!
03:11There you go.
03:12Faster, faster!
03:13I'm going to lose my job!
03:15Americans didn't quite know what to call this presidential home.
03:19It was sometimes called the president's mansion.
03:21It was also called the presidential palace.
03:25It was built from sandstone, which is porous.
03:27So they whitewashed the plaster with a mix of salt, rice, and glue, all in the hopes to weatherproof it.
03:34And that's why it's white.
03:36Don't just sit there!
03:38Do something!
03:44It is really not until Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901 that it has officially been known as the White
03:51House.
03:57Claxton!
03:57Claxton!
04:00Put that in the outhouse where it belongs, and for God's sake, empty it!
04:06Yes, sir.
04:07Right now, the only thing that stinks more than that latrine is Washington politics.
04:15Out of my way!
04:17Some things in American history never change.
04:22Politics and partisanship was just as heated in 1800 as it is today.
04:27Maybe even more so.
04:31Washington was a new city.
04:33It was built on the banks of the Potomac River.
04:36And when John and Abigail Adams moved in, it was really just a squalid little town.
04:42There were very few buildings.
04:43It was shabby.
04:44It was dirty.
04:46Washington, D.C. is mostly government workers.
04:50Business people from the north, but you also have African American enslaved human beings
04:57to do the brute labor that brought Washington, D.C. into being.
05:05Ladies.
05:11Vice President Jefferson, have you seen the new presidential palace?
05:17It's going to be a beautiful building.
05:19Or a monstrous waste of government money, an eyesore, and a blight on our nation.
05:27Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, then serves as governor of Virginia.
05:34He then becomes the first secretary of state, then the second vice president.
05:40Thomas Jefferson is running for election in 1800.
05:44He's running against John Adams.
05:47John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were compatriots during the American Revolution.
05:53But Adams, as a federalist, believed in a strong central government, while Jefferson, as a Republican, believed in a small,
06:01limited government.
06:02So, as soon as it came to governing, they realized how different they were.
06:08Just a calendar.
06:11Mr. Vice President.
06:17I have a gift.
06:21I already have a copy.
06:24Of course you do.
06:26It's your handiwork after all.
06:29Not all mine.
06:35President Adams is a hideous, hermaphroditical character, with neither the force nor firmness of a man, nor the gentleness or
06:45sensibilities of a woman.
06:48Not a line we discussed, James.
06:52I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.
06:55In the newspaper wars of the early republic, no figure was probably more dramatically interesting than James Callender, who was
07:04commissioned by Jefferson to write against Adams.
07:08You have something for me?
07:10I do.
07:11I do.
07:20The man who would be king.
07:26John Adams wants John Quincy, his own son, to marry the daughter of King George.
07:34Maybe.
07:38Maybe is good enough.
07:42Well, I can use this.
07:46Excellent.
07:48Oh.
07:50Aren't you forgetting something?
08:02Mr. Jefferson, if we can't trust politicians, whom can we trust?
08:20I look in your eyes, Mr. Jefferson, and I see a shock.
08:25I'm feeling killer.
08:30I hope you never turn on me.
08:36Then don't give me a reason.
08:42Keep the articles coming, Mr. Calender.
08:47And don't stop digging.
08:51I need Adams on his knees.
09:00Abigail Adams was obviously pleased to be back with her husband, but she was not too pleased with the surroundings.
09:08The White House was essentially unfinished.
09:10There were only a handful of rooms that were really habitable, and it smells of hog and horse hair and
09:16beer, the ingredients that they used in the plaster on the walls.
09:23For God's sake, man, hide the bucket.
09:29Ah, my own little Susanna.
09:36And an extra special guest.
09:40We shall have to make another bed up.
09:43Oh.
09:43Yeah.
09:53My love, who is she?
09:58Confused.
09:59Hurt.
10:03Quit that infernal racket!
10:07Adams, he had highs and lows.
10:10He was maybe a little bipolar, I don't know.
10:14And she functioned to comfort him and stabilize him.
10:19He really needed her.
10:24Ah, Mr. Claxton, my wife, Abigail.
10:29It's a pleasure.
10:31I hear you are the agent for furnishing the president's house.
10:35That is correct.
10:36It seems what we really need is an agent for finishing the president's house.
10:42I'm sure you are doing your best, Mr. Claxton.
10:46And now that I am here, we shall soon turn this house into a home.
10:52We shall leave you to your, um, duties.
10:58Would you like to see your bedroom?
11:02Come on.
11:15All right.
11:17Susanna, let's off to sleep now.
11:19Comfy.
11:20Good.
11:30It's not right.
11:33Don't get me wrong, I want her here, but...
11:36She should be with her parents.
11:39And she would be.
11:41If her father wasn't hell-bent destroying his family.
11:45You mustn't speak about Charles like that.
11:48But whatever his faults, he is still our son.
11:52Faults?
11:54Abigail, he is an abomination.
11:58And no son of mine.
12:03Charles has been problematic.
12:04He is married and has two children, but he can't really seem to support them.
12:09So at some point, Charles moves out of his home, leaving his wife and children behind.
12:14Abigail was concerned enough to take Susanna, the little girl, with her to Washington.
12:26What are you looking at?
12:29You never had a son.
12:33Any children of your own.
12:37No kindred blood out there just waiting to shame your family name.
13:08No kindred blood out there.
13:12Charles?
13:19You rake.
13:22You blood.
13:26You beast.
13:29I renounce you.
13:33I renounce you.
13:37Charles, though he is married and has two children, has formed very close relationships with certain men.
13:44And this was really upsetting to John Adams.
13:50But you know what to do.
13:54Tell me.
14:00Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, John.
14:04And choosing to be president is the second.
14:10You must reconcile with Charles.
14:14How can I?
14:16There's an election coming.
14:18I'm already behind in the polls.
14:20Anybody finds out what Charles is and what he had done, not only will I lose the presidency, but the
14:27Adam's name will be mired and shit forever.
14:32I know you love him.
14:34He is your son, and he is hurting.
14:38End your estrangement before it's too late.
14:40I cannot.
14:44You mean will not.
15:10Adam's plot to have his son marry Princess Augusta, second daughter to King George.
15:16And to establish a dynasty to unite Britain and America was only foiled by the intervention of George Washington, who,
15:29dressed in his Revolutionary War uniform, confronted Adams with a sword.
15:41I'll kill him!
15:50That fall of 1800 was a tough one.
15:53It was a really hard time for the first family.
16:01It was not the Washington, D.C. we think of today.
16:04It was a swamp.
16:06I mean, many people would say it's a swamp today.
16:08But it was literally a swamp then.
16:12If you walked, especially women in long gowns, if you walked from one house to another house, you'd be covered
16:21in mud.
16:28There's a famous story of Abigail hanging the laundry in the drawing room, which sounds funny because it was just
16:35like living in a shed.
16:42John and Abigail had furnishings that they had inherited from the Washington administration.
16:47There were other things that folks around the city could just sort of scrounge up.
16:52It's not exactly, shall we say, a high decor.
16:57John, the servants will see.
17:01I don't care.
17:03Well, I do care, you old octopus.
17:09What have you done?
17:12I have taken a stand against the lies aimed against me.
17:21There will be consequences for those who write or publish falsified news stories.
17:31Adams went after critics and newspapers that he deemed too critical of him and his government.
17:40Calendar and his ilk caused the Federalists finally to say, we can't stand this anymore and that's how we got
17:48the Sedition Act.
17:49It's going to make it a crime that's punishable by imprisonment to write seditious material against the government or against
17:58the President of the United States.
18:03James Callender.
18:06Who's asking?
18:07Under your authority granted to me, you are hereby detained under the Sedition Act.
18:14You are making a huge mistake.
18:17I am powerful friend.
18:19President Adams will regret this.
18:23Republicans considered the Sedition Act an absolute affront to the First Amendment.
18:28That is not going to win John Adams any popularity contests.
18:34The Robins built their nest and soon had a fine home.
18:38Four eggs were laid.
18:40Mr. Robin said, we will promise ourselves much delight with our new family.
18:44But in truth, they will occasion us much worry.
18:50Susanna, why don't you go to your room and wait for me there?
18:54Okay.
19:17Oh, Charles.
19:25I would have died for him if he would have cured his faults and disease.
19:32Charles is 30 years old when he dies.
19:34And he dies of alcoholism.
19:37Alcohol at that time was probably close to poisonous.
19:40So we think it was definitely alcohol related.
19:43But it may be the alcohol that actually poisoned him.
19:47Not this soon.
19:52Good Lord.
19:55Why now?
20:02What does that mean?
20:04What mean?
20:06Why now?
20:09Nothing.
20:11I mean, there's so much happening.
20:15Now.
20:16You are making this about you?
20:19All you can think about is the election?
20:22Your reputation?
20:26Not now, man.
20:28Can you not see?
20:30Sir.
20:30The vice president.
20:58Mr. Jefferson.
21:01An unexpected pleasure.
21:04Mr. Adams.
21:08So?
21:10Oh, I just thought I'd come to see the place for myself.
21:14I've heard so much.
21:17If you would like to come another time, I could arrange a tour.
21:21I'd say there's enough space here for two emperors, one pope and the Grand Lama.
21:27Tell me.
21:29Which one are you?
21:32I'll tell you.
21:34I'll tell you which one I'm not.
21:36I'm not the one who feeds lies to parasitic journalists.
21:41I'm not the one who stabs his oldest friends on the back and blackens their good name.
21:47When I come at a man, I come at him from the front.
21:54You never have liked confrontation, though, have you, Thomas?
22:00Maybe that's why you ran away and hit in the mountains.
22:05The English army advanced in your house during the war and left braver men to die.
22:15Old lies.
22:17Come on, you can do better.
22:18Back then we were friends.
22:20I defended you.
22:30James Callender's behind bars.
22:35You're going to need to find a new creature to write down your lies.
22:44You're going to need to find a new creature.
23:07You're going to need to find a new creature.
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