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00:01You
00:27Wow
00:28Wow
00:30For what do I owe the pleasure? You look well enjoying your little holiday. Oh
00:36Yes, there's a wonderful look stink hole perfect at this time of year. Thanks for asking. You're welcome. I brought
00:42you a little present
00:55I've been hoping my diary
00:58I need you to keep writing
01:01No, why not?
01:04It may have escaped your attention, but um
01:08I'm a felon
01:10Arrested on the orders of the same mr. Adams, you now want me to poke with a stick
01:16No one will know the identity of the author
01:19Why me?
01:21Can you find another pair?
01:24No one's quite so imaginatively filthy as you
01:32Same deal
01:35Same deal
01:37I
01:39I
01:40I
01:43I
01:45I
01:57I
01:59I
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02:00I
02:10I
02:12I
02:12I
02:12I
02:13I
02:13I
02:38Charles Adams is 30 years old when he dies.
02:42And he dies of alcoholism.
02:50And Abigail feels guilty about that because even then they understood that alcoholism runs in families and it was coming
02:57from her family.
03:09There is still time.
03:11I have my duties here. New York is a seven-day ride at best. Ten more likely. I will miss
03:20the funeral anyway.
03:23You are the president. They will wait for you.
03:27Have we not already discussed this?
03:31Our son will be buried alone.
03:35Sally will be there. And probably that Sotomite friend of his.
03:42Yes. You can go. I won't stop you.
03:48You know I can't go on my own.
03:50Don't. Don't do this, John. I'm begging you.
04:03I shall never forgive you.
04:19Even though John has renounced his son, he mourns and remembers not the man that he chewed out a year
04:26and a half before, but the little boy.
04:28And he said he was my darling, my darling boy, the apple of my eye.
04:39Presidential elections back then were not like they are today.
04:42It took many months. It began at the end of October and really wrapped up in December and no one
04:48really knew how it was going to shake out.
04:50At the time, whoever received the most votes in the Electoral College became president, and whoever received the second most
04:58votes becomes vice president.
05:04Thomas Jefferson's base is Virginia.
05:08So the great electoral plan of Jefferson's party is always an alliance of Virginia and New York.
05:17So you have to look for useful New Yorkers, and at first, Aaron Burr looks like a useful New Yorker.
05:26Aaron Burr is a very complicated figure, and a lot of people looked at Aaron Burr as somebody who was
05:34only out for his own.
05:44Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Burr, thank you for your time.
05:53I promise to make it worthwhile.
05:55I hope so.
05:59President Adams's rotundity, if you wish, must be stopped, replaced.
06:06And gutted, like a pig.
06:09Figuratively speaking.
06:10Of course.
06:11By any means necessary.
06:13Ghana cannot disagree.
06:15Excellent.
06:16I have a proposal for the election.
06:18We will split our party's vote.
06:21You will get 72 Electoral College votes.
06:24I will get 73.
06:25So I will beat you by a single vote.
06:28A better pill to swallow.
06:30But the narrowness of your defeat will mark you out as the coming man.
06:35Your successor.
06:37I will be president.
06:39You will be my vice president.
06:42Why would I want to do that?
06:44Surely I'm too young to be such a non-entity.
06:47It's true.
06:48It's not a destination for a man of your abilities.
06:52Think of it as a stepping stone.
06:55Adams was vice president for the old sage washing.
06:58Exactly.
06:59And I was vice president to Adams.
07:03I'm not known as a patient man.
07:05But I can be.
07:07I don't doubt it.
07:15I like it.
07:18Do it.
07:22Aaron Burr was willing to work with people from both sides.
07:25The problem with that is then, as now in U.S. politics,
07:30those who are willing to work with both sides
07:32end up with people on both sides hating them.
07:40Christmas of 1800, a gloomy, depressing time
07:43for the president and Mrs. Adams.
07:46I have a present for you.
07:48The death of their son, Charles, was devastating.
07:51As well as the election of 1800,
07:54the newspaper is full of nasty, partisan vitriol,
07:58the nastiest stuff imaginable.
08:01Curious adventures of young Annalene.
08:04Shall I read it to you?
08:07I want daddy to read it to me.
08:12John Adams felt betrayed and scandalized
08:16that Jefferson ultimately was behind these attacks
08:19on his presidency.
08:21What now?
08:23More lies.
08:24Unspeakable filth about me.
08:27Show me.
08:28Absolutely not.
08:30Why?
08:31The accusations entirely false
08:35are of a sexual nature.
08:39Oh, don't be so daft, John.
08:42It's not true, Abigail.
08:43Not a word, I swear.
08:45Oh, my.
08:53I really don't see anything to laugh about.
08:56I'm sorry.
08:57I'm sorry.
08:58It's just...
08:59I'm sorry.
09:00Really?
09:00You asked General Pinkney to import four pretty English girls,
09:05two for his use and two for your own.
09:09Where have you stashed them, John?
09:12Am I to be turned out of our bedroom?
09:15Am I truly so unmanly?
09:19So boring that you find the idea impossible?
09:24Of course not, my love.
09:27You have always been a lion.
09:30Magnificent.
09:32Untamed.
09:34The truth is that General Pinkney cheated me out of my two girls.
09:45What will you do about this?
09:47No doubt Jefferson is behind it.
09:50Or one of his lackeys.
09:52He wants to kill off any chance I have.
09:56Bury me.
09:59Well, two can play that game.
10:04What are you thinking?
10:08Sad news, Abigail.
10:11There's going to be a funeral.
10:16Newspapers in those days made absolutely no pretense of being nonpartisan.
10:23They publish absolutely outrageous, scandalous things about people.
10:46What the hell's going on?
10:48What the hell's going on?
10:59I'm dead.
11:02You know, Thomas, we may need to study the Constitution.
11:05See what it says about a ghost running for president.
11:08There was a Federalist newspaper that printed a fake obituary of Jefferson.
11:15So your vote would be wasted if you vote for him.
11:18It was very easy to spread false information and very difficult to correct it.
11:24So at that time in the United States, only land-holding white men could vote.
11:31That means the entire female population of the United States could not vote.
11:36All African Americans, all of the indigenous people who lived in the United States at that time,
11:42they could not vote.
11:43People are following the returns, checking their lists.
11:47Well, how is Pennsylvania going?
11:49Where is South Carolina going to go?
11:51So this created an element of suspense.
11:55But it's also clear by Christmastime that John Adams is not to be reelected.
12:07John?
12:10Why?
12:12We must discuss the levy.
12:16There's nothing to discuss.
12:21I'd rather roll naked in glass than throw a party right now.
12:27And what would we be celebrating?
12:32My rejection by the voters?
12:38Jefferson's triumph?
12:40The timing is terrible, but it is expected of us.
12:46Maybe it's a good thing.
12:48A chance to heal the nation and show everybody that we are so much more than the petty politics that
12:56have divided us.
12:57I will not dress up, smile, shake my enemies' hands whilst they drink my wine.
13:06Well, you are the president.
13:07And whether you like it or not, it's your duty.
13:11Well, they can shove it.
13:14Ride up my assumptions, which proved entirely accurate.
13:23The levy is a European form.
13:26It's like a reception.
13:27A more formal, staid cocktail party, if you will.
13:31With a lot of curtsying and presenting.
13:33Pump and circumstances and courtiers and palace intrigue and patronage and all that stuff.
13:38But you had to be very careful.
13:39Couldn't be too European.
13:42It couldn't be too suspect.
13:44I feel a fool.
13:46It will be over soon.
13:47Just promise me you will keep your temper.
13:51All right.
13:52All right.
13:54For you.
13:57Hell is empty.
14:00All the devils are here.
14:06Thomas Jefferson reviled the luxury and the decadence in Europe.
14:11And he wanted America to be the antithesis of all that he saw was wrong in Europe.
14:20Shall we dine?
14:23I'm waiting on my friend, Mr. Jefferson.
14:28He's here.
14:31I don't see, my friend.
14:39I see a man who would be king, who claims to be no more nor less than an ordinary citizen.
14:47Well, if so, why the throne?
15:02That man is dead to me.
15:07The relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson has been falling apart pretty steadily over the past few years.
15:13Before we get to this sort of fateful moment in 1801, when the election results show that John Adams is
15:19not going to be re-elected.
15:21And so the drama of the election of 1800 shifts, actually, right around this time.
15:27Where are you, you furry little bastard?
15:31John, please stop.
15:33It's almost midnight.
15:34He's mocking me every single night, scratching and scuttling.
15:45It's just a mouse.
15:47Let it be and come to bed.
15:50I've got a surprise for you.
16:15Oh, come on, John.
16:22By February 11th, 1801, the results of the election of 1800 are in, and the result is very disconcerting.
16:30That's a dirty trick to play in a poor old man.
16:37It arrived this evening.
16:40That comfortable?
16:41You're going to enjoy this.
16:48The headline reads, election result shock.
16:55What are you waiting for, woman?
16:58Do you want me to read this to you or not?
17:05The electoral college count in the presidential election is finally complete.
17:10Blah, blah, blah, formalities.
17:11Blah, blah, thanks to the counters.
17:13Ah, here we are.
17:15The president of the Senate then declared that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had a majority of all the votes
17:22and also the same number of votes.
17:27A tie?
17:28A tie between Jefferson and Burr.
17:35Hilarious.
17:36So it says here, 72 votes each.
17:39Let them share it.
17:41Let them both sip from the poisoned cup.
17:46You do see the danger.
17:49Burr might be president.
17:52You must do something.
17:55Must I?
17:59Read it to me again.
18:06Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had a majority of the votes and also the same number of votes.
18:20I'll sleep well tonight.
18:23So why is there a tie vote in 1800?
18:26Someone should have thrown away a vote.
18:30Nobody withholds their vote from Burr, kind of thinking that the other guy was going to do it.
18:35The House of Representatives comes to a stalemate.
18:38There are a lot of federalists in the House who would prefer to see Burr in the presidency rather than
18:45Jefferson.
18:51May I have a word?
18:54Sounds ominous.
18:58In private.
19:08What news?
19:10What news?
19:11This.
19:12Which is?
19:15Mr. Burr has no principal, public or private.
19:18And is in fact one of the most unprincipled men in the United States.
19:23Gosh.
19:24You bastard.
19:25You set me up.
19:27And then there are the letters.
19:29Sent to over a hundred members of Congress, urging them to vote for you because I am not to be
19:34trusted.
19:35See?
19:37Unfortunate.
19:38For me.
19:39And what are the ad in common?
19:41The letters.
19:42The articles.
19:44Well, the man who wrote them.
19:46If you're suggesting that was me, you're wrong.
19:49So your hand wasn't on the pen.
19:52But I know you put him up to it.
19:54Put whom up to it?
19:55You were trying my trick.
20:01You are trying my patience.
20:05Let's pretend you are innocent.
20:08Or just plain stupid.
20:10These attacks on me were written by Mr. Alexander Hamilton.
20:14War hero.
20:16Washington's right-hand man.
20:18Federalist vermin.
20:20Corrupt wretch.
20:21And you allied with him to sell me out?
20:27Hamilton and Jefferson had been at each other's throats since their time in Washington's cabinet together.
20:34But Alexander Hamilton thinks that Burr is dangerous.
20:38And so he sways his fellow Federalists instead to cast their votes for Jefferson, which swings the election to Jefferson.
20:58They say I want to be king, but actually all I want is a privy that doesn't freeze and winter.
21:05Is that too much to ask?
21:07You need not worry about that much longer.
21:11So, it is decided that we'll be Thomas.
21:16Yes.
21:17That is good.
21:18They rallied to his side.
21:20It was Mr. Hamilton who persuaded them.
21:23Hamilton?
21:24Why?
21:26It seems the only man he loathes more than Jefferson is Mr. Burr.
21:31Everyone hates Burr.
21:33They're welcome to each other.
21:49Adams is considered the first failed president.
21:52He's the first president not to be re-elected.
21:55Classic line on John Adams was Benjamin Franklin.
21:59He said, always an honest man, often a wise one, but in some things absolutely out of his senses.
22:08I'll kill him!
22:10John Adams was a great patriot.
22:12He was a great intellectual.
22:14He had a great sense of humor sometimes, especially with his wife Abigail.
22:20But he could also turn on people that he felt had betrayed him.
22:30I can't believe we're leaving just as the building work has finally finished.
22:36Will you miss it?
22:38The house?
22:41No.
22:43I meant the presidency.
22:48I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.
23:05Away from Washington.
23:08Away from the nest of vipers crawling all over it.
23:13The Adamses hightail it out of town.
23:16They don't go to Jefferson's inauguration.
23:21Careful what you wish for, Thomas.
23:25Thomas.
23:42Hey, James Callender.
23:44You're free to go.
23:45When Jefferson is elected, everybody's freed who is under the Sedition Act.
23:56So, where will you go?
23:58Mayor Washington's nice.
24:01There's a man there that owes me a favor.
24:04And I aim to collect.
24:14My pen placed you in that seat.
24:18Now, you will recompense me.
24:21I don't know what you're talking about.
24:24You assume you're untouchable.
24:27But everyone has secrets.
24:30You don't talk about that unless you're absolutely sure no one is listening.
24:35Let's find the truth of it then.
24:37I am a calendar.
24:39You must stop them.
24:42Let's find the truth of it then.
24:46Let's find the truth of it.
24:50Let's find the truth of it.
24:53Let's find the truth of it.
24:56Let's find the truth of it.
24:56Let's find the truth of it.
24:56Let's find the truth of it.
24:57Let's find the truth of it.
24:59Let's find the truth of it.
24:59Let's find the truth of it.
25:00Let's find the truth of it.
25:01Let's find the truth of it.
25:04Let's find the truth of it.
25:05Let's find the truth of it.
25:06Let's find the truth of it.
25:09Let's find the truth of it.
25:18You
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