Let’s start this with a caveat: It’s a bad idea to deify humans. There’s a natural incompatibility there: God is not man, man is not God, with one notable exception in the Christian tradition. Historic figures should be judged as the human beings they were, both in and out of the context of their times.
In other words, we aren’t here to deify John Adams. He was a flawed man with a fiery temper who made plenty of governing mistakes and said some nasty things (as Lin-Manuel Miranda would have us know).
He also opposed slavery on principle, was a major figure in the struggle for independence from Britain, and—most relevantly this week, in particular—was responsible for the first peaceful transfer of power from one political faction to another in American history, if not human history.
John Adams was not an inspiring figure. He was short, stout, and often disliked. He would be a hard man to deify. Which may have been part of what made him such a good American.
