An imagined gathering
1798 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Adams dines with Abigail, Hamilton, and Jefferson as the Alien and Sedition Acts divide the country over the war with France.
The quasi-war with France is going badly, the Federalists in Congress have passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Adams is caught between his party and his judgment. He has asked Abigail to join him from Massachusetts and has invited Hamilton and Jefferson to dine, hoping for once to hear both sides.
Hamilton defends the laws as necessary in wartime and urges a stronger army; Jefferson, who has quietly drafted the Kentucky Resolutions, warns that punishing criticism of the government is the beginning of tyranny. Abigail says what she thinks, as always. Adams signs nothing at the table but listens, and in the end he refuses to let the quarrel become a war. They eat glazed ham, codfish balls, and hasty pudding, with pumpkin pie and mulled cider.
Host: John Adams
Abigail Adams — The president's wife and most candid adviser.
Alexander Hamilton — Pressing for a larger army and a harder line against France.
Thomas Jefferson — Vice president, secretly drafting the Kentucky Resolutions against the acts.
Main
a period dish
Side
a period dish
John Adams
The laws Adams signed during the quasi-war with France, which made criticism of the government a crime and helped defeat him in 1800.
George Washington
How Washington's two terms, cabinet, and farewell address defined an office the Constitution had described only in outline.
John Adams
Adams's long campaign in the Continental Congress to turn colonial resistance into a declaration of independence.
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.