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BaltimoreBadger23 t1_j61oe6g wrote

The only president to serve in Congress after his presidential term. He was a great lawyer, a great Secretary of State, a great Congressman, and a crappy president.

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TwihardTeamEdward t1_j61rivw wrote

A pretty great person for the standards of his time as well. He was staunchly anti-slavery.

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davtruss t1_j62voed wrote

It is a travesty that he and his father don't collectively merit an Adams Monument.

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TacoS4Me-69-420 t1_j63617c wrote

itd just get removed or vandalised by antifa or minorities, so really why bother.

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iamveryDerp OP t1_j61ukc2 wrote

Hard to say he was a crappy president because he was more famous for what he didn’t do. Serving at the close of the Era of Good Feelings, he is hailed as the original realist attempting to keep the peace. “[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
As a principal author of the Monroe doctrine, he was attempting to stay true to that document, and quietly stay in her hemisphere, so to speak.
He was also caught between two times. From the old school style he kept most of the previous cabinet appointments upon being elected, and therefore faced tremendous opposition within his own office, while simultaneously refusing to take part in the newer, populist, muck-raking style of politics being brought on by Andrew Jackson.
Someone put it best that he was a great man in the right place at the wrong time, or something like that.

Edit: I would agree, however, that in perspective of his career as a whole, the 4 years he was President were the most idle, ineffectual and boring years of his amazing life.

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davtruss t1_j62vtsk wrote

If you consider how deplorably the great leaders we honor sometimes behaved (Adams vs. Jefferson for instance), maybe boring was a good thing at times.

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