Mr. President, Please Consider Following John Adams’s Example

“So, if President Trump sticks to his plans not to attend the inauguration of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, he has a remaining option that still very much respects the peaceful transfer of government set into place by our nation’s Founders.”

After months of rhetoric based in conspiracy, which ultimately led to the fatal events at the United States Capitol last week, President Donald Trump finally conceded to President-elect Joe Biden and acknowledged defeat in the November election. In his video message posted on the evening of January 6th, President Trump committed to a “smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power,” thus carrying out a tradition that has been part of American democracy since the time of President George Washington. Where President Trump continues to break with tradition, however, is with his decision not to attend President-elect Biden’s inauguration. In doing so, President Trump becomes the first outgoing president to skip his successor’s inauguration since President Andrew Johnson in 1869.

In light of this—and considering the bitterness and divisiveness stoked by his presidency—President Trump should consider taking a page from the book of one of our first peaceful transfers of power: that of President John Adams to President-elect Thomas Jefferson on March 4, 1801. Under the cover of darkness that morning, President Adams, whose presidency was marked by political unrest and immense partisanship, slipped quietly out of the White House and into private life before his successor took the oath of office. With no plans to attend President-elect Biden’s inauguration, President Trump should consider a similar approach and allow the nation an opportunity to move on from a bitter four years.

The Adams presidency marked the only time in American history that the President and Vice President belonged to opposing political parties. Despite President Washington’s cautions against partisanship in his famed 1796 Farewell Address, the affairs of the time gave rise to two distinct political factions in the young nation. President Adams, a Federalist, favored relations with Great Britain and a more centralized government. Thomas Jefferson, his Vice President, was a Democratic-Republican and believed the future rested with closer ties to France, along with checks on centralized, federal power. (Of course, the differences between the two parties were manifest and far more extensive than alluded to above.)