early Republic 
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
12/7/2020
How John Adams Managed a Peaceful Transition of Presidential Power
by Sara Georgini
John Adams handed over power to Thomas Jefferson in 1801, but his actions demonstrated that power truly remained in the hands of the people.
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SOURCE: New York Times
11/25/2020
Grave Is Found at Site of Historic Black Church in Colonial Williamsburg
The excavation may have discovered the remains of a Baptist congregation dating to the late 18th century, and may prompt a rethinking of the place of African American history in the open museum of Colonial Williamsburg.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
12/2/2020
Minority Rule Cannot Last in America. It Never Has
by Kenneth Owen
When parties commit themselves to minority rule, the backlash can be severe, as has been shown repeatedly when ruling parties stood in the way of popular will.
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SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
11/11/2020
A Diverse Cabinet will Make Joe Biden a Better President and Unify the Country
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
"Over the past 230 years, presidents have followed Washington’s lead, making increased diversity and representation of religions, backgrounds, genders and races a central part of the cabinet story."
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SOURCE: Perspectives on History
9/29/2020
On the Peaceful Transfer of Power: Lessons from 1800
by Sara Georgini
Adams lost the presidency amid violent factionalism, a seething press, rampant electioneering, and the eruption of party politics, yet became a champion for the peaceful transfer of power.
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6/21/2020
Peace is Temporary Without Trustworthy Leaders: Lessons from the Philadelphia Mutiny
by David Head
In an environment of intense mutual suspicion—soldiers accused civilians of stingy ingratitude while civilians saw the army as a threat to their liberty—Washington’s trustworthiness bound the two sides together.
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SOURCE: NYT
8-7-13
James Traub: The Tea Party’s Path to Irrelevance
James Traub, a columnist at foreignpolicy.com, is writing a biography of John Quincy Adams.WASHINGTON — THE Tea Party has a new crusade: preventing illegal immigrants from gaining citizenship, which they say is giving amnesty to lawbreakers. Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, recently told Politico that his members were “more upset about the amnesty bill than they were about Obamacare.”...Tea Partyers often style themselves as disciples of Thomas Jefferson, the high apostle of limited government. But by taking the ramparts against immigration, the movement is following a trajectory that looks less like the glorious arc of Jefferson’s Republican Party than the suicidal path of Jefferson’s great rivals, the long-forgotten Federalists, who also refused to accept the inexorable changes of American demography.The Federalists began as the faction that supported the new Constitution, with its “federal” framework, rather than the existing model of a loose “confederation” of states. They were the national party, claiming to represent the interests of the entire country.
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