June 3

On the 3rd in 1800, John Adams, the first vice-president and the second president of the United States, became the first American president to occupy the White House. Following as he did George Washington, he had an extremely tough act to follow. Nevertheless, the cream always rises to the top and as Benjamin Franklin noted of Adams, “he means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise man but sometimes, in some things, absolutely out of his senses.” Three out of four isn’t bad though and I just wish our contemporary presidents scored as well in the measure of a man.