The John Adams mini-series is outstanding

[Brolan]

John Adams was also a blowhard who loved the sound of his own voice waaaaaaay too much and spent a lot of the Revolution and subsequent years working to insure his place of greatness in history.

Adams was the only President of the Senate who actually presided on a regular basis, and he annoyed a lot of people. The Senate was happy to have him replace Washington as President just so they didn't have to listen to him blather. The term that Adams served as President and Jefferson as VP was where they really split in their friendship, and it wasn't until long after Jefferson's term as President was up before they reconciled.

Yes, but Adams was the FIRST president of the Senate and they all had a lot to learn about their new roles. You can't blame him for trying to make something of his new job.

 

[Maestro]

David McCullough was the one who painted the negative picture of Adams's presiding. It may very well have been Jefferson's lack of presiding during his term as VP that set the standard. Easy for us to look at something 225 ago and apply modern values and conventions to it and then be wrong.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I've always felt the development of the Vice Presidency in this period was manifestly illogical; if he's the #1 in line for the office, why in God's name would you not want him in Cabinet, keeping up to speed? It's not like the men who held the office in this period (or in any period, really) were lacking in ability, even when the office was worth "a bucket of warm piss", in the words of John Garner (who gave up the Speakership for it).

Of course, a lot of the early development of the federal government was based on then-current political rivalries. Why, for example, does the presidential succession act violate the separation of powers doctrine and include the leadership of the legislative branch? Because the Federalists wanted to put as many warm bodies between Secretary of State Jefferson and the presidency as they could (though this is just as true today; the Speaker is #2 again instead of the President pro tempore because Truman and Rayburn were friends).