John Adams: Unnecessary War

Abandoned by Jefferson for retaining Washington's cabinet, President Adams holds firm on keeping the nation out of war, despite French aggression and pro-war sentiment among his advisors. Abigail urges him to sign the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, seeing them as a way to preserve domestic security. Meanwhile, Adams faces a crisis at home when he disowns his alcoholic son Charles. When Charles later dies, Abigail pleads to Adams to make peace with their son's memory, but Adams refuses, and a disappointed Abigail returns to Braintree. The President is vindicated in the French crisis after new Secretary of State John Marshall brokers a peace with Napoleon I. Having been abandoned by the Federalist party at the behest of Alexander Hamilton, however, Adams fails to win a second term, and Jefferson ultimately claims the presidency in a run-off against Aaron Burr. Drained by politics and family tragedy, Adams exits the new capital, Washington City, having only recently moved in to the still-unfinished White House.