January 19, 2021

"Adams, the second US president and first to lose an election, simply refused to attend the inauguration ceremony of Thomas Jefferson in 1801, whose supporters had referred to Adams as 'hideous [and] hermaphroditical.'"

From "How many presidents have boycotted successors’ inauguration and who are they?/The 45th commander in chief is set to become only the fourth to skip the ceremonies" (The Independent).

ADDED: The last President to avoid his successor's inauguration was Andrew Johnson. Here's a picture of him:

Meade texted me that and said Johnson looks like George W. Bush. I said he looks like a combination of Nixon and William Shatner. Which is a pretty funny/terrifying idea for a President.

71 comments:

Largo said...

Precedent! Thank you Ms. Althouse.

Clyde said...

Sometimes you have to look at those on the other side and say, "They are not worth another second of my time." Even flipping them off is more than they deserve.

Temujin said...

The entire Left media machine, the Bidens, and everyone affiliated with them should know: It's not just Trump ignoring his inauguration. Most of the country will be ignoring this fraud celebration as well.

I'd rather watch 3 hours of Fran Lebowitz than tune into that Potemkin event. I think my brain would bleed.

Matt Sablan said...

Sounds like he's returning to our traditions and norms.

I'll repeat what I said earlier: Biden has done nothing to earn the respect of Trump or the right. Why should we show additional respect above and beyond the bare minimum for the guy who accused us of wanting to re-enslave people and directly referred to us as Nazis?

Sorry; Biden earned this "snub." It isn't really a snub; you don't call it a snub when you refuse to see your ex-girlfriend who cheated on you and lied to you or a friend who "borrowed" $1,000 from you without asking. It's just good mental health to avoid toxic people.

Readering said...

History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump.

Kevin said...

Biden Inaugurated, Biden Hardest Hit.

Lucien said...

“Hermaphroditical”!!?
Sounds like Jefferson’s team were transphobic (not to mention the whole slave thing.)

Matt Sablan said...

"History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump."

-- I mean, we were being told that before he was even inaugurated. So, it doesn't mean much. History books shouldn't look too kindly on the last days of Obama or the first days of Biden, but I think it'll take a long time before proper retrospectives, like the ones on FDR, get written.

Kevin said...

Tomorrow’s article: Why it would be best for the country if Trump attended the Inauguration, Clockwork Orange-style.

rhhardin said...

Don't go if you don't want to go, is always my advice.

rhhardin said...

The only interesting thing about the ceremony is Chief Justice Roberts being able to survey his handiwork in the razor wire and the troops guarding the dems.

Sydney said...

I read a book about that election by someone named John Ferling. Title Adams vs. Jefferson. It made me lose a lot of respect for those two.

wendybar said...

Why would Trump, whom the Obama administration (including VP Joe BIden) spied on for 5 years, and tried to impeach for what Biden and his son have done, even give this creep the time of day?? Joe Biden is a joke, and Trump knows it, and is leaving the joker in charge of his kingdom of idiots in DC.

rhhardin said...

At least the Supreme Court has shown itself to be nonpolitical, Roberts has got that.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Obnoxious and disliked.

hawkeyedjb said...

A long line of dunces extends from Ethelred the Unready to Joe the Bewildered. Prepare for the times - they will be interesting, but not fun.

rehajm said...

when you've lost rhhardin...

narciso said...

Except jefferson wasnt in the pay of our enemies.

iowan2 said...

History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump.

Gosh I wonder who writes,(more important, buy) history books? NYT writers? ie, fabalists?

Gunner said...

The Charlottesville Hoax Smear by itself justifies this "snub".

hawkeyedjb said...

Meanwhile, Dr. Jill catches up on her reading.

Kevin said...

History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump.

Unless he goes to the Inauguration.

Then all will be well.

Kevin said...

The Clintons had to attend the Inauguration.

It provided an alibi while the White House furniture was being stolen.

MadTownGuy said...

Copied from a previous post as it's apropos to this one:

Zombie Lloyd Bentsen on CNN: "I knew John Adams. John Adams was a friend of mine. You're no John Adams."

Browndog said...

Michael Moore

It’s pretty disappointing how Trump has broken tradition in regards to welcoming in the new administration.

No wiretaps. No talk of an insurance policy. At least have the decency to frame someone.

stevew said...

I have it on good authority that Trump is the most rancorous and divisive POTUS ever and that his comportment during this election and, especially the time since, has been borderline seditious. There's still a chance that Trump will need to be forcibly removed from the White House, but just a chance.

Gusty Winds said...

As soon as I got to the "wrongly alleging" the election was stolen, hyperlink in the article...I stopped reading.

Soon we will have liberal media propaganda lecturing us on Biden and Harris' infallibility.

tim maguire said...

Listening to the American media, you'd think it was the first. But then, admitting this would be inconvenient considering how much the example of Adams leaving when he lost has been thrown around as yet another attack line.

tim maguire said...

Readering said...History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump.

I can't imagine anyone arguing otherwise, but you underestimate how much your side will be included in that unkindly assessment.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

How fitting that the very first Democrat elected president would resort to calling his opponent an hermaphrodite as a slur, thus setting the pattern for ALL future D campaigns. That he also owned slaves and was an arrogant SOB are just typecasting. Unlike modern Dems Thomas J could write with wisdom and clarity and THAT side of him gets all the good press. Nice flashback clapback there Althouse!

mockturtle said...

The rift between Adams and Jefferson was ideological as well as personal. Far more than name calling was involved in Adams' decision. Amazingly, they both died on Independence Day, 1826.

mockturtle said...

Hahaha. Readering thinks there will be 'history books' in the future.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Last words of TJ: “Adams lives!”

narciso said...

The shells will be meticulously scrubbed.

Gusty Winds said...

When the USA was young, Adams and Jefferson had some love for the survival of the country they created, and its survival wasn’t a given. Both men would have faced the hangman’s noose if the Revolutionary War was lost. But their famous correspondence later in life shows they were different men than modern day Beta Males, and Hillary / Pelosi wretches. There is something biblical about both men passing on July 4, 1826, 50 years after the Declaration of Independence. Adams last words “Jefferson Lives” we’re said without the knowledge that Jefferson had died only hours before.

Fernandinande said...

They censored away the good stuff in those presidential insults.

One guy has a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

And the other guy was a "mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

Rob said...

Trump denies Biden the opportunity to lie about Trump in the inaugural address while Trump is obliged to sit silent.

Terry di Tufo said...

You are very good at this, Professor. He looks exactly like a combination of Nixon and Shatner.

Amadeus 48 said...

"You are very good at this, Professor. He looks exactly like a combination of Nixon and Shatner."

She was an art student and artist before she became a law professor...not many of those around.

Gusty Winds said...

I read last night the Truman and Eisenhower were still bickering at the White House at Ike's Inauguration in 1953. The Eisenhower's skipped the lunch they were supposed to have with the Truman's at the White House, and the two men did not ride to the inauguration together as was tradition.

Iman said...

Looks like a combo of Gene Hackman and Pat Buchanan to my eye...

Gahrie said...

How fitting that the very first Democrat elected president would resort to calling his opponent an hermaphrodite as a slur, thus setting the pattern for ALL future D campaigns. That he also owned slaves and was an arrogant SOB are just typecasting. Unlike modern Dems Thomas J could write with wisdom and clarity and THAT side of him gets all the good press. Nice flashback clapback there Althouse!

Jefferson belonged to a party called the Democratic-Republicans that has ties to neither modern party. Andrew Jackson created the modern Democratic Party after being cheated out of the election of 1824.

The modern Republican Party was formed in 1854. The Democrats don't claim that Jefferson founded their party, but ironically the Republicans do, even though Jefferson had already been dead a couple of decades.

Big Mike said...

@Sydney, reading John Adams, by McCullough, may change your mind about one of those men.

Joe Smith said...

"The last President to avoid his successor's inauguration was Andrew Johnson."

I thought it was Nixon...

Trump should appoint a special prosecutor to look into all things Hunter, China, and Ukraine on the way out the door.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Cmon Gahrie, I’ve watched their annual Jefferson-Jackson celebrations and seen them preen about their Jeffersonian roots:

“Jefferson–Jackson Day is the annual fundraising celebration (dinner) held by Democratic Party organizations in the United States. It is named for Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, which the party calls its founders.”

Source: Wikipedia, an official dnc mouthpiece.

This annual event was recently cancelled as part of the Democrats continuing effort to whitewash their pro-slavery past. But I remember Gahrie. I remember.

Michael K said...


Blogger Readering said...
History books will not look kindly on the last days of Trump.


I don't doubt it but I also wonder if history will still be written. "Ministry of Truth" is coming. That way history can be changed at the will of Big Sister.

Big Mike said...

@Gahrie, MJB Wolf is correct. Deleting Jefferson from their party history is a new affectation, when authoring the Declaration of Independence became as big a negative as owning slaves.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Just to finish up, Gahrie. LINCOLN is the founder of the Republican party, which was pretty much a single issue party then, end slavery to preserve the union. He is also known as the first elected Republican. Jeez I thought everybody knew why those grifters from bulwark started out calling themselves lincoln logs...

Gahrie said...

Cmon Gahrie, I’ve watched their annual Jefferson-Jackson celebrations and seen them preen about their Jeffersonian roots:

The Democrats lie about a lot of things. Doesn't make them true. Jackson formed the Democratic Party to OPPOSE the party created by Jefferson because he believed they stole the election of 1824 from him.

This annual event was recently cancelled as part of the Democrats continuing effort to whitewash their pro-slavery past. But I remember Gahrie. I remember.

Yes, they used to claim him. But as I said, that is a lie.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

And yet the sly homophobic slurs sound just like modern democrats! Now that they have repudiated Jackson the racist who is their founder Gahrie?

Gahrie said...

And yet the sly homophobic slurs sound just like modern democrats! Now that they have repudiated Jackson the racist who is their founder Gahrie?

It's still Jackson.

Mikey NTH said...

The politicals and media types have been trying to get rid of Trump for the past four years. I would think they would be happy he isn't going to be there and possibly upstage Joe's parade.

They'll never be able to quit him, will they?

Gahrie said...

Just to finish up, Gahrie. LINCOLN is the founder of the Republican party, which was pretty much a single issue party then, end slavery to preserve the union. He is also known as the first elected Republican. Jeez I thought everybody knew why those grifters from bulwark started out calling themselves lincoln logs...

So the Republican Party wasn't formed in 1854 and John Fremont did not run for president as a Republican winning 11 states in 1856? And while abolition was one of the main platforms of the Republicans it was no where near an exclusive one.

Howard said...

Tommy Lee Jones

Joe Smith said...

"The only interesting thing about the ceremony is Chief Justice Roberts being able to survey his handiwork in the razor wire and the troops guarding the dems."

Walls don't work!

Tina Trent said...

I’d probably vote for William Shatner. His role as a masked chorus leader in the 1955 Oedipus Rex alone would encourage me to vote for him. His talk show was fascinating. He never made photography albums of obese naked Jewish women like the guy who played Dr. Spock. Another plus.

My preference would be Norm MacDonald. He’s Canadian but hell, I’d change the Constitution to see that. Four years of the movie Being There, only a whole lot weirder. With Drew Barrymore as VP, I think it would even be uniting.

Tina Trent said...

I went to one Jefferson Jackson dinner. Met a coked-out Kennedy offspring bouncing off the walls in the lobby. Way too old women were trying to screw him, and he was trying to screw anyone too young for him.

It was icky. Hilarious that they cancelled it. Now how are aging dame donors going to poach fresh young Kennedys?

RichardJohnson said...

Gusty Winds:
I read last night the Truman and Eisenhower were still bickering at the White House at Ike's Inauguration in 1953. The Eisenhower's skipped the lunch they were supposed to have with the Truman's at the White House, and the two men did not ride to the inauguration together as was tradition.

That reminds me of a Mad Magazine joke from childhood, that stuck in my brain.
Bess and Harry Truman: "We swept dirt under the White House rugs before we left."
Ike and Mamie Eisenhower: "We found dirt under the White House rugs."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Lincoln won that’s why he’s “first,” Gahrie.

wildswan said...

The left got the power. They say that's all they want. The right without even trying has made it plain to the world what is coming. The world knows what tanks, soldiers, barb wire, and threats to gag and imprison the opposition at the start of a leftist regime means. It means freedom, glory, wealth, unity and normalcy.

Lurker21 said...

I'm going to reach back in time and call this a "Laurel/Yanny" moment. I saw the Shatner first and then a little Nixon. Then I saw GW Bush in the eyes and can't recapture my initial impression.

If by "inauguration" one means "swearing in" then obviously every president who was assassinated or died didn't attend their successor's "inauguration," nor did Nixon attend Ford's (that would have been creepy and defeated the purpose of resigning, no?).

Skeptical Voter said...

Hermaphrodite? Were they doing gay jokes in 1800?

~ Gordon Pasha said...

McKinley wasn't there for TR either. ;-)

Lurker21 said...

Jefferson-Jackson Dinners were a staple of the Democratic Party for decades. Now the names have been changed to things like the Humphrey-Mondale Dinner (Minnesota) or the Liberty and Justice Celebration (Iowa) or the Johnson-Jordan Dinner (Texas) or even the Morrison-Exon Dinner (Nebraska). Democrats clung to the idea that Jefferson was the founder of their party as long as they held on to the Solid (White) South. It's only in recent years that TJ (and AJ) became toxic.

For Pete's sake, look up who built the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. Look up what JFK said about Jefferson on several occasions. As a bit of an Adams/Clay fan, I respect their belief that they were the successors of Jefferson, but most of the country and most historians since disagreed and saw Jackson as the direct heir of Jefferson and his Democratic Party as the successor to the Democratic-Republicans.

Republicans saw themselves as the Party of Lincoln. There was some talk at the beginning about the Republicans being the heirs of Jefferson's (Democratic)-Republicans, but that really hasn't been taken too seriously. Jefferson's reputation fell with the Civil War and any imagined association with him wasn't a plus for Republicans any more. 20th century Democrats were only too willing to claim descent from Jefferson and to harvest the Southern votes that his name brought them.

I do notice lately a bit of a shift away from Lincoln in the GOP. Southern Republicans hold Reagan Dinners rather than Lincoln or Lincoln-Reagan dinners. Anti-New Dealers and later Republicans did claim Jefferson as a philosophical ancestor, but there's never been as strong an association between Jefferson and the Republicans as there was for years between Jefferson and the Democrats.

Joe Smith said...

"Way too old women were trying to screw him..."

Not very bright. All Kennedy's are born with STDs.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Lurker21 said...

...or the Johnson-Jordan Dinner (Texas)...

I understand why they might downplay the Jefferson/Jackson connection, but LBJ?! How is that an improvement?

Tim said...

Let us not forget that Johnson was impeached for carrying on the policies of Abraham Lincoln, resisting the "reconstruction" of the South, which Johnson (and Lincoln) saw as an attempt to recolonize the South, and led inevitably to the Hayes/Tilden debacle and the end of reconstruction in a really bad way, with 80 years worth of delay in actually reconciling ex-slaves and ex-slaveowners. You spend 20 years stealing everything in sight with Federal troops occupying your state, and then it all gets pulled out with a secret guarantee that the Feds would stay out and you could do as you pleased, what do you think happens to all those collaborators, carpet baggers and "uppity ex-slaves"? Well, what happened was just what you would think would happen. Does anyone really think this debacle will be viewed as any better 150 years from now?

CStanley said...

I think the Johnson photo resembles Tommy Lee Jones!

gbarto said...

I remember, as a lad, reading Kennedy's, er, Sorensen's, Profiles in Courage. One was a guy named Ed Ross who cast the vote saving Johnson from conviction in the Senate. So it is fitting for Trump to follow Johnson's lead in refusing to celebrate the coming to power of a party whose members, he believes, unjustly impeached him. It is hard to say whether Clinton's attendance at Bush's inauguration was continuing a noble tradition or grabbing his one last chance at the spotlight.

Gahrie said...

It is hard to say whether Clinton's attendance at Bush's inauguration was continuing a noble tradition or grabbing his one last chance at the spotlight.

It was a chance to walk off with some more Whitehouse furnishings.

pdug said...

I for one, welcome our new hermaphrodite overlxrds.