Original subtitles

(audience cheering and clapping)

(transition whooshing)

(pensive music) (wheels rattling)

(horse whinnying)

(footsteps clopping)

(text thudding)

- I'm scared, grandma.

- There's no need to be.

We shall be there soon enough.

(horse grunting)

(horse whinnying)

(crow cawing)

(gun clacking)

(window squeaking)

(door knocking)

(gun clacking)

Not another step.

- [messenger] your husband sent me.

Don't shoot.

- Apologies.

(door clacking)

We have had quite the journey.

How far is it to the city of washington?

- You've arrived, mrs. Adams.

(light music)

- Saints preserve us.

(dramatic music) (horse whinnying)

- I will be president.

You will be my vice president.

- I'm not the one who stabs his oldest friends in the back.

(sheets rustling)

- Here we plan a new west wing.

- You assume you're untouchable,

But everyone has secrets.

(attacker grunting) (strikes smacking)

(attendees clapping) - ladies and gentlemen,

I give you your new president.

- That beautiful white house

Will be the beating heart of our nation.

You don't talk about that

Unless you're absolutely sure

No one is listening.

- It's about people making money,

Pure and simple.

(abigail crying)

- Lies, all lies.

(gun blasting)

(cover smacking)

(gun clacking) (strikes smacking)

- This house is a lightning rod for trouble.

(fire crackling)

(dynamic music)

(saw scratching)

(inquisitive music) (horse whinnying)

- [john] you, sir.

Paper.

(pages tearing)

(pages rustling)

(door slamming)

When will it be ready?

- Will what be ready?

- [john] the house.

- Oh, I see.

Uh, my team's working around the clock

As fast as we can, sir.

- [john] damn it all.

It's not fast enough.

My wife will be arriving any minute

And I'm going to have to show her around a cesspit.

Give me that.

I want you to remove this building site,

And I want you to be the one to explain to my wife

Why the presidential house

Looks like it was hit by a tornado.

- When the white house was built,

It was started in 1792.

And when the first president moved in,

It was john adams.

He arrives in November,

November the 1st, 1800.

When adams moves in,

America was still a very young country.

- John adams is actually living in a construction site.

So around him, as he's trying to conduct

The business of the united states,

They're still putting up the walls.

- Lord knows I love her, my wife, claxton,

But she can be a banshee

When the wind takes her.

I fear for you.

(walking stick whooshing)

I genuinely do.

(claxton whistling)

- Come on, guys. - There you go.

- [claxton] faster, faster.

I'm gonna lose my job.

- Americans didn't quite know

What to call this presidential home.

It was sometimes called the president's mansion.

It was also called the presidential palace.

(hammer banging)

It was built from sandstone,

Which is porous.

So they whitewashed the plaster

With a mix of salt, rice and glue,

All in the hopes to weatherproof it.

And that's why it's white.

- Don't just sit there, do something.

(hammer banging)

(claxton whistling)

- [paul] but it's really not until theodore roosevelt

Became president in 1901

That it has officially been known

As the white house.

- Claxton.

Put that in the outhouse where it belongs.

And for god's sake,

Empty it. - Yes, sir.

- Right now, the only thing that stinks

More than that latrine

Is washington politics.

(walking stick smacking)

Out of my way.

- Some things in american history never change.

Politics and partisanship

Was just as heated in 1800

As it is today,

Maybe even more so.

(bell ringing)

Washington was a new city.

It was built on the banks of the potomac river.

And when john and abigail adams was moved in,

It was really just a squalid little town.

There were very few buildings.

It was shabby, it was dirty.

- Washington dc is mostly government workers,

Business people from the north,

But you also have african american enslaved human beings

To do the brute labor

That brought washington dc into being.

- Ladies.

(ladies laughing)

- Vice president jefferson.

Have you seen the new presidential palace?

It's going to be a beautiful building.

- Or a monstrous waste of government money,

An eyesore and a blight on our nation.

- Indeed.

- Thomas jefferson is the primary author

Of the declaration of independence,

Then serves as governor of virginia.

He then becomes the first secretary of state.

Then the second vice president.

Thomas jefferson is running for election in 1800.

He's running against john adams.

- John adams and thomas jefferson

Were compatriots during the american revolution.

But adams as a federalist

Believed in a strong central government,

While jefferson as a republican

Believed in a small, limited government.

So as soon as it came to governing,

They realized how different they were.

- [thomas] mr. Callender.

- Mr. Vice president.

- Hmm.

- I have a gift.

- [thomas] I already have a copy.

- Of course you do.

It's your handiwork after all.

- Not all mine.

(horse whinnying) (pages rustling)

"president adams is a hideous hermaphroditical character

With neither the force nor firmness of a man,

Nor the gentleness or sensibilities of a woman."

Not a line we discussed, james.

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

- In the newspaper wars

Of the early republic,

No figure was probably more dramatically interesting

Than james callender,

Who was commissioned by jefferson

To write against adams.

- [james] you, uh, have something for me?

- I do.

(paper rustling)

- "the man who would be king.

John adams wants john quincy, his own son,

To marry the daughter of king george."

- Maybe.

- Maybe is good enough. (laughing)

Well, I can use this.

- Excellent.

- Uh,

Aren't you forgetting something?

(envelope smacking)

- Aren't you gonna check it's all there?

- Mr. Jefferson,

If we can't trust politicians,

Whom can we trust? (laughing)

(dynamic music)

I look in your eyes, mr. Jefferson,

And I see a shark.

Unfeeling killer.

I hope you never turn on me.

- Then don't give me reason.

Keep the articles coming, mr. Callender.

And don't stop digging.

I need adams on his knees.

(birds singing) (tools clacking)

(saw scratching)

- [paul] abigail adams was obviously pleased

To be back with her husband,

But she was not too pleased

With the surroundings.

The white house was essentially unfinished,

There were only handful of rooms that were really habitable.

And it smells of hog and horse hair and beer,

The ingredients that they used in the plaster on the walls.

- For god's sake, man,

Hide the bucket.

Ah, my own little susanna. (laughing)

And an extra special guest.

We shall have to make another bed up.

- Yes. - Huh? Yeah.

(susanna and john laughing)

(lips smacking)

My love, how is she?

- Confused, hurt. (hammers banging)

- Quit that infernal racket.

- Adams, he had highs and lows.

He's maybe a little bipolar, I don't know.

And she functioned to comfort him

And stabilize him.

He really needed her.

(light music)

- Ah, mr. Claxton.

My wife, abigail.

- It's a pleasure.

- I hear you are the agent

For furnishing the president's house.

- That is correct.

- It seems what we really need

Is an agent for finishing the president's house.

I'm sure you are doing your best, mr. Claxton.

And now that I am here,

We shall soon turn this house into a home.

Uh, we shall leave you to your, um, duties.

- Would you like to see your bedroom?

- Yes. - Come on. (laughing)

(mr. Claxton exhaling)

- All right, susanna, it's off to sleep now.

Comfy?

Good.

It's not right.

Don't get me wrong, I want her here,

But she should be with her parents.

- And she would be

If her father wasn't hell bent

On destroying his family.

- You mustn't speak about charles like that.

Whatever his faults,

He is still our son.

- Faults?

Abigail, he is an abomination,

And no son of mine.

- [catherine] charles has been problematic.

He is married and has two children,

But he can't really seem to support them.

So at some point, charles moves out of his home,

Leaving his wife and children behind.

Abigail was concerned enough to take susanna,

The little girl, with her to washington.

(pensive music)

- What are you looking at?

You never had a son,

Any children of your own.

No kindred blood out there

Just waiting to shame your family name.

(transition whooshing)

(dog barking) (text thudding)

(door knocking) (pensive music)

Charles.

(sheets rustling)

You rake.

You blood.

You beast.

I renounce you.

I renounce you.

- Charles, though he is married and has two children,

Has formed very close relationships

With certain men.

And this was really upsetting to john adams.

- Would you know what to do?

Tell me.

- Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, john.

- And choosing to be president is the second.

(both laughing)

- You must reconcile with charles.

- How can I?

There's an election coming,

I'm already behind in the polls.

Anybody finds out what charles is

And what he had done,

Not only will I lose the presidency,

But the adams name will be mired in shit forever.

- I know you love him.

He is your son

And he is hurting.

End your estrangement before it's too late.

(pensive music)

- I cannot.

- You mean will not.

(birds singing)

(newspaper rustling)

- "adams' plot to have his son marry princess augusta,

Second daughter to king george,

And to establish a dynasty

To unite britain and america

Was only foiled by the intervention

Of george washington,

Who, dressed in his revolutionary war uniform,

Confronted adams

With a sword."

(newspaper rustling)

I'll kill him.

(birds singing)

- [catherine] that fall of 1800 was a tough one.

It was a really hard time for the first family.

(footsteps clopping)

(dog barking)

- It was not the washington dc we think of today.

It was a swamp.

I mean, many people would say it's a swamp today,

But it was literally a swamp then.

(bell ringing)

- If you walked, especially women in long gowns,

If you walked from one house to another house,

She'd be covered in mud.

(sticks clattering) - there's a famous story

Of abigail hanging the laundry

In the drawing room,

Which sounds funny

Because it was just like living in a shed.

- Where do you want this?

- Just leave it in there for now.

- John and abigail had furnishings

That they had inherited

From the washington administration.

There were other things that folks around the city

Could just sort of scrounge up.

It's not exactly, shall we say, a high decor.

- John.

The servants will see.

- I don't care. - (laughing) well, I do care,

You old octopus.

What have you done?

- I have taken a stand

Against the lies aimed against me.

There will be consequences

For those who write or publish

Falsified news stories.

(lips smacking)

Adams went after critics

And newspapers that he deemed too critical of him

And his government.

- Callender and his ilk

Caused the federalists finally to say,

"we can't stand this anymore,"

And that's how we got the sedition act.

- It's going to make it a crime

That's punishable by imprisonment

To write seditious material

Against the government

Or against the president of the united states.

(pensive music)

- James callender?

- (scoffing) who's asking?

- Under the authority granted to me,

You are hereby detained under the sedition act.

- (scoffing) what?

You are making a huge mistake.

I have powerful friends.

President adams will regret this.

Ah.

- Republicans considered the sedition act

An absolute affront to the first amendment.

That is not going to win john adams

Any popularity contests.

- "the robins built their nest

And soon had a fine home.

Four eggs were laid.

Mr. Robin said, 'we will promise ourselves much delight

With our new family,

But in truth, they will occasion us much worry.'"

(pensive music)

Susanna, why don't you go to your room

And wait for me there.

(page rustling)

(abigail crying)

Oh, charles. (crying)

(page rustling)

- I would've died for him

If it would've killed his faults and disease. (crying)

- Charles is 30 years old when he dies,

And he dies of alcoholism.

Alcohol at that time was probably close to poisonous,

So we think it was definitely alcohol related,

But it may be the alcohol that actually poisoned him.

- (crying) not this soon.

- Good lord,

Why now?

- What does that mean?

- What mean?

- "why now?"

- Nothing.

I, I mean there's so much happening now.

- You are making this about you?

All you can think about is the election?

Your reputation?

- Not now, man.

Can you not see?

- Sir,

The vice president.

(john sighing)

(abigail crying)

- Mr. Jefferson,

An unexpected pleasure.

- Mr. Adams.

- So?

- Oh, I just thought I'd come to see the place for myself.

I've heard so much.

- If you would like to come another time,

I could arrange a tour.

- I'd say there's enough space here for two emperors,

One pope and the grand llama.

Tell me,

Which one are you?

- I'll tell you which one I'm not.

I'm not the one who feeds lies

To parasitic journalists.

I'm not the one who stabs his oldest friends in the back

And blackens a good name.

When I come at a man,

I come at him from the front.

(john scoffing)

You never have liked confrontation though, have you, thomas?

Maybe that's why you ran away

And hid in the mountains

When the english army advanced on your house

During the war,

And left braver meant to die.

- Old lies.

Come on, you can do better.

- Back then, we were friends.

I defended you.

(dynamic music)

James callender is behind bars.

You're going to need to find a new creature

To write down your lies.

(upbeat music)

- President adams must be stopped.

- That man is dead to me.

- I wanna know what's going on

With the master and that woman.

- Well said, freeman.

- Tell the president james t. Callender is coming for him.

- No one would ever believe him.

Let him shoot his mouth off.

- Careful what you wish for, thomas.

(horse whinnying)

(light music)

(logo whirring and hissing)