THERE'S NOTHING MORE TERRIFYING THAN MORAL CONSISTENCY:

Thomas Jefferson, for instance, was "disloyal and duplicitous" and a "supporter (of) the violent newspapers of the time" says Harvard Law professor Ben Heineman. It turns out Jefferson was more orchestrator than supporter. Jefferson's biographer and historian Jon Meacham explains in Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power that Jefferson once recruited editor Philip Freneau to start the newspaper the National Gazette, with the purpose of assailing his political enemies without having to attach his own name to such attacks--a leap beyond the acceptable practice at the time of writing under a pseudonym. What's more, Jefferson used that newspaper to also attack the policies of the very administration he was serving as Washington's Secretary of State. Jefferson even subsidized Freneau's National Gazette salary by hiring him as a translator for the State Department; meaning Washington's administration was paying the salary of the very man attacking them. Meacham notes that Jefferson was "dishonest about his support of Philip Freneau...preferring to mislead Washington rather than force a confrontation over the Republican attacks on the first president." In time Washington grew to loath the National Gazette and referred to its editor as "that rascal Freneau."

James Madison was every bit as guilty of the Freneau subterfuge as was Jefferson. Madison was Jefferson's closest political ally and the two exchanged countless coded letters discussing and plotting against their political rivals. Though Washington had once been very close with Madison, he eventually regarded him "as little more than a pawn of Jefferson," according to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Madison's biographer and Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman says that "Washington believed that Madison had betrayed him" over policy differences concerning a treaty the Washington administration had entered into with Great Britain. As was the case with Jefferson, Madison's betrayal of Washington originally played out behind Washington's back. Feldman notes that despite his close relationship with the president, "Madison declined to tell Washington directly what he thought" about the treaty. Instead, Madison quietly campaigned against the treaty and later excoriated it before the House of Representatives. Soon after, "the relationship between (Washington and Madison) was at an end...all personal contact between the two of them ceased." Feldman adds: "Madison was never invited to Mount Vernon again."

Even the venerable George Washington himself could be two-faced, despite once claiming "that no man should ever charge me justly with deception." Washington's close friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, was an ardent abolitionist and, along with others, frequently lobbied Washington to join their cause. Washington, a slave owner himself, usually told Lafayette what he wanted to hear, at one point even committing: "I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work" of "the emancipation of the black people of this country from the state of bondage in which they are held." But Washington's actions proved otherwise. Washington biographer and historian Ron Chernow notes in Washington: A Life the measures Washington secretly took to keep his slaves in bondage. For instance, upon learning that a new Pennsylvania statute would automatically free any slaves who resided in the state for six consecutive months, Washington devised a plan to have any slaves staying there with he or Mrs. Washington to cross the state line in time to ensure "the clock was reset, and another six months (would need) to elapse before they could demand their freedom." Chernow explains that "to keep the adult slaves in bondage, Washington resorted to various ruses so they would not know why they were being sent home temporarily." Chernow calls such "scheming" behavior "duplicitous" and "conniving" and notes that "such devious tactics ran counter to Washington's professed abhorrence of slavery, not to mention his storied honesty."

Adams, on the other hand, never behaved that way because he lived according to his convictions. He said what he meant and he meant what he said and his friends and colleagues both loved and hated him for it. Benjamin Franklin once said that Adams was "always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes absolutely mad."

Tweet   @brothersjudd