people called Adams a coward after he chose not to go to war with France. Timothy Pickering said that Adams did not take full advantage of the anger caused by the XYZ Affair. President Adams was criticized intensely. James Otis of Massachusetts once said: "You will never make a soldier. You can only talk about it. You have the head for strategy-but not the heart for fighting.... I have searched your heart. Tired with one year's service Representative, dancing fromBoston to Braintree and from Braintree to Boston. Mopping about the streets of this town as hipped as Father Flynt at ninety. You don't care for anything but to get money enough to carry you smoothly through this world!"(Ellis & Burleigh) John Adams lost the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson most likely because he did not go to war with France. Adams thought that he would be praised because he handled the situation peacefully, but instead, he was harshly criticized and was told that he does not have what it takes to be the leader of this country. John Adams was a very proud man and he took all this directly to the heart. He thought that he saved many lives by not going to war, and that he deserved to be the President for another term. Bitter about his defeat by Jefferson, President Adams spent the final hours of his administration appointing a slew of Federalists to the judgeships and lesser court offices created by the hastily passed Judiciary Act passed in 1801. The Judiciary Act created six new circuit courts, presided over by sixteen new federal judges and a small army of attorneys, marshals, and clerks. The Federalists had filled the judiciary with the members of their own party. These midnight appointments were designed to deny the incoming administration the opportunity to leave it's mark on the courts, and to guarantee a strong Federalist check On the Democratic-Republicans. These midnight appointments were quite useless becaus...
