And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."[355] Stubbornness was seen as one of his defining traits, a fact for which Adams made no apology. "Thanks to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right," he wrote.[356] His resolve to advance peace with France while maintaining a posture of defense reduced his popularity and contributed to his defeat for reelection.[357] Most historians applaud him for avoiding an all-out war with France during his presidency. His signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts is almost always condemned.[358]
According to Ferling, Adams's political philosophy fell "out of step" with the way that the country was heading. The country tended further away from Adams's emphasis on order and the rule of law and towards the Jeffersonian vision of liberty and weak central government. In the years following his retirement from public life, as first Jeffersonianism and then Jacksonian democracy grew to dominate American politics, Adams was largely forgotten.[359] When his name was mentioned, it was typically not in a favorable way. 