Why did John Adams so despise Thomas Paine?
Adams was a fairly religious Christian. Paine was a deist and a free thinker who counted atheists among his friends. Adams was a member of the Federalist Party, which was in favor of some fairly oppressive measures. Paine was opposed to these to the point where he considered even the Democratic-Republican Party opponents of the Federalists to be too oppressive. Paine spoke freely and wrote extensive political essays in which he lambasted many government officials. Adams, as president, got the Alien and Sedition Acts passed, and signed them. These, if they had lasted, would have allowed a president to close down opposition newspapers and arrest people who criticized him. Adams was adamantly opposed to extending women any formal rights. Paine proposed legal equality for women. Paine advocated the abolition of slavery, referred to slave owners as “wicked,” and spoke of an eventual war in which slaveowners would all be slaughtered, and that he thought such an outcome would be just. Adams,
