2. John Adams returned to his farm and went bankrupt
Many of the earliest presidents left office poorer men than when they entered it, but the frugal John Adams wasn’t one of them. He was the first incumbent president to run for office and lose, and the loss did not sit well with him. He retired to his farm at Quincy, Massachusetts, and worked sporadically on an autobiography, which he eventually abandoned. In 1803, two years into his retirement, his bank collapsed and took with it most of his cash, about $13,000 ($250,000 today). Destitute, Adams was forced to turn to his son John Quincy, who came to his father’s aid by purchasing the elder Adams’s farm Peacefield, as well as some other properties, giving Adams just under $13,000 in cash. He continued to reside on the farm.
Adams remained largely out of the public eye until Jefferson retired from the presidency, after which Adams began to defend his own legacy, through letters published in newspapers. In 1812 Adams and Jefferson reconciled from their long political feud and resumed a correspondence which is one of the more interesting in American history, with two former presidents, both of whom served on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, preserving their thoughts for posterity. Although Jefferson refused to engage Adams in reminiscence of their political opinions and debates, their discussions on other matters provide a different angle on the earliest days of the republic.