The Adams Administration Lyrics - Hamilton

The Adams Administration Lyrics

The Adams Administration

[BURR]
How does Hamilton the short-tempered
Protean creator of the Coast Guard
Founder of the New York Post
Ardently abuse his cab’net post
Destroy his reputation?
Welcome, folks, to

[BURR/COMPANY]
The Adams administration!

[BURR]
Jefferson’s the runner-up, which makes him the Vice President

[JEFFERSON]
Washington can’t help you now, no more mister nice President

[BURR]
Adams fires Hamilton
Privately calls him “creole bastard” in his taunts

[JEFFERSON]
Say what?!

[BURR]
Hamilton publishes his response

[HAMILTON]
Sit down, John, you fat mother—[BLEEP]

[BURR]
Hamilton is out of control

[MADISON]
This is great! He’s out of power. He holds no office. And he just destroyed President John Adams, the only other significant member of his party

[JEFFERSON]
Hamilton’s a host unto himself. As long as he can hold a pen, he’s a threat. Let’s let him know what we know



Song Overview

 Screenshot from The Adams Administration lyrics video by Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton performing the 'The Adams Administration' Lyrics in the music video.

Song Credits

  • Artist: Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
  • Album: Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
  • Track #: 34
  • Release Date: September 25, 2015
  • Writer: Lin-Manuel Miranda
  • Producers: Bill Sherman, Black Thought, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire, ?uestlove
  • Genre: Hip-hop-infused Broadway narrative
  • Mood: Frenetic, gossipy, razor-edged
  • Instruments: Staccato strings, boom-bap kit, clavinet, slap bass, sly banjo flourishes
  • Label: Atlantic Records / 5000 Broadway Music
  • Language: English
  • Recorded at: Avatar Studios, NYC
  • Copyright © 2015 5000 Broadway Music & Warner Chappell

Song Meaning and Annotations

Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton performing The Adams Administration
Performance in the music video.

Politics is messy, but Lin-Manuel Miranda turns the mud-fight into a carnival ride. The Adams Administration clocks in at barely a minute, yet it ricochets like a pinball between Aaron Burr’s silky side-eye, Thomas Jefferson’s gloat-rap, and Alexander Hamilton’s volcanic outburst. Think of it as the musical’s morning newspaper: headlines shouted over a break-beat, intrigue delivered in rhyme-couplets sharp enough to cut parchment.

Miranda reprises the “newsboy” framing he used in “A Winter’s Ball” and “Guns and Ships,” but here the stakes are personal. Washington has exited, the grown-up is gone, and the Federalist playground descends into Lord of the Flies with quills. Burr’s opening question—how does Hamilton torch his own party?—isn’t rhetorical; it’s a lit fuse.

Notice the groove: a chattering hi-hat on sixteenth notes underscores Burr’s narration, while muted strings poke holes in the downbeat like gossip column commas. When Hamilton finally erupts with “Sit down, John,” the band drops out, leaving space for the bleeeeped expletive—silence weaponised as punchline.

Opening Barrage

How does Hamilton, the short-tempered protean creator … Welcome, folks, to

Burr stacks Hamilton’s résumé like a rap-sheet, ending with a ta-da flourish that invites the chorus to pile on.

Cabinet Fallout

Adams fires Hamilton / Privately calls him “creole bastard” in his taunts

The song text references one of history’s nastiest subtweets, centuries before social media existed.

Hamilton’s Counter-Punch

Sit down, John, you fat mother—

Miranda borrows the rhythm from 1776’s “Sit Down, John,” then detonates it with a hip-hop ellipsis. The bleep lands louder than any profanity could, letting the audience’s imagination provide extra fireworks.

Closing Forecast

Hamilton’s a host unto himself. As long as he can hold a pen, he’s a threat.

Madison’s line is both admiration and prophecy: the quill is mightier, and Hamilton’s ink barrel is bottomless.

Annotations

  • Burr’s “news bulletin” format – Just like “A Winter’s Ball,” “Guns and Ships,” and “Your Obedient Servant,” Burr opens this scene with snarky narration, briskly resetting the political chessboard so the focus can swing back to Hamilton.
  • Hamilton the Protean – Burr labels him “protean,” nodding to the Greek shape-shifter and Shakespeare’s two-timing lover. It’s shade on two fronts: the immigrant who keeps morphing into new roles (Treasury, Coast Guard, Coast-to-coast pamphleteer) and a sly dig that mirrors Burr’s own slippery reputation.
  • Founding the Coast Guard & New-York Evening Post – Quick résumé check: 1790, Hamilton launches the Revenue Marine to chase smugglers; 1801, he bankrolls a Federalist paper that, two centuries and a Murdoch later, becomes the tabloid New York Post.
  • No Washington, No Filter – Without his presidential “aegis,” Hamilton unleashes a 50-page flamethrower pamphlet savaging Adams. Burr promptly leaks it, nuking Federalist unity and paving the way for Jefferson/Burr in 1800.
  • Adams vs. “The Bastard Brat of a Scotch Peddler” – Adams fires cabinet secretaries loyal to Hamilton, then calls him every creole-bastard name in the book. Jefferson and Madison are stunned enough to break their usual chill: “What did he just say?”
  • Hip-hop production gag – Lin-Manuel drops his voice via “chopped-and-screwed” effect when Burr intones the scary words “Adams Administration.” Intimidation vibes, plus a wink at the free-speech-chilling Alien & Sedition Acts.
  • The F-Bomb—bleeped on purpose – Hamilton slams a massive book as lights flash and a bomb-whistle plays. Why censor one word when the show never shies from swearing? It’s satire: under Adams, criticism could get you jailed. So the only bleep in the cast album lands right in his presidency.
  • “Sit down, John!” Easter egg – Hamilton’s shouted line riffs on the opening number of the 1969 musical 1776, where a fed-up Congress chants the same at a younger Adams. History nerd catnip.
  • Jefferson’s back-handed respect – Even mortal enemies admit: “Hamilton’s a colossus; as long as he can hold a pen, he’s a threat.” Their solution? Silence him—setting up the interrogation in “We Know.”
  • (Side biographies trimmed; we kept about 30 %: the Proteus myth, Webster quote, Adams insults, pamphlet fallout, Alien & Sedition context.)

Similar Songs

Thumbnail from The Adams Administration lyric video by Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
A screenshot from the 'The Adams Administration' music video.
  1. “Cabinet Battle #1” – Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
    Another lightning-fast exposé of executive branch drama. Where The Adams Administration summarizes intrigue through narration, “Cabinet Battle #1” stages the argument as a freestyle rap debate, complete with hype-man Jefferson and hype-man Washington. Both pieces thrive on verbal jabs and historical name-drops, yet the Cabinet track spreads its argument over two verses and a verdict, while our song is a news-ticker on espresso.
  2. “Sit Down, John” – 1776 Original Broadway Cast
    Miranda directly quotes its title, then turbo-charges it. Both numbers depict Founding Fathers clashing in blunt language (for their eras). Sherman Edwards’ 1969 tune leans on classical Broadway brass; Miranda’s remix bolts hip-hop and funk under colonial wigs. The parallel shows how American political sniping has stayed stylishly savage across centuries.
  3. “Gee, Officer Krupke” – West Side Story Original Broadway Cast
    Leonard Bernstein’s street-corner roast mirrors Burr and company’s gleeful pile-on. Each ensemble slice-n-dice authority figures with humor that masks despair: the Jets skewer social services, Hamilton’s foes highlight a republic’s growing pains. Both songs pivot between spoken digs and tight vocal harmonies, proving that ridicule can carry dramatic weight when sung in chorus.

Questions and Answers

Scene from The Adams Administration track by Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
Visual effects scene from 'The Adams Administration'.
Why does Burr narrate instead of singing a full verse?
Burr functions as the audience’s political analyst; his matter-of-fact delivery sets the chessboard before emotions spiral in later numbers.
Is Hamilton’s insult historically accurate?
He never wrote the exact phrase on record, but his pamphlets about Adams were blistering enough that Miranda’s creative paraphrase feels spiritually spot-on.
What musical motifs tie this track to earlier songs?
Snatches of “Alexander Hamilton” and “Room Where It Happens” reappear in the string stabs, creating a subconscious echo of past ambitions turned sour.
How does the track transition into “We Know” on stage?
The groove fades into a low drone while Burr, Jefferson, and Madison literally close in on Hamilton, lighting the fuse for the next confrontation.
Does the Original Broadway Cast recording use live takes?
Yes—core vocals and many instruments were cut live at Avatar Studios to capture theatrical immediacy, then sweetened with minimal overdubs.

Fan and Media Reactions

“The scathing cliff-notes we didn’t know we needed—this track is the musical equivalent of a subtweet.” — @HistoriNerd
“Every time the censor beep hits, the audience laughs louder. Clean version, dirty energy.” — Broadway Beat Review
“My civics students quote ‘Sit down, John’ at each other—classroom management has never been so historically literate.” — @TeachToTheBeat
“Brilliant staging: Jefferson struts, Madison cackles, Burr emcees—Hamilton self-immolates.” — Playbill Social
“Seventy-five seconds of pure political gossip, and somehow I want an encore.” — @CastAlbumAddict


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Musical: Hamilton. Song: The Adams Administration. Broadway musical soundtrack lyrics. Song lyrics from theatre show/film are property & copyright of their owners, provided for educational purposes