PRES. JOHN ADAMS: AUTHORITARIAN PRICK

(h/t Freedom's Fetters, page 171)

Adams signed all 4 of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts and was definitely an authoritarian:

The president was not willing to grant passports to DuPont or any other French philosopher "in the present situation of our country. We have had too many French philosophers already," Adams con­tinued, "and I really begin to think, or rather to suspect, that learned academies, not under the immediate inspection and control of gov­ernment, have disorganized the world, and are incompatible with social order." ⁴²

The Dupont referred to here is Pierre Smauel Dupont de Nemours, the father of the founder of the Dupont Company, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont.  This footnote (42) gives the source: Adams to Pickering, Sept. 16, 1798, Adams' Works, VIII, page 596.