I know the powers established by the constitution, but in many cases throughout history lesser defined roles such as this have been amplified by powerful individuals in them, and one would think with how close Adams had been to the foundations of the revolution, that he would have been taken on in a strong advisory role, or given some other administration, rather than left in the total limbo that is the now traditional role of Vice President? Were there internal politics that caused him to be marginalized, was there a hardline stance taken to follow the letter of the constitution with regards to his position? Was the depiction of his position in the HBO series accurate? Is there somewhere else I should look where this has already been answered?
Thank you very much in advance for answering my odd and rather rambling question.
The Vice President role was originally fairly different from what it is now. Originally the hope was that there would not be parties or coalitions, but rather that the vice president would simply be the candidate with the second greatest number of votes. They Vice President would have the ability to break ties which would give him a independent set of power. This system broke down when Jefferson and Madison brought the party system to the front, and undercut Adams when he was president. A amendment that changed the way a VP was selected soon followed.
tl;dr - the vice presidency was originally a more independent position, but changed to become more ceremonial.
Piggybacking a question: As I recall, wasn't the vice president originally the "runner-up" to the president in the election? Wouldn't this make Adams an opponent, or was that established later on?