John Adams, Massachusetts
John Adams was born on October 19, 1735 to father Deacon
John Adams and mother Susanna Boylston Adams in a home of
modest means. As the oldest son, it was expected that John
would receive the very best education. John was resistant
at first, preferring the life of a farmer, but Deacon John,
a formidable presence, was able to convince him otherwise.
At fifteen, John Adams, then a self-conscious bundle of
doubts, fears, and hopes applied for admission at Harvard
and was accepted. Four years later, he graduated and
afterwards accepted a teaching position in Worcester,
while, as is the plight of all college graduates, he tried
to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. After
much tossing and turning he decided on a career in the law
and applied for a two- year apprenticeship under James
Putnam, after which he returned to his hometown, Braintree,
to begin his practice.
In the midst of a turbulent and tortured youth, much of
the turbulence being created by John's own uneasy
temperament, he met seventeen year old Abigail Smith and
fell in love. There would be a long delay, however, before
their marriage in October in 1764 as John tried to
establish financial security for the couple. They would
eventually have four children, including John Quincy,
future president of the United States, Charles, Thomas, and
daughter Abigail. Prolonged separations would ignite a
remarkable and famous correspondence between husband and
wife that still stands today as an example of what true
love entails.
Early in the Anglo-American conflict, John Adams would
play a peripheral but significant role. He first emerged
on the public stage in 1765, first as a surveyor of
highways in Braintree, then amidst the swirling tempest of
the Stamp Act Crisis as a fearful but sober voice of the
Patriot cause. In the autumn of 1765 he published "A
Dissertation of Canon and Feudal Law" in the Boston Gazette
and composed the Braintree Instructions denouncing the
Stamp Act. The crisis had closed down Massachusetts
courts, and late in 65, John was named as counsel to plead
for their reopening. In 68 he would defend John Hancock
against charges of smuggling, and in 69 he successfully
argued the case for Michael Corbet and three other sailors
who were accused of the murder of a British lieutenant,
who, at the time was allegedly attempting to impress them
into military service. John earned respect in Patriot
circles, but he was inclined to avoid the more inflammatory
elements of the cause in favor of constitutional principle
and rule of law.
No other moment in the Revolutionary era would demonstrate
John Adams' fierce integrity more than the Boston Massacre.
In 1770, he was asked to defend British commanding officer
Captain Thomas Preston and those under his command, and he
accepted without pause. To the chagrin of Boston's
Patriots, he was successful in pleading their case. It
would not be the last time John would stand independent
against the gale force winds of his time.
In 1774, Adams was elected to represent Massachusetts in
the First Continental Congress. There he would be selected
to serve on the Grand Committee, whose task it was to draft
a Declaration of Rights and Grievances. Every moment was
filled with ceremonies, politicking, dinners, etc. "My
Time," he wrote to a correspondent, "is totally filled from
the Moment I get out of Bed, until I return to it." It was
exhausting, as politics always was for John, but he kept
returning to it again and again, like a drunkard to the
bottle. Late in 74 he was selected to serve on the Second
Continental Congress, and in the period before the Congress
convened, he defended the actions of the First Continental
Congress in the Boston Gazette under the pen name
"Novangelus."
Not long after the first shots of the War for Independence
were fired, John traveled to Philadelphia to attend the
Second Continental Congress. Although he had initially
hoped for reconciliation, the present circumstances made
the possibility seem very unlikely, if not impossible. "I
am as fond of Reconciliation...as any Man," he wrote in
75," [but] the Cancer is too deeply rooted and, too far
spread to be cured by anything short of cutting it out
entirely..." He had made the leap to independence. In
supporting George Washington as the ideal head of the
Continental army, John was quickly thrust into the
limelight in the Congress, and as time went on it became
clear that he was the undisputed leader of the radical
faction. In the next two years, he would serve on ninety
committees, chairing twenty-five! Benjamin Rush would
report that the Congressmen acknowledged John Adams to be
"the first man of the House." Richard Stockton anointed
John as "the Atlas of Independence." He was appointed head
of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence
and gave the major speech on behalf of the cause. He also
drafted a "Plan of Treaties" as well as the instructions
for the first American commissioners to France, wrote
"Thoughts on Government," which was used to draft several
state constitutions, and was appointed chair of the Board
of War and Ordinance.
John Adams was an unlikely leader. Dangerously honest,
quick-tempered, and a little self-righteous, he had a
proclivity for making enemies. Perhaps the most celebrated
scandal in the Continental Congress occurred in 1775 when
the British intercepted letters containing unfavorable
comments on John Dickinson and published them in the
papers. Dickinson never again spoke to Adams, and for a
time, other members of the Congress avoided him. From this
and other incidents in the record, it would appear that oft
repeated phrase "obnoxious and disliked" was a pretty
accurate description of Adams during this period. But
equally evident was the enormous respect the Congress had
for John's determination and sheer force of intellect.
After his service in the Congress, John Adams would spend
approximately ten years as a diplomat in Europe.
Admittedly, John did not possess the talent of a Franklin,
his impatience always getting the better of him. But he
put his shoulder to the wheel and pushed with the same
pluck he possessed as a member of the Congress, stubbornly
demanding recognition for the United States. And slowly,
initial dislike gave way to grudging respect for the
intractable little man who was forever stirring up
hurricanes overseas.
Eventually, he would be called back to the United States
to serve as Vice President under the new Constitution, and
in 1796, he would narrowly defeat Thomas Jefferson for the
office of President. Adams's presidency was marked by
violent party battles between Hamilton's Federalists and
Jefferson's Republicans, and Adams, who treasured his
independence above everything else, found himself on no
man's land, caught in the crossfire. Plagued with a
recalcitrant cabinet more loyal to Hamilton, Adams was left
to steer the United States through a French crisis that had
originated in the Washington administration. With America
in a state of cold war with France, indignation
particularly strong after the XYZ Affair, Adams became a
hero of sorts for maintaining a strong position with the
French. Adams pressed for the continued strengthening of
the military, particularly the Navy, in effect
demonstrating the American readiness for war. But war
never came. John's correspondence with American diplomats
overseas, including his son, gradually convinced him that
the French were willing to negotiate a peace and that war
could be avoided. Without consulting anyone, especially
not his cabinet, whom he was beginning to strongly suspect,
Adams sent to Congress his nominations for a peace
commission that would be sent to France to negotiate. The
Hamiltonians were outraged. Caring more for the neutrality
and independence of America than self-preservation, John
Adams became the early American martyr, effectively
destroying his chances for re-election. His selflessness
gave Adams little consolation, however- his defeat in 1800
struck the very core of his being. The lame duck phase of
his presidency was spent appointing Federalist judges to
the American courts, the so called "Midnight Judges," and
early on the morning of Thomas Jefferson's inauguration,
Adams set out for Braintree, the only president in history
who did not attend his successor's swearing-in.
Emotionally exhausted and vulnerable, Adams would spend
the early years of his retirement working through the
wounds inflicted during his time in public service. He
sobbed, shouted, bled, threw verbal temper tantrums on the
written page. But after many years, he calmed down, the
demons exorcised, the man finally at peace. Because he was
truly a deeply affectionate and caring being at heart, he
started to reach out to old friends and old enemies in his
correspondence. On New Years Day, 1812, John sent a
missive to Thomas Jefferson, igniting a famous exchange of
letters that symbolizes the whole of Revolutionary thought
to this day. As an old man, John was nearly blind,
toothless, and plagued by a "quiveration of the hands," but
his intellect and spirit would burn until his last days.
Early on July 4, 1826, a truly providential date, John lost
consciousness, and in the evening, sometime around four or
five o'clock, he went home to his Maker. His last words-
"Thomas Jefferson survives..." He was off by several hours.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote to a correspondent in 1821 of
John Adams, " I am happy to hear of his good health. I
think he will outlive us all, I mean the Declaration-
men..." He did.
Recommended Reading, as this essay surely does not encompass
all of John Adams's personality or life: Passionate Sage:
The Character and Legacy of John Adams, by Joseph J. Ellis;
John Adams: A Life, by John Ferling, The Adams-Jefferson
Letters, edited by Lester Cappon; John Adams, by Page
Smith; Faces of Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn; The Diary
and Autobiography of John Adams.
Article by Stephanie Souders futuremd@WPI.EDU
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