#5: James Monroe 1758-1831

James Monroe, it turns out, was a total blank in my memory department. Except for the famous “Monroe Doctrine,” (which I couldn’t remember that much about), he was a complete enigma. Of course, after reading about four other presidents, I was surprised to see Monroe popping up pretty continuously and it made me wonder how I could have missed him before. He’s actually present through the entire thing…the Revolution, the new nation, the government, the Presidency. Wow. He was a Founding Father that I didn’t even really know existed! Who was this diamond in the rough anyways? In anticipation, I went to the library and got The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger (Da Capo Press: Philadelphia, 2009). It was newly published, not too long (around the mid-300s mark), and had gotten decent reviews on Amazon. Everything checked out. Beginning to read, I was hoping to see what colonial America was like to James Monroe, our fifth President.
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nd then I had to stop reading. In the prologue alone, I learned that the author not only thought Monroe was the Greatest President Ever but maybe the Greatest Man Ever. It was like man-love times one hundred. Ugh! According to Unger, all the other presidents up to that point (except Washington, apparently) were chopped liver when compared to the incomparable and brilliant Mr. Monroe! “Washington’s three successors—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison—were mere caretaker presidents who left the nation bankrupt, its people deeply divided, its borders under attack, its capital city in ashes” (p. 2) Yes, this was page 2. While I was not crazy about Adams, Jefferson or Madison, this bold statement by Unger really annoyed me. I’ve read about those presidents and though they had many issues, they weren’t that bad! Even Elizabeth Monroe was highlighted by Unger’s discriminating pen. “All but unknown to most Americans, Elizabeth Monroe was America’s most beautiful and most courageous First Lady” (p. 4) Did he just say that?? All in all, I found the prologue nauseating and hoped the rest of the book would be better.

It wasn’t. I will discuss the tone of the book later (and believe me, I have puh-lenty of ammo) but for right now, I’ll focus, just like Harlow Giles Unger, on James Monroe. But I have to laugh because this is how the first chapter begins “The world was awash with war when James Monroe was born in the spring of 1758” (p. 7). That sort of overdramatic crap simply oozes throughout the book and makes reading extremely difficult. What the author meant by Monroe’s world being “awash in war” was that he was born during the French and Indian War and the area in which he was born was affected by it. James was born to a middle-class family on a small farm in Virginia, where his father kept the family afloat by providing extra work in carpentry and building. James started school at the age of 11 and was 14 when his mother and father died, leaving him, the oldest son, to care for his four siblings. Thankfully there was a wealthy uncle, Joseph Jones, in the picture to take over some of the family responsibilities. With his uncle’s aid, Monroe was able to attend William and Mary to study law which was cut short when he enlisted in the Continental Army.

He was a part of the action in New York, apparently routing the British almost singlehandedly. Because of the Virginia sharpshooters, “for the first time in the war, American soldiers saw British troops fall and run. Monroe and the Virginians let out a cheer and left the encounter with a newfound swagger. The quiet boy from Monroe Creek had found his voice” (p. 23) The victory was short-lived however with a general retreat across New Jersey for the Continental army but Monroe reappeared, crossing the Delaware with Washington to land a surprise attack on the British in Trenton, NJ. Monroe was shot which left him “on the ground dying in pool of his own blood” (p. 26) but he was saved. He was promoted to Captain and an aide to Lord Stirling, where he became friends with Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. During the Battle of Brandywine, Monroe proved extremely valuable. “Instead of firing at one or two enemy soldiers on the front line, he changed the tide of battle—maybe even the war—standing at the rear with his general, ready to ride through a hail of fire with messages and orders to and from brigade commanders or the commander in chief, shifting positions of large bodies of men” (p.28) Sheesh…that’s a lot of words basically telling us that Monroe did not actually fight in the battle but gallantly held up the rear. The Battle of Monmouth was next and would be Monroe’s last military engagement of the war.

Even though the war was still raging, he returned to William and Mary to finish his degree and, in the process, became a protégé of Governor Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson appointed Monroe a colonel in the Virginia militia, giving him duties that set up a network of communication between the states. This network doesn’t seem to have helped Virginia though because a few months later the British sacked and burned the capital at Richmond.

Once the war ended, Monroe decided to join the General Assembly in Virginia, thus beginning his long political career, and almost simultaneously, was admitted to the bar. Despite these blessings, financial problems beset him, causing him to sell the farm where he grew up. It must be noted here that a lot of people were having financial troubles during this time. You see, under the Articles of Confederation, each state was able to issue its own currency, which either made currency scarce or caused serious inflation. Monroe was land-rich but money-poor.

After his stint was up with the General Assembly, Monroe was voted to Congress, where almost penniless, he moved up in with Jefferson at Annapolis. Monroe stepped out early as a champion of western expansion and the rights of the United States to western Americans. “Although he failed to score any victories in Congress, his became one of the most prominent—and ominous—voices in the nation, expostulating on issues that few state leaders had dared to face” (p. 59). In the meantime, Congress moved on up to New York City and we come to one of the “great—yet little known—love stories in early American history” (p. 4).

“The New York-born daughter of British Army Captain Lawrence Kortright, Elizabeth Kortright was stunning—a natural beauty, superbly educated, a gifted artist and musician” (p. 61). Of this “great” love story, Unger doesn’t tell us much. Monroe met Elizabeth at the wedding of Elbridge Gerry and although she was a decade younger than he, they were soon married in New York. Because he was so poor, Monroe decided to retire from public life (it didn’t pay very much) and take his new wife down to the small house purchased by his uncle in Fredericksburg, Virginia to resume his pursuit of the law. He was able to establish a lucrative law practice which was just as well, since Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Eliza.

The new Constitution of the United States was ratified in Virginia in 1788 (opposed by Monroe) and soon after, James Madison beat Monroe in the first ever election to the House of Representatives. Monroe, instead, was elected as a Senator from Virginia and the whole family moved to Philadelphia, where the US government was stationed. Unfortunately, Unger takes this moment to give us an idea of what this would mean for Elizabeth. “She fretted that fashion trends might have passed her by and outmoded her wardrobe, but her doting husband reassured her that her beauty alone would make her the most elegant lady in Philadelphia” (p. 87). I sincerely hope that Mrs. Monroe was not too embarrassed in her old clothes.

The beginning of the French Revolution and the subsequent war between England and France forced President Washington to reevaluate each alliance and declare the United States neutral. To make American neutrality more palatable, Washington appointed James Monroe, an avowed Francophile, ambassador to France. The entire Monroe clan was excited that their new home would be in gay Paree, forgetful of the fact that a Reign of Terror was presently being carried out on that soil. Still James, Elizabeth, and little Eliza made the journey and were soon settled in the French capital. Monroe was able to use some of his popularity to see to the release of Adrienne de Lafayette (wife of the Marquis) from prison. This act would engender the good will of the Lafayettes towards the Monroes for the rest of their lives. After Jay’s Treaty (ending hostilities with England) was signed, the French bonhomie evaporated and Monroe found himself returning to the United States in some indignity. “Racked by anger and bitterness, he felt he had been deceived by two secretaries of state [Randolph and Pickering] and abandoned by the president he had revered since his boyhood [Washington]” (p. 126). But when Monroe got home, the presidency had already changed with John Adams heading up the government.
He decided to take up law again.

In 1799, Monroe was elected governor of Virginia, where he went about revamping the governor’s role in the state’s politics. He did such a good job at it (introducing a ‘state-of-the-state address’ and destroying slave rebellions) that he was reelected three times. “He now stood as America’s most brilliant state leader, having transformed the Virginia governorship into the state’s most powerful office and metamorphosed into the nations second-most-influential figure—one of two heirs apparent to President Jefferson” (p. 145). In 1802, war again loomed on the horizon and Jefferson turned to his friend, Monroe, to become a special commissioner to France. He was given instructions that he should purchase New Orleans and let the powers of Europe know that the United States was to be giving free right of trade on the Mississippi River.

Back in France, Monroe worked with American ambassador, Robert Livingston, on the possible sale of New Orleans. However, Napoleon had other plans. Frustrated with the decimation of his plans to conquer the US through New Orleans, he badly needed money and on impulse, asked if the US was willing to buy the “whole of Louisiana” (p. 159). “Three weeks after the Monroes reached Paris, Monroe and Livingston, all but ripped up their instructions and signed an agreement with Barbe-Marbois, transferring French sovereignty over Louisiana to the United States” (p. 163).

Back in the United States, Jefferson’s Embargo Act had just gone into effect and the whole nation was in an uproar. Monroe, again bitter and angry over the way his affairs were handled in Europe, decided at once to challenge James Madison in the 1808 presidential elections. His lack of money, however, made the whole idea totally unsuitable and he failed to win the nomination while James Madison indeed went on to become the President. This failure caused Monroe to retire to his house in the Virginia countryside, where he decided to become a gentleman farmer and somehow erase his debt. Gentleman farming wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so Monroe jumped at the chance to be governor of Virginia once again.

When it rains, it pours. Soon after Monroe was established as the new governor, Madison sent him a proposal where he was invited to be the very coveted Secretary of State in Madison’s cabinet. With seeming humility, Monroe accepted the high office and moved his family to the new capital, Washington City (soon to be Washington DC). His duties included meeting with the French and British ambassadors about the war in Europe, the impressment of American ships and sailors, and the closure of European ports to American goods. The situation between the US and Great Britain steadily worsened, culminating in a declaration of war on April 1, 1812, which left the United States in a precarious position—you see, the nation wasn’t ready. The army and navy were pitifully small, the United States government had no power to tax the people nor was there a Bank of the United States in which to draw funds from. Plus sections of the American population were adamantly opposed to the war, mainly in New England where trade would be affected.

Defeats followed on land but the tiny United States navy prevented a general loss with a few important wins at sea. British ships began raiding the area around the Chesapeake even going so far as to burn Alexandria, directly downriver from Washington City. The Secretary of War, Brigadier General John Armstrong, was convinced that Washington City would never be a target of the British, focusing instead head for Baltimore. His tunnel vision would lead to the capture and burning of Washington on August 24, 1814. Monroe, during these days, worked overtime and was everywhere trying to help. This next quote is classic. “He set up a camp cot to let him sleep on the job, but he never slept on the job” (p. 247) Clearly James Monroe was an early version of Chuck Norris. “He was everywhere, immersing himself in every detail of the city’s defense; all but hauling logs into the breastworks himself. He was an inspiring presence that rallied citizen spirits—bound the best of them as one to save their city from further assault” (p. 247). It just keeps getting better.

Unger allows us to assume that since Madison was a broken man after this and the rest of the American population were more akin to chickens with their heads cut off, that it was Monroe’s sheer willpower that kept total chaos from ensuing. Without his help, though, the American commissioners in Europe concluded the Treaty of Ghent with the British that upheld the status quo ante bellum (meaning that everything went back to the way it was before the war). Also without Monroe’s help, General Jackson and his rag tag army of Americans absolutely mauled the British at the Battle of New Orleans, killing over 2,000 British troops.

“The war quickly became a distant memory, as Americans happily embraced the greatest peacetime prosperity they had experienced in the more than thirty-two years since victory at Yorktown” (p. 255). Monroe then ran for President in the 1816 elections and won in a pretty hefty victory, becoming the fifth President of the United States of America. His first term began innocuously enough. Termed the “Era of Good Feelings” by a New England newspaper, Monroe was able to unite the Federalists and Republicans together for the first time. With this end in mind, Monroe decided to emulate Washington and take a tour of the nation, beginning in New England. Everything was going so well that he even abolished taxes! National improvements began with new roads and even a canal near Erie, PA. James Monroe was reelected to the presidency in a nearly unanimous decision. But this unlimited prosperity was already dying.

Two major issues occurred that contributed to the demise of the “Era of Good Feelings.” “Early in 1819, however, the nation’s first financial panic introduced some decidedly ill feelings into the Era of Good Feelings” (p.296). The Panic of 1819 was the first wedge that occurred during Monroe’s administration. The Panic was induced by a land speculation “bubble,” where investors bought and sold land in return for bank notes. However, no one checked whether the land that was sold was actually theirs to sell or not. These fraudulent land sales induced the US Government to demand that the banks back the paper notes that they were giving out, which in turn lead to thousands of bank closings and to thousands of people losing their savings.

Secondly, with the advent of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the biggest national export became cotton and the reliance on slavery increased. Slavery might have died a natural death but cotton did not need skilled workers to grow it—any five-year-old could pick it. Thus, the issue of slavery became a very big deal and no more so then when Missouri, in 1819, asked to become a state. The crisis was averted with the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which stated that Missouri could be admitted as a slave state as long as Maine was admitted as a free state…oh and all future states below the 36/30 latitude line would be slave states, henceforth.

More bad news for Monroe was a-coming. The Secretary of the Treasury read the figures wrong and instead of a surplus, the country had a very big deficit instead. Also when he brought harmony between the political parties, Monroe was basically shooting himself in the foot. “In effect, Monroe had created political anarchy and, in doing so, he not only rendered himself politically impotent, he permitted new divisions based on personal political ambitions to form between political leaders” (p. 310). His cabinet also began to fight amongst itself while new South American countries were clamoring for recognition even while the European nations were trying to win them back. In the midst of all this though, Monroe, with the help of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was able to announce to Congress and to the world that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to the European powers and the United States would forcibly step in should this warning be disregarded. The famous “Monroe Doctrine” had arrived.

Monroe stepped down as President after two terms, with John Quincy Adams winning the presidency in the heated 1824 election. Monroe then moved his family back to his estate in Virginia, Oak Hill, in preparation for his retirement, only then realizing that his financial issues had never been resolved and were still waiting for him. He had to sell his other Virginian farm, some land in Kentucky, and he also had to ask Congress for all the back pay that was owed him from his diplomatic missions. He was elected to the Virginia constitutional convention which he attended with both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison but he was forced to resign due to ill health and the death of his wife, Elizabeth, in September 1829. He collapsed soon afterwards and had to be taken to New York City to live with his oldest daughter, Eliza. He died there at 73 years of age on July 4, 1831.

#4: James Madison Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about James Madison
1.) I consider James Madison our first full-time “politician.” While the other Founding Fathers had other occupations, Madison didn’t. He fell into the political life after college and never really left it, even when he tried to be a farmer. He never enlisted in the army; he was never admitted to the bar; he never traveled overseas. He was just…a politician.
2.) He was known as the Father of the Constitution. “In attending to every detail of this structure, and in being sensitive at every point to the effect of blending the various parts, Madison played his most crucial role, and earned the title later bestowed on him, Father of the Constitution” (p. 229).
3.) He singlehandedly wrote the Bill of Rights. “He sought both to give the widest possible scope to freedom of conscience and to demonstrate the diversity a republican government could safely accommodate” (p. 292).
4.) After the British burned Washington, they headed to Baltimore in an effort to destroy it as well. However, Baltimore was ready for them and this battle (the Battle of Fort McHenry) provided the backdrop for Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer, to write in amazement “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
5.) The United States has always been a sectionally-driven nation and yet the War of 1812 would provoke the first faint stirrings of the Civil War. As foreshadowing, the North, namely New England, threatened to cede from the union over Madison’s War of 1812 against the British. New England was extremely friendly to British trade and thought that war with England would damage their lucrative friendship. The New Englanders created the Hartford Convention that tried to call Madison to account and to warn about possible cession. The very positive end to the war destroyed the Convention and the Federalists all at once but the seeds had been sown.
6.) Fighting in the War of 1812 were many men who would later make a name for themselves. For example, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston were members of Andrew Jackson’s army in New Orleans.

Hmmm…would I recommend this book to others? It was not a bad book but I can’t say that I would. Here’s my biggest problem with this work—sheer superfluity. I understand the historian’s need to be as accurate and as detailed as possible but there is a limit that must be enforced once the author begins to move into generalizations and conjecture.

Ketcham uses these two evils immediately by filling empty holes in Madison’s childhood. In other words, the author plays god here by taking the information written by other people at the time and working it into the Madison biography. To be honest, Ketcham tells us exactly what he’s about to do. “Beyond a few old-age recollections, there is no documentation of particular events in James Madison’s youth. The story can be surmised, however, from farm records, from important events that would have affected a boy in Madison’s situation, and from what is know generally of Virginia family and plantation life in his day. Though the account thus obtained is necessarily conjectural in some of its details, something of an otherwise hidden boyhood assumes sketchy form” (p. 9).

With Ketcham’s own admission, then, I plowed through a tediously long and detailed account of someone’s youth, who may or may not be James Madison. That means I had to read a lot of “we may imagine”s or “we may suppose”s in regards to Madison’s early years. Now let me just say this, I would not have minded this tramp into the realms of unreality, but when the book is already 700 pages long and now I know why it’s 700 pages, well that makes me really upset. It feels like I’m just wasting my time here. And to make things worse, Ketcham then tries to get poetic on us. Instead of just telling us about Madison’s trip to New Jersey, he has to get descriptive. “Riding along the river [Potomac], Madison may have observed, as other travelers had, the sport of fishing hawks and bald eagles. A hawk would dive into the water and catch a fish in its talons, but then often lose its prey to an eagle that would soar down from above, frighten the hawk into dropping the fish, and then swoop below to catch the fish before it reached the water” (p. 26).
Following this narrative, Ketcham expounds on Madison’s college years, giving us a detailed account of books he might have read, the political influences swirling about the college town, and a small biography on Madison’s academic advisor, John Witherspoon. Later on, Madison becomes engaged (not to Dolley) and then consequently dumped. Ketcham has this to say on the matter. “We may imagine Madison spending anxious, lonely days of despair after hearing disturbing word from Kitty and during the absence of Congress from Princeton” (p. 110). After this book, I am heartily sick of the phrase “we may imagine.”

On the flip side, there were some aspects of the book that were great but the problem was wading through the superfluity to get to these good parts. Ketcham goes into great detail on the political side of the war, which was nice since this was a new facet of the war that I hadn’t read about yet. It was fascinating reading about all the different ways our country came together. In the end, though, the book was a highly analytic, deeply specific account of our fourth President.
I had mentioned earlier that it was difficult to find a bio on James Madison and I was curious as to what dour crime has prompted this treatment. I have come to realize that Madison’s greatest sin was simply that he was not a spectacular personage. He lacked the flair that Jefferson and later, Jackson would have. He did his job and that was that. He was not a very good judge of character so during his two terms as President, his biggest problems involved all the fighting amidst his cabinet. It was also due to his poor judgment that he would select General Armstrong to head the War department and we all know how that turned out. But Madison tried to be a good man for our country and a good President. One of his greatest successes was marrying the pretty, popular Dolley Todd who turned Washington DC and the White House into a fun place to be. Her expert hostessing helped her taciturn husband weather the political storms, and the actual battles, surrounding them.

In the end, I think it’s important to remember that we, today, are actively living out James Madison’s legacy—the United States Constitution. It was due to his ingenuity and brilliance that we have such a beautiful document. Combine that with the Bill of Rights and you have the essence that makes us citizens of one of the greatest countries on earth.

James Madison gave the best of himself to us and we should be proud that he was one of our Presidents.

#4: James Madison (1751-1836)

Trying to find a decent biography of James Madison was frustrating. My library was particularly deficient in this area but then, as I was scanning Amazon.com, I realized that there just aren’t that many great biographies, if any, of Madison. There are books about James Madison and the Bill of Rights or James Madison and the Constitution, even Dolley Madison and the United States but there just does not seem to be any definitive work on Madison. Hum. I really wondered about this circumstance.

Why didn’t anyone want to write about our fourth President? And then it got me excited—what on earth could he have done to warrant this treatment?? At the time, the only truly bad thing that I remembered about Madison was that he was the President during the burning of Washington DC. (Actually I only remembered this episode because Dolley saved the picture of George Washington.) Was this the reason that Madison wasn’t remembered fondly? Burning with curiosity, I actually bought a biography that seemed complete. I read Ralph Ketchum’s James Madison: A Biography (University of Virginia Press: Charlottesville, 1990) and even though it had 700 pages and was published in 1990, I deemed it necessary that I go to any lengths in order to get a total picture of this man. And, believe me, I’ve paid the price.

James Madison was born as one of a veritable horde of Madisons. His father was able to claim that he was a wealthy Virginian with property so that James was able to grow up in well-to-do circumstances along with many of his cousins and siblings. Later on in life, Madison’s prolific family would come in handy—it was such easy networking. Like Thomas Jefferson, Madison’s early years at Montpelier were extremely sketchy. (It makes me wonder why it takes the author 30 pages to get James to college!) Apparently James suffered from some sort of indisposition, like epileptic fits, throughout his life. He was never quite well and often sickly. We next find that Madison chose to attend the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) over the more popular William and Mary. Thus in 1768, he entered college and was exposed to greater ideas and concepts than the Virginian countryside could provide. “When Madison graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1771 he was a paragon of the well-educated scholar” (p. 45).

After moving back to Montpelier, Madison was then faced with an unpleasant fact—he had no job. He had the necessary qualities to become a lawyer but although he professed an interest, it never really excited him. What did excite him was the nascent war of independence. He was a passionate patriot and because of that he was elected to the Virginia State Legislature, to the Virginia Governor’s Council and finally to the Continental Congress. During his tenure on the governor’s council, Madison became lifelong friends with Thomas Jefferson, the Governor. When he arrived at the Continental Congress, he was found that the war was much worse than he had feared. “The revolution was much closer to defeat or collapse, apparently, than had seemed possible in Virginia, not yet a theater of war when Madison left home” (p. 101). Madison discovered that the United States was broke, that the Continental army was slowly eroding, and that their country had no credibility abroad to ask for loans or for help. “As Madison’s commitment to the revolution deepened, so too did his sense of its scope and meaning. It was not a mere matter of resisting unjust taxes, seeking religious liberty, or even avoiding debts to British merchants. At stake in one sense was the direction of future events in the Western world and the place the new United States would have in that world” (p. 101).

At the termination of the war, Madison again found himself jobless. Although he had left Congress with a reputation for being clearheaded and sound, he was unable to translate that into a gentleman farmer at Montpelier. Thankfully, politics stepped in again and he was elected this time to the Virginia Assembly. From there it was a mere stepping stone to the Federal Convention (or the Constitutional Convention) where men from all thirteen states were to convene as a backlash to the current government. Their mission? Revise the Articles of Confederation. What happened instead? They chucked the Articles and started from scratch. Almost from Day One of the Convention, they began to put together the Constitution that would be in effect today and James Madison really began to shine. He was not a flashy person or a spectacular speaker but he took meticulous notes on everything and was able to argue a point on sheer knowledge alone. His pro-central government approach is really what swung the Convention to his side and why we have such a lovely set of checks-and-balances between the branches.

His only failure, in his eyes, was the “The Great Compromise.” “The Great Compromise” is basically what we have going on today with our bicameral legislature. As good Americans, we know that the little states wanted equal representation in Congress and the big states wanted population to determine representation. The compromise, then, was that we have both. Madison, being from Virginia, thought the great compromise was completely awful and slowly his Federalist viewpoint began to change.

After all the changes to the Constitution occurred, the delegates’ job was still not done. Nine out of thirteen states then needed to ratify the Constitution to put it into effect. So Madison and the other delegates fanned out around the country to promote their work and to make sure that it garnered the majority of votes. To aid this process, Madison teamed up with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton to write The Federalist Papers. “Thus in late October 1787, Hamilton, Jay, and Madison undertook what became the authoritative commentary on the Constitution and the best-known work of political theory ever written in the United States” (p. 239). The Federalist Papers were a direct rebuttal of the arguments that were being used against the Constitution and yet the means for every man to understand what the new constitution entailed. Through mainly James Madison’s hard work, the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1788 which led to the first elections to Congress where Madison beat out James Monroe to a seat in the House of Representatives.

After six years as a Representative, James Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a lovely Quaker widow from Philadelphia, and decided to retire from Congress to try gentleman farming at Montpelier once more. Sadly, being a farmer was just not meant for him. With the accession of his good friend, Thomas Jefferson, to the presidency, James was called upon to lead the nation, instead, as Secretary of State. As Secretary, Madison faced a number of obstacles. He had to revamp the entire administrative network because the State Department, during this time, handled a lot of domestic issues as well. He also had to be every inch a diplomat confronting the war in Europe, the uprising in Santo Domingo, rumors that Napoleon would invade the US, Spain threatening to invade the US, the British impressing US sailors, the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, political infighting and the privations of the Embargo Act.

Even though Jefferson’s second term as president was little short of a disaster, it was still widely known in Republican circles that James Madison was the heir apparent. Accordingly, James Madison became the fourth President of the United States on March, 4, 1809, with George Clinton from New York as the Vice President. Almost immediately, Madison was faced with dire information; both France and England had stepped up violations against American shipping. These instances and many others would continue long into Madison’s second term as President as well. “Overshadowing the social season, the frustrations of preparing for war, and presidential politics, however, was the steady deterioration of relations with both belligerents” (p. 523). By June 1, 1812, Madison, soon to be elected to a second term, had sent his Declaration of War to Congress naming Great Britain the primary belligerent in the coming conflict.

The War of 1812 began on a high note with some victories in the Northwest Territory (Michigan/New York) but soon, the British regained the momentum. The United States Army was losing every encounter and the nation itself slid slowly into gloom. And for good reason—the “army” was a skeleton crew, headed by generals from the Revolutionary War, the navy was even smaller, there was no money in the Treasury and since Jefferson had let the charter on the Bank of the United States lapse, there was no money to borrow. Not to mention, the war was extremely unpopular, leading New England to grumble about ceding from the union. On top of all that, Madison simply could not find anyone to be Secretary of War, finally stumbling on General Armstrong. The only light at the end of the tunnel was some hefty victories by, unaccountably, the tiny US Navy.

In 1813, the British, under General Cockburn, started harassing Americans increasingly close to Washington DC. Unfortunately, Armstrong declared that the Baltimore, not Washington, was the destination of the British and, going against Madison’s request, positioned his troops accordingly. It was then too late to defend the capitol once it was apparent that the British were heading there directly. On August 24, 1814, James Madison had to watch from the Virginia side of the Potomac as his house, the White House, and the Capitol Buildings burned to the ground. A few days later he was back in Washington and with the help of Secretary of State, James Monroe, and Attorney General, Richard Rush, Madison was able to get a semblance of the government back into working order once more. Peace negotiations were already in progress in Ghent, Belguim and though the war was officially over by the end of 1814, the Battle of New Orleans and the victory of General Andrew Jackson put the seal of success on the American’s side.

“The return of peace, the collapse of domestic defiance of the government, and the revived popularity of the administration, enabled the presidential family to look forward to the end of nearly four years of being chained to duty” (p. 599) Due to their constant condemnation of the President and the war in general, the Federal Party disappeared almost entirely after the Treaty of Ghent was signed and this meant an almost unimpeded victory for James Monroe, as the fifth President of the United States.

James Madison and his family moved back to Montpelier for his final retirement. “The need to make a living, as well as Madison’s agrarian convictions about the good life, require him to remain an active farmer” (p. 621). He was elected President of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle (County), was on the Board of Visitors to the University of Virginia, and was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention. He died on June 28, 1836 at Montpelier in Virginia.

#3: Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Oh Jefferson, Jefferson, Jefferson. What am I going to write about you? I know that I will probably be struck by lightning for this but I have to admit that I am not a fan of Jefferson. I know that he was a genius and that he doubled the size of the United States and that his home is a model of architectural splendor and that his face adorns Mount Rushmore in all its glory, but I have never liked him. In fact, I disliked him even before I read Washington’s and Adams’ biographies and was given all that great ammunition. Jefferson has always seemed rather weak to me. Even though he is a quiet gentleman I never took his silence as strong but more cunning and hypocritical, like a spider spinning a web from the shadows.

That being said, I do have to admit that Jefferson continues to possess a universality that simply will not die away. Presidential candidates, in the last century especially, were always quick to throw down the Jeffersonian gauntlet for their cause, proving the extreme adroitness of Jefferson’s legacy. Jefferson, like the Bible, can be used, apparently, to uphold just about any argument or ideology. This contradiction, which is exactly what Jefferson was himself, is such an unusual phenomenon in American politics that Joseph Ellis concentrated his entire lengthy prologue on it. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1997) was the biography that I chose to represent our third President based mainly on my impressions of Ellis’ handling of Washington and the relative size of the book, which I must confess, is always a factor to me.

Jefferson’s youth is completely shrouded in mystery due to the Shadwell fire of 1770 which entirely consumed all evidence of Jefferson’s childhood. We do know that he was born in Shadwell, VA in 1743 and that he was one in a long line of successful Virginia planters. Other than that however, there is barely any good information about him as a child, nor really anything up until he went to college. I gathered that he was a rather serious, shy young man, tall with red hair and freckles. He would remain a great reader his entire life. He went to college at William and Mary and upon graduation, decided to study law in Williamsburg (then the capital of Virginia) under the renowned lawyer, George Wythe. It was around this time that he decided, not only to build Monticello, but in a contrary maneuver, to stand for the House of Burgesses. Here we see the contradictions inherent in Jefferson’s own soul: on the one hand his desire to get away from the world, to have his escape from reality and on the other, his desire to be included in society through politics. His entire life seemed to be a battle between the need for retirement from public life and the urge for greater involvement in the political arena.

His nature, so quiet and unassuming (which would be mistaken for arrogance on occasion), was initially a detriment to his political career. So self-effacing was he at the time that when the First Continental Congress called for men from each state, Jefferson was voted as a substitute for the real political big-wigs from Virginia. “It would be fair to say that Jefferson made the list of acknowledged political leaders in the Old Dominion, but just barely, and largely because of his ties by blood and patronage with the Randolph [his mother’s] circle” (p. 29). While biding his time in Williamsburg, Jefferson published a pamphlet called A Summary View of the Rights of British America which espoused his views, at the time, of really radical concepts on tyranny and revolution.

He was voted onto the Virginia delegation to the Second Continental Congress in 1775, leading him to Philadelphia and ultimately to his destiny. While attending the Congress, Jefferson, as the junior member on a distinguished delegation, continued his habitual policy of observation and silence. Not fond of public speaking, he did not debate nor deliver any sort of speech. He typified the “refined and disciplined scholar” (p. 38) instead but due to his publication of Summary View, no one doubted that he had the heart of a Patriot. And, of course, this brings us to The Declaration of Independence!

I love the Declaration of Independence as much as the next person but you have to admit that there is a sort of “hallowed” air swirling around it that is rather uncanny. Ellis gives us some good insight on this phenomenon.

“During the next six weeks, from mid-May to early July 1776, Jefferson wrote the words that made him famous and that, over the course of the next two centuries, associated him with the most visionary version of the American dream. As a result, this historical ground has been trampled over by hordes of historians, and the air surrounding it is perpetually full of an incandescent mixture of incense and smoke. His authorship of the Declaration of Independence is regarded as one of those few quasi-religious episodes in American history, that moment when, at least according to the most romantic explanations, a solitary Jefferson was allowed a glimpse of the eternal truths and then offered the literary inspiration to inscribe them on the American soul” (p. 46).

It sounds so melodramatic but I love it.

Jefferson was delegated the task of writing a declaration announcing the United States’ independence from England not only because he was handy with a pen, but he possessed a decided flair for writing. And the result was more than anyone could have wished. True, there were some changes made to the original document but the bulk of it was straight from Jefferson’s brain (there were charges made at the time that he plagiarized some of it.) Jefferson stayed only long enough to hear the debate and to sign it before he left once more for Monticello.

During the war years, Jefferson faced two defining moments at home. The first was a brief two-year stint as governor of Virginia. As a self-proclaimed scholar, Jefferson was quite unfit for this task. “It was the worst possible time for a man who preferred the rarified atmosphere of scholarship and the study to assume the duties of governor, since wartime exigencies generated massive economic, logistical and political problems that even the most adroit executive would have found daunting” (p. 65). His tenure as governor was disastrous—Virginia’s economy was in shambles, the British, under, Benedict Arnold, burned the capital city of Richmond to the ground, and Jefferson himself was almost captured by the British. In fact, the Virginia Assembly called for an investigation into Jefferson’s seeming cowardice when he fled from the British. Although the charges were all dropped, Jefferson never got over those accusations and the rumors would be reused during his presidential elections. The second defining moment was the death of his wife, Martha, during this time. She was never robust and the constant pregnancies kept her weak. It was after the birth of a daughter that Martha never recovered and after a summer of lingering, finally succumbed. Jefferson never remarried.

Jefferson always professed that he only wanted to be a farmer at Monticello but after the war, he jumped at the chance to assume a diplomatic post to France. The Treaty of Paris had been signed the year before so Jefferson was to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in securing much-needed European loans to finance the fledgling United States. Apparently the three Americans were a sight to behold. “We know that when he [Jefferson] made his first official appearance with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin at the French court at Versailles, the physical contrast struck several observers as almost comical, like watching a cannonball, a teapot, and a candlestick announce themselves as the American trinity” (p. 65).

During his time in France, Jefferson would begin a very close and personal relationship with the Adams family. Off and on this friendship would span close to fifty years and be a constant source of information and enjoyment for succeeding generations. He also had to deal with several issues, including French loans to the US and the Barbary pirates preying on American merchants in the Mediterranean, all of which would be hampered by the ineffectual government at home under the Articles of Confederation. He was also able to be present at another national upheaval culminating in the French Revolution. Although it must be noted that though on the scene, Jefferson was remarkably dense concerning the motives and reasoning behind the revolution and the effect that it would have on history. “Therefore it is worth noting that, though, shocked at first by the random and savage character of the mob violence, he never questioned his belief in the essential rightness of the cause of the ultimate triumph of its progressive principles” (p. 110). Jefferson believed that revolutions required blood of some kind and that revolutions, in principle, were good things. Ultimately, though, he was quite unprepared for the course that the French Revolution was soon to take.

In 1788, George Washington became the first President of the United States under the brand new US Constitution and so chose Thomas Jefferson as his first Secretary of State. “Jefferson’s tenure as secretary of state coincided with the most uncharted era in American political history. Precisely because the new national government was new, every major decision set a precedent and initiative in domestic or foreign policy threatened to establish a landmark principle” (p. 121). I am fascinated by this idea: a totally new government with no precedents. This political tabula rosa is so rare that the inception of the United States is truly mindboggling and, I think, cool as hell. Ok, back to Jefferson. As secretary of state, his main job function was to keep the United States out of war so that we could grow into our new nationhood. “This meant steering clear of European conflicts at almost any cost and providing time and space for the emergent American national economy to develop its still-nascent potential” (p. 124). It was clear in his dealings that Jefferson had pro-French tendencies which on several occasions nearly caused a breakdown in relations with England.

It was also during this time that Jefferson, along with Madison, began the rudiments of political parties. In reaction to Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, Jefferson, who espoused a weaker central government, became a member of the Republican or Anti-Federalist party (absolutely not the Republican party that we know today.) Not only was there personal animosity between Jefferson and Hamilton, their political ideologies were wildly different on almost every subject. The problem was, however, that Jefferson’s stance on government was opposite of the government that he was currently a member of. Thus, he was publicly working against Washington and the form of government that he personified. “This helps explain the vituperation and highly personal attacks on his [Jefferson’s] character in the public press during those years: there was as yet no available language or mentality for a more detached interpretation of his behavior” (p. 122). Shortly into Washington’s second term, Jefferson asked to resign from his position as secretary of state. The situation with Hamilton, who was also a member of Washington’s cabinet as secretary of the treasury, became increasingly strained and as did the attacks on Jefferson in the media. The Sally Hemings scandal hit papers around this time and the accusations would forever be linked to Jefferson’s name, although nothing has been proven. Also people speculated on the authenticity of his Christianity.

Upon retirement, Jefferson returned immediately to his beloved Monticello to become a farmer. He began massive renovations to Monticello though he was already so deeply in debt that it seems inconceivable that he would do any such thing. Jefferson had already wracked up a huge debt to the English from his pre-war ties, not to mention his extravagant living abroad. “His financial predicament was serious. Comparisons in modern-day terms are notoriously tricky to calculate, but can conservatively be estimated in the range of several hundred thousand dollars” (p. 137). The worry that this would cause Jefferson would remain with him until the end of his life. Being at home also meant that he was constantly aware of slavery around him. Indeed, his life and livelihood depended on it though he would say that he was against the institution itself.

The voters called him out of retirement. Washington had retired after two terms, leaving the United States in need of its second president. After an extremely close race, John Adams became the newest President, with Jefferson, who came in second, the Vice President. During the next four years, Jefferson did not do much (the Vice Presidential position had basically no job description) but continued to work behind the scenes with Madison and Monroe for a more republican government. Jefferson would get his chance though; in 1800, Thomas Jefferson was voted in as the 3rd President of the United States.

His Presidency was, in itself, an immense upheaval for the nascent US due to the fact that Jefferson idealized very different concepts from the previous two governmental leaders. Jefferson would call this the Revolution of 1800 but as Hamilton sagely predicted, it was easier talking than getting things done once in the White House (it wasn’t called that yet, btw). Jefferson’s first term was characterized by a masterful, yet laissez faire-ish, success. In fact, he was nearly invisible. America, at the time, was enjoying a moment of peace both at home and abroad and thus it allowed Jefferson to slowly ease away from the helm and allow the country to chug along nicely. Because he had such time and resources on his side, he was able to concentrate most of his attention to the national debt and to its reduction thereby. He so assiduously worked on this that national taxes were ended during his presidency and the national debt halved. Add to that the freaking huge land acquisition called the Louisiana Purchase and there is no need to mention it—he was pretty popular.

His second term was not nearly so pleasant and was characterized by an economic flop. The British was beginning to act up again, impressing American sailors onto their boats, so Jefferson, in all his idealism, decided to retaliate through an Embargo Act. Instead of affecting the British, however, this Act dearly hurt the American economy by sending it into a tailspin of extreme proportions. It was a relief to Jefferson when he was finally able to step down as President of the United States and resume his much-cherished mantle of gentleman farmer.

As always he was soon heading back to Monticello, where spend considerable energy on making the place livable and economically viable. He began new industries on this land and even began planning a vast new university that would be located near him at Charlottesville (which became the University of Virginia). His main occupation during his retirement was a back-breaking amount of correspondence. He answered most of the letters that he received which was over one thousand a year and kept detailed accounts of all his daily work. John Adams would become a dear friend again during this time and their letters in total range upwards of a 150. He died on July 4, 1826 at the age of 83.

# 3: Thomas Jefferson Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Jefferson:
1. He sang or hummed softly to himself all the time. “He sang whenever he was walking or riding, sometimes when he was reading” (p. 26). It was to be a distinct characteristic of his his entire life.
2. He explained America’s rights through an interpretation of Whig philosophy he called “expatriation.” Basically the Whigs' “romantic endorsement of a pristine past, a long-lost time and place where men had lived together in perfect harmony without coercive laws or predatory rulers, gave narrative shape to his [Jefferson’s] fondest imaginings and to utopian expectations with deep roots in his personality” (p. 32). The expatriation theory then developed into an idea that America was the true inheritor of the original Saxon lifestyle even though this perfect past, which, as history, was completely false.
3. Jefferson had a rather comical vendetta against Georges de Buffon, the leading French naturalist at the time. Buffon believed that plants and animals in North America were inferior to their European counterparts because of the unpropitious land in America. Jefferson, living in France at the time, tried to refute Buffon by sending expeditions out in the United States to look for large animals. A couple animals were killed and sent over to Jefferson but when he showed them off to Buffon, Buffon said that nothing could be concluded from such carcasses.
4. Jefferson was a firm believer in revolutions. Jefferson remarked (upon hearing of Shays Rebellion) “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure” (p. 100).
5. While living in France, he carried on a successful flirtation with a couple of women, even going so far as showing a decided partiality for Maria Cosway, a married woman. It was rumored that Jefferson broke his wrist at one point from showing off for her by trying to jump a fence.
6. It is true that there is no evidence supporting the theory that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Heming’s children. In recent DNA testing, the only conclusion that scientists could discover was that someone in Thomas Jefferson’s line (not necessarily himself) had fathered children on someone in Sally Hemings’ line. It’s confusing, true, but rather indicative. I tend to think that there was no way Jefferson would have done it…there’s a sort of asexual-ness to him.
7. He coined the phrase “splendid misery.” Upon becoming Vice President, Jefferson wrote “The second office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.”
8. His utopian radicalism was best typified by his “generational sovereignty” concept. Basically he decided that the world belongs to the living so we should all try to “live in the now” and not deal with the laws and precedents that dead people have passed down to us. Thus all “personal and national debts, all laws, even all constitutions, should expire after that time” (p. 111), leaving the present to fend for itself. Madison was the recipient of these ideas and promptly told his mentor that this concept was really close to anarchy and chaos and that it should never be brought up again.
9. Jefferson was one enormous contradiction. It is as if his whole personality was being pulled in two opposite directions and each was fighting for its existence. For instance, his whole life was a struggle between his desire to be at Monticello and his need to be in public view. Another contradiction was his lifestyle in general. He took meticulous notes on every single purchase he ever made but overspent himself regularly. He hated to be in debt but at every place he lived (Philadelphia, France, Monticello, White House), he renovated the places almost as soon as he moved in. His debt was so large by the time that he reached the presidency that he felt compelled to frenetically work on the national debt. On the political side of things, he was an acknowledged anti-federalist but his treatment of the Louisiana Purchase suggests otherwise. “He violated his most cherished political principles several times over in order to guarantee the most expansive version of the ‘noble bargain,’ and he temporarily made himself into just the kind of monarchical chief magistrate he had warned against” (p. 208). His views on slavery were also contradictory for he did not like the institution of it but until there was a way to get rid of the slaves (to another country perhaps), they would have to be left where they were. “The unavoidable conclusion, then, was that slavery was morally wrong, but racial segregation was morally right. And until a practical solution to the problem of what to do with the freed slaves could be found, it made no sense to press for emancipation” (p. 147).

I rather enjoyed this book. First of all, it wasn’t long! In the amount of pages that it used, Ellis’ did a great job of giving us a good idea of what made Jefferson who he was. Since Jefferson was a complete enigma (internally) in nearly every facet of his life, it probably wasn’t easy for the author to come to some sort of conclusion about him. Ellis gave us the good and bad about Jefferson, allowing us to make up our minds about him and not letting the author’s feelings on the subject cloud our unbiased viewpoint. The more I read about the presidents, the more I find this truly remarkable.

On the other hand, I had some issues with this work This may sound silly but he used the word “dichotomies” like one million times. Actually it was more like 10 times but in a 300 page book that word sticks out a mile and it bothered me that he continued to use it over and over again. Also if you plan on reading this book in the future, be aware that it is mainly a character study of Jefferson and not a simple biography. Since the book is character-based, Ellis can kind of pick and choose what aspects of Jefferson he wishes to discuss. For example, Ellis spends a whole chapter on Jefferson’s first term of the presidency (which was a relatively good time for Jefferson) and then barely mentions his second term, a disaster for Jefferson. Now I don’t think that Ellis did this because he loves Jefferson so much that he is willing to smudge the facts but I do think that maybe he didn’t want to dwell on the second term and its effect on Jefferson character. As an unbiased reader, however, I would like to hear more about Jefferson’s second term, good or not. It was, after all, an extension of Jefferson’s policies and of himself.

In the end, though, I don’t hate Jefferson as much as I used to. Although he was born to privilege and had a relatively cushy life, even during a national revolution and multiple disturbances, I think that he didn’t have it easy at all. During Jefferson’s lifetime, there was a strict code of conduct operating in Virginia and it left little room for error or, even, controversy of any kind. Southern gentlemen were held to a very high level of behavior that produced extreme indebtedness, enabling of disrespectable family members or friends, secrecy, double standards, and polite backstabbing. At that time, you did not talk about your problems and by all means, you had to prove that you were a propertied man, even if that meant going into debt. You were not allowed to show emotion or stoop to telling people what you actually wanted, thus you had to use backhanded channels of acquiring things (or of being elected.) If there was a black sheep in the family, it was up to you to save them, even if they got worse and worse; it was your responsibility.

It’s easy to see how Jefferson turned out the way he did. There was much personal tragedy in his life, starting with the death of his mother and weaving its way through the loss of his wife and all of his children but one. He practically began life in debt because that was what you did to uphold public opinion. He had slaves because they were always there and he tried to make the United States into a viable country because he was well-read enough to realize it could be done. Most of Jefferson’s delusions are a direct result of his upbringing—it was the only way he could bear life. The ultimate tragedy here though was that Jefferson bought into the southern way of life and remained an adherent to it even to the end when he had to sell his beloved Monticello.

#2: John Adams Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about John Adams
1. He was a good judge of character and abilities, which was evident in his selection of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and of Thomas Jefferson as writer the Declaration of Independence.
2. There is actually a book written exclusively about the voyage that John Adams and his son took in 1778 to France. It’s called Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John and John Quincy Adams. http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Crossing-Revolutionary-Voyage-Quincy/dp/0525469664/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263597217&sr=1-16
3. John Adams solely wrote the Constitution of the state of Massachusetts in 1779. “As time would prove, he had written one of the great, enduring documents of the American Revolution. The constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the oldest functioning written constitution in the world” (p. 225).
4. John Adams was the first American ambassador to the Netherlands and to England; the first Vice President of the United States, and the first (and last) President to run against his own Vice President.
5. He began the practice of “midnight judges” where the lame-duck President appointed party-friendly judges at the eleventh hour. His most famous appointment: John Marshall as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court. “Possibly the greatest Chief Justice in history, Marshall would serve on the Court for another thirty-four years” (p. 560).
6. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the very same day, July 4, 1826. John Adams was 90 and Jefferson was 83.
7. The Adams’ were extremely prolific writers. John and Abigail wrote thousands of letters to each other and thousands more to their children. Adams’ letters to Jefferson and other friends range in the hundreds. “The Adams Papers, from which much of this book has been drawn, may be rightly described as a national treasure” (p. 653).

I really liked this book. I’m not just saying that because of the great reviews nor did I simply rent the HBO series and cheat, I genuinely and with good reason love this book. Part of that, I mentioned earlier. The sheer amount of information that John Adams literally just gives to us through all his diaries and letters over a considerable span of years is just awe-inspiring. McCullough states that “Not Washington, not Jefferson or Madison or Hamilton, not even Franklin for all that he wrote, was so forthcoming on paper as was John Adams over a lifetime of writing about himself and his world” (p. 653). With all this information, on the other hand, I’m sure that it was also a little more difficult for David McCullough to write this book. Having to edit away what wasn’t important must have been extremely hard in and of itself but McCullough shows his genius by his delicate handling of such copious knowledge. He sticks to the point, only giving us enough extraneous detail so that we can fully know how very human John Adams really was. Yet, he balances that with a respect for all that John Adams does in the service of our country. John Adams, while not making the best President, was a true blue American…before there was a United States of America.

David McCullough also is quite objective about John Adams in this book. He uses everything about John Adams, the good and the bad. For instance, John Adams had many admirable qualities but he was also vain and stubborn. We are given a blank slate when it comes to the Founding Father and we are left to make the final evaluation. Thus, I have come to realize that John Adams was a great man, doing his best at a time of national crises, but like all men, had issues and problems and human failings like everyone else. His marriage alone inspires true admiration for this man. The respect and love that he holds for Abigail his entire life is a tremendous love story in itself. His unshaken ideals for himself, the people he knows and loves and for his country is also remarkable in their tenacity. He had high expectations for all whom he encounters and, while repeatedly disappointed, remained high-minded to the end of his days.

Another reason I really liked this book is that it was such an easy read. It is close to 650 pages and for a history book, that can be an eternity of sifting through facts and boring commentary. However, David McCullough uses so many quotes from so many letters and diaries, it’s like reading a novel! This book is not just straight narrative but a deft dialogue that transpires between John Adams and everyone else through their correspondence. It is so well-contrived that you forget that you are reading about real life.

I also have a new respect for John Adams and what life was like during that time. Through his eyes, we see the deprivation that the Adams’ endured by fighting for their independence or from John having to work consistently away from home. As good a mother as Abigail undoubtedly was seemed to be no match for an absentee father as evidenced in their two youngest sons dying of alcoholism. Their daughter married a man who was in and out of work and generally someone not to be trusted to take care of her. John Quincy, we’ll see more of in another book but he was so stiff and formal that we can deduce how much he was affected by his father’s work. It is sad to see such a good man and one of our Founding Fathers be tormented by the paths that his children chose. His family life just shows us how human John Adams really was and the impact that that had on the founding of our nation.

In conclusion, I thought this book a well-written and objective account of our second President and a Founding Father of our nation. I would recommend it to anyone interested in this era of our history not only due to the prolific primary sources that abound in this work but also to the fantastic feel of history in the hands of David McCullough. John Adams leapt off the pages of history for me and I suggest a similar journey for you.

Please let me know if these posts are helpful to you or not. Also if you have any questions, just write up a comment for me. Thanks!

#2: John Adams (1735-1826)

As a young girl growing up in the United States, I had to complete the ubiquitous homework assignment on a Great American Woman which usually meant Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, or Abigail Adams. I am pretty sure that I did reports on all three ladies but what I remember best about Abigail was her calm good sense and words of wisdom delivered during a most chaotic time in our nation’s history. Attached to her is, of course, John Adams, our second President. He was in office for only one term and other than a signature on the Declaration of Independence, I had no idea how John Adams spent his time.

To help me learn more, I read David McCullough’s book John Adams (Simon and Schuster: New York, 2001) which was used as the basis for the hit-HBO series “John Adams”. David McCullough writes mainly historical non-fiction (including Truman, a book I may read later) and has garnered much praise for his work regarding this much-neglected Founding Father. I had heard so much good stuff about this book that I was probably the only person ever looking forward to getting to President #2.
The descendant of good Puritans and farmers from Massachusetts, John Adams entered the world imbued with certain New England viewpoints and ideals. He was the oldest of three sons and so extremely bright that his father decided he was not to be a farmer, but instead sent him to Harvard. Eventually becoming a lawyer, John moved back home to Braintree and married Abigail Smith, the middle daughter of Rev. William Smith of Weymouth. “She was in all respects his equal and the part she was to play would be greater than he could possibly have imagined, for all his love for her and what appreciation he already had of her beneficial, steadying influence” (p. 57). The sheer amount of correspondence between them throughout the years made their union as famous in the US as any couple in history.

It was the same year that his first child, Abigail, was born that the Stamp Acts were put into place and John Adams’ rise to fame began. The Stamps Acts were just the beginning of the “taxation without representation” that England would foist on the colonies to help pay for the French and Indian War. Living near a major seaport like Boston, Adams could not but be aware of popular sentiment generating towards England which culminated in the Boston massacre, the Boston Tea Party and finally, in Lexington and Concord. It was in the aftermath of the Boston massacre that John Adams would shine. Due to his strict ideas on justice, he was the only lawyer in Boston who would take on the defense of the British garrison, the defendants. This decision made him extremely unpopular at the time but no one could fault his determination or his fairness. Besides, he won the case.

A tax on tea in 1773 led to the Sam Adams’ Boston Tea Party (he was a cousin of John) which, in turn, led to the British shutting down the entire port of Boston. John Adams was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia even as things got worse in New England as action between the British and the Americans culminated in Lexington and Concord. While in Congress, John Adams continued to promote the war and the need for independence, almost single-handedly creating the Continental Army (and Washington’s place therein) and a firm declaration of independence. Actually, it was through his determination and zeal in the Second Continental Congress that war was eventually declared and the Declaration of Independence was signed.

During the early months of the war, John Adams continued at Congress on the Board of War and in debate over the Articles of Confederation. Setbacks in the Continental Army plagued the Americans at this time and patriotic feeling was at an all-time low. In 1778, Adams, with his oldest son, John Quincy, boarded a ship bound to France where he would form part of the American commission, under Benjamin Franklin, in Paris. As a plain lawyer and farmer, he would prove an irritant to not only his fellow commissioners but also to the French court. Thus, the Continental Congress would name Benjamin Franklin sole minister plenipotentiary to France, thereby dispensing with John Adams altogether. He returned to the United States as a private citizen.

Back in Braintree, Adams was immediately asked to become a delegate to the Massachusetts state constitutional convention. There he was chosen to write the state’s constitution, including a declaration of rights, which was pretty much unanimously adopted soon after. He was then informed that he would be sent back to France to “negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain” (p. 225). Although Adams was loath to travel overseas yet again, the importance of American independence was such that he went without delay.

In France, John Adams found that he was liked even less than before and that his presence might actually hurt American interests rather than aiding them. “With no support or consideration from either Vergennes [the French Foreign Minister] or Franklin, Adams’s position in Paris had become untenable” (p. 243). Thus, he acted upon his own initiative and moved to the Dutch Republic in quest of a hefty loan for the fledgling nation. However, the war at home was not going well with major losses in the South, leading the Dutch to take an extremely critical view of American chances at independence.

On November 23, 1781, John Adams was told that Cornwallis had surrendered to Washington and that the war was over. In March, the Netherlands recognized American independence and in June, America was granted its first Dutch loan of 5 million guilders. Adams was then instructed to return to France to become one of the five American peace commissioners to treat with Great Britain. After much wrangling, the Treaty of Paris was signed in November 1782 and history would change. “As time would tell, the treaty that he [Adams], Franklin, and Jay had made was as advantageous to their country as any in history. It would be said that they had won the greatest victory in the annals of American diplomacy” (p. 285).

Abigail, along with Nabby, their oldest daughter, would soon join John in Paris. It was at this time that the lifelong friendship with Jefferson was established, as he had just arrived as the newly appointed minister to the French court. Their stay in Paris was not of long duration because John found himself voted the very first American ambassador to the Court of St. James in London. The Adams’ were received politely and with cordiality by the king but the British media absolutely tore them to shreds. Never were the Adams’ to feel fully comfortable in England. Nabby married Colonel Smith, an assistant to her father, and they would have their first child, a boy, in 1787. That same year, John heard about the adoption of the new Constitution of the United States and, subsequently, his recall from Europe.

In the very first election under the new constitution, John Adams received the second most votes in the nation which placed him as the first Vice President of the United States under George Washington’s presidency. “All the frustrations and feelings of stagnation that went with the vice presidency, all that so many others who followed in the office were to bemoan over the years, were felt intensely by the first Vice President” (p. 412). As a man of action and decision, Adams found the duty-less vice presidency irksome, leading him to pour his energy into his sole role as leader of the Senate. By doing so, he seemed to overstep his duties which led to certain political consequences that would affect him further down the road. However, as Washington decided to stay in office another term, Adams found himself retaining the position of vice president for another four long years. “It was not just that the vice presidency offered so little chance to say or do anything of consequence, but that at a time when party politics were becoming increasingly potent and pervasive, he would not, could not, be a party man. And so, for both reasons, he was becoming more and more a man apart” (p. 447-48.)

Thus, he rode out the issues of Citizen Genet, the Whisky Rebellion, and the Jay Treaty, only to find himself voted in as the second President of the United States in November 1796 with Thomas Jefferson as his vice president. Almost immediately, however, Adams found that he was facing the presidency at any extremely uncertain time both at home and abroad. Political parties were forming in America and threatening a peaceful coexistence of political ideologies, with Adams’ own Vice President, Jefferson, heading the opposition. France had rebelled, had beheaded their king and was now at war with Europe. Plus, England treated the United States with scarcely veiled contempt. “Nor was Adams like George Washington immensely popular, elected unanimously, and all but impervious to criticism. He had no loyal following as Washington had, no coterie of friends in Congress. Further, there was the looming reality that America at the moment had no military strength on land or sea” (p. 484). To say that John Adams faced some very stiff decisions would be an understatement.

As President, John Adams faced the unpleasant prospect of keeping the United States neutral in the European war, even though they had a signed a treaty of accord with France (remember the American revolution??) American feeling for France was heightened and most Americans were upset that the United States was not aiding its European champion. Not to mention, Alexander Hamilton and Washington were working behind Adams’ back on a scheme for a more powerful American army should war be declared. It was at that time, in the midst of the Quasi-War, that Adams decided to blow open the XYZ affair in which Talleyrand, the French Minister, had, in effect, asked for a bribe to keep France from invading the United States. The Americans were shocked and war fever ebbed, but by handling the situation the way that he had, Adams effectively limited himself to only one term as President.

It was true soon enough. In 1800, after only months in the new Federal City on the Potomac, Adams was voted out of office and Jefferson into it. John and Abigail were then able to retire in peace back to their old Massachusetts home, where they were surrounded by family and friends. Adams spent his retirement by daily walks, a vigorous correspondence, increased reading and visits by various guests. Abigail died on October 28, 1818 but John lived to the age of 90 and able to see his son, John Quincy Adams, elected as 6th President of the United States. He died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after he signed the Declaration of Independence.