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.
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