JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

Even though John Adams was responsible for George Washington’s appointment as Command- er-in-Chief of the Continental Army, he could not understand why a man of such limited intellect should be such a highly respected President. To Adams, an outstanding mind was the mark of a great man. Some students of history say he himself was the greatest political thinker America has ever produced. He believed in the principle of “a free government formed, upon long and serious reflection,” following a careful inquiry after truth.

Like Washington, Adams lived on lands handed down from the first member of his family to move from England. John, the oldest of three sons, was bom in Massachusetts on October 30, 1735. He was the first of his family able to obtain an education.

Adams’ love for fact and truth is evident in his attitude toward the so-called “Boston Massacre” of 1770. During the occupation of the colonies, a crowd of Bostonians attacked a group of British guards who had to defend themselves with their guns. The incident resulted in several deaths. It was John Adams who defended the British soldiers in the trials which followed. Thanks to him, they were judged not guilty. “Facts are unyielding things,” he told the jury. “And whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or . . . our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” This judgment was typical of him.

By 1770, almost all the laws that offended the colonists had been repealed by the British Parliament. Yet relations between the Mother Country and her American colonies grew worse. Adams played a leading role in the events which led to the final break. He was present at both the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1775, when complete independence from Britain was definitely decided upon, it was Adams who seconded the motion for the Declaration. He also worked the hardest for its adoption by Congress.

As his interest in public affairs increased, Adams’ private law practice (which he boasted was the best in Massachusetts) began to suffer. Yet he willingly gave it up in order to serve his country.

In 1773, believing the end of the war was near, Congress sent him to France to arrange treaties of peace and commerce. On his return, he set to work on the Massachusetts Constitution and became its principal author.

Though his contributions were many, John Adams’ frankness was sometimes injurious to the new American nation at a time when diplomacy was needed everywhere. In France, he became annoyed at Benjamin Franklin, the American commissioner there, who, he believed, was not as serious or as hard a worker as himself. Adams had to be reminded by the French government that Franklin was the only person with whom they had been instructed to deal. But when he went to Holland as American Minister, his untiring efforts

won recognition for the young Republic as well as much-needed financial assistance.

With John Jay and Franklin, Adams arranged for the peace treaty with Britain. Because of his statesmanship and continued hard work on that occasion, he was appointed the first American Minister to England, and in 1789 was elected the first Vice-President of the United States.

Like Washington, Adams was a Federalist, but he disagreed with those in control of the party. They were Alexander Hamilton and his followers who wished to create a government supported by people of wealth. Although they both feared the tyranny of the masses, the wide difference between Hamilton’s ideas and Adams’ beliefs blinded him to Hamilton’s considerable talents. Unfortunately, Adams often placed his personal feelings before his love of country.

By 1796, the Anti-Federalists had formed an opposition party. When Adams was elected President the following year, they, together with the Hamilton group of Federalists, gave him a hard time and made him the first President to serve for only one term. The Democratic-Republican Jefferson, with the second largest number of votes, became Vice-President. Never again would the two top offices in the nation go to men of opposing parties.

Adams’ monumental service to his country while President was avoiding war with France. In 1793, England and France, those old rivals, were again at war. Though President Washington had proclaimed America’s neutrality, the sympathies of Hamilton and other Federalists clearly lay with England, while Jefferson and his party sympathized with France and her revolution, which they considered a “people’s movement.”

Because she controlled the seas, England was" able to seize almost three hundred American ships, supposedly bound for French ports. The highly unpopular Jay Treaty, which Washington had signed, had settled many things with England, but was silent about such matters as seizure of American ships.

France, for her part, captured almost the same number of American vessels, mostly to punish America for the Jay Treaty. During the 1796 Presidential campaign, the French Minister went so far as to ask Americans to vote the Federalists out of office—a move unheard of in international relations. Nor was France happy over her Revolutionary War alliance with America. The young nation, anxious to end hostilities, had ignored its agreement not to make a separate peace with England.

Adams prepared for war with France while doing all in his power to prevent it. In 1800, Napoleon came to power. He was anxious to come to an agreement with America so he could develop the French West Indies. Adams seized the opportunity. In the Treaty of Morfontaine he achieved peace and at the same time released America from her defensive alliance with France. The Hamiltonians, who wanted war with France, were so furious at the President that they threw their support in the 1800 election to another man. By splitting the Federalist party, they brought Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans into office.

Adams was blessed with a brave and intelligent wife, whose famous published letters give a clear picture of her times. While her husband was absent for long periods, Abigail Adams looked after their farm, mothered three sons and two daughters, and kept up her interest in public matters. She did not live to see her admiring son, John Quincy, become President—the one who called her “the delight of my father’s heart,”