John Adams, second President of the United States, was not a man of
the strong emotional temperament which so often characterizes the
great orator. He was fitted by nature for a student and scholar
rather than to lead men by the direct appeal the orator makes to
their emotions, their passions, or their judgment His inclinations
were towards the Church; but after graduating from Harvard College,
which he entered at the age of sixteen, he had a brief experience as
a school-teacher and found it so distasteful to him that he adopted
the law as a relief, without waiting to consult his inclinations
further. "Necessity drove me to this determination," he writes, "but
my inclination was to preach." He began the practice of law in his
native village of Braintree, Massachusetts, and took no prominent
part in public affairs until 1765, when he appeared as counsel for
the town of Boston in proceedings growing out of the Stamp Act
difficulties.
From this time on, his name is constantly associated with the great
events of the Revolution. That be never allowed his prejudices as a
patriot to blind him to his duties as a lawyer, he showed by
appearing as counsel for the British soldiers who killed Crispus
Attucks, Samuel Gray, and others, in the Boston riot of 1770. He was
associated in this case with Josiah Quincy, and the two
distinguished patriots conducted the case with such ability that the
soldiers were acquitted--as no doubt they should have been.
Elected a member of the Continental Congress, Mr. Adams did work in
it which identified him in an enduring way with the formative period
of republican institutions in America. This must be remembered in
passing upon his acts when as President, succeeding Washington, he
is brought into strong contrast with the extreme republicans of the
French school. In the Continental Congress, contrasted with English
royalists and conservatives Mr. Adams himself appeared an extremist,
as later on, under the same law of contrast, he appeared
conservative when those who were sometimes denounced as "Jacobins"
and "Levellers" were fond of denouncing him as a disguised royalist.
Prior to his administration as President, he had served as
commissioner to the court of France, "Minister Plenipotentiary for
the Purpose of Negotiating a Treaty of Peace and Commerce with Great
Britain"; commissioner to conclude a treaty with the States-General
of Holland; minister to England after the conclusion of peace, and
finally as Vice-President under Washington. His services in every
capacity in which he was engaged for his country showed his great
ability and zeal: but in the struggle over the Alien and Sedition
Laws his opponents gave him no quarter and when he retired from the
Presidency it was with the feeling, shared to some extent by his
great opponent Jefferson, that republics never have a proper regard
for the services and sacrifices of statesmen, though they are only
too ready to reward military heroes beyond their deserts. The author
of 'Familiar Letters on Public Affairs' writes of Mr. Adams:--
"He was a man of strong mind, great learning, and eminent ability to
use knowledge both in speech and writing. He was ever a firm
believer in Christianity, not from habit and example but from a
diligent investigation of its proofs. He had an uncompromising
regard for his own opinion and was strongly contrasted with
Washington in this respect. He seemed to have supposed that his
opinions could not have been corrected by those of other men or
bettered by any comparison."
It might be inferred from this that Mr. Adams was as obstinate in
prejudice as in opinion, but as he had demonstrated to the contrary
in taking the unpopular cause of the British soldiers at the
beginning of his public career, he showed it still more strikingly
by renewing and continuing until his death a friendship with
Jefferson which had been interrupted by the fierce struggle over the
Alien and Sedition Act.