(1735-1826)
[Illustration: John Adams. [TN]]
John Adams, the second president of the United States, was born on the
19th of October (old style), 1735, in that part of the town of Braintree
(near Boston), Massachusetts, which has since been incorporated by the
name of Quincy. He was the fourth in descent from Henry Adams, who fled
from persecution in Devonshire, England, and settled in Massachusetts
about the year 1630. Another of the ancestors of Mr. Adams was John
Alden, one of the Pilgrim founders of the Plymouth colony in 1620.
Receiving his early education in his native town, John Adams, in 1751,
was admitted a member of Harvard College, at Cambridge, where he
graduated in regular course four years afterward. On leaving college he
went to Worcester, for the purpose of studying law, and at the same time
to support himself, according to the usage at that time in New England,
by teaching in the grammar-school of that town. He studied law with
James Putnam, a barrister of eminence, by whom he was afterward
introduced to the acquaintance of Jeremy Gridley, then attorney-general
of the province, who proposed him to the court for admission to the bar
of Suffolk County, in 1758, and gave him access to his library, which
was then one of the best in America.
Mr. Adams commenced the practice of his profession in his native town,
and by travelling the circuits with the court, became well known in that
part of the country. In 1766, by the advice of Mr. Gridley, he removed
to Boston, where he soon distinguished himself at the bar by his
superior talents as counsel and advocate. At an earlier period of his
life his thoughts had begun to turn on general politics, and the
prospects of his country engaged his attention. Soon after leaving
college he wrote a letter to a friend, dated at Worcester, October 12,
1755, which evinces so remarkable a foresight that it is fortunate it
has been preserved. We make the following extracts: "Soon after the
Reformation a few people came over into this new world for conscience'
sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great
seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me, if we can remove the
turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the exactest computation,
will, in another century, become more numerous than England herself. The
only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us.
_Divide et impera_. Keep us in distinct colonies, and then some great
men in each colony, desiring the monarchy of the whole, will destroy
each other's influence, and keep the country in equilibrio. Be not
surprised that I am turned politician; the whole town is immersed in
politics. I sit and hear, and, after being led through a maze of sage
observations, I sometimes retire and, by laying things together, form
some reflections pleasing to myself. The produce of one of these
reveries you have read above." Mr. Webster observes: "It is remarkable
that the author of this prognostication should live to see fulfilled to
the letter what could have seemed to others, at the time, but the
extravagance of youthful fancy. His earliest political feelings were
thus strongly American, and from this ardent attachment to his native
soil he never departed."
In 1764 he married Abigail Smith, daughter of Rev. William Smith, of
Weymouth, and grand-daughter of Colonel Quincy, a lady of uncommon
endowments and excellent education. He had previously imbibed a
prejudice against the prevailing religious opinions of New England, and
became attached to speculations hostile to those opinions. Nor were his
views afterward changed. In his religious sentiments he accorded with
Dr. Bancroft, a Unitarian minister of Worcester, of whose printed
sermons he expressed his high approbation. In 1765 Mr. Adams published
an essay on canon and feudal law, the object of which was to show the
conspiracy between Church and State for the purpose of oppressing the
people.
In 1770 he was chosen a representative from the town of Boston, in the
Legislature of Massachusetts. The same year he was one of the counsel
who defended Captain Preston and the British soldiers who fired at his
order upon the inhabitants of Boston. Captain Preston was acquitted, and
Mr. Adams lost no favor with his fellow-citizens by engaging in this
trial. As a member of the Legislature he opposed the royal governor,
Hutchinson, in his measures, and also wrote against the British
Government in the newspapers. In 1774 he was elected a member of the
Massachusetts Council, and negatived by Governor Gage. In this and the
next year he wrote on the Whig side, the pamphlets called "Nov Anglus,"
in reply to essays, signed "Massachusitensis," in favor of the British
Government, by Sewall, the attorney-general. The same year he was
appointed a member of the Continental Congress, from Massachusetts, and
in that body, which met at Philadelphia, he became one of the most
efficient and able advocates of liberty. In the Congress which met in
May, 1775, he again took his seat, having been reappointed as a
delegate. In 1775 he seconded the nomination of Washington as
commander-in-chief of the army, and in July, 1776, he was the adviser
and great supporter of the Declaration of Independence. It was reported
by a committee composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. During the same year
he, with Dr. Franklin and Edward Rutledge, was deputed to treat with
Lord Howe for the pacification of the colonies. He declined at this time
the offer of the office of Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts.
In December, 1777, Mr. Adams was appointed a commissioner to the court
of France; and with the exception of one short interval, during which he
aided in the framing of the Massachusetts State Constitution, he spent
the following eleven years in diplomatic services abroad. He arranged
the treaties of the United States with most foreign nations during that
time, was associated with Franklin and Jay in signing the treaty of
peace with England, and was our first English minister.
The services of Mr. Adams in the cause of his country, at home and
abroad, during the period to which we have referred, it is believed,
were not excelled by those of any other of the patriots of the
Revolution. In the language of one of his eulogists (Mr. J. E. Sprague,
of Massachusetts), "Not a hundred men in the country could have been
acquainted with any part of the labors of Mr. Adams--they appeared
anonymously, or under assumed titles; they were concealed in the secret
conclaves of Congress, or the more secret cabinets of princes. Such
services are never known to the public; or, if known, only in history,
when the actors of the day have passed from the stage, and the motives
for longer concealment cease to exist. As we ascend the mount of
history, and rise above the vapors of party prejudice, we shall all
acknowledge that we owe our independence more to John Adams than to any
other created being, and that he was the Great Leader of the American
Revolution."
When permission was given him to return from Europe, the Continental
Congress adopted the following resolution: "Resolved, That Congress
entertain a high sense of the services which Mr. Adams has rendered to
the United States, in the execution of the various important trusts
which they have from time to time committed to him; and that the thanks
of Congress be presented to him for the patriotism, perseverance,
integrity, and diligence with which he has ably and faithfully served
his country." Such was the testimonial of his country, expressed through
the national councils, at the termination of his revolutionary and
diplomatic career.
During the absence of Mr. Adams in Europe, the Constitution of the
United States had been formed and adopted. He highly approved of its
provisions, and on his return, when it was about to go into operation,
he was selected by the friends of the Constitution to be placed on the
ticket with Washington as a candidate for one of the two highest offices
in the gift of the people. He was consequently elected vice-president,
and on the assembling of the Senate he took his seat, as president of
that body, at New York, in April, 1789. Having been re-elected to that
office in 1792, he held it, and presided in the Senate with great
dignity, during the entire period of the administration of Washington,
whose confidence he enjoyed, and by whom he was consulted on important
questions. In his valedictory address to the Senate he remarks: "It is a
recollection of which nothing can ever deprive me, and it will be a
source of comfort to me through the remainder of my life that, on the
one hand, I have for eight years held the second situation under our
Constitution, in perfect and uninterrupted harmony with the first,
without envy in the one, or jealousy in the other, so, on the other
hand, I have never had the smallest misunderstanding with any member of
the Senate."
In 1790 Mr. Adams wrote his celebrated "Discourses on Davila;" they were
anonymously published at first, in the _Gazette of the United States_,
of Philadelphia, in a series of numbers; they may be considered as a
sequel to his "Defence of the American Constitutions." He was a decided
friend and patron of literature and the arts, and while in Europe,
having obtained much information on the subject of public institutions,
he contributed largely to the advancement of establishments in his
native State for the encouragement of arts, sciences, and letters.
On the retirement of General Washington from the presidency of the
United States, Mr. Adams was elected his successor, after a close and
spirited contest with two rivals for that high office; Mr. Jefferson
being supported by the Democratic or Republican party, while a portion
of the Federal party preferred Mr. Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina,
who was placed on the ticket with Mr. Adams. The result was the election
of Mr. Adams as president, and in March, 1797, he entered upon his
duties in that office. He came to the presidency in a stormy time. In
the language of Colonel Knapp, "the French revolution had just reached
its highest point of settled delirium, after some of the paroxysms of
its fury had passed away. The people of the United States took sides,
some approving, others deprecating, the course pursued by France. Mr.
Adams wished to preserve a neutrality, but found this quite impossible.
A navy was raised with surprising promptitude, to prevent insolence and
to chastise aggression. It had the desired effect, and France was taught
that the Americans were friends in peace, but were not fearful of war
when it could not be averted. When the historian shall come to this page
of our history, he will do justice to the sagacity, to the spirit, and
to the integrity of Mr Adams, and will find that he had more reasons,
and good ones, for his conduct, than his friends or enemies ever gave
him."
In his course of public policy, when war with France was expected, he
was encouraged by addresses from all quarters, and by the approving
voice of Washington. He, however, gave dissatisfaction to many of his
own political party, in his final attempts to conciliate France, and in
his removal of two members of his cabinet toward the close of his
administration. Under these circumstances, notwithstanding Mr. Adams was
the candidate of the Federal party for re-election as president, and
received their faithful support, it is not strange that his opponents,
with the advantage in their favor of the superior popularity of Mr.
Jefferson, succeeded in defeating him. For this event, the
correspondence of Mr. Adams shows that he was prepared, and he left the
arduous duties of chief magistrate probably with less of disappointment
than his enemies expected.
Immediately after Mr. Jefferson had succeeded to the presidency, in
1801, Mr. Adams retired to his estate at Quincy, in Massachusetts, and
passed the remainder of his days in literary and scientific leisure,
though occasionally addressing various communications to the public. He
gave his support generally to the administration of Mr. Jefferson, and
the friendship between these distinguished men was revived by a
correspondence, and continued for several years previous to their death.
When the disputes with Great Britain eventuated in war, Mr. Adams avowed
his approbation of that measure, and in 1815 he saw the second treaty of
peace concluded with that nation, by a commission of which his son was
at the head, as he had been himself in that commission which formed the
treaty of 1783.
In 1816 the Republican party in Massachusetts, which had once vehemently
opposed him as president of the United States, paid him the compliment
of placing his name at the head of their list of presidential electors.
In 1820 he was chosen a member of the State Convention to revise the
constitution of Massachusetts, which body unanimously solicited him to
act as their president. This he declined on account of his age, but he
was complimented by a vote of the convention acknowledging his great
services, for a period of more than half a century, in the cause of his
country and of mankind.
The last years of the long life of Mr. Adams were peaceful and tranquil.
His mansion was always the abode of elegant hospitality, and he was
occasionally enlivened by visits from his distinguished son, whom, in
1825, he had the singular felicity of seeing elevated to the office of
President of the United States. At length, having lived to a good old
age, he expired, surrounded by his affectionate relatives, on July 4,
1826, the fiftieth anniversary of that independence which he had done so
much to achieve. A short time before his death, being asked to suggest a
toast for the customary celebration, he replied, "I will give
you--Independence forever." Mr. Jefferson died on the same day. A
similar coincidence occurred five years afterward, in the death of
President Monroe, July 4, 1831.
Mr. Adams was of middle stature and full person, and when elected
president, was bald on the top of his head. His countenance beamed with
intelligence, and moral as well as physical courage. His walk was firm
and dignified to a late period of his life. His manner was slow and
deliberate, unless he was excited, and when this happened he expressed
himself with great energy. He was ever a man of purest morals, and is
said to have been a firm believer in Christianity, not from habit and
example, but from diligent investigation of its proofs.