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"John…
an obscure country attorney, son of a shoemaker… scarce heard of even in
Boston until seven citizens of that town were murdered by British soldiers
under the command of one Preston… He pretended afterwards to be a
violent patriot… and from his affectation of patriotism he was sent to
congress."
Presidential
Years "[That a single individual] should have cankered the principles of republicanism and carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very existence." Philadelphia Aurora as quoted in Presidential Years. “You
have no idea of the meanness, indecency, almost insanity of his
conduct.” Albert Gallatin in a
letter to his wife following Adams’ departure from Washington at 4:00
a.m. the morning of Jefferson’s inauguration. "…he
is a man of imagination sublimated and eccentric; propitious neither to
the regular display of sound judgment nor to steady perseverance in a
systematic plan of conduct; and I began to perceive what has since been
too manifest, that to this defect are added the unfortunate foibles of a
vanity without bounds, and a jealousy capable of discoloring every
object."
Alexander Hamilton, Works,
v.7, p.314 "The
British faction in Boston are making a very good parade with John Adams.
It seems they have prepared a 'feast of gratitude' to him – for what?
What have been his achievements since he became president by three stolen
votes? The farce of idolatry, however, it seems, must be kept up. The
creator must worship the creature, or that order of things cannot be made
to come to pass which a detestable and nefarious conspiracy in this
country are seeking to bring about – Monarchy."
Philadelphia
Aurora; August 1797, as quoted in American
Press Opinion. "Under
the old confederation matters never were nor could have been so
wretchedly, as they actually are under the successive monarchs of
Braintree and Mount Vernon." Democracy
Unveiled, or, Tyranny Stripped of the Garb of the Garb of Patriotism.
New York: Printed for I.Riley & Co., 1806, p.64. "Mr.
Adams has only completed the scene of ignomy which Mr. Washington
began." James Callendar, The
Prospect Before Us. Quotes compiled by Sushila Nayak. Thanks to Alex Sushkov for his transcription help. |
John
Adams Americans did not wait long to express their hatred or doubts about an American president. While many held their tongues and pens during Washington's first term of office, by his second term conditions were decidedly different. Washington was thought to be a knave, a fool, a man who dared to believe himself too good for a free nation. Some have thought he did not seek a third term as president because of the criticism of news sheets such as the Aurora, and pamphleteer journalists, namely Paine, Bache and Freneau. And when the thin skinned Washington identified himself more clearly with Federalist policies there was no let up from the anti-Federalist- Republicans. As harsh as these criticisms were, from the fact that he kept slaves, that he was imperious, and that he signed a peace treaty with Great Britain which opponents claimed was disadvantageous, they were nothing compared to the abuse Adams took in his one term in office. After his first year of office, Adams had no reprieve, whether from the Federalists or Anti-Federalists. Adams won the presidency by three electoral votes. His own party was split about him, many hoping that South Carolina's, Charles Pinckney would be named. Pinckney had the support of Alexander Hamilton, whose dislike for Adams was returned by disdain which Adams felt for Hamilton as a conniving human being. Gossip and newstories were concocted about Adams and his family which are reminiscent in our time of what is said about, and what tin horn dictators, often do. Adams was accused of stealing the Federal treasury and absconding to Canada. Another newspaper story had him arranging a marriage between his son and the daughter of George the Third "but that this was prevented when Washington threatened Adams with murder." (Walt Brown, John Adams and the American Press, McFarland Company North Carolina,1995) Some of the abuse Adams brought on himself. He favored the British idea of titles and lists, wanting for the nation a kind of status. In recent years the official elements of the American nation have subtly veered in this direction with various medals now awarded by Congress and the president. In fact Adams in thought and practice seemed to reflect the beliefs of a sturdy middle class which feared the Jacobin tendencies of Jefferson and the idea of a king and court. But in politics, perception is more than reality, and in his style Adams became identified as an anti-revolutionary who believed that the individual's conscience was far more important than the opinion of the "rabble." More so, he was written off as an alienated hermit who lived in a hermetically sealed world nursing grudges. In this sentiment, but perhaps in no others, he was similar to the modern president Richard Nixon, Adams being a man obsessed with virtue. By many accounts Adams, who was short in stature, sought to compensate for what he considered a deficit by seeking fame. Applying modern terms, he showed strong signs of paranoia. His suspiciousness, his feelings of inferiority and will to excel appeared to define Adam's life in politics and therefore his life. Apparently he had the classic symptoms of the neurotic who believes that that which he is doing at any particular moment is not what he should be doing, or where he should be either geographically or in social station. As Walt Brown has pointed out he struggled hard and endured much to be president- if only there were fewer journalistic attacks. Yet once he became president he spent over 38% of his term away from the seat of government in his beloved Braintree, Massachusetts. Indeed, he was nicknamed the Duke of Braintree by antagonists in the Senate. It is not unlikely that the reason he kept Washington's cabinet for his related to their supposed experience which would have allowed leeway the luxury of leaving Philadelphia at will. But this cabinet did not support him and, in the cases of Timothy Pickering and James McHenry, they sought to undermine him at virtually every turn. Upon reflection Adams saw that the decision to keep the Washington cabinet was a terrible error. Adams favored the building of a strong navy as a deterrent against the French which the vice president, Thomas Jefferson, and his own cabinet thought unnecessary. Adams used secret French documents which purported to show the French Directory's attempt to exact a bribe and apologies for comments Adams made to Congress about France. War fever ran high over the XYZ affair which had the makings of a good spy novel about three French diplomats trying to extort money from American officials. Adams, who was not a warrior but a lawyer, diplomat and politician by prior training and experience, found himself turning to George Washington to become the commander in chief of the armed forces if war with the French were to occur. Washington agreed but he wanted Alexander Hamilton as his deputy, which Adams objected to but finally acceded in. Hamilton sought a large army while Adams believed in the navy as the means of protecting commerce on the high seas and the coast line. Adams, who was impressed with Hamilton's financial sagacity, also believed that Hamilton had the makings of a tyrant given his temperament and proposals for a large land army. Nothing came of the fight with the French, with Adams signaling to the French in his December 8,1798 address to Congress that the United States would fight but didn't want to. The French minister, Talleyrand, defused the outstanding differences between the two nations and the plans for a large army disappeared. Washington stayed on in Mount Vernon. It is likely that had war occurred and with a large victorious American army led by Hamilton and Washington, Hamilton would have become president, or Washington returned to office. Those such as Jefferson, were thought by the Hamilton faction of the Federalist party to be subverters who intended to make a revolution against the Constitution and were prepared to risk a civil war to this end. Hamilton wrote to Washington that the Jeffersonians were more dangerous than the French and that they were going to intrigue to sign an alliance with the French. Parallel concerns were voiced by the Jeffersonians against Hamilton and finally Washington. The Jeffersonians feared that the Federalists wanted an alliance with the British ultimately to reunite with the Mother country. It was in this political cauldron that Adams had to operate. Perhaps the greatest heat which Adams had to bear was his support of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. War fever creates the atmosphere of parochialism, fear of others and mob irrationality. The Alien and Sedition laws grew out of war fever. In fact it appeared as if those who were most vigorous in their support of a war with France intended to use the war as a way of getting rid of political enemies within the United States. Paradoxically, the Alien and Sedition laws were the "soft" means of repression given the animosity which existed between various factions, for civil strife had broken out on the streets of various cities. The various of the alien and naturalization acts gave the president the authority to deport any alien of his choosing if he concluded that that person was inimical to the interests of the United States in time of war. To gain citizenship would take fourteen years. Another Federalist law was much broader. It gave the president authority to deport anyone whether or not there was a war. This was merely the beginning of the story, however. There was also the Sedition act which was aimed at the anti-Federalists who criticized the President or Congress. In other words, the press was now on notice that its members could end in jail for long prison terms and steep fines for criticism of government officials. The Federalists thought this was the way to protect the social order, an overriding purpose according to Adams. The Sedition act has been rightly condemned, but it is not altogether clear that the Jeffersonians were the Knights in shining armor on this issue. Apparently they wanted to keep exactly this power for the states so that states could bring action against the press. In other words they wanted to reserve this power to the states. Indeed, the first attempts at nullification of federal law came as a result of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions intended to nullify the Alien and Sedition acts. The nullification issue reappeared around the issue of states rights prior to the civil war. From all outward appearances, Adams weathered the furor over the Sedition act. His eclipse, the quick death of the Federalist party, and the loss of the election of 1800 came for three, in some ways contradictory, reasons. Defense and costs of government were, comparatively speaking, soaring, and citizens resented taxes. On the other hand, the militant Federalists had hoped for war with France and so they were disgusted with their own President who saw no virtue in war with France, or Spain or Great Britain. Thus, the Federalist party were split into irreconcilable factions. There was a third reason. It may be that by 1800, Adams was merely going through the motions. He knew of the plots against him by Hamilton, and he suffered continuous physical pain according to a letter he wrote his wife, Abigail. She herself was very ill and he spent a great deal of time attending to her. In fact, Adams didn't die until he was 89, almost an entire generation after leaving the White House, and Abigail died in 1818 at 74. The election of 1800 produced an anomalous situation in the Electoral College where the votes were tied between Jefferson and Burr at 73, with Adams at 65. Burr refused to step aside in favor of Jefferson although they had agreed that Burr would. Adams most important structural contribution to the shape of American government came after his election loss, but while he was still president. He expanded the Judiciary and its power, a process which he had begun two years earlier. And in 1800, he nominated his Secretary of State, John Marshall, to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme court. Marshall shaped the laws of the nation and the judiciary in such a way as to reaffirm the principle of one nation. The anti-Federalists objected to the "midnight" appointments that came after his defeat, claiming that he was stacking the government and the judiciary with his friends and supporters. John Adams was born October 30, 1735 in Braintree Massachusetts. His father, John Adams, was part of the yeoman class who prided themselves on their independence, capabilities and civic mindedness. John Adams's mother was a Boylston who appeared to resent being the slave to the beneficent civic instincts of her husband. Young Adams attended various schools before entering Harvard. He appeared to be a young man of some precocity in math and sciences. However, he followed law studies after graduating from college and became a member of the Massachusetts bar in 1758. He married late, in 1764, to Abigail Smith who was then nineteen. While John Adams was of a depressive nature which grew more pronounced as he entered into maturity, his wife, who was uneducated and physically frail, matured into a woman of extraordinary insight and brilliance. Throughout their lives, Abigail Adams had a keenness of mind and a sensitivity about the realities of politics which were easily the match of John Adams. During the revolutionary war period there was substantial economic suffering among the workers in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. John Adams was slow to take part in the actions of the eighteenth century American sixties although he was encouraged to take leadership risks by his more revolutionary minded cousin, Samuel Adams. Instead, he successfully defended the British officer who was prosecuted for the "Boston Massacre" claiming that it was a street mob, the rabble, which forced the hand of the British. But by 1773 his reticence about revolution and independence from Great Britain changed radically. He began to see Samuel Adams in a new light and soon was promoted to positions of responsibility in the revolutionary struggle. In 1774, he became a member of the Continental Congress after having served in the Massachusetts legislature. He made common cause with George Washington and became his leading advocate to become the Commander of the revolutionary armies. He served as a diplomat from the Continental Congress arranging loans and support from the Dutch, having been less successful in his mission to France which was led by Benjamin Franklin, a man who did not stint on his appetites, sexual or otherwise. Adams returned to his beloved Massachusetts and was the major drafter of its new Constitution. Adams then returned to the diplomatic world negotiating the Treaty of Paris along with his fellow commissioners, John Jay and Benjamin Franklin. This document fixed boundaries for the struggling nation far beyond the instructions they were given. Upon his rather triumphant return from his diplomatic work, Adams decided to continue in politics. He let it be known that he would stand for Vice President although he hoped to get some votes for president. This did not occur, for the presidential candidate of course was Washington. It was Hamilton, Adams' nemesis, who arranged that Adams would get no votes for president from the electors. Like future vice presidents, John Adams chafed at the job, finding himself drawn into many ritualistic activities which did not take full use of his capacities. Unfortunately, he did err in his judgment of some of these functions. He wanted the president to be known as "your highness", phrase which was used to mock Adams. Adams personal life did not escape tragedy. He suffered from various forms of depression as did his wife. They had four children to reach maturity. Two of the Adams sons were lawyers who died of alcoholism; a daughter died of cancer. A fourth offspring, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president of the United States. |
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