mfi^^-ij&!Si&i»ii')^^m^^mmm'^'i^t OF ^ tU^'^M. i5S'?ISS^:i;?S?5S»Vi^2!?^3rs**y«.yai3*^ JOHN ADAMS ft ilp(i.|.''(l 1 hv, .?(,' !K»t!»-'rt!:'.'" iiiii I P-!^: -■ "I^H 1 iiiiMy^^^i i® CANNOT LEAVE THE LIBRARY. ^1 Shel ■^3^1,. .__..Mi42---. i COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. i M 1^7^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. > ,„ tn ?u JOHN ADAMS A CHARACTER SKETCH SAMUEL WILLARD, M.D., LL.D. Author of "Synopsis of History," etc. WITH ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS AND CHRONOLOGY t } ) o» dansville, n. y. Instructor Publishing Co. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 9l%« Cftlr*! Received APR 8 1903 Cop/rit(ht &ntt/ 1-1 S"^S JUM. No. COPY At Copyright 1898. By The University Association. IN the building of a house, one man must be supreme. The plan must be the product of one mind; if there are suggestions of other minds as to plan and details, they are accepted or rejected, so that one mind finally arranges all. If the owner of the house chooses to leave the mat- ter to an architect after telling him in general what he wants, the architect's one mind perfects plan and details. We often speak of the building of a state, and compare a state to a grand structure, a house, or temple. But the constitution of a state is never the work of one man. Even if a man is called an absolute ruler, an autocrat, czar, emperor, or tyrant, he really cannot do everything at his own will. Even in Turkey and Persia the sultan and shah find that men can not be moved as if they were chessmen or checkermen. It has been said that Russia is an autocracy, tempered by assassination. Revolt and revolution dog the steps of tyranny. We have all laughed at the story of the county officers who passed three resolutions: (i) ''''Resolved^ that we will have a new jail: (2) Resolved^ that the materials of the old jail shall be used in building the new jail: (3) Re- 6 JOHN ADAMS. solved^ that the old jail shall be occupied until the new jail is built." However funny this story may be as ap- plied to a material building, it sets forth the actual prob- lem of the real statesman. As a nation advances in civilization, in knowledge, in wealth, in moral and spiritual life, its former institutions and customs become the old jail: the new life must be expressed in new laws and regulations, which the true statesman prepares. In doing so, he retains all that is suitable of the old ways; and it will be found that his changes and new enactments are few in comparison with the entire mass of customs and habits of his people: this is occupying the old jail while the new structure is erect- ed. And his changes are in the line of the healthy ten- dencies of the existing life of the community: he is thus building the new out of the materials of the old. In time, his new structure will become an old jail to a later age, cramping and confining it. Then the same course of events ensues. In several instances, communities of the ancient Greeks, upon finding themselves in political difficulties, selected their wisest man and gave him full authority to make new laws, and even a new constitution; that is, to revise fundamentally the form of government. At Ath- ens, nearly 600 years before Christ, this power was con- ferred upon Solon, who proved to be the wisest of all single legislators. Some of his changes were so great that it was said he had moved the country with an earth- quake. They were like our revolutionary war in de- stroying the exclusive power of the nobles, and like our JOHN ADAMS. 7 civil war in giving freedom to a mass of slaves. Wise as he was, he talked of some of his plans with his friends, and doubtless gave some heed to their objections and suggestions. And this is the crowning proof of his wis- dom: he recognized the necessity of further changes, saying that he had not given the Athenians the best pos- sible laws, but the best laws for them as they then were. And after he had governed them several years and ac- customed them to his laws, he left them and went out of the country, that they might use the new freedom them- selves; for he saw that it would be of no use to give them free institutions if he must stay in Athens to keep them going. Modern states, of whatever form, are the results of the thoughts and work of innumerable men, working in dif- ferent ways, often in collision and opposition to each other, sometimes in civil war and revolution. The study of history has its greatest interest in the exhibition of this fact. Jewish, Greek, Roman, Keltic, and Teutonic elements appear in our daily life, in our laws, in our con- stitutions. The excellence of the work of the makers of the con- stitution of the United States came from their taking ideas, more or less familiar to the people, and suited to American and Colonial conditions; and these they wrought into a practical and practicable form and scheme. If the geography of the country had been something else, if the history of the settlement and the growth of the colonies had been different, if the people had not been of common and cognate origin from 8 JOHN ADAMS. the British Islands and the Netherlands, the form of gov- ernment would have been something else, perhaps not even a republic. American young people, and old people too, if they have not thought over the question carefully, are apt to think that all governments should be like ours, demo- cratic federated republican. If they should hear that in the western half of China the people had set up a repub- lic, they would rejoice at the spread of free government. But experience shows that republics are suited only to very small communities imbued with a strong and narrow sense of patriotism and cohesion, or to well-trained lar- ger peoples. Scores of republics have flourished a while and then have gone to wreck; some have gone upon the rocks im- mediately. In 1789, France entered upon the path of revolution; she soon killed her king, drove out or slew her nobles and priests, and with a great flourish pro- claimed Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In less than ten years thereafter, she was under the military despotism of the first Napoleon of iron hand and stony heart: then she recalled her kings; then set up another republic; then succumbed to another military tyranny, which en- ded in 1870; and only within the last twenty years has it seemed to hopeful Americans that Fraiice is to be henceforth a republic, but with certainty of many diffi- culties to be overcome. Yet no one will deny the high intelligence and ardent patriotism of hosts of Frenchmen. Switzerland has for 600 years been free from monar- chy, and hence, called a republic; but her republicanism JOHN ADAMS. has been very unlike ours; and her whole territory is only four-fifths as large as Vermont and New Hampshire together. Such facts as these should lead us to admire the more, the wisdom and unselfishness and patriotism of the founders of the indepen- dence and con- stitutional gov- ernments of the states and of the] nation. Small c o m- munities have made republics more easily, be- cause their peo- ple have had similar habits and feelings, could easily communicate with each other, and could all know something of the men, chosen as officers or rulers. But the constitution of 1787 was so framed, that in connection with the tele- graph, railroads, steam navigation, and the modern press, the modern means of communication and informa- tion, it may gather under its sway, the whole of North Napoleon Bonaparte. 10 JOHN ADAMS. America in due time. These founders worked with ap- prehension and even fear that they were attempting an experiment the issue of which was doubtful; but they put into it sincerely and hopefully their best wisdom and effort. We can rightly admire and honor them all, though we number among them such opponents as Hamilton and Jefferson, the Adamses and Patrick Henry. And this leads to another caution which the young student of history may need to bear in mind. Political opinions are not to be confounded with patriotism. Pa- triotism is th.e feeling of love for one's country which leads one to give property, effort or even life for the common welfare or the commonwealth. But an opinion is not a feeling. Two men may love the country equal- ly, while one thinks revenue is best raised by a direct tax, the other says a tariff is best. However hotly they may argue over it, each may be equally willing to give his life and his all for his country. The general who retreats may be just as brave as the one who offers battle. Washington was no less patriotic when he accompanied Gen. Braddock to fight for Eng- land and King George U, than he was when he com- manded the armies of the republic for eight years against George IH. In the contests of the present day, republican should not call democrat an enemy of his country, nor democrat accuse republican of lack of patriotism, so long as each deems the other honest, but mistaken. The demagogue, the political boss and the dishonorable ofiticeseeker are the only enemies of the commonwealth. JOHN ADAMS. ii Hence, in studying the lives of the early patriots, we can honor as equal patriots the opponents named above, though Hamilton and John Adams feared lest the con- stitution had framed a government too weak to survive, Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams feared it would be too strong, and Jefferson sometimes used expressions which were anarchic. Each ardently desired the welfare of his country, while differing as to the means of secur- ing that result. Let us judge their opinions, but honor their motives alike. History shows that thus far their fears have proved groundless. John Adams, the second president of the United States, had the peculiar fortune of being for a while, one of the most honored citizens of the country, intrusted with most important offices and appointments, and rendering services which were recognized as of vital importance to his native land; and then had the misfortune of retiring into private life under a load of calumny and obloquy, which made his name a byword of contempt. But with the fall of slavery and of the predominance of the polit- ical cliques and parties that persecuted him unjustly, it is possible to raise him again to his proper place as one of our foremost statesmen. In 1636, Henry Adams appears as one of the freemen and founders of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, previously called Mount Wollaston, about ten miles from Boston, to the south and east. In 1792, the northwest part of Braintree was cut off as Quincy, a place famous as the birthplace of the two presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and of John Hancock. The emi- 12 JOHN ADAMS. nent Ouincy family was early settled here. And from that part of old Braintree came the Quincy granite to build Bunker Hill monument, whose architect was a cit- izen of that town. Of the English family from which Henry Adams came, little can be said. The name probably indicates an ori- gin from the Welsh border of England, where such names as Williams, Peters, Davids, John or Jones, Thom- as, and the like are more common than elsewhere in Brit- ain. Among those to whom Charles I granted the char- ter of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, there is found the name of Thomas Adams, who must have been a man of some wealth and importance. It is guessed that Hen- ry was a younger brother: Thomas did not come to America. Henry Adams neither brought nor won wealth. The Puritan farmers had a hard time to maintain themselves on the sterile soil and in the bleak climate of New Eng- land. His whole estate as inventoried at his death, was scanty enough: a little land, a three-room house, a barn, a cow and calf, some pigs, fodder for the beasts; and in the house, kitchen utensils, three beds, a few old books, and one silver spoon. But this hard land made strong men. The weak went early to their graves with consumption: the strong sur- vived and propagated their race. The Kanaka savage believed that the strength and courage of the enemy whom he slew and ate, entered in- to him. The New Englander found it so in the strife with Nature. The stinginess of Nature compelled par- JOHN ADAMS. •3 simony, abstinence, labor, ingenuity. The bitter east winds, and the stony hills, seemed to enter into the con- stitution of the Yankee, so that the genuine son of that stern sad land carries its granite in his blood with a cer- tain fierce force. The rigid theological system of Calvin, accepted with- out mitigation by the Puritan, consorted well with the severity of Nature, and intensified the character she genera- ted. So in Braintree, (local pronunciation is Bran-try,) and its vicinity, the descend- ants of Henry Ad- ams clung to the soil and grew in num- bers, wealth and civ- ic importance, neith- er poor nor rich, and with but the commonest ambitions. It was enough to live simply, to be upright with God, and to deserve the respect of the community, Joseph Adams, grandson of Henry the colonial immi- grant, had a large family of twelve children, one of whom, John, was the father of the president. Joseph had a brotlier John, who was the grandfather of Samuel Adams of Boston, the revolutionary agitator. Thus, Samuel Adams, thirteen years the elder of the future president, was his second cousin. The genealogical ta- Samuel Adams 14 JOHN ADAMS. ble on the following page will make plain the family rela- tions. Joseph gave the eldest of his twelve children an education at Harvard College. This was deemed an equiv- alent to a share in the paternal goods; and at his death, he omitted that son in the distribution of his property. The president's father was not the recipient of this ad- vantage, but remained a farmer. He married Susanna Boylston, daughter of Peter Boylston. He was so pe- cuniarly prosperous, that his property, as listed for pro- bate, was more than sixteen times as much as that of his great grandfather Henry. The eldest child of John and Susanna, was John, the subject of our memoir, born Oct. 19, 1735, old style, which, according to new style and the calendar then used in Europe, generally, and which we now use, was Oct. 30. This firstborn, a Sunday's child, the pious parents would gladly have devoted to the ministry of the Chris- tian church. That ambition survived in many a New England family, long after that profession had lost the preeminence and prodigious influence of an earlier time. For this purpose they sent him to Harvard, where he graduated, or, as was then said, was graduated, in 1755. Many men afterward, eminent in church and state, were his classmates. There was William Browne, governor of the Bermudas; Sir John Wentworth, two years youn- ger than Adams, governor of New Hampshire, 1767-1775, and as he was a "loyalist" or adherent to the British side in the Revolution, an exile to Nova Scotia, where he was Lieutenant-governor, 1792-1808, dying in 1820; JOHN ADAMS. 15 ?o n cr w < r* ^ W -1 •-1 D Oq o_ en' > p D- !U 5 3 Ul n <' ^ 3 en a. ^~* 00 n OJ 1^ 00 n ^)0 Da 5-3 ni On 00 3 J^ « en CO M -1 a' ij" ii ^ > ''^ en n:oo a - On Co ^j to 4- CL ^ ^ 4- 2?^ s ,^ — - o^ 2^3 W v: — n 00 > o to 2 en -1 ^'■— - ^ 5 ^ 5'f" IT ^r: * "Si? -t D 3 >'^ ^. 3^ a ft) t>r g nr. -: CO o Is ?*) en n o > o .3 — M Ci m m ► o o o H p- m o ■n H B m > 3: CO m l6 JOHN ADAMS. David Sewall, who followed a family tendency, and w long time judge of the District Court of Maine; Mos Hemenway, a noted preacher; Samuel Locke, preside of Harvard, fifteen years after his graduation, 1770 1773; and Adams's intimate friend, Charles Cushin Of his rank in College, we know that Adams, Heme way and Locke were deemed the best scholars. It ^^ the custom then and until 1773, to rank pupils in t catalogue, according to social rank: John Adams, the s of a country farmer, was thus the fourteenth among twt ty four. Of his uneventful life at work on his father's farm, ■> know naught. As a boy of ten, he must have be stirred with the rest of the community in 1745 by t capture of the French fortress of Louisburg, Cape Bret Island, by the forces of the colonists without an Engli soldier or officer: it had been considered impregnab' and was a great nuisance to the Americans. New Er land alone and on her own motion took it. Old Er land might have learned from this of what sort her cli dren in the West were; and in fact, the very man who chief engineer of the expedition laid and directed t lines of the besiegers at Louisburg, marked the lines Bunker Hill. In the year of Adams's graduation, he must ha marked with apprehension, the encroachments of t French, and the defeat of Braddock, while admiring t brave young Virginian colonel, Washington, then fii heard of in New England. It was eight years later 1: fore the French ceased to be a danger to New Englai JOHN ADAMS. > 17 and the middle colonies. Shortly after graduation, twenty years before the outbreak of the Revolution, this youth of twenty wrote thus to to his friend Nathan Webb:— "England is now the greatest nation upon the globe. A few people came over into this new world for con- science sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me; for if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks [/. ^., drive away the troublesome French,] our people, according to the exactest computations, will in another century become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for our- selves is to disunite us. Divide et Ivipera. Keep us distinct colonies; and then, some great men in each col- ony, desiring the monarchy [he uses the word in its Greek sense of sole control] of the whole, they will de- stroy each other's influence, and keep the country in equilibrio.'''' This letter was first published in 1807, brought to light by the son of Nathan Webb. Its anticipations and their correctness are remarkable. He anticipates the greatness of America, to become "the great seat of Em- pire." The extinction of French power in America is expected as a matter of course, though that year had seen three ill-managed campaigns of England against i8 , JOHN ADAMS. France in this country. Our growth in population is foreseen: a century from that time the population of the United States slightly exceeded the total population of the British Isles. Naval power is foretold: during the Revolution and in his administration as president, he was always urging the increase of power, both of the nat- ional navy and of our mercantile fleet; the war of 1812, the civil war and our war with Spain now current show the wisdom of his policy. Independence is foreseen: he was one of the chief agents in winning it. The danger of sectionalism and divisions among our people he pre- sents, as if foreseeing the "Critical Period," as Mr. Fiske names the years following the Revolution, and the great secession. His own future policy is foreshadowed. He had not decided upon his profession when he left college. Friends and relatives urged him toward the pulpit, toward which he was somewhat inclined. But Puritanism was essentially polemic or combative. The struggles of protestantism and its several forms of sects to secure their own right to exist, had not led them to any toleration of others. As Spain belonged to the pap- acy, Scotland to presbytery, and England to episcopacy, so should New England belong to independency of the calvinistic type. They had crossed the ocean and suf- fered many hardships to make a place for themselves: they could ill bear the intrusion of other religions into their hard-won domain. Besides, their earnestness and their confidence that they alone had the true gospel made them less tolerant. Indifference and doubt find tolera- tion easy; but the indifferent or skeptic mood of mind JOHN ADAMS. 19 has no real toleration, and is apt to be contemptuous or bitter toward earnestness. Much that passes for toler- ance in these days is really indifference. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, toleration was hardly practicable anywhere, so fierce was the con- tention of sects; and it advanced slowly in New England through the eighteenth century. The domineering spirit of the "orthodox" church kept John Adams from the pulpit, as it had kept John Milton a hundred years before. Neither of these strong men could afford to give up freedom of thinking and speaking. So while Adams was master of a grammiar school at Worces- ter in his first year after graduating, he determined to be a lawyer. Sixty years later, he wrote to a gentleman who had unearthed a letter of this period. "I was like a boy in a country fair, in a wilderness, in John Milton. 20 JOHN ADAMS. a strange country, with half a dozen roads before him, groping in a dark night to find which he ought to take. Had I been obliged to tell your father the whole truth, I should have mentioned several other pursuits. Farm- ing, merchandise, law, and above all, war. Nothing but want of interest and patronage prevented me from enlist- ing in the army. Could I have obtained a troop of horse or a company of foot, I should infallibly have been a soldier. It is a problem in my mind to this day, whether I should have been a coward or a hero." Looking at his actual career, \Ve can confidently say that his brave soul would have carried a cowardly body into any danger, if duty bade. But was his disposition to be a soldier due to a pugnacity abundantly shown in later life? Or was it because the necessities of wars with France had made all New England military? Mr. Adams began to keep a diary when he was twenty years old, and with great gaps here and there, he con- tinued it till 1796. Much of it has been published, fur- nishing valuable hints for the history of his times. But it has given opportunity for some harsh judgments about his personal character. He often accuses himself of faults, especially of what he calls vanity, meaning un- due self-esteem. He says it is his besetting sin. But as we read this we should remember that he judged himself by the Puritan standards. The Puritans were very religious, and had very rigid codes of morals, and conscientiously adopted strict rules of personal con- duct. Their theology taught them to abase themselves and to examine their own lives and thoughts and impul- JOHN ADAMS. 21 ses with great severity of judgment. Every man must be ready to say with St. Paul that he was "the chief of sinners." In short, a Puritan in those and earlier times was a man with a sore conscience, which he continued to punch and irritate, as medieval monks wore haircloth shirts and flogo-ed themselves with knotted cords. "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!" was a favorite admonition. In their prayers they told God that they were vile repro- bates, worthy of eternal damnation. Really they were sober, industrious, pure-minded, self-sacrificing, upright men. It was s^id of them that they were so upright as to lean the other way. Their worst fault was this ex- treme censoriousness, applied to themselves and to ev- erybody else. The Puritan tried to rule all men as he thought he ought to rule himself. Such people, howev- er excellent, are often very uncomfortable neighbors. There is no reason to think that self-esteem was great- er in Adams than in Jefferson or Hamilton, or Washing- ton. Every man must feel that he and his work are worth something in the world, or he will be indeed a cipher. Doubtless John Adams, like many other people, con- founded just self-reliance with exuberant self-esteem, or with undue. love of approbation. The most undesirable effect of this tendency was to make one impute wrongly to others such faults ?.s he charges upon himself, and thus to make him suspicious. No man detects vanity in an others quicker than one conscious of vanity. When bit- ter experience had taught Adams the lesson of distrust. 22 JOHN ADAMS. he is charged with being too suspicious. But let the reader consider the story of his relations to his cabinet, and he will see that the president was not suspicious enough. As men of clear judgment grow old, they be- come less trustful, but make wiser judgments of others. Mr. Adams studied law with Mr. Putnam of Worcester while he was a schoolmaster. There was then no such introduction to legal science as "Blackstone's Commen- taries" (published 1768); and the student had to elaborate and arrange principles for himself from "Coke upon Lit- tleton" and volumes written in the bad Latin of earlier centuries. , In 1760 Adams writes that he read at Worcester ten folio volumes "besides octavos and lesser volumes," hav- ing constant reference to reports and dictionaries. Evi- dently he studied Cicero, Seneca, Montesquieu, Boling- broke, for the philosophy of ethics, law, and government. Returning to Braintree in 1758, he read there in two years Justinian's Institutes (in Latin), taking with it and writing an English translation. Van Muy den's Tractatio Institutionum Justiniani: he lists eight other law treatises. He then complains that he has ''a very imperfect system of law in my head:" he will read over and over Wood and Coke; will study on natural law and civil law; mas- ter Puffendorf and Grotius; and promised to finish with canon and feudal law — a sort of dessert, as it were, af- ter such an enormous devouring. Upon such a basis of industry and acquirement did this one of the founders of our republic build his future career; and thus did he fit himself to represent the Uni- JOHN ADAMS. 23 ted States in three courts in Europe. It disgusts an American to contrast with this giant of preparation and ability, some of the names that are proposed for nomin- ation in national conventions in our day. Jeremiah Gridley, the foremost lawyer of New Eng- land, presented Mr. Adams with a complimentary recom- mendation, Nov. 6, 1758, and the court admitted him to the bar. Gridley favored him, because he liked him. Two points of advice given by the old lawyer are worthy of remembrance: "First, pursue the study of law rather than the gain of it: pursue the gain of it enough to keep out of the briars, but give your main attention to the study of it: second, do not marry early, for an early marriage will obstruct your improvement; and in the next place it will involve you in expense." He soon had so much business that he says no lawyer had more with so little profit in the next seventeen years, which brings us to the outbreak of the Revolution. Fees were small; but, as Mr. Morse says, the colonists were great sticklers for their legal rights, and would go to law on small provocation. This characteristic he finds appearing in their oncoming strife with king and parliament. The second part of Gridley's advice he minded for six years. Then he married Abigail Smith, daughter of Rev. William Smith of the neighboring town of Wey- mouth. He thus became allied to the influential fami- lies of Quincy and Norton and Shepard: everybody knows how large the Smith family is. The marriage did but increase his business. The lady was for fifty-four Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams. (From the Painting by Gilbert Stuart.) JOHN ADAMS. 25 years one of the best of wives, most helpful to him by her fine mind, her wisdom, her courage in trials, and her love. All who read their lives admire her. Mr. Adams was devoting himself closely to his pro- fession, and abstaining from politics, though not un- interested in what was going on. His nature and habits were not likely to win popularity. The leaders came to see his value and drew him among them. His kinsman, Sam- uel Adams, was lead- er in popular agita- tion, and was work- ing toward an end that he dared not yet avow, absolute inde- pendence. John Ad- ams, as we have shown, foresaw this, but only as something remote. The famous contest over "Writs of Assistance" oc- curred in 1 761. Adams, attending court as a member of the bar, heard the powerful speech of James Otis, of which we have no account but his. That shows how the argument and the vivid force of its utterance affec- ted him and others. In reminiscence of it he said, "Then and there the child Independence was born." John Adams was resolved from that moment. But he used a similar expression about the event of March 5, James Otis. 26 JOHN ADAMS. 1774, the collision between the soldiers and the populace of Boston. He said: "On that night the foundation of American independence was laid." In fact, George III had begun laying such foundation as soon as he became King. The writer of biography must presume the reader to be informed of the current of events: we can but men- tion them. On the passage of the Stamp Act, 1765, Mr. Adams led in calling a town-meeting, at which he pre- sented resolutions of instruction to the representatives of Braintree in the Assembly. They were published; forty other towns adopted them, and Samuel Adams used them in preparing Boston's resolutions. He and most others regretted the work of the mobs that destroyed the houses of Oliver and Hutchinson, for violence tangled the case. Most of the judges of the colony paid no attention to the act, and issued writs without stamps; but Hutchinson, as chief justice and probate judge of Suffolk, would not hold court. Boston petitioned the governor's council to have the courts opened, and selected as its lawyers to urge the pe- tition Jeremiah Gridley, James Otis, and John Adams, who was not a Bostonian. He had notice Dec. 19th, and had to plead the next day. He spoke first, and took the ground that the Stamp Act was invalid since the col- onies had no representation. Gridley and Otis had pre- viously admitted the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies. In 1766 Townshend's act laid taxes on glass, paper, paints and tea. This was met by the non-importation JOHN ADAMS. 27 agreement and smug- gling. In 1768 Adams moved to Boston. Gov. Bernard o f- fered him the office of advo- cate - general in the court of admiralty, saying that he asked no compliance i n political opinions. Ad- ams prompt- ly refused it. That year troops came t o overawe the people; and an old statute of Henry VIII Statue of Josiah Quincy, Boston. Mass. was brought up to warrant transportation of alleged traitors to England for trial. In 1770 Lord North became minister and the Kmg's pliant agent. On the fifth of March occurred the collis- 28 JOHN ADAMS. ion of populace and soldiers, wrongly called the Boston Massacre. Captain Preston and the soldiers were arres- ted, while the regiments were sent out of the city. By Hutchinson's advice, Preston asked the patriot lawyers, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, to defend him and his men. They did it successfully. Perhaps Hutchinson thought they would lose popularity; but in June, three months before the trial, Boston chose Adams her repre- sentative; he had seventy-eight per cent of the votes cast. Judges had been paid from the colonial treasury. Lord North undertook to control them by having their salaries paid by the King. Adams published arguments against this, and induced the Assembly to impeach Peter Oliver, Chief Justice, who accepted the King's money. No jury would thenceforth serve in his court. In 1773 occurred the "Boston Tea Party." * In all these struggles John Adams was the legal adviser of the patriots. Violence was not used till the last moment. The patriots tried to make the captain of the ^'■Dartmouth'''' take his tea away. The Governor would not give him a clearance. At the end of twenty days the revenue officers would take possession of the vessel and land the tea. A struggle with them must not occur; hence on the night of the nineteenth day, the "Mohawks" com- mitted a private trespass in pouring the tea into the harbor. In 1774 came the Boston Port Bill; the Quebec Act; the annuhnent of the charter of Massachusetts; the act to remove trials to England; the quartering of troops JOHN ADAMS. 29 upon the people; and the appointment of Gen. Gage as Governor. This was as bad as James II and Andros nearly a century before. The Assembly held a session with locked doors to prevent the interference of Gage, passed resolutions in accord with the action of Virginia calling upon the col- onies to hold another Congress; and these were appoint- ed as delegates: Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, James Bowdoin and Thomas Gushing. The first three of these signed the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Henceforth the lawyer of the Massachusetts courts is merged into the patriot statesman. In the greatness of the crisis he felt lost. Who could be "sufficient unto these things?" John Adams looked far beyond the present agitation, which was destructive, in which his cousin as a popular leader excelled; he saw that there must be construction of government as well as overthrow of tyranny. Such men as Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry did grand service as con- suming fires in the lumber of the old system; but no one of them was a practical builder. Both kinds of men are always needed: the world can spare neither sort; and in that crisis the destroyers must take the lead. Nor was John Adams lacking in that work, though he put in many a stroke for the new structures. He would build as fast as the ground was cleared. In this he was one with Washington, Franklin, Madison and John Mar- shall. The resolution of resistance and selection of delegates 30 JOHN ADAMS. to a congress of "committees" of all the colonies was passed on the seventeenth of June, 1774, just one year before the battle of Bunker Hill. It was proposed that the delegates from the several col- onies should meet on the first of Septem- ber next thereafterj at Philadelphia. All the colonies re- sponded favorably except Georgia, which sent no repre- sentatives. Maryland was so prompt that she chose her dele- gates on the twenty- second of June. Sev- en others chose dele- gates in July. Fifty-six represen- tatives attended: for- ty-four were present at the opening, Monday, September fifth, from eleven colonies: those from North Carolina were a few days late. This body was called the Con- tinental Congress, and sat in Carpenter's Hall. It was the first united organization of the colonists to resist the tyranny of King George and his Parliament. It was not the English people's Parliament, though there were in it great-hearted and far-seeing men who John Marshall, American Jurist and Statesman. Born 1755. Died 1835. JOHN ADAMS. 31 represented the true interests of the nation, such as Burke, Dunning, Barre, Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, and Lenox, Duke of Richmond. But the Parliament was then elected by the influence of few men, and did not represent the people. It is worth while to review here the story of the growth of English liberty from which sprang American liberty; for the patriots of the Revolution demanded at first only that they be treated as Englishmen, under laws made by a body which was elected to represent the people, in some degree at least. The Angles, Saxons, Danes and Normans that made the English people always had a great deal of personal liberty. The kings were leaders in war, judges in peace, but paid the expenses of their courts and palaces from the income from the lands called crown lands. The people paid few taxes to the king, except in emergen- cies. There grew up the Feudal System under which the knights and nobles made serfs (not slaves) of the com- mon people, claiming from them much of the products of their labor. The knights and nobles were obliged to serve the king in war at his summons; but the king could not claim of them any taxes or contributions be- yond certain ones allowed by the Feudal System, called reliefs, aids, and fines: the word fines did not have its present meaning. If the king wanted more money, he must call a meet- ing of his great nobles and ask for it: he could collect only what they granted. In like manner, a duke or King John Sealing the Magna Charta, JOHN ADAMS. 33 great noble must call a meeting of the knights and no- bles under him and have it voted if he wanted money from them. Thus there grew up the rule "no tax with- out a vote." A willful king, if disposed to tyranny, might get more. But in 1 2 1 5 the very bad King, John, was forced by a rebellion of almost all his nobles to sign a document called Magna Charta, in which he promised for himself and his successors, that all his subjects should be treated justly and according to law, and that he would claim no taxes, but such as should be voted legally. Many other limits were put upon the King by Magna Charta; and it is remarkable that the nobles claimed rights for all freemen, and not for themselves only. The English no- bility has always been very different in that respect from the nobility of the continent. The kings used to call great councils of the princi- pal men of the nation, knights and nobles only, sum- moning whom they pleased. They also made corpora- tions of the burghers of large towns and cities, giving them charters of privileges in return for which the towns and cities, called boroughs, generally paid regular taxes. In 1265 a Parliament was called to which each county in England was to send two elected representatives. Soon the boroughs sent representatives. The kings found it profitable to make boroughs, because they often found them more pliant than the nobles. But of course the nobles could have great influence in determining the votes of the boroughs of their neighborhood: many bor- oughs would sell their votes, electing any man who 34 JOHN ADAMS. would pay their price. Some towns went down to ruin; and the rich man who owned the ground where the bor- ough had been could elect a member of parliament by his single vote. While the power of the kings grew less as Parliament limited them more and more, and several civil wars strengthened Parliament, the kings and. their ministers resorted to bribery to control Parliament. Places with high salaries for doing little were given to those who voted to please the king and his party. Men were made barons, viscounts, earls, marquises or dukes by the King's favor. But after 1660, the rule that had grown out of the Feudal System was strictly observed: "No tax unless voted by the Parliament;" but all the Feudal obligations were abolished. Hence, came the idea that "Taxation without representation is tyranny." The mother of George III used to say to him while he was young, "George, be a King." He was really a man of very ordinary ability. But he thought that to be a King he must govern at his own pleasure, and not be limited by the advice of his ministers, who are held ac- countable. If to please the King, they do an illegal act, they are punished; not he. He had five several prime ministers in the first ten years of his reign, whose quar- rels and jealousies he fostered, Pitt (Chatham), was for a while the actual manager of the government, though not called prime minister; the King could not bear him, nor any other really strong man. At last, 1770, he made Frederick North his prime JOHN ADAMS. 35 minister, finding him to be a man who would let the King have his own way. • North was of easy, indolent temper, unwilling to pay attention to public opinion, and with no attachment to any political principle but keep- ing things as they were. George ITI now took control of public affairs as com- pletely as had the tyrant kings of earlier days, doing ev- erything under cloak of the ministry, which certainly covered a multitude of sins against the welfare of Eng- land. Mr. J. R. Green ("History of the English People," Bk. ix^ ch a.) tells us. — "Not only did he direct the minister in all important matters of foreign and domestic policy, but he instructed him as to the management of debates in Parliament, suggested what motions should be made or opposed, and how new measures should be carried. He reserved for him- self all the patronage: he arranged the whole cast of ad- ministration; settled the relative places and pretensions of ministers of state, law officers, and members of the household; nominated and promoted the English and Scotch judges; appointed and translated bishops and deans, and dispensed other preferments in the Church. He disposed of military governments, regiments and commissions; and himself ordered the marching of troops. He gave and refused titles, honors and pensions. All this immense patronage was persistently used for the creation and maintenance in both houses of Parliament of a majority directed by the King himself The shame of the darkest hour of English history lies wholly at his door. ' ' 36 JOHN ADAMS. Lord North did not approve of the King's acts. He knew that the King had had a touch of insanity in 1765, the Stamp-Act year. He excused himself afterward by saying in effect that he feared that he would bring on madness again if he worried the King by opposition. So a crazy tyrant and a pliant tool were important instru- ments in creating American Independence. King George saw that he would have trouble in rais- ing taxes in England, even with his purchased majority in Parliament. He saw that the colonies were not di- rectly under English law, and undertook to increase their burdens; but when he tried to enforce the old navigation acts and revenue laws which had been evaded, and to levy new taxes, the Commercial States resisted. When his Parliament altered the charter of Massa- chusetts and shut up the port of Boston, all the colonies saw that their charters might be revoked and their ports closed: hence, they made common cause with Massachu- setts. The Continental Congress united their feeling and their action. In anticipation of his going to the Congress, Mr. Ad- ams was studying on the questions of the day, though he went on his usual circuits as a lawyer. He wrote in his Diary. — "There is a new and grand scene open before me; a Congress. This will be an assembly of the wisest men upon the continent who are Americans in principle, that is, against the taxation of Americans by authority of Parliament. I feel myself unequal to this business. A more extensive knowledge of the realm, the colonies, and JOHN ADAMS. 37 of commerce, as well as of law and policy, is necessary than I am master of. What can be done? Will it be expedient to propose an annual Congress of Committees? to petition? Will it do to petition at all? to the King? to the Lords? to the Commons? What will such consulta- tions avail? Deliberations alone will not do. We must petition or recommend to the Assemblies to petition, or " The dread alternative of civil war he would not write, even in his diary. To his wife he wrote his wish for leisure for prepara- tion: "I might be polishing up my old reading in law and history, that I might appear with less indecency be- fore a variety of gentlemen whose education, travels, ex- perience, family, fortune, and everything will give them a vast superiority to me, and I fear, even to some of my companions." The self-conceit which some charge upon Mr. Adams is not evident here. His solid foundation of legal, his- torical and philosophical knowledge made him the equal of any,except in the polish given by travel and extensive intercourse with men, and in the fortune of wealth. His friend, Joseph Hawley, gave him a caution which shows that the jokes of to-day about Boston were already current then. He warns him not to fall into the error imputed "to the Massachusetts gentlemen, and especially of the town of Boston," of assuming big and haughty airs, and affecting to dictate and take^the lead in conti- nental affairs. This jealousy of New England was deep- ly rooted. All the delegates from Massachusetts, except Bowdoin 38 JOHN ADAMS. started together Aug. lo, going through Connecticut to New York. They were everywhere received with joy, and as public guests. But they found that independence and the war to win it, however evident to them, must not be even whispered, John said to Samuel Adams that they were going to Philadelphia to enter into unavailing agreements for non-importation, non- consumption, non-exportation: force would be necessary. In New York, McDougal warned them of episcopal- and aristocratic prejudices against "the leveling spirit of New England;" and Philip Livingston betrayed such dis'position. At Princeton, Dr. Witherspoon, president of the college, was working on their line; but they were told to be wary as they should approach Philadelphia. The committee that met them to escort them into the city let them know how they were feared as violent en- thusiasts. Consequently they roared so gently that Joseph Reed said they seemed mere milksops. They let Rutledge and Harrison outbrave them. "We have a del- icate course to steer between too much activity and too much insensibility," wrote John Adams. Things seemed to go slowly; but by the 17th of Sep- tember he wrote, "This day convinced me that America will support Massachusetts or perish with her." Nevertheless the delegation got others, now of one col- ony and now of another, to put forward their thoughts and plans. Most wanted Massachusetts to steer careful- ly between obedience and rebellion, like the famous sportsman who shot into the bushes "to hit it if it was JOHN ADAMS. 39 a deer, and miss it if it was a calf." The majority ex- pected ultimate reconciliation with England. Virginia and Massachusetts worked together generally, the dele- gates from Virginia being Washington, Henry, Peyton Randolph (elected to preside), Richard Bland, Edmund Pendle- ton, Benjamin Harrison and Rich- ard Henry Lee. Mr. Adams was on a committee to prepare a pe- tition to the King with Lee and Henry Johnson of Maryland, and John Rutledge of South Car- olina. The middle colonies and their views had little representation in that body, and the report was too sharp: so Dickinson of Pennsylvania was added to rewrite or soften it. A more important committee was a large one to pre- pare a declaration of rights. Both Adamses were in this. Their report affirmed that a right of taxation of colonists belonged to them only; but that Parliament might make regulations for the external commerce of all parts of the empire, but not for revenue. This first Continental Congress was controlled main- ly by the ideas of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, as it was necessary to yield to the middle states. New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and to their conciliation policy. But it approved the Suffolk Resolution that no obedience was due to the recent acts of Parliament; it Peyton Randolph, President First Continental Congress. Born 1721. Died 1775. 40 JOHN ADAMS. adopted Jay's "Address to the People of Great Britain;" it tried to bring in all the English colonies, and sent to England a petition to the King, written by Dickinson. After thirty-one days of actual session, but fifty-two of Suffolk Resolves House. Milton. Mass. Built prior to 1650. Dr. Warren and the Committee of Safety passed the famous Suffolk Resolutions here. assembly, it adjourned. Mr. Adams was on the whole encouraged. A provincial congress was taking the place of the Charter Assembly; and Braintree sent Adams as her rep- resentative. He was sent to the Second Continental Congress, which met May lo, 1775. Meanwhile had oc- curred the battles of Lexington and Concord. John Han- cock had taken Bowdoin's place in the delegation. Mr. Adams found a great change in New York, the JOHN ADAMS. 41 most commercial of the middle states: actual war had stirred the people to range themselves with Massachu- setts and Virginia in resistance. He left home with some anxiety for his family: his wife wrote him of a lo- cal alarm of an invasion of their neighborhood by a de- tachment of soldiers who came, however, only to get some hay. The middle state of Pennsylvania was under the influ- ence of John Dickinson, still hanging back: and many delegates were hopeful of reconciliation, though war was going on. Dickinson succeeded in carrying his point, one more "dutiful and humble petition," called by some the Olive-Branch Petition. But by the same vote there was joined with the order for the petition other meas- ures of warlike character. New York was to be put in- to a state of defense. Military spirit was rising. It was a significant fact, that Washington came to the Congress everyday in his uniform. He said little: the dress had unmistakable meaning. On Dickinson's day of partial success came a letter from Massachusetts asking advice about "the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government," since the local government was disorganized. The Congress was forced to act: June 9th, it advised Massachusetts to or- ganize a government. This was a great step toward in- dependence in fact, though many would not so consid- er it. Adams now pushed another suggestion of the provin- cial congress of his State, the adoption of the army in front of Boston, in which were men from other colonies. 42 JOHN ADAMS. June I4tli, Congress voted to raise 20,000 men, Mr. Ad- ams promising to raise ten thousand from Massachusetts. Of course a commander-in-chief must be appointed for this army, to act with the authority of the United Col- onies, as they still called themselves. As matters stood, Massachusetts was carrying on war alone, with Gen. Artemas Ward, an esteemed officer of the French and Indian war, as her generalissimo. Mr. Adams found difficulties in local jealousies and personal ambitions, as well as in the backwardness of the moderates and conservatives. He was never lacking in courage; he was, indeed, liable to be charged with be- ing overbold, so that he chafed under the enforced de- lays. Private conferences with other delegates reached no result. He told Samuel Adams one morning that he was going to make a bold stroke to end the suspense: he would propose the adoption of the army and the appoint- ment of Col. Washington as commander of it. Mr, Sam- uel Adams did not assent or dissent. When John Adams got the floor, he moved the adopt- ion of the army and went on to speak of its command- er, eulogizing a certain gentleman from Virginia "who could unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies bet- ter than any other person." Though no name was spoken all knew he meant Washington, who was so start- led that he rose and went out. Some said it was a doubtful measure to put a southern- er over an army of New England troops now doing ad- mirably under their own officers. Pendleton of Virgin- ia especially urged this, followed by Sherman of Connec- JOHN ADAMS. 43 ticut; and Gushing of Massachusetts fell into line with them. Hancock, the presiding officer, was ambitions for the place. Other aspirants might be jealous and be- come hostile to Adams; but he never feared enemies when sure he was right. The vote was not hurried; Ad- ams left the formal — ^ nomination for some one else. On the 1 5th of June, Thomas Johnson of Maryland nominated Washing- ton, and he was unan- imously elected, and left Philadelphia on the 2ist. Mr. Adams had now gained two im- portant points: he had had the Congress to advise Massachusetts to estab- lish an insurgent or rebel government; and next to adopt and organize an army that was at war with King George. If this belligerency was not independence, what was it? Nor had he consulted Massachusetts or New England about making a Virginian Commander over her troops. Considering the local jealousies, this v/as a brave and bold deed. Certainly three New Englanders were at first against him in the Congress itself, and two from his own state. But he trusted the intelligence, liberality and courtesy of his people whom he knew well. His grandson in his "Life of John Adams" says: John Hancock 44 JOHN ADAMS. "In the life of Mr. Adams, more than in that of most men, occur instances of this calm but decided assumption of a fearful responsibility in critical moments. But what is yet more re- markable is that they were at- tended with a uniformly favor- able result." The Ameri- can people saw in his conduct in thisCongress, in the war, and in his acts as ambassador or envoy, such ev- idences of pure patriotism, just courage, and high sagacity, that they twice put him next to Wash i ngt o n and once made him head of the government. When he was defeated, it was not from loss of popular confidence .so much as by dissensions within his own party. The result of his moves at this time *'set the seal of Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of Warren. Bronze Door on the Capitol, Washington. D. C. JOHN ADAMS. 45 ■wisdom," says Mr. Morse, in his "Life of John Adams," "upon his fearless assumption of one of the greatest po- litical risks recorded in the world's history." And Mr. Adams said that the appointment of Washington would have a great ei^ect in securing the union of the colonies; and further, that he had got them all as deep into the rebellion as Massachusetts herself. While he was doing this, red Bunker Hill showed that Yankee farmers could face and defeat England's veterans. Soon after, Mr. Adams wrote confidential letters to his wife and to Gen. James Warren, which were taken from the carrier by the British and published by them, to create suspicion and ill-feeling. His private opinions were too strong for public use; they made lasting ene- mies. To his wife he said in a postscript: "I wish I had given you a complete history, from the beginning to the end, of the behavior of my compatriots. No mortal tale can equal it. I will tell you in future, but you shall keep it secret. The fidgets, the whims, the caprice, the vanity, the superstition, the irritability of some of us is enough to "; language failed him at that point. So much for one barrel of his gun: it seemed aimed at the whole body of Congress; every man might take his share of the shot as he pleased, or generously give it all to his neighbors. The other barrel was aimed more precisely at individuals, but included the seekers for con- ciliation. Gen. Warren was president of the provincial congress. "I am determined to write freely to you this time. A 46 JOHN ADAMS. certain great fortune and piddling genius [this hit John Dickinson, leader of the party of delay,] whose fame has been trumpeted so loudly, has given a silly cast to our whole proceedings. We are between hawk and buzzard. We ought to have had in our hands, a month ago, the whole legislative, executive, and judicial of the whole continent, and have completely modeled a constitution; to have raised a naval power, and opened all our ports wide; to have arrested every friend of [the British] gov- ernment on the continent, and held them as hostages for the poor victims in Boston; and then opened the door as wide as possible for peace and reconciliation. After this, they might have petitioned, negotiated, ad- dressed, etc., if they would. Is all this extravagant ? Is it wild ? Is it not the soundest policy? You observe in your letter the oddity of a great man [Gen. Lee]. He is a queer creature; but you must love his dogs if you love him, and forgive a thousand whims for the sake of the soldier and the scholar." The reader will not wonder at the personal enmities these letters caused, Dickinson ceased to recognize him, and was his enemy as long as he lived (1808). Others of those that had "the fidgets, the whims," shunned him and were cold; even friends showed disapprobation. John Hancock drew away from the Adamses and toward the conservatives. The moderates thought Adams had be- trayed the plans of radicals to hurry on independence. The English regarded the letters as evidence of long- planned rebellion. The worst effect was the suspicion which immediately attached to all his proposals, until JOHN ADAMS. 47 independence became inevitable. But Adams was so shrewd and so strong that he was indispensable npon important committees. Meanwhile Dickinson's "Olive Branch" conld not gain even an official reception in England, since it came from a rebel body, and, as C. F. Adams suggests, would look to George III much more like a highwayman's pistol. New Hampshire asked advice, October i8th, about fonning some government for order and justice. Adams joined in the debate, urging the need of some general advice to all the colonies. He argued that the people in their towns should elect delegates to a convention which should form a constitution, distributing powers to three branches, governors, councils and representatives, with independent judiciary; and that this constitution should be referred to the people for adoption and confirmation; and that officers should be elected thereunder. He was one of the committee to whom the matter was referred, whose report advised a popular government, Nov. 3d. The next day a similar resolution was passed for South Carolina, Adams trying in both cases to bring in use of the word state for colony^ and America for the colonies. He was opposed to a legislature of a single house and an executive and judiciary made of commit- tees, which was Samuel Adams's ideal. Adams had gone home during the recess in August, but had little rest, as he had been put on the executive council of Massachusetts. It took him just a fortnight to reach Philadelphia, 48 JOHN ADAMS. Sept. 13th. Delegates from Georgia came in. The moderates had control, but had to move forward, adopt a plan of confederation, establish a post office system with Franklin as postmaster, create a system of dealing with Indians, appoint treasurers, direct military affairs, set up an army hospital, all of these acts implying inde- pendence and rebellion. Massachusetts, 'men were left out of committees. Dangerous sickness invaded Adams's family, an epidemic attacking Braintree and vicinity. His brother died in the army. His wife was exhausted with anxiety and watching. But he felt that his position was that of an officer in an army in front of the foe: he must not go home. Mr. Adams's policy suddenly came uppermost. Rhode Island on Oct. 3d asked Congress to create a fleet. The proposition was ridiculed, especially by southern dele- gates. But in a few days news was brought that two vessels were on the way from London to Canada with arms and powder. A committee of three New Englanders was appointed, including Adams, to report on the emergency. They advised that Massachusetts be asked to put two of her armed vessels under Washington's command, and that he dispatch them to intercept those from London and any other transports carrying military stores; and that Connecticut and Rhode Island be asked to help. A re- port to this effect was adopted Oct. 13th, in spite of much eloquence. By Oct. 30th, another committee on naval -affairs was created, Mr. Adams being one, and a fleet of four ves- JOHN ADAMS. 49 sels was ordered, Nov. 17th, a corps of marines was or- dered. Nov. 25th, the beginning of a naval code was reported by Mr, Adams and adopted. Dec. 13th, the building of thirteen frigates was ordered; and Dec. 2 2d, Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island was made commander of a fleet of five vessels. So, largely through the push and energy of John Adams, a navy was begun. One important event helped him ; about the first day of November, a ship had brought the news of the fail- ure of Dickinson's last "Olive- Branch" petition. Thenceforth the moderates were rebels as much as the Adamses^ the Lees, Washington, Henry and Hancock, They must carry on the war or surrender without terms. This changed the aspect of affairs very much. For John Dickinson we may find some palliation, if not excuse. He loved his country, but acted like a cow- ard. The proprietary government of Pennsylvania had somewhat protected the people from collision with roy- al authority. Pennsylvania had no charter to lose, no rights depen- dent upon a royal grant and promise to its inhabitants under seal. Then, too, it was originally a Quaker colo- ny; and no man could grow up in it without being af- fected by its peace-loving doctrines and ways. But worst of all were the influences of his family. While Adams was supported in his course by his rela- tives and his brave wife, Dickinson's family was a drag upon him. Mr. Adams says: "That gentleman's moth- er and wife were continually distressing him with their remonstrances. His mother said to him, 'Johnny, you 50 JOHN ADAMS. will be hanged; your estate will be forfeited and confis- cated; you will leave your excellent wife a widow, and your children orphans, beggars and infamous.' From my soul- 1 pitied Mr. Dickinson. I made his case my own. If my mother and my wife had expressed such sentiments to me, I was certain that if they did not un- man me and make me an apostate, they -would make me the most miserable man alive." (Works, Vol. 11^ p. 408.) On a previous page he had written, "Mr. Dickin- son is very modest, delicate and timid." The influence of the Quakers and of the Quaker state in which they had predominance politically, was thrown then against the revolution, because it was leading to war; and because Massachusetts, the colony in which they had suffered most for their religion, was leading in it. A leading man among them, Israel Pemberton, in a conference with Adams and others, objected to a union of the colonies because of laws on religion in Massachu- setts and other parts of New England. . Nor should we forget, in trying to account for the in- difference and backwardness of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, that there was a larger share of un-English elements in their population than elsewhere. The first settlers of all these except Penn- sylvania were Dutch and Swedes, foreigners to English . law and ideas. The revolutionary party were demanding their rights as Englishmen, referring back to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights, as well as to charters granted by English kings. These were not JOHN ADAMS. 51 household words to a generation whose grandfathers or great-grandfathers were conquered by England, or who came like the numerous Pennsylvania Germans from Germany itself. Many did join the Revolution earnest- ly, as did the French infusion of Huguenots in South Carolina; but the masses were different from New Eng- landers and Virginians. Adams now writes: "Our coimsels have been hitherto too fluctuating; one day, measures for carrying on the war were adopted; the next, nothing must be done that would widen 'the unhappy breach between Great Britain and the colonies. ' As these different ideas have pre- vailed, our conduct has been directed accordingly Thank God, the happy day which I have long wished for is at length arrived: the southern colonies no longer entertain jealousies of the northern; they no longer look back to Great Britain; they are convinced that they have been pursuing a phantom, and that their only safe- ty is a vigorous determined defense. One of the gentle- men who had been most sanguine for pacific measures and very jealous of the New England colonies, address- ing me in the style of Brother Rebel, told me he was now ready to join us heartily. 'We have got,' says he, 'a sufficient answer to our petition. I want nothing more, but am ready to declare ourselves independent, send ambassadors,' etc. , and much more Our res-« olutions will henceforth be spirited, clear and decisive." Truly the ignorance and self-conceit of King George and his ministers did more for independence than the eloquence of Patrick Henry and the arguments of Ad- 52 JOHN ADAMS. ams. They could not move Pennsylvania; he did. But Adams was not trusted by all; when he went home in December, Lynch of South Carolina wrote to Washing- ton, "Whether his intents be wicked or not, I doubt much. He should be watched.'''' Probably be- fore the news of the failure of theOliveBranch in September or October, Mr. Adams endeav- ored to have an embassy sent to France, with powers to repre- sent the com- bined colonies. Mr. Chase of Maryland made the motion, as they had agreed; and Adams seconded it, and spoke on the mo- tion and proposed substitutes, keeping his temper well •under, and winning even from his steadfast opponents, Dickinson and Duane, credit for greatest knowledge of the subject and for eloquence. His lawyer-like mode of reasoning rarely rose to eloquence; but sometimes his deep earnestness brought into his speech his ready stores Samuel Chase. JOHN ADAMS. 53 of learning and a fiery rhetoric that was not common. Indeed he was more likely to offend by his impolitic way of blurting out his real opinions too bluntly to please, with severe criticisms upon others. In this dis- cussion he gave his views of a proper policy for Amer- ica: she should make no alliances, make commercial treaties only, and avoid connection with European poli- tics and wars. The proposition failed then; but seeds of thought and of later action were sown. In December Adams took leave of absence and went home. As member of the provincial council he was at once very busy, and prepared a proclamation to the peo- ple of his own state which has many of the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, and may give us a notion of what that would have been had he written it. The council appointed him Chief Justice of Massachu- setts. He accepted the appointment, which it would have pleased him to fill*^ but he never entered upon its duties, because they also re-appointed him delegate to the Continental Congress for the year 1776, and gave him Elbridge Gerry as colleague in place of Cushing, resigned. They left home Jan. 24th, 1776; Gerry presented his credentials Feb. 9th, and the instructions given by Mas- sachusetts, which were: — '''■Resolved^ that they [the five delegates], or any one or more of them, are hereby fully empowered with the delegates from the other American colonies to concert, direct and order such further measures as shall to them appear best calculated for the establishment of right and liberty to the American colonies upon a basis permanent j4 JOHN ADAMS. and secure against the power and art of the British Ad- ministration, and guarded against any future encroach- ments of their enemies; with power to adjourn to such times and places as shall appear most conducive to the public safety and advantage. " Mr. Adams returned to find the Congress in a period of discouragement: "There is a deep anxiety, a kind of thoughtful melancholy, and in some a lowness of spirits approaching to despondency, prevailing through the southern colonies at present." Why not? They had hoped and hoped for reconcilia- tion with the King: now they saw before them the con- tinuance of a war with the greatest powei; in the world. But Adams had learned that public opinion is apt to move in waves of discouragement and exultant expecta- tion. He prophesied, "In this, or a similar condition, we shall remain, I think, until late in the spring, when some critical event will take place, perhaps sooner. But the Arbiter of events, the Sovereign of the world, only knows which way the torrent will be turned. Judging by ex- perience, by probabilities and by all appearances, I con- clude it will roll on to dominion and glory, though the circumstances and consequences may be bloody. In such great changes and commotions, individuals are but atoms. It is scarcely worth while to consider what the conse- quences will be to us. .What will be the effects upon present and future millions, and millions of millions, is a question very interesting to benevolence, natural and christian. God grant they may, and I firmly believe JOHN ADAMS. 55 March 23d, April 6th. and Ad- they will be happy." Events went on toward indepen- dence. The British were beaten at Charleston and evac- uated Boston. Paine wrote "Common Sense," a pam- phlet of great influence, so much in the line of Adams's talk that some thought it his. Congress authorized privateering, opened American ports to all nations, anis was sarcastic upon those who would not see the na- ture of these acts and said we had had half a war, now advanced to three-quarters of a war. "This is not independen- cy, you know. Nothing like it. If a post or two more should bring you unlimited trade of all nations and a po- lite invitation to all nations to trade with you, take care that you do not call it or think it independency. No such matter. Independency is a hobgoblin of such frightful mien that it would throw a delicate person into fits to look it in the face." Among the difficulties of the situation were the rather aristocratic colonial governments in the middle and southern colonies, some of which were still proprietary. Movements were made here and there for more demo- cratic forms; there was little reason for change if all were to yield to the mother country by submission. Henry Lee, Governor of Virgrinia Known as "Lignc Horse Harry. ' Born 175G. Died 1818. 56 JOHN ADAMS. In Virginia the Lees, Patrick Henry, George Wythe and other advocates of Independence determined to pop- ularize the local government. No other in America had studied the science of government and the various forms for reaching political ends so much and so thoroughly as John Adams had done: and the practical tendency of his mind made his advice valuable. Jefferson and Samuel Adams were theoretical, and full of that false republican fear of reposing real governing power any where, lest it should be abused: a jealous fear which leads, if it works to its natural results, to an anarchy that invites despot- ism.^ It has been the good fortune of America to be neither Hamiltonian nor Jeffersonian. When Jefferson said that the tree of liberty needs frequently to be watered with blood, and that rebellion is a good thing and necessary in the political world, he showed that he lacked the constructive power to conceive a government which should be at once firm enough for civil order and elastic and changable enough for liberty. Hamilton's schemes missed the same good qualities in an opposite way. Practical people have found ways be- tween the two; and John Adams, misunderstood and called 'an aristocrat, was of this practical sort. Both Jef- ferson and Adams were aristocrats to this degree, that they believed the wisest and best should be chosen to lead, to plan, to judge, to execute. Richard Henry Lee talked often with Adams on the principles and details of government, and asked him to give him a definite plan for use. Adams gave him a JOHN ADAMS. 57 short letter containing the main features of such a sys- tem as he approved. Lee showed the letter: copies were taken and circulated. Others applied to Mr. Adams; whereupon he wrote a pamphlet, "Thoughts on Govern- ment applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies. In a letter from a Gentleman to his Friend.", This, having the form of a letter to Wythe, is in "The Works of John Adams." The circulation of it in Vir- ginia elicited a reply from the aristocratic party. Both were before the convention which adopted the constitu- tion of June, 1776. The aristocratic party failed. North Carolina asked his advice, which was given in like manner. Her constitution of 1776 remained un- changed till 1836. His influence appeared in the New York constitution. His plans would have made all the states independent of each other, to be united in a con- federation limited to a few objects: he had not studied upon a plan of union very much. The influence of these examples ran through all the states that formed new constitutions. Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and New York had especially instructed their representatives to oppose all propositions for independence. Even New Hamp- shire was an obstacle. A new plan w^as devised. Samuel Chase went home to Maryland and organized a series of local meetings, a fire in the rear upon the conservatives, which brought that State over. Caesar Rodney did the same in Delaware. Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant resigned and returned to New Jersey where the Assembly was in session: he secured the election of 58 JOHN ADAMS. new delegates who would arrive July ist, and would, as he said, "vote plump." As early as April 1 2th North Carolina had authorized her delegates to vote for independence and foreign rela- tions. The Virginia Convention, at work upon her new constitution, on May 15th, instructed her delegates to propose independence. But still Pennsylvania was a perfect Gibraltar of opposition. It would not be good politics to win a bare majority or even a majority of eight to five with such a great opposition in the heart of the land. Pennsylvania must be the keystone of the arch of union. Public opinion there was in favor of in- dependence: but the proprietary government of the Penn family sent the delegation in which Dickinson, Robert Morris, Willing, Humphrey and Morton outvoted Franklin and Wilson: Wilson had changed from nega- tive to affirmative vote. A movement in another direction outflanked the Penn government. June 7th, Friday ,_ Richard Henry Lee presented resolutions to declare independence. John Adams, as arranged, seconded them. The debate of that day, Saturday and Monday, showed that there were votes of four New England States, Virginia and North Carolina and one other Southern State in the affirma- tive. That would not do. The question was adjourned to July ist. The next day, Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman and R. R. Livingston were appoint- ed a committee on the resolution. On the 12th Samuel Adams was made one of a committee on Confederation, and John Adams one of a committee on treaties to be pro- JOHN ADAMS. $9 posed with foreign powers, where he was securely bal- lasted with Dickinson, Morris and Harrison of Virginia: and at the same time a Board of War and Ordnance was made of John Ad- ams, Sherman, Harrison, Wilson and Edward Rut- ledge. Important was a previous com- mittee, May 25th, to confer with Washington on military affairs and plans, on which was John Adams. From their action grew the "commit- tee on spies, ' ' John Adams, Jefferson, Rutledge, Wilson and Livingston. Their resolutions, adopted June 17th, declared every person in any colony, whether resident or transient, to be subject to its laws: then the second resolution as- sumed independence and sovereignty most fully: '•'■Resolved^ That all persons, members of or owing al- legiance to any of the United Colonies, as before des- cribed, who shall levy war against any of the said col- onies within the same, or be adherent to the King of i 1 I pp^ :;:' /. • 1^1 1 1 m j ■tS^^H Robert R. Livingston. Born 1741. Died 1813. 6o JOHN ADAMS. Great Britain or other enemies of the said colonies or any of them, within the same, giving to him or them aid and comfort, are guilty of Treason against such colony." The next resolution advised each colony to punish such treason, which might be mere loyalty to King George. Surely France was no more independent than the power that defined and denounced loyalty as treason. Mr. Adams was getting worn down with committee work, debates and planning. The movement that destroyed the proprietary power in Pennsylvania began with Adams on the sixth of May. The resolution as finally adopted. May loth, stood thus: '■^ Resolved^ That it be recommended to the respective assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs hath been hitherto established, to adopt such gov- ernment as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular and America in gen- eral." Adams, Lee and Rutledge were made a committee to prepare a preamble to this. The preamble, adopted May 15th, declared: "It appears utterly unreconcilable to reason and good conscience for the people of these colonies now to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown of Great Britain; and it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of author- ity under the said crown should be totally suppressed; and all the powers of govermneiit [should be] exerted un- JOHN ADAMS. 6i der the authority of the people of the colonies^'''' etc., etc. The proprietary government of Pennsylvania was cer- tainly not "exerted under the authority of the people;" and when the preamble and resolution appeared in the newspapers of the i6th, the whigs of Philadelphia began to consult what should be done in consequence of the dissolution of their government. The pressure of public opinion and the movement for a convention allowed the committee of conference to express a strong opinion against the assembly's hindering resolutions of instruc- tion; and the vote of Pennsylvania was substantially gained. , Mr. Adams wrote respecting the preamble and resolu- tion, "Yesterday the Gordian knot was cut." He re- gretted that it had not been done a year sooner. He was probably wrong in that. He was ready; but the people and the political leaders needed education which the year gave them. The long debate attracted atten- tion, stirred the consciences and raised the aspirations of the people, and made mankind ready for the verdict that justice and reason pronounced on the great conten- tion. The saints may cry, "How long, O Lord!" but' God does not hurry. Adams, after hearing a sermon on the 17th that com- pared George HI to the Pharaoh of the Exodus, wrote to his wife that in considering the events just passed and his little share in the great things, and in looking at the probable future, he felt an indescribable awe. The vote was still to be taken, though the result was foreseen. It was agreed that it should appear unani- 62 • JOHN ADAMS. mous. Dickinson and Morris were ready to absent them- selves, to let the vote of their State appear affirmative. But the delegates from New Jersey, new men, wished to hear the grounds of the important action rehearsed. Lee's resolution was called up on the appointed day. There is no record of a line of the debate. It is known that two men spoke. Dickinson, loving his country without reserve, constitutionally cautious, even timid, unwilling to burden himself with so great responsibility, yet hating the tyranny of king and parliament as bitter- ly as the Adamses or the Lees, in a final speech cleared himself of accountability for evil results which must come in the winning of the good that was desired. The debating talent was on the negative side. Dick- inson, Wilson his colleague, who voted however with Franklin at last, R. R. Livingston of New York, who had ceased to oppose, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, could finely set forth that side. Perhaps no one of them spoke. On the other side. Dr. Witherspoon presented his arguments clearly, but heavily. Lee had been called home. Wythe and others could speak sensi- bly, but not with force of manner. Jefferson, mighty with the pen, was no speaker. It was the great occasion for John Adams. He is rarely enrolled among great orators. His writings rare- ly suggest eloquence. But eloquence is often matter of occasion. The effect produced upon the hearers is the supreme test. "Chatham, Patrick Henry, Mirabeau and John Adams will be handed down as great orators mainly by the con- JOHN ADAMS. 63 curring testimony of those who witnessed the effects they produced," says C. F. Adams. Adams was elated by the consciousness of victory within his grasp, filled with the facts and reasons of his cause, mighty in the resources of his classical, philosoph- ical and legal education and reading, and fired with the enthusiasm of his grand cause. Dickinson's speech must have provoked him by its repetition of old oft-answered assumptions and reasons, by its lugubrious vaticinations? and by its timid and hope- less lamentations. Jefferson afterward spoke of "the deep conceptions and nervous style, which gave Adams a powder of thought and ex- 1 . 1 1,1 Home of Patrick Henry in Virginia pression which moved the members from their seats;" and he styles him the "Colossus of Independence." Richard Stockton varied the figure: he was "the Atlas of Independence." Other Virginians, accustomed to the florid and impulsive ora- tory of the South, filled "every mouth in the Ancient Dominion with praises due to the comprehensiveness of his views, the force of his arguments, and the boldness of his patriotism. " It is strange that he impressed others, but not himself. He wrote to Chase that evening speaking of the debate as an idle waste of time: nothing. said that had not been said six months before. lyike a genuine Yankee, he 64 JOHN ADAMS. looked only at the intellectual and practical side, and thought naught of the tongue of fire which sat upon him and loosed his speech while others wondered. One of the greatest of American orators wrote fifty years later such speech as he thought Adams would have made. At the close of this biography the reader will find Webster's version of it, probably less vehement than the original. The day after the debate, July 2d, the formal vote was taken on Lee's resolution: it is brief, but enough: it broke the chain. '''■Resolved^ That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- solved. ' ' The more formal document which we know as the Declaration was already reported to the Congress, Friday, June 28th. The preparation had been referred to a com- mittee, Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman and R. R. Livingston. The writing was left by the rest to Adams or Jefferson: in a little contest of courtesy each referred it to the other. Jefferson wrote it; Adams and Franklin suggested slight amendments, so slight that Adams did not remember that he had offered any. It was debated after Lee's resolution passed, Adams defending it against criticism and alteration, Jefferson sitting in silence. It was amended, adopted and an- nounced Thursday, July fourth. The signing of the en- JOHN ADAMS. 65 grossed copy took place later, several signing it who were not even delegates when it was adopted. Adams wrote to his wife, July 3d, "Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; and and as such they have, and of right ought to have full power to make war, conclude peace, establish commerce and to do all other acts and things which other States may rightfully do. [The reader will see that he quotes partly and by memory from the later document.] You will see in a few days a declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man. A plan of confederation will be taken up in a few days. "When I look back to the year 1761 and recollect the argument concerning Writs of Assistance in the superior court, which I have hitherto considered as the com- mencement of the controversy between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole period from that time to this, and recollect the series of political events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Brit- ain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. At least, this is my judgment. Time must determine. It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that 66 JOHN ADAMS. America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly be- lieve. "Had a declaration of independency been made seven months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious effects. We might before this hour have formed alliances with foreign states. We should have mastered Quebec and been in possession of Can- ada But on the other hand, the delay of this declaration to this time has many great advantages attending it. The hopes of reconciliation which were fondly entertained by multitudes of honest and well-mean- ing, though weak and mistaken people, have been grad- ually, and at last totally extinguished. "Time has been given for the whole people maturely to consider the great question of independence, and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their fears, and allure their hopes, by discussing it in newspapers and pamph- lets, by debating it in assemblies, conventions, commit- tees of safety and inspection, in town and county meet- ings, as well as in private conversations, so that the whole people in every colony of the thirteen, have now adopted it as their own act. This will cement the Un- ion, and avoid those heats and perhaps convulsions which might have been occasioned by such a declaration six months ago. "But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of JOHN ADAMS. 67 of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebra- ted by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. "It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illumina- tions, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. *'You will think me transported with enthusiasm; but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not." But the Fourth of July superseded the second; and the jubilant patriot could not anticipate the present desecra- tion of the anniversary, which makes it in every city a day of apprehension, of fires and accidents, of senseless noise, and the racket and sputter of the fire-cracker of the half-civilized ''Heathen Chinee!" Adams knew well that independence was declared, but was yet to be won. He was neither fanatic nor en- thusiast. His stubborn force was paired with know- ledge of means to be used and of ends to be gained. He was more earnest and pressing than any other man, and had reached his aim by policy as well as by statesman- ship. Seeing when he entered Congress that that body 68 JOHN ADAMS. could not be hastened, he worked generally through oth- ers, favoring even the remotest step in the path to inde- pendence. Many measures adopted months before logically im- plied independence; but he dared not even say that aloud. Mr. Morse in his "Life of John Adams" often accuses Adams of a lack of restraint of his tongue. One who said so much must often have said too much; but he must have undergone agonies of self-restraint. His severe remarks about others were generally in his pri- vate letters. Had he blurted out all he thought, he might have incurred the sarcastic reproach which Low- ell flung upon "Philip Vandal;" that is Wendell Phil- lips; "he loves his fellow men so well that he has not a word softer than a brickbat for a single mother's son of them." At this time Adams wrote to his friend and helper, Samuel Chase of Maryland: — "If you imagine that I expect this Declaration will ward off calamities from this country, you are much mis- taken. A bloody conflict we are destined to endure. This has been my opinion from the beginning Every political event since the 19th of April, 1775, has confirmed me in this opinion. If you imagine that I flatter myself with happiness and halcyon days after a separation from Great Britain, you are mistaken again. I do not expect that our new government will be so qui- et as I wish, nor that happy harmony, confidence and affection [will exist] between the colonies, that every good American ought to study and pray for, for a long JOHN ADAMS. 69 time. But freedom is a counterbalance for poverty, dis- cord, and war, and more. It is your hard lot and mine to be called into life at such a time. Yet even these times have their pleasures. ' ' Mr. Adams's supreme effort in the second Continental Congress was over, successfully completed. He had spoken of it as the very end and purpose of his existence; and said he would be willing, that done, to say with old Simeon, ^'■Ntnic dimt/ii'sy But he was too valuable a member to be let go easily; and while there was real hard work to be done, he was willing to remain, health and strength permitting. The sessions of the second Continental Congress be- gun May 10, 1776, and continued till it adjourned Dec. 12, 1777, a period of 582 days. Mr. Adams remained in it till a month before its adjournment. He proposed that Massachusetts should enlarge her delegation, so that the Congress should have sufficient attendance while the delegates could be relieved by periods of vacation. His work may be inferred from his being on ninety commit- tees by the record, and on others not recorded. He was chairman of at least twenty-five. On one of these he served very unwillingly. Gen. Sullivan, taken prisoner on Long Island, came on parole with a verbal message from Admiral Lord Richard Howe, who wished to see some leading members of the Congress. Adams wanted to pay no attention to the message, being sure it could do no good to see him; but Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge were sent as a committee. They met Lord Howe on Staten Island 70 JOHN ADAMS. Sept. nth. He received them very courteously, but had no terms to offer except pardon after absolute sub- mission. They reported, Sept. 17th, the impossible terms. They had ceased to be rebels, and were citizens of the free United States. Like most of England's moves, the concessions came too late and were too small. As the business so far as it was national was conduct- ed entirely by a congress of delegates, there was no ex- ecutive or judiciary except the Congress itself and the committees it created. There was no War Department, no Secretary of War; there was only a committee called sometimes the Board of War. We read of Washington's troubles as commander-in-chief : the Board had all his troubles except the tactical and strategical ones. There were constant and annoying jealousies between North, Middle and South. These were individual jealousies about precedence, appointments, advancements. All these things came into the Board of War. Great mis- takes were made, as in the treatment of Schuyler, Ar- nold, Gates and Lee. Nor could this body understand and appreciate the great military as well as personal qualities of Washing- ton. It has taken nearly a century to show that his name must be ranked, not indeed with the most brilliant, as Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, Napoleon; but in the next class among the very best. He is called the Fabi- us of America: and Americans do not like Fabianism. They cry, "On to Richmond!" "On to Havana !" How unfortunate it is that in our country our greatest strate- gists, naval and military, are only editors and corres- Gen, George Washington. (From Portrait of C. W. Peale.) 72 JOHN ADAMS. pondents of newspapers ! One of this sort lately wrote that Washington never won a battle, meaning, doubtless, a pitched battle. How great must be the genius of a general that can win a war of eight years without win- ning a pitched battle ! But Washington was not a mere F'abius, winning only by delay. With his small, ill- armed, ill-provided army, he could strike quick and heavy blows, so that all the English generals feared him. But in his own day few saw how great he was. Mr. Morse, in his "Life of Adams," thinks an exces- sive vanity on the part of Adams kept him from appre- ciating Washington. He calls his relative estimate of Washington "his unconquerable blunder, originating in 1776-77, before he left Congress, and acquiring much greater proportions afterward." But how great had Washington shown himself to be by December, 1777? To most people, his failures at Long Island, Germantown and Brandywine, and the loss of Philadelphia would have seemed to balance the success at Boston, and the brilliant moves at Trenton and Princeton. Surely Ad- ams may be excused and not charged with an "uncon- querable blunder." Mr. Adams indignantly repelled the charge that he had been hostile to Washington, a charge which he ascribed to "that insolent blasphemer of things sacred, and transcendent libeler of all that is good, Tom Paine." He says thaL after his appointment as ambassador, Gen. Knox called upon him to learn how he felt toward Wash- ington. "I answered that I thought him the most important character of that time among us, for JOHN ADAMS. 73 he was the center of our union. .... I should do my utmost to support his character at all times and in all places." The Gates faction was no doubt glad to claim Adams; and Lafayette got that impression. While Adams was on the Board of War, Oct ist, 1776, he moved for a committee on the establishment of a mil- itary academy, and was one of the committee. From this suggestion came our West Point Military Academy. When Massachusetts officers complained of neglect and of the overlooking of their merits, he showed them how impolitic they had been in various ways. He reminded them of the panic of New England regiments at Brook- lyn. He said there were political reasons for appoint- ment of more southern than northern generals. He la- mented the jealousy toward New England which had af- fected the policy of the United States. "Without it Mr. Washington would never have com- manded our armies; nor Mr. Jefferson have been the au- thor of the Declaration of Independence; nor Mr. Rich- ard Henry Lee, the mover of it; nor Mr. Chase, the mov- er of foreign connections; nor had Mr. Johnson ever been the nominator of Washington for General." This he wrote in 1822; but he had felt it in 1776. He really had been obliged to stand back and get others to move his measures. Mr. Adams took a vacation to rest from over-work, Oct. 13th, 1776: he left home to go to the Congress at Baltimore, Jan. 9th, 1777. His route shows the diffi- culty of travel. He went on horseback through Con- necticut to Fishkill, N. Y. ; thence up to Poughkeepsie, 74 JOHN ADAMS. and crossed the Hudson on the ice; thence he rode to New Windsor, near Newburgh, and through Sussex county, N. J. , a stronghold of the New Jersey tories, who treated him respectfully, to Easton, Pa.; thence through Eastern Pennsylvania to Baltimore. The weath- Congress House, Baltimore. (From an old Print.) Congress met here Dec. 12, 1776. er was sometimes bitterly cold, sometimes warm, rainy or snowy; "roads abominably hard and rough." Nov. nth, 1777, Mr. Adams left the Congress per- manently, returned home and resumed the practice of his profession. The United States had three "commissioners" or agents in France, Franklin, Arthur Lee and Silas Deane. Deane had mismanaged his share of the business so much that on motion of Gerry, John Adams was appointed to supersede him, about Dec. ist, 1777. The position was JOHN ADAMS. 7^ undesirable. Lovell, R. H. Lee (brother of Arthur,) Roberdeau, Gerry, and Laurens, then president of Con- gress, wrote letters urging him to accept the appoint- ment, evidently fearing he might refuse. He accepted it promptly. There was danger of capture on the way, a stay in the Tower of London, and the fate of a con- demned rebel. Congress sent one of its best vessels to carry him. Feb. 13th, 1778, he left his native town with his son, John Quincy Adams, not yet eleven years old, on the frigate Boston. On the 20th a British ship of war chased them; but the Yankee ship was the better sailer. A storm of three days with a stroke of lightning that shat- tered the mainmast was the next distress. A British privateer was captured, with a valuable cargo. Two vessels, apparently British war vessels, passed near them without recognition. March 29th a pilot boat brought news of hostilities between England and France: untrue, since no act of war took place until June; and the two nations went to war without any declaration. On the forty-eighth day of his voyage, April ist, 1778, he went on shore at Bordeaux, whence he soon went to Paris, where he found Franklin, Deane, Arthur Lee, Ralph Izard and Dr. Edward Bancroft, all in some way agents of the United States. Mr. Adams found all the Americans at Paris full of animosity and jealousy toward each other, and toward William Lee, who was appointed to Vienna and the Aus- trian court, but was staying in Germany. Izard should have been in Italy at the court of the Grand Duke of 7^ JOHN ADAMS. Tuscany. Adams determined to have no share in their quarrels, and succeeding in avoiding them, attending strictly to business. He found the embassy or agency had no records, no letter book, no accounts. He set himself to introduce business methods; to filing and copying letters; to recti- fying accounts and introducing bookrkeeping. The American agents had obtained loans, made purchases, and distributed funds in this lax, slipshod way, for which a Yankee has his most contemptuous word, "shiftless!" Mr. Adams wrote home to the Commercial Committee of the Congress. ' 'Agents of various sorts are drawing bills upon us, and the commanders of vessels of war are drawing on us for expenses, and [for] supplies which we never ordered We find it so difficult to obtain accounts from agents of the expenditures of moneys and of the goods and merchandise shipped by them, that we can never know the true state of our finances." Some of the agents must have been surprised after the easy-going ways of the commissioners to find their bills and drafts refused, because they had failed to render proper statements. His colleagues left it to Adams to write the letters, being indifferent or reluctant to adopt business methods. He was polite, but firm; and the men with whom he dealt knew that he asked no more than was proper, and came into the new ways which he succeeded in establishing. In fact, financial affairs were not much better managed on this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Adams was obliged also to make the official visits required by his position, to make and receive calls of cere- JOHN ADAMS. ']^ mony and courtesy, and in so doing to struggle with the difficulty of his ignorance of French. He was so busy at first that he would not take time for lessons from a tutor, but tried to learn from grammars and text-books. He admitted that in this he made a mistake; but he was wise enough to attend the theaters frequently, having copies of the plays with him, so that he could join the printed form of words to the spoken language, and have the best models of pronunciation for imitation. He found that Franklin fluently talked a Franklinian French, with lit- tle regard to the grammar. The worst thing he found was that the Count de Ver- gennes liked Franklin and snubbed the I/ces and Izard; and that the friends of Deane and the adventurers who could take advantage of him and of the favor of Ver- gennes and of Franklin's easy-going ways, were making money out of contracts. It was necessary to strike at the root of the mischief, and secure a re-organization of foreign affairs. He could not write an official letter to the Congress without bringing his colleagues to agree to his views: he therefore wrote a personal letter to Sam- uel Adams, who would be free to talk of the subject; the result was that all parties joined in amending the lack of system. Mr. Adams advised (i) that there should be but one commissioner, ambassador or envoy at any court. Each of them was obliged to keep up a respectable establish- ment, give formal dinners, etc., at an expense of not less than three thousand pounds sterling: those then at Paris had expended from four to six thousand. 78 JOHN ADAMS. (2) That a definite and sufficient salary should be as- signed to each minister. The custom was for each to live as he thought proper, and to draw for the amount. (3) That the business of commercial agent should be separated from that of ambassador. The functions of the two should be made distinct and kept so. (4) That all the ministers at Paris, except one, should be recalled or sent to other places. Forthwith. Mr. Franklin was made sole representative to France, Mr. Arthur Lee was sent to Madrid, and Mr. Adams was left without assigned position, and not or- dered home. Col. Palfrey was made consular agent with large financial powers. Mr. Adams could not bear this inaction: he wrote to his wife, "I cannot eat pensions and sinecures: they would stick in my throat." He got passage after some delay on the French frigate "Z(? 6"i^i^2i^^^^| 1 H^i^. jssmi SbS^mm hI Mrs. Wm. S. Smith (Abigail Adams) daughter of John Adams. 'T* Vi p From the Painting bv Copley. By courtesy of ^ ^'■^ D Appleton & Co. L.ci v;. 100 JOHN ADAMS. Congress next made Adams, Franklin and Jefferson a commission to make commercial treaties with any or all powers. Prussia was the first to accept the offer. Mr. Adams had taken a house near Paris. But Feb. 24, 1785, Congress appointed him the first minister of the United States to Great Britain. Vergennes congratulated him saying, "It is a mark." But it was also a great task. The Duke of Dorset, minister to France, said to him, "You will be stared at a great deal." "I fear they will gaze with evil eyes," replied Mr. Adams. The duke, with more courtesy than truthfulness, said they would not. Mr. Adams was presented to the king in a private au- dience, June ist, 1785, by the Marquis of Carmarthen. Naturally he felt some nervousness and embarrassment. The king had heard that Adams had lost confidence in the French court, and alluded to this slightly, but spoke of the common blood and the common language, Ad- ams assented to the drift of the king's language, but ended his. reply with the sentence, "I avow to your maj- esty that I have no attachment but to my own country." The king seemed pleased with this sturdy patriotism. When Adams demanded the fulfillment of the treaty of 1783, and the evacuation of Mackinac, Detroit, and other posts, he was reminded that the states had not re- garded the treaty, had hindered the collection of debts; and when he proposed a commercial treaty, he was told that the states made their own tariffs. A policy of re- pression of American trade was adopted. Mr. Adams saw that he was doing no good, and sent JOHN ADAMS. idt in his resignation, which was accepted Oct. 5th, 1787, and he left England April 20, 1788, thoroughly disgust- ed with England, France and diplomatic service. Up to this time no man save Washington had rendered as much sersace to his country as Adams had given; no other had gained equal results; no one had excelled him in political knowledge and ability, foresight, patience, perseverance, endurance and daring in times of crisis. In recognition of such qualities and services, his country- men in organizing under the new constitution placed him as alternate to Washington, Vice President of the United States. The election to the Vice Presidency was not altogeth- er pleasant to Mr. Adams, not because of any aspiration for the highest place, but because, while Washington was elected unanimously, Adams did not have a majority of the votes cast. As the constitution then stood, elec- tors put two names on their ballots without specifying which person was meant for president: if two had the same number, the House of Representatives should choose between them. Seeing the possibility of such an ambiguous election, Hamilton suggested that some of the electors should throw their votes aside from Adams, whose election was expected. Unfortimately, no concert being possible, thirty-five electors threw their votes away as compliments to ten persons, leaving only thirty-four for Adams, who said, writing to a friend, "I have seen the utmost delicacy used towards others, but my feelings have never been re- garded. " 102 JOHN ADAMS. It did seem hard, when he returned to his native country, for which he had done and suffered so much, to find that he was not appreciated as he thought he should be. From that time he and Hamilton were often in conflict. When the constitution was proposed, two parties arose at once, those who favored the adoption of it, called Fed- eralists, and those opposed to it, called Anti-Federalists, until they organized as Republicans or Democratic Re- publicans. Generally those who. had opposed the con- stitution feared that the central government would en- croach on the rights of the states or of the people; they took the name Republicans or Democratic Republicans, or were called Democrats. Ten days before the inauguration of Washington, Mr. Adams was installed as Vice President, April 20, 1789, and began to preside over the Senate, at New York. That body was almost equally divided between Federa- lists and Republicans, so that the first Vice President had to give the casting vote no less than twenty times during the sessions of the first Congress and nine times during the second. No other presiding officer of that body has had such experience. He did not decide as a Federalist partisan, but always on what he deemed the merits of the question. Some very important questions were thus decided by him. Mr. Adams rather despised an office which gave him so little to do, and in which he was obliged to listen to debates without sharing in them. He must often have seen that a little of his knowledge and of his logic would JOHN ADAMS. 103 clear a befogged matter. He wrote to his wife Dec. 19th, 1793, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. And as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate. ' ' But he undervalued his place. He had a long rest from labor and responsi- bility; and Washington often consulted him on public affairs as if he had been a member of the cabinet. In 1792 Washington was again elected unanimously, and Adams had the full vote of the Federal party, sev- enty seven votes; George Clinton of New York had the votes of four states, and Jefferson of one; total, fifty-four. With the most of the important events of Washing- ton's administrations, Mr. Adams had no connection. Washington 'was of the Federalist policy, but took into his cabinet the two strongest available men, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who soon became the heads of the two opposing parties. He was not able to hold them both as his secretaries; in fact, both resigned. When it was settled that Washington would not ac- cept the presidency a third time, Hamilton began schem- ing to push Adams aside, Adams thoroughly disliked Hamilton, who returned the feeling as strongly. Adams's expressions in a letter to Knox were more extravagant than a cooler mood would have allowed. It is not fair to deduce "some of his traits" from such a passionate utterance, any more than it would be to judge Washington from what he said to Lee at Monmouth, or from his curses upon St. Clair. . 104 JOHN ADAMS. Mr. Adams was elected by seventy-one electoral votes over Jefferson's sixty-eight. He had solitary votes from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and even from Virginia, the rest of the votes of those states going to Jefferson. Had two of these been given to Jefferson, they would have elected him. The republicans sneered at Adams as the president of three votes. Jefferson became Vice President. When news of the election made it look as if the election might go into the House, he said he wished his old friend Adams to win. Washington was tired of the office, and longed to be free. He had been sorely abused, "in terms," says Schouler, ' 'scarcely applicable to a Nero, a defaulter, or a common pickpocket." An anti-Federal paper called him a fool. A paper in Philadelphia published by B. F. Bache, a grandson of Franklin, was very virulent in its attacks upon Washington both as President and as a man. He was charged with misusing the public funds for his own advantage. Forged letters got up by the tor- ies in 1776, in which he was said lo have expressed him- self against independence and Congress, were republished as genuine. It was said that ten thousand people were threatening to drag him out of his house and make him resign or favor France. Jefferson employed in his department a clerk, Freneau, who was editor of an abusive paper. '''•The Aurora)'' re- joiced that Washington's career was ended, saying that he had carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very existence." Washington at a cabinet meeting broke down in a JOHN ADAMS. lo^ transport of ' 'indignation and grief at the personal abuse heaped upon him." If the Republicans so abused Washington, whom we venerate, what would they not say against John Adams? Poor Adams, if not really more sensitive than Washing- ton, seemed to be so, and could not conceal his irritation and wrath. That delighted his tormentors the more. It was an age of coarse vituperation, as well as of bitter political hatreds and groundless suspicions. The folly of George III had made monarchy hateful. As the aristocracy of England had, with a few excep- tions, supported the usurpations of the king. Aristocracy was the second bugbear, hiding in every bush. Blank equality was the rage. A society like the Grand Army of the Republic would have been an evident threat of a standing army and of the downfall of liberty. Legisla- tion to prohibit it would have been enacted in every state. The officers of the army that had won independence formed a society, the Cincinnati, with the right of mem- bership hereditary. That was founding an order of no- bility. Public opinion frowned upon the innocent asso- ciation, and it almost withered away. Seeing the quarrel between Hamilton, the actual lead- er of the Federalists, and Adams, the executive chief whom they had elected, the Republicans seemed to have thought that he might be detached from the Federal party. The French Revolution exerted great influence upon American feeling and policy. At first, all parties were hopeful of a genuine reform in France, and a govern- io6 JOHN ADAMS. ment with at least a good measure of freedom. But when the rule of a mob replaced the autocracy of the king, and cold-blooded butcheries were perpetrated in the name of liberty, there was a great revulsion of feel- ing. France and England were soon at war. Washing- ton proclaimed neutrality; but the French ambassador, Genet, acted as if this country belonged to him, and un- dertook to fit out war vessels in our ports. He gave Wash- ington great trouble. The Republicans sympathized more with the French, and were against England, which continued its haughty abuse of our country till after the fall of Napoleon. They called the Federalists a British party. The retort upon them was that they favored anarchy and barbarity. France claimed the benefit of the treaty of alliance of 1778; and when Washington proclaimed neutrality, she proclaimed blockades, and began to seize American ships. We really were for months at war with France. Fortunately for us. Ambassador Adams had freed him- self from all notion of obligation to that country that had helped the United Colonies only to gratify a grudge against an ancient enemy; and he had had such an un- pleasant experience in England that he had no prepos- session now for what had been "The mother-country." Hence, President Adams could keep the ship of state on the course of impartial neutrality. President Adams committed one great mistake in pol- icy. Washington had found difficulty in getting suita- ble persons to follow Jefferson, Hamilton and Knox, when they resigned from his cabinet. He had offered JOHN ADAMS. 107 the Secretaryship of State to Wm. Patterson, Thomas Johnson, C. C. Pinckney and Patrick Henry, all of whom declined it: he had then put Timothy Pickering, former Postmaster-General and then secretary of war, into the place: Carrington and Howard of Maryland refusing the portfolio of the war department, he gave that to Mc Hen- ry, and advanced Oliver Wolcott to the Treasury. Pick- ering, Wolcott and Mc Henry were really only second or third rate men, worth little as advisers. Adams did not try to make a new cabinet, but continued these in office. The worst of the matter was that instead of looking to their chief for direction, they looked for orders to Ham- ilton as the head of the party, and tried to bend Adams to Hamilton's purposes. They wrote Hamiltonian pa- pers for him to sign, and proposed Hamiltonian nomina- tions. The consequence was that after enduring much discourtesy and even insolence from them, in an explo- sion of indignation he dismissed Mc Henry and Picker- ing, who became bitter and treacherous enemies. But he never knew how much all three had betrayed him. Seeing the probability of war, Adams did all he could to increase the army and especially the navy, but with only moderate success. It was one of the mistakes of the Republicans to scant these arms of defense. President Adams determined to make a treaty with fractious France, and consulted with Jefferson, whom he would have sent as minister, had they not both agreed that such function was unsuitable for a Vice President. Madison would not go with Hamilton as colleague. Adams was evidently no narrow partisan. In the face of warm lo8 JOHN ADAMS. Opposition of his secretaries, Pickering and Wolcott, lie sent Marshall and C. C. Pinckney, Federalists, and Ger- ry, Republican. They were received, but were soon informed that to get a treaty they must furnish certain sums of money as bribes and loans. Talleyrand was their foreign min- ister for the Directory. Pinckney answered quickly, "not a cent, not a cent;" and after his return, at a din- ner, gave the famous sentiment, "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute." Gerry remained after the others left, because Talleyrand told him France would declare war if he left. Immediately, further wrongs were inflict- ed on our commerce. The President reported the failure to Congress, and advised that preparations for war be pushed. Jefferson hated war as if he had been trained as a Quaker. His party in Congress opposed the preparations for war. The correspondence of the envoys was called for. They had obtained memoranda of the requirement of bribes and tribute in writing. The president put the letters X, Y and Z in place of the names of the agents, Hottinguer, Bellamy and Hautval, and sent the whole disgraceful story to Congress. A tempest of anger arose in all the land. War was demanded. Support was promised on all sides. The president was overwhelmed with evidences of popularity. But he was as little shaken by this as by opposition. He was not ready for war, and would not recommend it. He recalled Gerry, and said he would not send another minister till he had assurance that he JOHN ADAMS. 109 would be received with honor. Washington was named to command the army with the new rank of Lieutenant- General, and, at his request, Adams nominated for gen- erals next in rank, Hamilton, C. C. Pinckney and Knox, which led to a squabble for precedence. In the midst of this flurry were passed the famous Ali- en and Sedition laws. Home of John Adams Quincy Miss where he passed the last years of his life. If the Alien Act had been passed in Washington's time, he would have used it to get rid of Genet, no doubt. The worst of the act is that it gave the president an ir- responsible power to act as judge and jury and executive if any alien seemed to him obnoxious, and to send such person out of the country. The reader will be reminded of Lincoln's action in May, 1863, when he sent Vallan- digham, convicted of disloyal utterances, into the terri- tory held by the Confederate States. Adams never used the Alien Law. The Sedition law forbad the publication of any writ- no JOHN ADAMS. ing "false, scandalous and malicious," with intent to de- fame the government. Congress, or the president, or to bring them into contempt or disrepute. This was so worded that it might be used against reasonable political discussion. A few prosecutions occurred under it. Mr. Adams did not ask for or recommend these acts; but he is so far responsible for them as this; when they were enacted by his party, he did not veto them. When Talleyrand indicated to the American minister at the Hague through the French minister there, that an American envoy would be honorably received, Adams overruled the opposition of his Hamiltonian secretaries, and in defiance of the Federal majority of the Senate named a peace commission to go to France that they dared not reject; Ellsworth, Murray and Patrick Henry. War was averted and peace made; but work on the navy continued. The cabinet tried to delay the departure of the com- mission: his peremptory orders overruled them. This quarrel disrupted his party, and prevented a re-election for him: but he had acted nobly for his country. He very soon disposed of Pickering and McHenry, forcing them to resign. There had been seditious opposition to the laws in Eastern Pennsylvania; John Fries was twice tried for treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death: Picker- ing and other leaders in the party were anxious to have the exemplary penalty inflicted; but the president par- doned Fries and his associates, greatly to the disgust of the extremists. Fries has the distinction of being the JOHN ADAMS. in only man ever convicted of treason in the United States. Like most presidents, John Adams desired re-election. Jefferson was a very radical theorist; but with the errors and the successes of the twelve years before him, he was shrewd enough to drop his anarchic theories, his nullify- ing doctrines, his overstrained literal interpretations of the conconstitution and to make himself a practical ruler. But what he had said and done had made the conservative portion of the community afraid of him. Adams had a very respectable vote, sixty-five out of the 138 votes, Jef- ferson having seventy-three: a change of five votes would have elected Adams. But the Federal party was hope- lessly disorganized. On the twentieth of January, 1801, Ellsworth hav- ing resigned the position of Chief Justice, and Jay having declined the place, Adams had appointed his Secretary of State, John Marshall, to be Chief Jus- tice. Had Adams done nothing else for his coun- try, this selection of the greatest and most influen- tial jurist America has known should be gratefully re- membered. Federalist interpretations, giving strength and dignity to tlijs national government, flowed from Marshall's brain and pen, years after the bodies of Ad- ams and Jefferson were dust, and the old party contests had been merged in the "Era of Good Feeling." Federalist leaders in Congress lent themselves to the silly and wicked scheme of electing Burr instead of Jef- ferson, since the electoral vote was tied between them. As they had been friends during the canvass, Jefferson sought Adams to ask his favorable influence. Adams 112 JOHN ADAMS. was feeling sore over his defeat, and instead of saying "yes," began to ask Jefferson to pledge himself to cer- tain measures. Of course he rightly and proudly re- fused, and the two parted in anger. Adams is censura- ble for his irritable conduct of the last weeks of his term. Early in the morning of the inauguration day, with heart saddened by the death of his son Charles, he w^as so discourteous as to leave the city of Washington and avoid the inauguration of his rival, long his friend. Not long before he had said to Jefferson in all good humor and sincerity, "If you beat me in the Presi- dency, I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have." At home in Quincy the tired and sad old man amused himself with reading and study, and correspondence. He began an autobiography, which he left incomplete. This and his letters often make severe j'udgments upon others. He could not observe the maxim which gives title to one of Reade's novels, "Put Yourself in his Place." The very intensity and earnestness that had made him so valuable in the earlier part of his career appear as stubborn impracticability in the later. He was gloomy, now that he could no longer enjoy the bat- tle of life. He saw with pleasure the advancement of his son, and his election to the Presidency. When he was eighty- five years old his townsmen elected him to a State con- vention for the revision of the constitution. The con- vention elected him its president; but the infirmities of age compelled him to decline the post. He was a presi- JOHN ADAMS. 113 dential elector in 1820, and voted for Monroe. His dear wife was taken from him by a fever, Oct. 28th, 181 8, when he was eighty- three years old; but he lived on un- til he was well along in his ninety first year. It is pleasant to record that his friendship with Jefferson was renewed. Jef- ferson made ad- vances through Mrs.Adams; but his proud spirit was not ap- peased. Dr. Rush became the me- dium of a rec- onciliation. They had come, indeed upon common ground. The ad- ministration of Jefferson had from the first deserted his ultraisms. He was glad to use the power Federalism had framed. Swearing to observe the constitution, he be- lieved that he had broken its plain sense by annexing the Louisiana Territory, a measure such as would have cost Adams no questioning. John Quincy Adams, Son of John Adams, and Sixth President of the United States. Born 1767. Died 1848. 114 JOHN ADAMS. So the two old men, friends again, approached the fiftieth anniversary of the great act in which they had so grandly shared. It proved the last day for each of them. Adams's mind was clear to the end. He died at sunset, Tuesday, July 4th, 1826. It is said that his last words were, "Jefferson still survives." He was wrong: Jeffer- son had died in the morning of that day. John Adams's remains were buried in a tomb under the portico of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church of Quincy. In the body of the church, by the side of the pulpit, at the preacher's right," is a marble tablet, seven feet by four, on which is chiseled a memor- ial of the statesman and of his wife. It is surmounted by Greenough's bust of the ex-president. Under that the first line is his favorite motto, '■'■ Liber tatem^ amicit- iam^Jidem^ retinebis^'' — Liberty, friendship, faith, thou wilt hold fast. Overlooking his personal defects, the judgment of the ages will pronounce him in service to his country second only to Washington. ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF JOHN ADAMS. ADAMS'S RUI.es. Here is the rule which, with Adams's natural abili- ties, made him a great lawyer and a great statesman: "Rise and mount your horse by the morning's dawn, and shake away, amidst the great and beautiful scenes of nature that appear at that time of day, all the crudi- ties that are left in your stomach, and all the obstruc- tions that are left in your brains. Then return to your JOHN ADAMS. 115 studies, and bend your whole soul to the institutes of the law and the reports of cases that have been adjusted by the rules of the institutes. Let no trifling diversion or amusement or company decoy you from your books: i. (?., no girl, no gun, no cards, no flutes, no violins, no dress, no tobacco, no laziness." ADAMS AND FRANKLIN. When Adams went to meet Lord Howe, he had to sleep one night in bed with Franklin in a small room. Adams wanted the window shut: Franklin wanted it open. Adams yielded: Franklin expounded to him his theory that no one ever takes cold from exposure to cold air. He says that Franklin, according to his own physi- cian, died of a cold caught by his sitting some hours in a draft from a window. ADAMS AS A FIGHTING MARINE. During Adams's first voyage, his vessel encountered the British privateer "J/«r///«," which the '•'•Bosto^i'^ captured after a short action. One cannon shot passed over Ad- ams's head as he stood on the quarter deck. Commo- dore Tucker found him on deck, musket in hand, firing like a common marine, ordered him to go below, and passed on. Several minutes later he still found him fir- ing his musket. "Why are you here, sir?" cried the Commodore; "I am commanded by the Continental Con- gress to carry you in safety to Europe, and I will do it." He seized the minister to France in his arms and forced him away. ii6 JOHN ADAMS. ADAMS AND MANSFIELD. In 1783, while still negotiating the peace, Adams was in London. His friend Copley procured for him from the great judge, Lord Mansfield, a place in the House of Lords to hear the King's speech at the opening of Par- liament, and to witness the introduction of the Prince of Wales, then arrived at the age of twenty-one. While he stood waiting in the lobby, among a hundred of the first people of the kingdom, "Sir Francis Molineux, the gentleman usher of the black rod, appeared suddenly in the room with his long staff, and roared out with a very loud voice, 'Where is Mr. Adams, Lord Mansfield's friend?' I frankly avowed myself Lord Mansfield's friend, and was politely conducted by Sir Francis to my place. A gentleman said to me the next day, 'How short a time has passed since I heard that same Lord Mansfield say in that same House of Lords — My Lords, if you do not kill him, he will kill you!' Mr. West said to me that this was one of the finest finishings in the picture of American independence." Lord Mansfield had not said this of Mr. Adams indi- vidually, but of the Americans collectively: "If you do not kill them," etc. This was on Dec. 20th, 1775. ADAMS'S COMMON PLACE BOOK. When Mr. Adams was about twenty years old, he be- gan a common place book, entering in it extracts from his reading. The first entry in it was a maxim in Greek verse, ascribed to "Pythagoras:" JOHN ADAMS. ^ 117 Let sleep not close my languid eyes Till thrice the day has been reviewed: I've traveled where? I've done what work? What duty have I left undone? This maxim was followed by the eminent German physician, Hiifeland (i 762-1 836), who asked himself every» night, "What have I learned to-day?" ADAMS'S DIARY. Mr. Adams began a diary at the same time, in which he entered his notes of the day, his feelings, his impres- sions of persons and events. Pressure of business often interrupted it for long periods. His son, John Quincy, did the same. Much of these documents has been pub- lished, making valuable historical material. ADAMS IN ENGLAND. When Mr. Adams was appointed minister of the Uni- ted States at the English court, one of the foreign am- bassadors at Paris said to him, "You have been often in England?" "Never but once, in November and Decem- ber, 1783." "You have relations in England, no doubt?" "None at all. " "None? How can that be? You are of English extraction." "Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great-grandfather or great- grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England, these one hun- dred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American." "Age, we have seen proof enough of that." "This flattered me, no doubt," Mr. Adams adds, "and I was vain enough to be pleased with it." ii8 JOHN ADAMS. THE STORY OF JOHN ADAMS. FOR A SCHOOL OR CI.UB PROGRAMME. Each numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or member to read, or to recite, in a clear, distinct tone. If the school or club is small, each person may. take three or four paragraphs, but should not be required to recite them in succession. 1. John Adams was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, October ipf 1735- He was descended from worthy ancestors, who were among the founders of the province in which he was born. 2. His father was a farmer in plain circumstances, but a man who had received a college education as the only legacy from his father. He determined that John should have the best college edu- cation that could be afforded. 3. His mother's name was Susanna Boylston, the daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline, Massachusetts. 4. Both of his parents were possessed of admirable traits of character, and were earnest and exemplary in their religious lives. 5. John Adams says that at the first he did not take much inter- est in his books, and thus disappointed the expectation of his parents who had designed him for a clergyman's life. 6. A change of tutors made an entire change in the boy's incli- nations, and he began eagerly to study. He entered Harvard Col- lege in 1751, and was graduated in 1755, taking a high position in his class. 7. Having to make his own way in the world, he began by teach- ing in the public school in the town of Worcester. His salary was very small, which required of him the utmost carefulness in his ex- penditures. 8. Preferring the study of law to that of the ministry, he pre- pared himself for his profession under the guidance of Mr. Putnam 9. By diligent attention to his studies he became one of the most thoroughly informed members of the bar in New England. 10. In October, 1758, he was admitted to practice in the Supe- rior Court in Boston, and for several years had to struggle like many young lawyers to gain practice. 11. The first legal case he undertook was decided against him, which greatly mortified him. 12. In 1761 he heard the splendid argument of James Otis JOHN ADAMS. li") against the "Writs of Assistance," which made a vivid impression upon his mind. 13. On the 25th of October, 1764, he married Abigail Smith, the second daughter of the Rev. William Smith, of Weymouth. She was a woman of great beauty, strong intelligence, and sterlmg moral ex- cellencies. To her more than to any one else he owed the great suc- cess of his after life. 14. His fellow townsmen of Braintree honored him with the po- sitions of Surveyor of the Highways, Selectman and Assessor, and Overseer of the Poor. The duties of these offices he performed with vigor and fidelity. Faithful in the least he was afterwards to become faithful in much. 15. Mr. Adams became one of the leaders of the patriot party by arguing for the sittings of the Courts of Massachusetts, which Chief Justice Hutchinson had refused to hold, because they disregard- ed the Stamp Act. 16. John Adams and Jcsiah Quincy, Jr., defended, in the face of great opposition, the officers and soldiers concerned in the Boston Massacre, which occurred on the 5th of March, 1770. It was a brave and noble act for these two men to do. 17. In June, 1770, Mr. Adams was elected a delegate from Bos- ton to the General Court, he having made that city his home. The patriots needed just such a man as Mr. Adams with his legal know- ledge and ability as their counselor and guide. 18. While delegate he rendered important services by antagon- izing Governor Hutchinson, and afterwards secured the impeach- ment of Chief Justice Oliver who was bent on destroying the liberties of the colonies. IQ. He took his seat as delegate to the first Continental Congress in September, 1774, and became at once one of its recognized leaders. 20. He was returned as delegate to the second Congress in May, 1775, and nominated Washington as commander-in-chief. 21. He returned home in December, 1775, to accept the position of Chief Justice of Massachusetts, and to serve as member of the Provincial Council. 22. Early in 1776 the Council having elected him a delegate to Congress to serve during the year, he went back in February to Phil- adelphia and exerted a profound influence in that body and through- out the whole country. 23. He succeeded in inducing Congress to advise the colonies to institute governments of their own in place of the royal government which had ceased to exist. 24. On the fifteenth of May Mr. Adams seconded the resolution of Richard Henry Lee for the independence of the colonies, which was adopted by a bare majority of one. 120 JOHN ADAMS. 25. He was appointed on the committee to prepare a declara- tion, which, when presented, he defended in a masterly and convinc- ing manner. 26. His efforts so impressed Jefferson that he styled Mr. Adams "The Colossus of Independence" on the floor of Congress. 27. Mr. Adams was a member of the "committee on relations with foreign powers, and was also at the head of the Board of War. 28. He also served as a member of over one hundred different committees, and was chairman of at least twenty-five. 2g. He exerted all his powers to give efficient aid to the army, and was the inspiring spirit in organizing a naval force, which was always a cherished feature of his national system. 30. He was appointed in November, 1777, by Congress, to re- place Silas Deane, to secure an alliance with France, in response to the demand," IFf want one man of inflexible integrity on the embassy." 31. He returned home on the second of August, 1779, having performed his arduous and perplexing duties with great tact and dis- cretion. 32. While assisting in framing a new Constitution for Massa- chusetts, he was appointed on the 27th of September, 1779, one of the commissioners to help negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. 33; While in Paris waiting for the movements of that power, he had a controversy with Count de Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which Dr. Franklin became involved. - 34. The matter was ultimately referred to Congress, which, by a formal vote, approved the course of Mr. Adams. 35. He secured, on the 19th of April, 1782, as minister plenipo- tentiary, a recognition by Holland of the independence of the United States, and afterwards a large loan for the benefit of the government. 36. He helped conduct, with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, the peace negotiations with Great Britain to a successful issue, which were definitely completed in September, 1783. 37. He afterwards assisted in negotiating commercial treaties with the different nations of Europe, and heard King George an- nounce to Parliament his recognition of the independence of the United States. 38. Mr. Adams was appointed on the 14th of February, 1785, minister in the Court of St. James. George the Third committed an- other stupendous blunder, which was repeated by his Court, in treat- ing Mr. Adams with frigid politeness and cold distrust. 39. Returning to Boston in 1788, he gave his cordial support to the constitution then under discussion by the States. 40. In the election of 1789, he was unanimously chosen Vice President of the United States. The office often permitted him to ex- ercise a controlling influence upon public affairs. JOHN ADAMS. 12I 41. And on the refusal of Washington to serve a third term he was elected President in 1796, and inaugurated at Philadelphia on the 4th of March, 1797. 42. During his term of office the famous measures known as the "Alien and Sedition Acts" were passed. 43. Although Mr. Adams's participation in these laws, which were aimed mainly at French malcontents in the country, was con- fined to his official signature, it prevented his election the second time as President. 44. During his administration a navy was created m anticipa- tion of a war with France, the beginning of our glorious naval force which has rendered such splendid service in the Spanish-American war. 45. For twenty-fiv& years after his retirement from J;he Presi- dency, Mr. Adams lived a peaceful life in his New England home. Sorrow and joy were, however, his portion. 46. On the 28th of October, 1818, his wife, who had been the strong support of his life, was called away. In 1825, when nearly ninety years of age, he heard of the election of his son, John Quincy Adams, as President of the United States, by the House of Repre- sentatives. 47. On the 4th of July, 1826, the celebration at Quincy was going on, and the ringing cheers to the toast for the day, which Mr. Adams had presented on the 30th of June — "Independence Forever'' — were plainly heard by those who were watching the dying statesman. 48. His lips moved. Bending over him his attendants caught the words, "Thomas Jefferson still lives." It was not so. His great co-worker in the cause of independence had just before preceded him to the life beyond. PROGRAMME FOR A JOHN ADAMS EVENING. 1. Music. 2. Essay — Brief Sketch of Adams's Career. 3. Brief Papers — "Adams in France," "Adams in Holland." Discussion. 4. Music — Vocal or Instrumental. 5. Brief Sketches — "Adams and Hamilton," "Adams and Jeffer- son." Discussion. 6. Music. 7. Brief Sketch — "Alien and Sedition Acts." 8. Recitation — "From Speeches of John Adams." 9. Music. 122 JOHN ADAMS. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. What is said regarding the supremacy of one mind? Of the con- stitution of a State? What is the story of the County officers? What does it illustrate? What become of the old jail? The new structure? What is said of ancient Greece? Of Solon? Of modern States? Of the elements in our daily life ? To what are republics suited? What has been the history of France? Of Switzerland? To what should these facts lead us? What is the influejice of small communities on re- publics ? What is said of the Constitution of 1788? Of the founders? Of the caution to be borne in mind? Of patriotism? Of feeling and opin- ion ? Of WashingtoJt ? What lessons should republicans and democrats learn ? What is said of the early patriots who had different opinions? Of fohn Ad- ams? Of Henry Adams? Of his ancestors? Of his estate? Of the effect of Nature t(poti the New E7igla7ider? Of Calvin s system? Of Braintree? Of foseph Adams and family? Whor/i did President Adams's father marry? When was fohn Adams born? When and where graduated? To what profession destined? Who were sotne of his classmates? What was the custom regarding rank in College? What is said of Adatns's early life? Of the year of his gradua- tion, etc ? Of the struggles of different religious sects? What does Adams say of his perplexity in choosing his vocation, etc. ? Of Puritan standards and theology, etc. ? Of Adams contrasted with other statesmaii ? Ofselfrelia^tce and self esteem ? Of Mr. Adai7is's law studies, etc.? Of Adatns s profits as a law- yer? Whom did Mr. Adams marry? What is said of the marriage? Of Mr. Adams's devotion to his professiofi? Of Adams and Otis? Of A da?}is and March j, 777./ ? Of the Stamp A ct and Mr. A dams ? Of his associates, etc.? Of Chief fustice Oliver? Of the Boston Tea Party? Of fohn Ad- ams as compared with Samicel Adams and others? Of the resolu- tiofi of resistance, etc.? Of the response of the colonies? Of the Con- tinental Congress? Of Parlia7ne7it? Of the love of persotial liberty? Of the Feudal system ? Of fines? Of the kitig and the raising of money? Of King fohn and the Magna Charta,etc.? Of George III and his mother? His tnittisters attd Pitt, etc ? What is said of North, etc. ? Of the resistance of the commercial States ? Of the jotirney of the delegates fro>n Massachusetts ? Of Vir- ginia and Massachusetts? Of the cotnmittee on which Mr. Adams served? Of the Declaratioti of Rights? Of the control of the Congress? Of the action of the Congress, etc. ? Of the suggestion of the Provincial Congress? Of a commander-in- chief, etc. ? Of the points gained by Ada?ns? Of Mr. Adams's confiden- tial letters, etc.? Of his estif?tate of Dickinson, Hancock? Of their effects? Of Dickinson's Olive Branch? JOHN ADAMS. 123 What instructions were given by Massachusetts? How did Adams find the Congress ? What did he prophesy f What did Paine write ? What did A dams say regarding the acts of Congress ? What were the difficulties of the situation? Who determined to popularize the local government? How are the Hamiltonian and feffersonian systetns compared? What is said of Adams and Lee, etc.? What committee was appointed May 2^th? What resolutions were adopted fune 17th ? What fnovetnent began May 6th ? What preamble was adopted May 13th ? What was its ef- fect, etc. ? What is said of the debate on Lee's resoluiioti ? IVhat documetit was reported fune 26th ? To whom had its preparation been referred? Who wrote it? What is said of the de- bate upon it? What did Adams write to his wife in the successive paragraphs of the sketch, etc.? What is said of Ada?ns's supreme ef- fort? Of the sessions of the Second Continental Congress? Of his work Oft committees ? Of the one on which he served utiunllingly ? Of the conduct of the business of the Congress? Of the jealousies, prevailing? Of the want of appreciation of Washington ? Of Wash- ington's rank among men? Of the denial of hostility by Adatns to- wards Washington, etc. ? What was Mr. Adains commissioned to do? What was his object in going to Amsterdam ? What was the character of the French min- ister? Ln what way were our commissioners humiliated? What did the Americafts dettiand should be their western boundary? What was Spaitt s counter claim ? \\ 'hat can you say of negotiations concerning the fisheries? What was the most difficult subject with which they had to deal? When was the final treaty of peace signed? What is said of Adams as minister to England and of his ser- vices? Of his election as Vice President? Of his estimate of the officef Of Adafns and Hafuilton ? Of the abuse of Washington ? What happened when Adams demanded the fulfillment of the treaty of lySj ? When and why did he resign ? When was he installed as Vice President? Which party abused both Washington and Ad- ams? What infiuence did the French Revolutioji have upon Ameri- can feeling and policy ? W^hat great mistake in policy was co77i)nitted by President Adams? Under what circumstances were the famous Alien and Sedition laws passed? What did the Sedition law forbid? What oppositiojt was made to the law in Eastern Pennsylvania? What can you say of the Federal party during the administra- tion of fohn Adams? What caft you say of fefferson in this cottnec- tion? What effect did his election to the Presidency have upon the Federal party ? What did the Federalists undertake to do in the closing days of their power? What canyon say of the appointment of Chief fustice Marshall? What can you say of the ivritings of Adams? How did the reconcili- ation between fefferson and A dams come about ? What can you say of the death of these two men? What was the favorite motto of John Adams? 124 JOHN ADAMS. SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. The Puritan Character. John Ada/ns and Sainiiel Adams Compared. The Feudal System. Character of George III. The Continental Congress. The Influence of the Quakers. The Different Colonial Governments. John Dickinson. Magna Charta. Sajfiuel Chase. The Various Cotnmissions Afipoitited by the Ufiited States. Govertimettt During this Period. CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN ADAMS. 1735 Oct. 19. John Adams born at Braintree (Quincy), Mass. Spent his early youth on his father's farm. 1755 Graduated at Harvard College. Became schoolteacher at Worcester. 1756 Aug. 23. Began to study law while teaching. 1758 Oct. Came to Boston. Nov. 6, admitted to the bar; recom- mended by Gridley, leading lawyer of the colony. 1761 Heard Otis's speech on Writs of Assistance. 1764 Oct. 25. Married Abigail Smith, of Weymouth, clergyman's daughter. 1765 Dec. 18. Boston chooses Adams as colleague with Gridley and Otis for argument before the Governor and Council, Dec. 20. 1768 Moved to Boston. Gov. Bernard offers him post of Advocate- General in the Admiralty Court. He refuses it. 1770 March 5, "Boston Massacre." March 6, Adams and Josiah Quincy retained as counsel for Capt. Preston and the sol- diers. June 3, elected Representative for Boston. Oct. 24- 30, Preston tried and acquitted. 1771 In ill health: removes to Braintree. Despondent. Office in Boston. 1772 In autumn, removed to Boston: determines to avoid politics. 1774 June 17, elected one of the five representatives of Massachu- setts in the First Continental Congress, Philadelphia, Sept. i. Active on committees and in debates. Starts for home on Nov. 28. 1775 May 5-10, journey to Second Congress. Opposes Dickinson's "Olive-Branch;" still dares not say "independence!" Urges JOHN ADAMS. 125 adoption of Army and appointment of Washington; effected June 15. Home in August: in Congress, Sept. 15: on many committees. Home, Dec. Appointed Chief Justice of Mas- sachusetts: accepted: never served. 1776 Jan. 24-Feb. 8, to Philadelphia with Gerry. May 6-15, new State governments advised: Adams assists in making consti- tutions. June 28, committee on Declaration reports it: July 3, Adams leads debate on it. Work of organization of busi- ness. Conference with Lord Howe, Sept. 11. Went home, Oct. 13. 1777 In Congress till Nov. 11. Dec. 3, receives appointment, Com- missioner to France. 1778 Feb. 13, sails from Boston: March 31, reaches Bordeaux: at Paris, April 8. Organizes the work of the commission. 1779 June 17-Aug. 2, voyage home. Elected to Massachusetts con- vention, Aug. 9: serves from opening, Sept. i to Nov. 10. Chosen envoy to make peace with England, Sept. 27: com- mission dated Oct. 20: accepted Nov. 4. Sailed in French frigate Nov. 13. Reached Ferrol Dec. 8. 1780 In Paris, Feb. 5, with sons, John Q. and Charles. Controversy with Vergennes, middle of June. To Holland, July 27. Pub- lishes information about the United States. Thanks of Con- gress, Dec. 12. 1781 Jan. I, commissioned plenipotentiary to Holland. To Paris, July 6: soon returns: continues work in Holland. 1782 April 19, Holland recognizes independence; Adams received as minister. Loans obtained: commercial treaty obtained, Oct. 7. Negotiation with England begins March 11: with Oswald as agent, April 6: Adams joins Jay and Franklin in Paris, Oct. 26. They disobey orders of Congress and nego- tiate without Vergennes. Nov. 30, agreement reached and signed. Dec. 4, Adams sends resignation; not accepted. Commissioners are provoked and disgusted by Livingston's censure. 1783 Jan. 20, commissioners and English agree on truce. Final treaty Sept. 3. Sept., Adams appointed with Jefferson and Franklin to make commercial treaty with England. Sept. 14, Adams ill: to England for rest and health, Oct. 24: in Lon- don, Oct. 26. Dec, to Holland. r/84 Same commissioners have power to treat with any nation, and meet at Paris, Aug. 30. Mrs. Adams joins him Aug. 7. House- keeping near Paris, Aug. 17. 1785 Feb. 24, Congress appoints him minister to Great Britain. Family to London, May. Adams presented to King George HI, June I. Finds his place difficult. 1787 Resigns: resignation accepted, Oct. 5. Congress commends him. 1788 April 20, sails from England. 126 JOHN ADAMS. 1789 April 6, declared to be elected Vice President: takes seat, New York, April 20. Often called to give casting vote in Senate. 1793 Vice President again. 1797 Is elected President by three votes over Jefferson. Takes Washington's Cabinet. Hamilton's leadership in the party is troublesome. 1798 French and English insolence and encroachments. X Y Z af- fair in France: war spirit aroused: Adams popular. Navy in- creased. Alien Acts, June 25 and July 6: Sedition Act, July 14. Kentucky Resolutions, Nov. 6: Virginia Resolutions, Dec. 21. 1799 Feb., New Embassy to France: it made a treaty Sept. 30, 1800. Continued party struggles. Fries condemned for treason. 1800 Fries pardoned. Cabinet changed. Federal party fails: Ad- ams not re-elected. 1801 Quarrel with Jefferson. Marshall made Chief Justice. '"The Midnight Judges." Adams retires. Loses his son Charles. 1818 Oct. 28., Death of Mrs. Adams. Adams previously reconciled to Jefferson. 1820 Mr. Adams made presidential elector; votes for Monroe. Elect- ed to Massachusetts convention, and made president of it, but declines. 1826 July 4, Death of John Adams, almost 91 years old. BIBLIOGRAPHY. For those who wish to read extensively the following works are especially commended: "Works of John Adams, with Life, etc." By his grandson, Charles Francis Adams. 10 vols., 8vo: the first three are biographic. "Life of John Adams." By John Quincy Adams and Charles Francis Adams: chiefly by C. F. Adams. 2 vols., i2mo. (Nos. i and 2 have been principally used for this biography.) "John Adams." By John T. Morse, Jr. (American Statesmen Series.) I vol., i2mo. "Constitutional History of the U. S." By Hermann Edward Von Hoist. Vol. L "History of the U. S. under the Constitution." By James Schouler. Vol. I. "Narrative and Critical History of America." By Justin Winsor. Vol. Vn. (This volume gives abundant references to other books.) "History of the People of the U. S." By John Bach McMaster. Vols. I and IL "Cyclopedia of Political Science." By J. J. Salor. 3 vols., 8vo. "The Guide to American History," Channing and Harz, i vol., l2mo, is an excellent manual of reference for all students. APR 8 1903 COPY DEL. TO CAT. DiV. APR. 9 1903 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011896 754 9 fc ■l-il . I,.:- Ijiiii:;^:;. : i!' .-; '^'■iii'-,;i- liiii i'ii:*l 'i::.:i:;;f: ;' : ::';t!Hi!l!'i'i''l mi ■-■'> ;;-; 'if;'" !!;i!'!'i!|:i !! liili.Miiil ! i! ij .1 ■! ii''liii|!;j;iiiii!l!;tij;iaiii;:Uli:,; •• -Ijli! pji :l 'Tiiill'illi! 'Wi'!jl;li i|i|i , m