After the miscue and recall of this post a few weeks ago, it is now time to return to the mission. Today we will spend all of our time on one of the key Declaration signers and founding fathers in our nation’s history, John Adams.
John Adams
Much time has already been spent in this series on the person, importance, events, and interactions of the great American Patriot, John Adams. There are loads of historical articles and biographies that readers can source to learn more. I will only hit on a handful of the major points of his biographical information. Instead, I will focus some of the information on his interactions, observations he made, and quotes of interest.
Adams was born in 1735 in Braintree, MA to John, Sr. and Susanna Boylston and two brothers. John, Sr. came from a long line of Adams that immigrated to America in 1638 from England. His father was a deacon in the Congregationalist Church and was a farmer, cordwainer (shoemaker) and officer in the militia. Susanna was from an area family that were leaders in the medical field. John had a good relationship with his family and great respect for his father.
He was first educated in a “dame” school, which were private schools for children aged 2-5. He then went to a local Latin school that focused on the language, logic, rhetoric and math. John ran into truancy problems with a dislike for his teacher partially because he preferred to farm with his father, but his he made him stay in school. At age sixteen he entered Harvard College, graduating at age twenty. During the period he developed a fire for studying the works of ancient writers in their languages. He became a teacher for four years as he personally debated his future profession. His father desired he enter the clergy, however, over time he felt the honor and respect earned in the practice of the law to be his calling. From Wiki there is this interesting quote from that time period, “He decided to become a lawyer, writing his father that he found among lawyers “noble and gallant achievements” but, among the clergy, the “pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces”. He had reservations about his self-described “trumpery” and failure to share the “happiness of [his] fellow men”. He even felt guilty at age nineteen when the French and Indian War began that he was not a soldier in the militia like his family members had been as he found it to be more fitting to him than even being a lawyer.
He began law studies in 1756, earned an A. M. in 1758, and was admitted to the bar a year later. He was quite good at his profession and was a leader for the colonists when the Stamp Act was imposed. His points were simple and applied to all British subjects – taxation only by consent and that all were entitled to a jury of their peers if charged with an offense.
He first met his future wife who was a cousin, Abigail, when she was fifteen years old. It was not love at first sight. However, over time they grew very close and married in 1764 when he was 29 and she was 19 years of age despite her mother’s objections. Adams’ father had died in 1761 and left him a small farm with a home. The couple moved in and lived there until 1783. They had six children together and four survived to adulthood. They had three sons, two became alcoholics, but one was successful and a future POTUS, John Quincy Adams.
The legal career of Adams was hugely successful with many notable cases during the period that included successfully representing John Hancock and the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. Despite that he was an antagonist against the British Parliament ‘s Acts as well as moves of the Crown at every turn. He found the Boston Tea Party to be the “grandest event” in the history of the colonist independence movement. Yet, he was constantly struggling with living arrangements. He found the rural area of the Braintree farm and home to be filled with vulgar people unacceptable to raising his family, so he moved them to a home in Boston near his law practice; only to move them back to the farm a couple of years later due to the turmoil in Boston.
His activities during the Continental Congresses, votes and signing of the Declaration of Independence are well documented, sourced and legendary. I will not repeat them here as it would take too much time. However, none are more explanatory of his thoughts and devotions than the following letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776.
He knew what it all meant and the risks. He knew our nation was dependent on God’s Providence as written in the Declaration document he and the others signed. He was willing to risk it all for what would come of it.
For more detail of his life, including those of his person versus accomplishments, please read the following link,
https://www.dsdi1776.com/signer/john-adams
An Observation
It is remarkable to me that many of our founders soon visited the nation that oppressed them after the war. Adams was no exception to this as he returned there for health reasons and because he could not get along with Benjamin Franklin in France the year the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war. He even attended a meeting in Parliament and heard King George III recognize the independence of America. He brought his wife and family there and became the first minister (ambassador) to Great Britain from 1785-88.
As a result he desired to stay neutral with the war between Great Britain and France. However, he felt it necessary to achieve what we now know as “peace through strength” with a military build up in our homeland as well as strengthening our central government through the new Constitution and increased revenues to support it all. That would become very important with the War of 1812 looming in the not too distant future.
With his coziness with Great Britain, being a perceived antagonist of France, and the passage of the highly unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts that he promoted; it all eventually cost his political career. With his fall, the Federalist Party generally disappeared from existence after the War of 1812. In his later years, Adams reconciled with Anti-Federalist Thomas Jefferson as we discussed in a previous Part, thanks to the efforts of their mutual founding father friend, Benjamin Rush. The scars of politics and governance had healed enough for both to find perspective, put aside differences, and rekindle their friendship.
Quotes
Nothing sheds more light on the life of this patriot than his personal quotes. However, if you expect consistency in thought and word, you probably need to move on to future Parts and other signers. Nobody could flip flop better that John Adams in my opinion. He was always quick with a remark and had an opinion on every subject or person. The problem was that at times his opinion changed depending on the audience, interactions, and season. That being said, many are memorable and relevant to patriotism. Below is a sampling of quotes on various subjects.
Quotes on Government,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
“When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.”
On Freedom and Democracy,
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
“Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.”
On the Constitution,
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion…would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
On Power,
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
On Law and Politics,
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
“In politics the middle way is none at all.”
On Religion,
(The next two are dandies 😂 – TB2)
”Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.”
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”
“Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.”
I could go on and on as he had quotes for years. Just one more, it is well noted, and is 100% truth.
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
America will not be enslaved by sword anytime soon. It was being enslaved by debt. Which is a Biblical statement of truth (Proverbs 22:7) that John Adams may have agreed with (or not) depending on situation, audience, day of the week, weather forecast… 🤪
Conclusion
Normally, I would end there. I would stay on topic, which in this case would be about John Adams and something he did or said. This great patriot achieved the highest office in the land and risked everything for liberty. He lived to 91 years of age and had a very close relationship with his wife, family and many contemporaries. As previously stated he had son who became a POTUS as well. However, I am not sure he had the relationship I would have wanted for him to have with Jesus Christ. I believe his life would have played out somewhat differently and he would not have been so polarizing and sharp of tongue. That would have led to reason and less contentiousness that sank his career in public service. I contrast him with another fiery founding father below, who was a contemporary of Adams, and who made the statement below. From the Trumpet Voice of Freedom,
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
– Patrick Henry –
May it always be so.
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