John Adams

One of the stern and dauntless few whose name made despots tremble.

During the struggle for Independence there was no loftier genius, no purer patriot who took part in that memorable contest, than the subject of this memoir. The town in which he was born was then called Braintree, but was subsequently changed to that of Quincy, a name which it still retains, and is situated in the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. John Adams was born October 30, 1735. He was a direct lineal descendant, in the fourth generation, from Henry Adams, who fled from the persecution in England during the reign of the first Charles. It will be remembered that Archbishop Laud, the spiritual adviser of Charles I., influenced no doubt by the Roman Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, took especial pains to enforce the strictest observance of the Liturgy of the established Church of England, in the Church of Scotland, and also in the Puritan churches. Those individuals and congregations who would not conform to these requirements were severely dealt with, and these persecutions drove a great many to the western world, where they might worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

The maternal ancestor of John Adams was John Alden, a passenger in the Mayflower, and thus he inherited from his parentage the title of a "Son of Liberty," which was in due course of time given to him and others. Col. Barre was the first to designate those American patriots thus, on the floor of the British House of Commons. His primary education was derived in a school at Braintree and there he passed through a preparatory course of instruction for Harvard University, where he graduated when he was only twenty years of age. Having chosen the law as a profession, says his biographer, he entered upon the study of it with an eminent barrister in Worcester, by the name of Putnam. There he had the advantage of sound legal instruction, and through Mr. Putnam he became acquainted with many distinguished public men, among whom was Mr. Gridley, the Attorney-General. The first interview awakened sentiments of mutual regard, and young Adams was allowed the free use of Mr. Gridley's extensive library, a privilege of great value in those days. It was a rich treasure thrown open to him, and its value was soon apparent in the expansion of his general knowledge. He was admitted to the bar in 1758, and commenced practice in Braintree.

At an early period young Adams's mind was turned to the contemplation of the general politics of his country, and the atmosphere of liberal principles in which he had been born and nurtured, gave a patriotic bias to his judgment and feelings. He watched narrowly the movements of the British Government toward the American Colonies, and was ever outspoken in his condemnation of its oppressive acts. In 1761 he was admitted as a barrister. The business of his profession increased, and his acquaintance among distinguished politicians extended so rapidly that he became an active public man, and in 1765, when the Stamp Act had raised a perfect hurricane in America, he wrote and published his "Essay on the Canon and Feudal Laws." This great work soon won for, and placed him in high public esteem. The same year he became associated with James Otis and others, in demanding, in the presence of the Royal Governor, that "the Courts should dispense with stamped paper in the administration of justice."

Some time during the year 1766 Mr. Adams married Abigail Smith, daughter of a pious clergyman of Braintree, and soon afterward he removed to Boston. There he was actively associated with Hancock, Otis, and other prominent men, in the various measures which had been proposed in favor of liberty, and the general welfare of the people, and was very efficient in the endeavor to have the militia removed from the town. Governor Bernard tried to bribe him to silence, at least, by offers of lucrative offices, but he disdainfully rejected all his overtures—thus showing himself a patriot in principle as well as in name. How would some of our present political patriots compare with him? Mr. Adams was applied to for the purpose of defending Captain Preston and his men, when they were arraigned for murder, after the "Boston Massacre;" and although popular favor on one side, and the demands of justice and humanity on the other, were the horns of the dilemma between which Mr. Adams was placed by the application, he accepted it, and defended the prisoners successfully. Captain Preston was acquitted, and notwithstanding the intense excitement that existed against the soldiers, the patriotism of Mr. Adams was too pure to make this, his defense of the enemy, a cause for withdrawing from him the confidence which the people had placed in him. He was esteemed the higher by his friends for the noble act, and the people were satisfied, as was evident by their choosing him, that same year, a representative in the Provincial Assembly.

Mr. Adams became very obnoxious to both Governors Bernard and Hutchinson. He was elected to a seat in the Executive Council, but the latter erased his name. He was again elected when Governor Gage assumed authority, and he too erased his name. These things increased his popularity. Soon after the accession of Gage, the Assembly at Salem* adopted a proposition for a general Congress, and elected five delegates thereto in spite of the efforts of the Governor to prevent it. John Adams was one of those delegates, and took his seat in the first Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on the fifth of September, 1774. He was again elected a delegate in 1775, and through his influence, George Washington, of Virginia, was elected Commander-in-Chief of all the forces of the United Colonies. Mr. Adams did not nominate Washington, as has been frequently stated. He gave notice that he should "propose a member of Congress from Virginia," which was understood to be Washington, but for reasons that do not appear upon the journals, he was nominated by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland.

*The "Boston Port Bill," so-called, which was adopted by Parliament, closed the port of Boston, removed the Custom House therefrom, its laws, courts, etc., and the meeting of the Provincial Assembly was called at Salem. This oppressive act was intended to have a twofold effect—to punish the Bostonians for the tea riot and awe them into submission to the Royal will. But it effected neither.

On the 6th of May, 1776, Mr. Adams introduced a motion in Congress "that the Colonies should form governments independent of the Crown." This motion was equivalent to a declaration of independence, and when, a month afterward, Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion more explicitly to declare the Colonies free and independent, Mr. Adams was one of its warmest advocates. He was appointed one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence,* and he placed his signature to that document on the 2d of August, 1776. After the battle of Long Island he was appointed by Congress, with Dr. Franklin and Edward Rutledge, to meet Lord Howe in conference upon Staten Island, concerning the pacification of the Colonies. According to his prediction, the mission failed. Notwithstanding his great labors in Congress, he was appointed a member of the Council of Massachusetts, while on a visit home, in 1776, the duties of which he faithfully fulfilled. During the remainder of the year 1776, and until December, 1777 (when he was sent on a foreign mission), he was member of ninety-nine different committees, and chairman of twenty-five.

*The committee consisted of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.

In 1777 Mr. Adams was appointed a special commissioner to the Court of France, whither Dr. Franklin had previously gone. Finding the subject of his mission fully attended to by Franklin, Adams returned home in 1779. He was immediately called to the duty of forming a Constitution for his native State. While in the discharge of his duty in Convention, Congress appointed him a Minister to Great Britain, to negotiate a treaty of peace and commerce with that government. He left Boston in the French frigate La Sensible, in October, 1777, and after a long passage, landed at Ferrol, in Spain, whence he journeyed by land to Paris. He found England indisposed for peace if American Independence was to be the sine qua non, and was about to return home, when he received from Congress the appointment of Commissioner to Holland, to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the States-General. The confidence of Congress in him was unlimited, and he was intrusted at one time with the execution of no less that six missions, each of a different character. These commissions empowered him, 1st, to negotiate a peace with Great Britain; 2d, to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain; 3d, the same with the States-General; 4th, the same with the Prince of Orange; 5th, to pledge the faith of the United States to the Armed Neutrality; 6th, to negotiate a loan of ten millions of dollars. In 1781 he was associated with Franklin, Jay, and Laurens, as a commissioner to conclude treaties of peace with the European powers. In 1782 he assisted in negotiating a commercial treaty with Great Britain, and was the first of the American Commissioners who signed the definite treaty of peace with that power. In 1784 Mr. Adams returned to Paris, and in January, 1785, he was appointed Minister for the United States at the Court of Great Britain, That post he honorably occupied until 1788, when he resigned the office and returned home.

While Mr. Adams was absent, the Federal Constitution was adopted, and it received his hearty approval. He was placed upon the ticket with Washington for Vice-President, at the first election under the new Constitution, and was elected to that office. He was re-elected to the same office in 1792, and in 1796 he was chosen to succeed Washington in the Presidential chair. In 1801 he retired from public life. In 1816 he was placed on the Democratic ticket as Presidential elector. In 1818 he lost his wife, with whom he had lived fifty-two years in uninterrupted conjugal felicity. In 1824 he was chosen, a member of the Convention of Massachusetts to revise the Constitution, and was chosen President of that body, which honor he declined on account of his great age. In 1825 he had the felicity of seeing his son elevated to the Presidency of the United States. In the spring of 1826 his physical powers rapidly declined, and on the fourth of July of that year he expired, in the ninety-second year of his age. On the morning of the fourth it was evident he could not last many hours. On being asked for a toast for the day, the last words he ever uttered—words of glorious import—fell from his lips, "INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!" On the very same day, and at nearly the same hour, his fellow-committee-man in drawing up the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, also died. It was the fiftieth anniversary of that glorious act, and the coincidence made a deep impression upon the public mind. His portrait graces "Independence Hall," and is numbered sixteen.