Learned
and thoughtful, John Adams was more remarkable as a political
philosopher than as a politician. "People and nations are
forged in the fires of adversity," he said, doubtless
thinking of his own as well as the American experience.
Adams was
born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated
By John
Trumbull, 1793. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
Institution
lawyer, he
early became identified with the patriot cause; a delegate to
the First and Second Continental Congresses, he led in the
movement for independence.
During the
Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in diplomatic
roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. From 1785 to
1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James's, returning to
be elected Vice President under George Washington.
Adams' two
terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man
of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He complained to his wife
Abigail, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the
most insignificant office that ever the invention of man
contrived or his imagination conceived."
When Adams
became President, the war between the French and British was
causing great difficulties for the United States on the high
seas and intense partisanship among contending factions within
the Nation.
His
administration focused on France, where the Directory, the
ruling group, had refused to receive the American envoy and had
suspended commercial relations.
Adams sent
three commissioners to France, but in the spring of 1798 word
arrived that the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand and the
Directory had refused to negotiate with them unless they would
first pay a substantial bribe. Adams reported the insult to
Congress, and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which
the Frenchmen were referred to only as "X, Y, and Z."
The Nation
broke out into what Jefferson called "the X. Y. Z.
fever," increased in intensity by Adams's exhortations. The
populace cheered itself hoarse wherever the President appeared.
Never had the Federalists been so popular.
Congress
appropriated money to complete three new frigates and to build
additional ships, and authorized the raising of a provisional
army. It also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, intended to
frighten foreign agents out of the country and to stifle the
attacks of Republican editors.
President
Adams did not call for a declaration of war, but hostilities
began at sea. At first, American shipping was almost defenseless
against French privateers, but by 1800 armed merchantmen and
U.S. warships were clearing the sea-lanes.
Despite
several brilliant naval victories, war fever subsided. Word came
to Adams that France also had no stomach for war and would
receive an envoy with respect. Long negotiations ended the quasi
war.
Sending a
peace mission to France brought the full fury of the
Hamiltonians against Adams. In the campaign of 1800 the
Republicans were united and effective, the Federalists badly
divided. Nevertheless, Adams polled only a few less electoral
votes than Jefferson, who became President.
On
November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams arrived in the
new Capital City to take up his residence in the White House. On
his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote his
wife, "Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the
best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter
inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under
this roof."
Adams
retired to his farm in Quincy. Here he penned his elaborate
letters to Thomas Jefferson. Here on July 4, 1826, he whispered
his last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives." But
Jefferson had died at Monticello a few hours earlier.
-
John
Adams