The USA in the Time of John Adams
1797-1801
by Mike Donovan
Mysterious and spooky The Adams Family
“Second in War, Second in Peace, Second in the Hearts of his Countrymen” - Lawyer – Federalist – Founding Father – The Duke of Braintree - Harvard – ‘The Atlas of American Independence’ - Not much of a throwing arm - Defeated for re-election by his own Vice President! - Much cooler person than Paul Giamatti
When Adams was elected to replace Washington there was apprehension. Would the country be able to transfer administrations smoothly and efficiently and without rancor? What example would the USA show the world and itself? The new administration came in without a problem. Washington was reputed to have said to him on Inauguration Day, “I am out and you are in. Now lets see who is the happiest!”
John Adams, like Washington, Jefferson and probably Madison, did more for his country before he became president than he did for it as president. His role in the American Revolution was at least as large as his presidency and almost as large as his waistline (John is probably our fourth fattest president after Taft, Cleveland, and Clinton on his worst day.)
Jack Adams managed to avoid war with France at a time (1798-1800) when it was his for the asking. He and his administration had integrity. But Adams also has to answer to history for the Alien and Sedition Acts, a shameful affront to the freedoms on which the nation had supposedly been founded (and for the fact that nobody loved him personally except his wife.)
Electoral College 1796
Adams, Massachusetts F) 71
Jefferson, Virginia DR) 68
Pinckney, South Carolina F) 59
Burr, New York DR) 30
48 other Electoral Votes were scattered among several candidates including some who were not officially in the running. George Washington received several votes.
JOHN ADAMS CABINET
Secretary of State ----------Timothy Pickering –1797-1799
-----------John Marshall-------1799-1801
Secretary of War---------------James McHenry---1797-1799
John Marshall-----1799-1800
Samuel Dexter----1800-1801
Roger Griswold—1801
Att. General--------------------------Charles Lee –1797-1801
Theophilus Parsons-1801
Secretary of Navy ---(First One)-Benjamin Stoddard 1798-1801
BIO
John Adams was born October 30, 1735 on a 40-acre farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. Actually the little farmhouse was in Braintree, which is now Quincy. I passed the President’s boyhood house on a bus almost every day in 1974 when I was commuting from Braintree from broadcasting school in Boston. The Adams ancestors were from Devonshire, England.
John's father was an aristocrat who felt embarrassed because he was not rich, but he was not 'dirt poor' as someone recently insisted to me in a comedy dressing room in Atlantic City that he was. Adams senior was a deacon, a town councilman and a supervisor of schools and roads. John Adam's mom was a Boylston, which was an upper crust name as in Boylston Street in Boston. The Adams family was powdered wig but drank powdered milk.
Adams graduated from Harvard in 1735. JA became a teacher in Worcester (the poor bloke) for a short while before joining a law office in Worcester as an apprentice. Johnny got his law gun in 1758 and began a good life as a successful lawyer in the Braintree/Boston area.
John married Abigail Smith, the daughter of a Puritan minister. Abigail would, like Barbara Bush, become both the wife and mother of a president. Abbie was a sharp and well informed First Lady from 1797-1801. Her cheerful nature complimented the President’s serious nature. They named their first child John Quincy. America's second First Lady did not live to see her son become president.
1765 was a dramatic year for Colonial relations with the Mother Country as well as for Adams personally. That was the year that the home government passed the notorious Stamp Act. This was a tax on all official documents in the form of a required special stamp, similar in appearance to the stamp on a pack of cigarettes or playing cards today. The Stamp Act didn’t affect the distant western frontier settler very much but it certainly put a sting on every businessperson, large or small on the seaboard. The rich merchants of the east coast were no more easily crossed in 1765 than they are today. There was trouble brewing.
John Adams proposed to the Braintree town meeting that a resolution be passed condemning the Stamp Act as tyranny. Adams challenged the right of the Crown to tax the colonies at all. Copies of the “Braintree Resolution” were sent off to many Massachusetts towns where the town councils approved it every time. The rich lawyer Adams was turning into a grass-roots radical revolutionary leader.
The outcry against the Stamp Act swept the Colonies and put a scare into London. Parliament reluctantly repealed the Stamp Act the next year but with a new act to replace it called the ‘Declaratory Act.’ This was a simple warning to the Colonies that they could tax Colonies. The Declaratory Act said in effect, ‘okay, we’ll repeal this one, but in the future don’t you forget that we still have the power.’ Andrew Jackson would later pass a similar law against the US south called the ‘Force Acts.'
Adams made himself even more popular among the rebel element when he turned down a well-salaried job with the British Admiralty.
He moved to Boston in 1766.
On March 5, 1770 an event took place in Boston which snowballed into a large political matter and dragged Adams in deep.
British troops had been stationed in Boston for aggressive reasons (not to protect the town) since 1768, and tension between the townspeople and the redcoats had been brewing for some time. British soldiers were getting into bar fights with longshoremen and new Crown laws forced the town of Boston to take the responsibility of sheltering of the very troops the people were furious with for being around at all.
On a snowy cold evening, March 5, 1770 a British soldier on sentry duty in front of the State House slapped a boy that had been harassing him. When the little punk ran away and told the grown-ups what had happened a mob of angry Bostonians gathered around the State House and began taunting the British sentries. Soon they were throwing snowballs at the soldiers. Other Lobster-backs came out of the building and formed a defensive circle while the snowballs escalated into snowballs with a rock in the middle. Then someone in the British ranks gave the order to fire. In an instant five civilians were bleeding to death in the snow. It was Kent State, 1770.
The Massacre created a furor throughout the city and the colony. Paul Revere made a propaganda painting of the event showing the troops viciously gunning down innocent civilians who were doing nothing wrong. Everyone bought it.
Everyone that is, except John Adams.
JA was anything but a Tory, but as a lawyer and a person of conscience he felt that the truth was not being properly represented. Lawyer John Adams agreed to defend the British soldiers who were to face a military court for the shootings. John thought that this decision would probably cost him whatever standing he had in the community, and injure his career. But he had to do the right thing.
Adams fought hard to expose the truth in court. Were not the solders provoked and in fear for their safety when they fired the fatal volley? “Who likes to get hit in the head with a rock-centered snowball?” he argued. Perhaps the British government was more to blame than these soldiers caught in the middle of this bad policy.
Six soldiers and their commander were acquitted. Two were pronounced guilty but given lenient sentences (one was branded). Surprisingly, the public never held Adams in contempt for defending the Bloody-backs in court. Instead, John became all the more respected as a man of his convictions. From now on the word of John Adams would be that much more valuable because he had now proven that it was not biased and not for sale. The men of Massachusetts not only did not punish Adams for defending the British soldiers, they voted him to the Massachusetts General Assembly in 1771.
The next incendiary incident began when the British placed a tax on tea, which outraged not only Boston, but the Colonials in general. They all liked their tea and they preferred it without cream or tax.
The Colonists weren't mad because the tax hurt their purse. The taxed English tea was actually cheaper than the smuggled tea they were buying without a tax. It was the taxation principle that they objected to. The resentment was felt in all the colonies. All over the continent, the colonial population refused to buy or drink imported English tea. Hostile longshoremen forced British ships to turn back and take their tea back to the big island. But in Massachusetts the governor was determined that the tea would be unloaded. The locals were determined that it would stay on the ships or go back to the King. Something had to give.
In December of 1773 the rads of Boston dressed themselves up as Indians and boarded a merchant ship full of tea resting at anchor in Boston Harbor. They dumped a shipload of tea into Boston Harbor. Citizens watched approvingly from the shoreline. This has come down to history as the famous ‘Boston Tea Party.’ Adams wasn’t on the boat but he called the event ‘glorious.’
The British responded by closing the port of Boston. This was the main part of the ‘Intolerable Acts.’ The Crown dissolved the Massachusetts Assembly. The city would not re-open for commerce until the tea was paid for.
The colonies called for a congress at Philadelphia to discuss the troubles with England, especially the immediate situation with the ‘Intolerable Acts.’ This was eventually named the First Continental Congress and it was held in 1774. John Adams was one of five Massachusetts delegates to the FCC. He was one of the ‘Independence men.’ Some favored reconciliation with England. Some wanted independence. Some weren’t sure. Adams was sure.
Adams proposed that the 15,000 militiamen in New England be named officially the ‘Continental Army.’ And Adams nominated George Washington as C in C.
Two years later it was John Adams who seconded the motion of Dickie Lee in 1776 that the united colonies should declare a complete separation from the mother of all countries. When it was time to draft a Declaration of Independence, John Adams nominated Thomas Jefferson to write it. These two friends would later become rivals, then friends again, and then would die on the same day in 1826.
Then came the Revolutionary War.
Adams was appointed to Paris as one of the three negotiators of the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778.
At the end of the hostilities, Adams was one of three men sent to Paris to arrange a formal end to the war with Britain. John Jay and Benjamin Franklin were the other two. Franklin did most of the legwork on this one, since he was so close to the British and he alone could represent so well a connecting bridge between the antagonists.
In 1785 Adams became the first American Ambassador to England (or Minister as it was called at the time.) Johnny was surprised at how cordially his former enemies received him, but, after all, they had all been friends before they became enemies. Many Americans on diplomatic business were favorably impressed with the friendliness shown to them by the English government. The two nations still had yet to ratify a formal end to hostilities and the Brits were showing the Americans in England every courtesy.
But appearances and manners did not mean English concessions in practice. They were the negotiator who smiles and agrees with everything you say and the next day it turns out the deal was killed and you’re on the outs.
The famous Bill Pitt met with Adams in England and they had some long chats, friendly but frank. There were several outstanding issues. Pitt wanted to know when the Americans were going to get around to paying their debts contracted with British citizens and corporations before the war. The sanctity of a contract could not be dismissed as a casualty of battle (shades of a famous US Supreme Court Dartmouth College case later on.) The British merchants even wanted the normal amount of interest paid on these debts too.
Adams countered by saying that the war had created a new nation with a clean financial slate (shades of the Bolsheviks in 1917.) Moreover, even if John conceded the point, how could the Americans pay when it was British policies that were making payment impossible? If the British would only evacuate the forts in the west, the thousands of pounds of profit in the fur trade could help provide the payments on the old English debts. Why had they not quit these forts as promised?
If the British wanted the Americans to pay their debts, why did they carry off thousands of slaves from the South making it impossible for Southerners to pay their debts? That cost a Southern farmer thrice. There was the lost value of the slave, the lost value of his labor, and the lost value of the products of his labor. Instead of asking for payments from the Americans, perhaps the British should be shipping a few thousand pounds due west to pay for the stolen slaves.
Adams reminded the British that they had already confiscated millions of dollars worth of loot from the Americans in the smoke of battle. They stole food, lumber, furniture, animals, anything they could get their bloody mitts on. Now they wanted to squeeze the Americans for old credit card debts. Get real, Pitt. That’s like selling a man a Thanksgiving turkey on credit and then dunning him after you repossessed it.
Brit: “Hey Yank, where’s the dough for that turkey?”
Yank: “Why should I have to pay for a turkey that’s now in your fridge?”
John Adams served ably as Vice President for two terms. His tie-breaking vote was usually cast in defense of his boss George Washington and the executive branch. One key vote concerned whether the president had the right to remove members of his cabinet after they had been approved by the Senate. The tie-breaker from Adams insured that the President kept that right. A second challenge to that right came in 1868 and led to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
EVENTS
ELECTION OF 1796
INAUGURAL
THE MAZ LETTER
FIGHT IN CONGRESS BETWEEN LYONS AND GRISWOLD
XYZ AFFAIR
LOGAN ACT 1798
ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS
FRIES REBELLION
NAVAL WAR WITH FRANCE
DEATH OF WASHINGTON
CAPITOL MOVED TO WASHINGTON 1800
VOYAGE OF BAINBRIDGE TO MIDDLE EAST 1800-1801
ELECTION OF 1796
It was the dream of the Founding Fathers that partisan party politics would never poison the new government. But there was no stopping that storm surge. As long as there are political differences in developed states with freedom of speech, there will always be powerful political organizations to make these opinions effective.
The first political party really came about when people who wanted to criticize Washington decided to organize their grumbling at meetings called “Democratic Clubs.” Jefferson was the patron saint of these Democrats. But Jefferson thought that name too radical and they later began calling themselves “Republicans.” The rival supporters of Washington and Hamilton were now beginning to call themselves “Federalists.”
When Jefferson resigned from Washington’s cabinet in 1793 he jumped off the see-saw and tilted the Administration up towards the Federalists. The rich Democratic-Republican aristocrats then began to condemn the Federalists for being rich aristocrats.
By the election of 1796 the two parties were sadly formed. The left were the Democratic-Republicans, who loved Jefferson and hated Hamilton, with mixed feelings about Washington. The DR's chose Jefferson as their candidate. The Feds chose John Adams. The 'Battle of 1796' was Washington’s first Secretary of State versus his Vice-President.
In 1796 state legislatures chose the electors in most states, but in six states it was by popular vote. In these states, the supporters of the candidates did some hands-on campaigning. But the candidates themselves did not lower themselves to go pressing the flesh on the streets and farms. The singular exception was Aaron Burr. The other candidates and many others saw Burr’s campaign travels as demeaning to the office he was seeking. Today, any candidate that will not stand knee deep in muck on an Iowa farm during primary season has no chance to win.
The Feds put Charles Pinckney of South Carolina on the number 2 spot to balance the geographical ticket. The DR’s did the same with Burr of New York to balance out their Virginian.
John Adams didn’t care much for his opponent and shuddered to think of the country under the guidance of ‘such a character as Jefferson.’ But he thought significantly less of Pinckney, his own running mate.
The South was fairly strong in support of Jefferson and the Republicans (they preferred not to be called ‘Democrats’ for that had a dangerously radical French connection in 1796.) The Northeast was the traditional Federalist stronghold. So the middle states would be the deciding votes, especially Pennsylvania and New York. They were the Florida and Ohio of their time.
Adams won and Jefferson lost the presidency in 1796 by just three electoral votes. The Federalists lost Pennsylvania but won New York.
Each elector was allowed to vote for two names. But there was no separation of President and Vice President on the ballots. As a result, the running mate of Adams, Pinckney was pushed out of the VP spot by the number two overall, which was Jefferson. The President's main opponent became the number two in the winner’s cabinet!
The writers of the Constitution hadn't figured on this because they were euphoric-naive enough to think the new nation above party politics. This political anomaly was later corrected by Constitutional amendment. But for John Adams, it was too late. It was as if George McGovern had been made VP under Nixon in 1972, or if Sarah Palin was Vice President under President Obama.
PINKNEY PLOT PIERCED
Alexander Hamilton hatched a plot to make Charles Pinckney the second President of the United States. But it backfired.
Here’s how it happened.
Although an opponent of the Democratic-Republicans, Hamilton did not care for the grumpy and upper-crusty Adams. Hamilton felt that he could maintain his personal regent-like influence on a Pinckney but not on an Adams. So he began working on a scheme to get the South Carolina delegates to throw out their Adams ballots on Electoral College Election Day and Pinckney would be prez!
The scheme was discovered in advance of the event however, and as a result many electors threw out their Pinckney ballots instead. This probably deprived ‘The Pinckster’ of the Vice Presidency. Hamilton’s plan had boomeranged so bad that his arch-rival Jefferson became Vice-President as a result. I know this is a little confusing. And I am not going to rewrite it!
The First Photo Finish - 1796
The name of Democratic-Republican or just the “Republican” Party of 1796 might be confusing to some people today, especially stupid ones. There is no connection however between the Republican party of Jefferson and the Republican party of Hoover, Bush, Bush, and Perry. Thomas Jefferson would be rolling in his grave if he heard of such a comparison. TJ’s DR’s would eventually drop the ‘Republican’ part and become the Democrat Party of Andrew Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Barak Obama, and my mother in law (who sends them money!)
The Federalist Party on the other hand eventually died out and has no direct lineage to today’s Republican Party. However since it was the friend of big business, and the conservative party of its time, it is certainly a long lost cousin.
INAUGURAL
John Adams was unhappy at his inaugural because the event seemed more of a celebration of the departure of hero George Washington than it was a celebration of his beginning. He had to close the show, but he wasn't the headliner.
Historians who never met him describe him as wise, strong and honest. They also say John was aloof, snobby and arrogant, much like the historians who say that of others.
John Adams decided foolishly to keep the same cabinet of his predecessor. The victor of 96 left the spoils on the ground, neglecting to pick them up and pocket them. He had no precedent and was trying to be a good person.
Ollie Wolcott at Treasury was a disciple of Hamilton and was never going to be the loyal servant of President Adams. Pickering at State was more of a friend to Jefferson’s foreign policy wishes than to those of his boss. Adams would soon find himself bickering with Pickering. As for Vice President Jefferson, it was like hiring a Hatfield to be a full time cook for the McCoys.
At first Jefferson tried to maintain at least the image of loyal servant VP of he President.
But then came the 'Maz Letter.'
MAZZEI LETTER
Jefferson had a pen pal in Paris named Mazzei. Some of Jefferson’s letters to Mazzei were very critical of the Federalists and were filled with sarcastic alliteration. TJ didn’t name Washington or Adams specifically in his criticisms, but it wasn’t hard to read between the lines. No one could mistake whom he was criticizing when he wrote of “That vapid vain vermin from Mt. Vernon” or “that quasi-quack from Quincy.” In any case, the letters were supposed to be private.
Someone once said, “never put in writing what you wouldn’t want to see printed on the front page of your local newspaper.” (start up the fireplace!)
Jefferson should have heeded this advice. Two months after he became Vice President, these so-called Mazzei letters were printed in public. There was a storm of criticism. Jefferson's political star fell.
The actual passage that really got him in trouble accused the Federalists of kissing up to England. Jefferson was a mega-Francophile and he was a bit riled up about the way the USA was bonding with the hated enemy England. Jefferson's rival,Alexander Hamilton loved England which completed the picture. The key Jefferson excerpt read that “The Federalists had their hair shorn by the Harlot, England.”
For some reason that word really sparked the worst incidents in the old days. You could call someone every vile curse word in the book. Just don’t use their name in the same sentence that also includes the word, ‘harlot.’
In 1856 Senator Sumner of Massachusetts referred to a Southerner as married to ‘the Harlot, slavery.” A week later a Southern congressman snuck up on Sumner while he was working at his Senate desk and beat him nearly to death with a heavy cane.
Today you can tell a guy that he cavorts with harlots and he’d look at you and say, “Yes. I was in Vegas with two of them just last week. What’s your point?” But back in 1797 it was a big deal to even vaguely hint that your opponent had once told a harlot ‘hello’.
Again, Jefferson never mentioned Washington by name in the Maz letters, but 'vermin from Mt. Vernon' sufficed.
THE ABC'S OF THE TROUBLES WITH FRANCE AND XYZ
Adams inherited an ugly situation with France. The French Revolution was still evolving. Heads were rolling through the streets of Paris like soccer balls and the U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Paris. C.C. Pinckney went to Paris as U.S. minister but the French refused to give him the time of day let alone diplomatic credentials. France told him “Fiche moi la pais!” (get out of my face!)
France and England were at war. The USA was continuing to trade with England. This of course angered France. France held high hopes that its friend Jefferson would win the Presidential Election of 1796. When he lost to Adams, France decided to act more aggressively. The French Navy began seizing U.S. ships, along with cargo and crew. France threatened to hang any American found on a captured British ship, even if said Yankee had been forced there by impressment. France altogether took some 300 American ships. America was angry with France. Things had changed downhill since the heady days of Yorktown.
France also claimed that the Jackie Jay Treaty with England violated the terms of the Franco-American alliance, signed in 1778. The frog said that the eagle had clawed it in the back. The French had an argument. France only helped America win its independence because of a mutual enmity towards England. Now the United States, which owed its life to English enmity, was making friends with England in the Jay Treaty.
France was going to make the United States pay for the perceived betrayal. Before Napoleon was through, he would cleverly make America his only strong ally in the world as he tried to conquer Europe, tricking the USA into a war with England as the appropriate punishment for the Jay Treaty.
Americans could argue back that when the French mob began chopping off the heads of the very individuals that had signed the documents for the French in 1778, it more or less freed the USA from any obligation to abide by those terms anymore; The French Revolution was a new government of insane bloodthirsty murderers, retro-Maoist maniacs who believed that the way to win a political argument is to kill everybody. The United States wasn't particularly interested in being friends with that sort of France anymore anyway.
Adams could have had a declared war if he had sought it from the Congress. Many of his close advisors wanted war. Instead President Adams sent three famous representatives to Paris to try and work things out diplomatically. C.C. Pinckney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry crossed the ocean with a grand sense of mission. The French told them, “fiche moi la pais.” French leadership denied them an audience with Napoleon or even the Foreign Minister. Even low-level French diplomats treated them coldly. One official told them they were to meet the prime minister in room 3B at 9 p.m.. When they went in to Room 3B there was an old smelly wino asleep on the floor of an unfurnished room. One French official referred to Pinckney, Marshall and Jerry as ‘The Three Stooges’ right to their face.
By now popular opinion in America was swinging against the French. People were listening more to the Federalists who wanted an alliance with Britain. The Francophile Jeffersonians were on the defensive.
The three men in Paris passed some time in the cafes wondering what to do next. Then three secretive French agents approached CC, John and Elbridge and propositioned them with the following terms. (The French group also included a lovely dame in a low cut dress acting flirty with John Marshall – seriously.)
First, in order to even get an interview with French officials they would have to loan France ten million dollars. French Foreign minister Tallyrand would have to receive an additional cash bribe of $250,000.
Bribery was common back then, but these terms were insulting even within the parameters of a corrupt society. The French offer was as insulting in style as the figures were in substance.
The three great Americans were properly disgusted. They caught a sloop back to the states and reported at once back to Adams on the attitude of the French.
Adams publicly denounced French diplomatic behavior towards The United States but wouldn’t spell out the details. The DR’s demanded proof that Adams was not being intemperate towards the French allies of 1778. John Adams then produced for the press the full reports from the Stooges. He told the world of the rude French proposals. Adams discreetly had the names of the three extortionists crossed out and the initials X, Y and Z substituted.
‘The XYZ Affair’ became common knowledge and the nation went anti-France. There was a great chauvinistic anti-Chauvin reaction all over America and the two most popular slogans became “Millions for defense! Not one cent for tribute!” and “Down With Frogs!”
In retaliation the US officially and unilaterally abrogated the treaty of 1778.
America felt proud of this sloganist defiance in the XYZ affair. But really, “Millions for Defense! Not one cent for tribute!” is a secondary consolation point of pride when, in fact, America had suffered a humiliation.
A slogan. Big deal. The United States still had not been compensated for shipping losses, and had not gained an apology or a promise by France to discontinue seizures of American ships; to, as Pinckney so aptly put it, “knock it off!” The USA went wild celebrating the fact that it had refused an insulting extortion attempt while its envoys were treated like trash. The XYZ affair hurt the Democratic Republicans because they failed to condemn the French. They paid for this disloyalty in the mid-term elections of 1798.
The XYZ affair revealed the weak state of the U.S. Navy. If America had a big navy to back them envoys up, the French leaders would have sat with the Pinckney Trio immediately, and asked them if they liked sugar in their tea.
The United States embarked on a large naval expenditure program soon after these events. It was evidently time for a credible overseas-capable military force. It was as simple as XYZ.
The US outfitted about 50 ships with guns and sent them into the Caribbean to prey on French privateers. Over ninety French prizes were taken in this sea campaign, usually called the Quasi War, or the Quasi Naval War and it lasted until early 1800. Adams felt queasy about the Quasi.
In one of the supreme ironies of early American history, the British gave protection to the U.S. merchant fleet throughout the Quasi War, even though the UK and US weren’t exactly friends right about this time.
After the XYZ humiliation Adams also went gung ho for an increased U.S. Army. He first asked for 10,000 men, then 50,000. A General Westmoreland would have said “not enough,” but to most people this was a shockingly large army for a country that wanted to avoid a big standing army - that smacked of “militarism” and militarism stood for the old Europe they wanted to shake off.
The sudden desire for a big army was party because Adams feared a civil war. There were dangerous rumors that the French were conspiring to set up a new nation in the western pioneer region with dissatisfied Democratic-Republican leftist Americans helping out in the plot.
The rumors had foundation. A French general named Victor Collot traveled from Pittsburgh to New Orleans to brazenly try and hatch a separatist plot creating an independent nation centered on New Orleans. One such plot later involved a former Vice President on the lam for manslaughter. The specter of these separatist schemes had a longer life and a larger shadow than the schemes themselves.
By 1799 the Federalist Party clamored for war against France. Sadly, many were clearly motivated by partisan political selfish reasons. The nation would be forced to rally around the flag and by default, would also rally around the party in charge of it at the moment. Some ‘High Federalists’ even favored a little domestic insurrection as a way of alerting the nation to the need for Federalist Party protection. The Feds exploited the threat of French intrigue. As Clinton was accused of playing ‘Wag the Dog’ with his attack on Iraq, the Federalists wanted to play ‘wag the frog.’
Horatio Nelson entered from stage right and helped the US cause. In October 1798 he decisively defeated a French naval force in Egypt. Now the fear of a French invasion or a French-backed separatist American nation scheme was considerably reduced.
President Adams wanted to send envoys to Paris to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Congress resisted proudly and seemed hell bent for war. Adams had such a task fending off these war-hawks that he eventually threatened to resign, which would have made the pro-French Jefferson the new Prez. The war-hawks cooled their jets at that point. Adams later admitted that his threat to resign and put TJ in charge was floated with ‘disinterest.’ The ruse worked. Adams swallowed national pride as regards the earlier XYZ insults, and sent a second pacific mission to Paris.
When Napoleon took over in Paris he wanted to patch things up with the USA. The Napster welcomed the new Yank reps graciously. A treaty was signed between the two countries in 1800. The Convention of 1800 freed America from its treaty obligations of 1778 and thus allowed the US to try isolationism for a while. The US for its part agreed to give up all compensatory claims for the ships seized by France.
The Convention of 1800 ended the American alliance with France, and it would be almost 150 years before the United States would enter a formal alliance with any country again. And France was in on NATO 1950.
Considering how easily he could have led us into war, Adams has to go down in history as one of the all time heroes of peace. Pretty good for a reactionary Federalist.
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, GEORGE LOGAN 1798
In the middle of all these troubles with France an American named George Logan went to Paris and negotiated with the famous Foreign Minister Tallyrand. Log and Tally talked about many important diplomatic matters. The problems was, no one in Washington told Logan to go and negotiate with anyone about anything. Logan was a doctor. He was not a member of the United States government, and certainly was not in the foreign service.
When Logan returned to the docks of New York City he thought he a cheering mob would be there to greet him. Instead the authorities were there in unfriendly trench coats. They wanted to talk to him about representing the USA to a foreign government without any right to do so.
Logan was forgiven and was not going to ever do that again. Congress hastily wrote and passed a law forbidding any private citizen from representing the United States with a foreign government without expressed authorization from the President or the Secretary of State.
It is known as the Logan Act, and it is still the law. However it doesn't seem to be enforced very well. Jesse Jackson went to Syria to obtain the release of a downed African-American pilot in captivity there, and the Reagan Administration was not too happy about it, even though it was a joy that the man was released. Reagan was trying to act tough with Syria, and Jesse Jackson goes to Damascus and smiles and shakes everyone's hands and gets the hostage released. I heard the Logan Act mentioned once or twice during that affair.
Perhaps they should have charged Jimmy Carter under the Logan Act. This private citizen from Plains travels the world at will for 30 years, offering an extended hand of American friendship to governments and leaders that Reagan and the two Bushes were trying to get tough with (even Obama was unhappy with Carter for undermining his policy this way with North Korea.)
I wish they had written a clause in the Logan Act which said, “This especially applies to ex-President's.”
QUASI NAVAL WAR WITH FRANCE - THE MILITARY BATTLES
Quasi was a war that was not officially happening except to the men catching hot cannonballs.
QNWF was a chance for the United States to show off a little muscle it never had before. The six 44-gun frigates of the Navy were not the most powerful ships on the sea, but they were the best built of the second-rate frigates (the 68 gun English men-of-war being the kings of the waves, the “first-rate.”)
France had a much bigger navy than the USA, and if their ships could concentrate in force, the American frigates would have to flee. But if the frigates could square off in some one-on-one battles, the 1776ers just might sink a couple of 1789ers.
In 1799 the USS Constellation (not to be confused with the Constitution,) commanded by truculent Truxton defeated the French warship Insurgent.
Then in 1800 the USS Constitution got back at the French with a vengeance. “Old Ironsides” defeated the French frigate Vengeance. Or was it the Constellation that defeated the Vengeance and the Constitution defeated the Insurgent? I get them confused.
MATTHEW VS. MATTHEW, A FIGHT IN CONGRESS - FEBRUARY 15 1798
Matt Lyons, a former indentured servant, was a Republican Congressman. Matt Griswold was a Federalist Congressman. In 1798 the two Matts went to the mat - they had a major physical brawl in Congress which led all of Europe to laugh at the USA, and satirize the incident in editorials and cartoons.
These two guys were for months exchanging insults in the press. One day in Congress (Jan 30 1798) Griswold ridiculed the poor military record of Lyons during the Revolutionary War. Lyons went over the edge. He went up to Griswold and spit a mouth full of tobacco juice into his face. It was a grisly moment for Griswold. He cleaned up his face, bided his time and planned his revenge.
Fed Gris hoped that Congres would expel “Psycho” Lyons for his bad behavior. When they did not he decide to take matters into his own hands.
A week later during a Congressional session Griswold snuck up behind Lyons who was sitting at his desk and began to beat Matt Lyons on the head with a cane. Griswold got up to defend himself, and the two of them then had a prolonged schoolyard scrap, wrestling and punching and rolling all over the floor of the Congress while the other members cheered, laughed, and applauded. For once both parties had the floor at the same time. Lyons ended up in front of a fireplace defending himself with a pair of hit tongs. Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.
Matt vs. Matt was the talk of the country. The biggest part of the scandal was the reaction of the other Congressmen. The idea of a fight on the floor was understandable. A fight can happen anytime anyplace. (I saw two librarians duke it out in Southie back in 1967.) But if the fight breaks out in an inappropriate setting, someone usually jumps in and breaks it up (I had to do it in 67, especially since poor Mrs. Beckler was getting destroyed after her leg brace fell off.) But the idea of the other Congressional leaders of the supposedly idealistic young republic smiling and clapping while two elected officials tried to gouge each other's eyes out was highly scandalous, and impossible to defend. Europe ridiculed the incident at length. ‘What kind of barbarians are running the government over there?’ wondered aristocratic Euros.
The Griswold's attack on Lyons was similar again to the 1856 attack on Senator Sumner. In 1856 Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Sumner with a cane while the others stood and watched, some applauding. What is it with these guys and their canes? People must have faked a limp to just to keep one handy back then. A general rule for the olden days of America would be to never tell a guy with a cane that he hangs out with harlots, spit in his face, and then go try and get some work done at your desk.
For his efforts, the Vermont Congressman won himself the nickname of ‘the Spitting Lyon.’
NEWSPAPERS
The newspaper craze was sweeping the country in the time of Adams. In 1790 there were 90 newspapers in America. In 1798 there were more than 200. These rags commanded 130,000 subscribers and twice as many in the over the shoulder crowd. One out of five eligible voters subscribed to a newspaper.
The newspapers of the 1790’s were vitriolic even by today’s standards. They were so mean and ruthless in their attack techniques that they sadly inspired the Alien and Sedition Acts.
The growth of newspapers marked the end of political detachment for the common folk. From now on ordinary people would argue politics with the same self-righteous passion as the rich and educated. All of which would evolve into the pattern of today where the more you know the less you argue, while the less you know, the more you finger point with righteous vehemence .
The nuns told me that, “empty barrels make the most noise.” Touche, sister. But that should probably be qualified by saying “almost empty barrels make the most noise.” People who are absolutely ignorant are apt to admit it, but the newspapers and the TV news puts just enough superficial information in the barrel to create the obnoxious self-righteous ignoramus that is the cornerstone of today's America.
ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS;
The worst stain on the John Adam's record as president are the Alien and Sedition Acts. These new laws made it a crime to criticize the government!
It had long been wrong and illegal to spread lies and falsehoods about government officials. That is still true today. But it was now it was also a crime to give the government fair, honest and accurate criticism! Seig Heil!
It was a bad and wicked idea and Adams should be ashamed of himself for letting these laws pass on his watch, even if he didn’t initiate them. The Congress created the rotten A&S acts and Adams acquiesced. Adams was way too much of a Federalist for his own good.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four,
One: The Alien Enemies Act - This act established laws for dealing with citizens of a belligerent nation who were living in the United States. The AEA was designed to protect the USA from terrorism (we called it sabotage back then) and to suppress the spy industry during wartime. This is probably the least offensive of the ASAs. Under the Enemies Act aliens from hostile countries could be deported on the flimsiest premise and in some cases they could be imprisoned.
Two: The Alien Friends Act: This gave the President the authority to deport any alien that he considered dangerous. The law had an expiration date of 1800. Its most alarming feature was the fact that proof was not required of a suspect’s guilt. The logic was that a spy would destroy all the evidence, so obviously proof could never really be obtained against a good spy.
The Jeffersonians claimed that the act was really a partisan trick designed kick out only those foreign-born Americans who were writing newspaper articles against the Federalist Party.
Three; The Naturalization Act; this changed the length of time it took to become a US citizen. From now on, it would take 14 years of USA residence, up from only five. In addition the applicant had to have spent the last five years in the same state. The Republicans charged that the Naturalization Act was targeted at the Irish immigrant vote, which was anti-Federalist for some obvious reasons.
Four; The big one, The Sedition Act; this made it not only a crime to criticize any policies of the US Government; it also made it illegal to ridicule the president! The guilty could go to jail for it!
The exact wording was that it was a crime to bring the president “into contempt or disrepute.” Can you imagine all the journalists, comedians and actors who would be tossed into jail tomorrow if this law were enacted today? Bashing the president when a Bush is in office in the USA is about as popular as baseball. When an Obama is in power it is as popular as para-sailing. The Federalists were passing the most un-American law ever conceived. If such a law were in effect today 2,897 bad comedians and 17 good ones would have already been in prison doing life on the day Obama was sworn in. As many as three conservative comics would undoubtedly be arrested this year! The cast of Saturday Night Live would all be long since behind bars and unable to perform their skits (maybe the sedition act wasn't so bad on second thought. ...hmmm...)
The scariest thing about the Sedition Act was that it was enforced. A few prominent newspaper editors were actually thrown into jail. But it was deliberately not enforced on a broad scale. It might have been better if it had been. That would have brought the laws down. The Federalists did not want to make arrests en masse, but wanted to make an example of a few high profile men. Among those imprisoned was Matthew Lyons of Vermont, whom we have met before with his projectile tobacco juice. ‘Ragged Matt the Democrat’ spent four months in jail for writing that President Adams was a ‘traitorous base-brain.’
It’s hard to believe that these laws ever saw the light of day. The spitting Lyon was ill-mannered, but he was an editor and a United States Congressman. These acts might be the third worst stain on American history after slavery and reality TV shows.
Fortunately the judicial system rebelled against these laws and the people indicated their displeasure at the polls. The Alien and Sedition Acts were eventually overturned, and the offending editors, writers and comedians were let out of jail.
The Alien and Sedition laws inspired the reactionary Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798. These state resolutions declared that an individual state has the right to declare null and void any federal law that it considers unconstitutional. These state resolves were recipes for trouble later.
Perhaps the most despicable aspect of the four tyrannical laws of 1798 was their scheduled life span. They were written so as to expire on the eve of the next presidential election in 1800. That way in case the Federalists lost the election they would not be subjected to their own laws in the hands of the incoming Republicans.
FRIES REBELLION
Ah for the good old days when mobs could break you out of jail because they felt you were imprisoned unjustly. In 1799 many German Pennsylvania farmers were in jail for being unable or unwilling to pay their taxes. Angry mobs broke into several jails and ‘broke out their brothers!’ It was Bastille Day in PA.
But the federal army arrived and restored order. Some of the prisoners went back to jail and some lucky ones did not. The rebellion was named after its leader, Alexander Fries, of Havertown.
The central power had come along way since the time of Shay’s Rebellion when that rebel mob had controlled Western Mass for several days. Fries was put down with considerably more force and speed than Shay’s. The quick, stern and efficient suppression of Fries rebellion sent a strong message to the rest of the country that the federal government should be respected and obeyed.
PEOPLE
The population of the United States under Adams was 5.3 million people, a little less than Houston today and one fourth the population of modern Mexico City.
DEATH OF WASHINGTON – On December 14, 1799, George Washington died at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
The “doctors” drained Washington's blood to treat his fever and sore throat, a brutally inappropriate remedy. He said, “I find I am going”. A little later he said, “I die hard, but am not afraid to go.” Finally Washington thanked his doctors but asked to “let me go off quietly.” He might have added, “you butchers.”
“Let me go quietly” were his last words (unless you prefer other accounts of his last moments that differ from this one.) Our first President was also the first to die.
According to the terms of his will, Washington freed his slaves.
His wife kept hers. Martha W. had far more slaves to her name at Mt. Vernon than did her husband.
JUDICIARY ISSUES – THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Under Adams the Federalists passed the Judiciary Act on 2-27-01. The Act created 16 new Federal judgeships. It was ostensibly designed to relieve the workload on the Supreme Court. There were transportation problems in getting federal judges to Washington for every case large or small, so the Judiciary Act gave satellite cases to regional judges that would now be already in place in 16 outlying areas. It was like a federal reserve system for judges.
But the Dem Republicans smelled a rat. The Judiciary Act gave three of the posts to close relatives of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, a staunch Federalist. It was further suspected that Marshall himself had drafted the act for this purpose.
More untoward was the stipulation that the Supreme Court itself be reduced from six down to five. By this device, the next president would be unable to name the next available SC Justice position. Since Adams had already lost the election, the partisan implications were clear. This was an opposite of the Franklin Roosevelt plot in the 1930s when he tried to increase the size of the Supreme Court while he was in power.
On Adam’s last day in office the plot thickened over a secondary appointment. William Marbury was appointed Justice of the Peace in Washington but his commission was delivered a few hours after Adams had left office. As we will see in the next chapter, the Marbury appointment was not accepted by the Jeffersonians and became a famous test case of power between the states, the executive, and the judiciary.
The last minute timing of the appointments gave these men the nickname “The Midnight Judges.”
MIDDLE EAST - BAINBRIDGE GOES SUBLIMINAL 1800
In the time of Adams, the land of present day Turkey was part of the great Ottoman Empire. Its capitol, Constantinople was an easily defended choke point commanding the entrance to the Black Sea and its connected river commerce, including the vital Danube and Volga Rivers, not to mention the Dneiper and Dneister.
On November 9, 1800 the USS frigate George Washington (24 guns) under the command of William “Billy Bones” Bainbridge sailed into the harbor of Constantinople uninvited. Emissaries from the Sublime Porte came out in small boats to greet the strangers. They informed the visitors that none had ever seen this flag of the colorful stars and stripes before. When informed of the land of origin, the Sultan declared that he had never heard of this country before!
The USA might as well have been from another part of the galaxy. But ‘Sully’ (as some of the US sailors nicknamed the Sultan) did take it as a good sign that the two nations both had astronomical pictographs on their flags. This was the beginning of US relations with the Middle East.
But the George Washington was sailing into Constantinople under duress. The frigate had first sailed into Algiers to pay tribute to the Dey of Algiers, a ransom that had begun in 1795 under Washington. One of the shames of American history is its attempt to cover up the truth about the humiliating paying of tribute to the Barbary Pirates in the early days. The textbooks praise America when it stood up to Barbary barbarians bravely but ignore the fact that the USA paid tribute to these rogues from the birth of the American nation. It was classic appeasement and the rewarding of terrorism. The general historians mention it in a tiny minimalist moment, or not at all.
The George Washington under its brave commander Bainbridge was prepared to deliver a certain amount of tribute to the Dey for the privilege of sailing unmolested in his Mediterranean area. We were ‘paying for protection’ to and from the Moslem Mob.
But the Dey of Algiers upped the ante. This leader of Algiers, ‘Big Ed’ Mustapha was in trouble in his own back yard. The leader of the Barbary Pirates and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire were mad at the Dey. The Ottomans in turn were under attack from the Napoleonic French army and navy.
The Algerians had bought off the French with a treaty. The Ottoman Sultan (the Dey’s boss) felt betrayed by this separate peace the Dey made with his French enemy. Now the Algerians had to pay the Sultan for their own protection while in turn demanding the same ransom/tribute from the western nations. Moe slapped Larry, so Larry slapped Curly.
Into the teeth of this Islamic political mess sailed Bainbridge. He was told that he had to reload his ship with a heavy Algerian tribute for the Ottomans in Constantinople. Plus he had to transport a hundred Moslem passengers. What was more, the Americans were not going to be paid for this voyage to Constantinople, and the USS Washington had to haul down the American flag and raise the crescent flag in its place. Bainbridge was thus on the doubly humiliating mission of paying tribute to one country and then delivering their tribute to another country!
Bainbridge in Algiers might have told them where to stuff it, but he had been tricked into docking within range of the heavy cannon of the Dey’s fort. If he refused, the Washington could have been blown out of the water. US trade with Algiers would have ended and a state of general war with the Barbary pirates would have suddenly existed in the Mediterranean. Billy Bones decided to give in to the terrorists.
Bones Bainbridge was no wimp. He'd commanded his own ship at the age of 20 because of his record of courage. Once, while second in command on a ship, a mutiny broke. Bainbridge suppressed the revolt with his bare hands, knocking out some and throwing others overboard in a scene too spectacular for a Hollywood film.
But brave Billy B now decided to kow-tow. The GW sailed out of Algiers bound for Constantinople with a hundred Moslems on board. These Islamists became very angry with Bainbridge because in heavy weather the ship tacked, causing them to be unsure if they were pointing in the right direction for Mecca when they did their prostrate prayer rituals five times daily.
The times are well represented by the voyage of the George Washington in 1800. It was the low-water mark for US overseas prestige. It wasn't bad enough that the British and the French were threatening all American ships. On top of that the Barbary Pirates were demanding and getting tribute. It was not the proudest time for the American navy as the frigate first passed Gibraltar into the Mediterranean with gold for delivery to the fat Dey, then reloaded with Moslems and a lowered US flag playing bagman for the Dey's tribute to Turkey.
The GW was having a rough trip. On its initial voyage east across the Atlantic a British frigate stopped and searched the GW for British seamen. One man was removed that Bainbridge insisted was an American citizen. The American screamed and protested but Brits sailed off with their human prize. Bainbridge promised the Royals that he would avenge this insult by taking the first British merchant seaman he could lay his hands on. A day later he stopped a British schooner, seized a seaman and told the rest of the crew to get the word out that the impressment of the day before had been answered.
The bagman trip to Constantinople was actually less insulting than the one to Algiers. The Ottoman chief treated the Americans with courtesy and the two nations agreed to a preliminary treaty of friendship without specific policy commitments. The mistreated Washington broken ground for US relations with the Middle East.
The George Washington then returned to Algiers (January 1801) but this time did not dock within reach of the town cannon. Now Bainbridge could negotiate more dignified terms. Now he was representing their boss, the strong Sultan; not his boss, the weak President. The Ottomans had even demanded that the Dey of Algiers release 500 Moslem prisoners, and Bainbridge was happy to transmit the message.
RACE RELATIONS/ SANTO DOMINGO AND PROSSER'S REBLIION
It was ironic. Under Washington, who was a Virginia slave-owner, blacks made progress. But under Adams, from liberal Massachusetts, the first state to outlaw slavery, the blacks suffered an overall setback. It was the beginning of the long march against freedom. From now until 1861 it was downhill for blacks.
A great achievement for blacks in one part of the hemisphere had dire consequences for those in another. In Saint Dominique in 1791, the African-American slaves revolted against their masters. The black rebs executed many plantation owners with the same callousness and cruelty that had been heaped upon them as a lifestyle. (‘Shoes on the other foot now chump,’ as the flames crackle around the former bosses body.) Caribbean plantation owners fled to the United States by the thousands with plenty of scary tales.
From the time of the Santo Domingo mutiny the Southern whites feared that their own slaves too were conspiring to revolt, rebel, flee, pillage, kill, crush, and destroy. Who wouldn’t want to in their position? Heck, I sometimes feel like doing these things now. I think living in slavery would make this sort of behavior an easy call.
Thanks to Santo-Domingo backlash, any momentum in the states towards liberalizing the race laws, such as extending the suffrage for free blacks, was now out the window. From now on each new law regarding race made life worse for the African-American, both slave and free.
Blacks were not even allowed to die for their country, let alone vote for its President. They were blacklisted from the US Navy and the Marines. A Federal law required whites to report for military service in the militia. It left it up to the states to allow or disallow blacks. Most states disallowed. Racist naturalization laws allowed for white only, meaning there could be no new free black immigrants. Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware took the vote away from the free black man.
Then in 1799 the long feared local bloody slave revolt came true. Slaves fought back against the “master” race in Virginia under leadership of the charismatic Gabe Prosser. A thousand slaves organized, most of them armed. They were close to marching on Richmond. But someone tipped off the heat before the insurrection got rolling. Governor James Monroe called out the Virginia militia, which responded quickly and nipped the rebellion in the bud. ‘Gabriel’s Rebellion’ was iced. Thirty-five naughty slaves were executed.
Hanging 35 slaves was not hardly enough to deter indefinitely the outrage of three million people putting in a 17 hour workday against their will for no pay after being forcibly separated from their families, and whipped if they disobey. Gabriel’s 1799 would not be the last of the great Slave Revolts. My personal favorite is the Denmark Vessey Rebellion, but that’s for a later chapter.
SUPREME COURT – BUSHROD, MOORE AND MARSHALL
John Adams has the distinction of naming the most powerful and influential Chief Justice of all time to the Supreme Court in the person of John Marshall. Jack was one of the envoys that the French insulted in Paris in the XYZ affair. He is one of the leading lights of American history and his story is just beginning in the time of President John Adams. Marshall eventually caused such a power struggle that Adams wondered once or twice if he had made a wise choice in the combative Marshall. But surely he had. Marshall gave the Supreme Court its rightful place as an equal balancing power between the President and the Congress. The SJC had not asserted itself much at all until the Marshall came to town.
Adams also appointed Bushrod Johnson as an Associate Justice. I wouldn't name my dog 'Bushrod,' let alone my son.
The other Adams Associate SC Justice appointment was Al Moore of North Carolina. Al didn't do much on the Court of note. He was a benchwarmer. Moore resigned in 1804 because of poor health.
CONCLUSION
Adams always played second fiddle in his several important roles in American history. During the rebellion in Boston he was second to his first cousin Sam Adams. During the Revolutionary War he was second to George Washington. Then he became Washington's Vice President. As a diplomat in Europe he had to take a back seat to the giant ego of Ben Franklin. When he finally became President Adams was second to Washington at his own inaugural and during his administration second to Vice President Jefferson in the hearts of his countrymen.
He might have gone down as a greater President if he had led the United States into to a war. That's the key to being a great president. There are no monuments in town squares to “peace heroes,” but Adams is arguably that. The entire history of the world would have been written differently if Adams had chosen war with France in 1799. Adams was a man who never smiled but did much in the name of good. By their deeds ye shall know them.
The grand and fine Boston Public Library recently had the full John Adams library on display in the room where I used to read old newspapers on microfilm as a teen-ager (hooking school to do it.) My own library is of approximately equal size and has an equal place in my heart as his had for him.
Not that this makes us equals of course, but we did have two things in common. Our libraries have next to no fiction, and we made a book's worth of commentary in the margins of nearly every page of every book we read. I felt much closer to John Adams when I got to see his library up close and personal.
I am certain however that I use a lot more curse words in the margins than he ever did, especially when writers drop foreign phrases without translating or give long descriptions about places and people that we don’t care about.
And woe to those who dare to describe weather.
AFTER OFFICE
Adams retired to Quincy and hit the books like he never had before in his already educated life. He studied philosophy, religious history and an assortment of the great classics of literature. When his eyes failed him he made his relatives read out loud to him. JA was way ahead of the ‘books-on-tape’ crowd that is changing the concept of books today, or trying to.
Mr. Adams became heavy pen-pals with Jefferson in their old age and their letters are great reading, especially when Jefferson teases Adams about his weight.
In 1820 Adams re-entered politics in a cameo as a representative of the Massachusetts delegation for president.
At 89 years of age Adams saw his son take of the oath of office as our sixth president.
What a dynasty!
What a crustacean!
They talk about how cold he was and he admits it sadly and bluntly in his diaries. Yet Jack Adams was a successful politician all his life and a highly capable negotiator. There must have been something in him that connected with people in a subliminal way. I would probably would have got along great with this guy. He is a perfect Frenchman. You leave me alone, I leave you alone, and when we do communicate it is to get something useful done, not to yap about nothing. And don’t hand me that fake smile!
John Adams died on the Fourth of July 1826. He and Jefferson were the only Presidents who had signed the Declaration of Independence. With his last breath John Adams said, “Jefferson still lives!” What he did not know (and this is spooky) is that Jefferson had died four hours earlier at his mansion in Virginia. 7.4.26 was also the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I’m sleeping with the lights on tonight.
Adams is buried in the basement of a church in the middle of Quincy Center. The tomb can be visited by appointment only. Traffic circles his body and that of his son. Half the drivers waiting with a frown at red lights in Quincy Center have no idea they are a stone's throw from two dead presidents.
SOURCES
The Adams Chronicles – Much more informative than the HBO special.
America and its Peoples, A Mosaic in the Making - 5th Edition by Randy
Roberts, Steve Mintz, Linda O. MrMurray, James Kirby Martin and Jim Jones
c) 2004
Giant textbook for ninth graders (I hope.)
The American Pageant, A History of the Republic, by Thomas A. Bailey of Stanford University – c) 1961 D.C. Heath
AP is a great book, and Bailey is the best.
Bailey admires the way Adams kept the country out of war.
“Adams, flinty to the end, deserves immense credit for his unselfish and farsighted course.”
I've never hear anyone called 'flinty' before, but I'm pretty sure I get the idea. Bailey reminds us that if Adams had not fended off the clamor for war with France in 1800, the United States would never have acquired Louisiana from France three years later. Adams enabled the USA to grow from sea to sea. Bailey is flinty at times, himself.
A Century of American Diplomacy, by John W. Foster, c) 1901. -
Some pages of this sturdy old hardcover were sealed on the outer edge and had to be separated by scissors. I am the first person to have read this 100+ year old copy of this very good book. Riverside Press in Cambridge made the best books. JWF was a United States Secretary of State and an historian.
The Complete Book of US Presidents, by DeGregorio
No relation to Ernie DeGregorio, this is a Barnes and Noble book.
The Critical Period in American History – by John Fiske – c)1899 - This book has been so roundly criticized, that it's easy to forget what a fine piece of literature it is. Fiske's theories were initially earth-shattering and widely accepted. Then he got revisioned off the playing board and now his conclusions are only mentioned in order to be skewered by the new historians.
A Diplomatic History of the United States, by Thomas A Bailey. - c) 1958 – Great stuff. Finished the whole thing and very slowly. But the binding is coming of. What is wrong with Appleton Century Crofts Inc. that they would produce a book where after 50 years the binding comes off? Riverside Press made books in the 1890's that could survive a tornado.
A Diplomatic History of the United States, by Samuel Flagg Bemis of Yale – c) 1934 Henry Holt.
Bemis is one of the most respected historians of all time, and I enjoy his books. I wish he wrote little more like Henry Pringle, but Sam's work is indispensable even if it reads a bit too much like pipe-puffing Yalee.
The Enduring Vision, by Paul S. Boyer, University of Wisconsin, - Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Carleton College - Joseph F. Kett University of Virginia, - Thomas L. Purvis, - Harvard Sitkoff, University of New Hampshire, - Nancy Woloch, Barnard College – c) 1990 – 40 pound book. 39 pounds to the hard left. One pound of statistics and photos.
The Graphic Story of the American Presidents, by Davis Whitney, C)1972 – HHheavy hardcover with tons of pictures. Published exclusively for registered owners of the PRESIDENTIAL SILVER INGOT COLLECTION, or someone who buys it at a used book store 20 years later for $10. It’s all very general history, and I like the writing and the work.
Hats in the Ring, by Evan Cornog – Photography book about US elections. The text is a short read, but is not remotely superficial.
History of a Free People – by Henry W. Bragdon Instructor of History at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter New Hampshire, and Samuel P. McCutchen, Chairman of the Social Studies Department, School of Education, New York University– c) 1954 MacMillan
A University professor at Harvard or Yale would be severely taxed to have to answer all the quiz, essay and original research demands these jerks assign to the poor high school student at the end of every small slice of text. This is everything that learning history should not be all about, although it was the norm for the reactionary era it was published in. I can enjoy it to some extent because at the end of every question I can write something rude in the margin. 16 year olds in 1954 didn't have the option.
“Write an editorial defending Federalist Paper Number #6. Then write a paper in which you oppose Federalist Paper Number #11 – prepare a speech for the class in which you cite at least 11 original sources from 1787.”
There are 70 assignments at the end of every handful of pages! It is insanity!
Give us a break, you cruel whipmasters. The assignments run 3 miles ahead of the information given originally in the text! You have to take the bus to distant libraries to even attempt complete these absurd tasks to the satisfaction of these warlocks.
The History of the People of the United States, by John Bach McMaster – c) 1913 – In depth detail on the Adams era. A great multi-volume work by the master McMaster.
A History of Presidential Elections – by Eugene Roseboom.
ER is not one of my favorite authors. I'll get through this entire book someday.
John Adams, by David McCulloch – c) 2003 – Giant best-seller by the ubiquitous DM, America's most popular historian. I just picked it up for free in mint condition out of the reading room of my condominium, but as of now I haven't cracked it. It's so pure and new, its a shame to start ruining it with my disputatious cracks. I'm so sick of this guy's narrations on the TV documentaries. Could you try sounding a little more elderly, Dave?
I'm guessing that this will live up to the hype when I finally get around to reading it, but I will try to keep an open mind enough to possibly hate it.
They based the HBO TV Series on this book.
John Adams, by Samuel Morse – c) 1896 This was published in 1896 by a Mr. Morse whose grandfather was a John Adams contemporary. It's a beautiful work of literature and history, containing as much insight on the world of 1896 writing as it does on John Adams.
The March of Democracy, by James Truslow Adams, c) 1932. A two-volume work by a mean man. The general popular history of the USA. This book was a huge best-seller so it's worth reading. It's good to know what poisons were perpetrated upon the American people in the 1930's.
On the Hill, by Alvin Josephy – The history of the US Congress. Alvin is a great scholar but only a good writer. He's always almost, but not quite, easy to read.
Out of Many, A History of the American People, by John Mack Faragher (Yale); Mary Jo Buhle (Brown), Daniel Czitrom (Mount Holyoke); and Susan Armitage (Washington State), c)1994 – This is the Bible of PC outrageous liberal pseudo-history, although they don’t really turn up the lefty heat until the chapters covering the 20th century.
Oxford History of the American People, by Samuel Eliot Morison – c) 1965 Oxford University Press
1,200 opinionated pages by the great naval historian. Sam gets all worked up when he describes the Barbary States demanding ransom from the US Navy.
Presidential Campaigns, by Paul F. Boller, Jr. - c) 1984 – Oxford University Press
Each chapter includes little side stories about the campaign. I thought this would be the best part of the book but the main political story beats the sidebars by plenty.
The Prince of Braintree, An unauthorized biography of John Adams, by Kevin Walker, c) 1921
A Short History of the American Nation, by John A. Garraty (Columbia) – c) 1966 - c) 1974 – Harper & Row
My copy is the revised edition of 1974, but Garraty is a dinosaur historian with all the prejudices of an old white man writing in 1965.
The Supreme Court and It's Work, by Congressional Quarterly – Fantastic oversized paperback covering the function and the history of the Supreme Court, followed by excellent biographies of each and every one up to 1976.
The United States to 1865, by Michael Kraus – c) 1959
The United States, From Colony to World Power, by Chitwood, Owsley, and Nixon – c) 1954 –
The United States: The History of a Republic by Richard Hofstadter of Columbia, William Miller, co-author of the Age of Empire, and Daniel Aaron of Smith College in Massachusetts – c) 1957 Prentice-Hall
These history big shots are fine editors. They don't use quotes too often, but when they do they make it count.
The United States and World Sea Power, E. B. Potter, Editor – Huge textbook by the military history brains trust of the USN. This book is a priceless winner!
VIDEO
John Adams, HBO five part TV special – Almost everyone I know
has watched this by now. It was heavily promoted and a highly acclaimed
production. I'm sorry. I tried to watch portions of it several times but I had to shut it off. I just didn't like it. I especially didn't like the lead actor playing John Adams, nor the smug woman playing Abigail. There were more close up love scenes between John and Abigail than in an adult movie.
I don't like my imagination to be blocked by a specific portrayal by an actor. Now when I think of Adams I think of that stupid beady-eyed fidgety actor instead of the picture I had already formulated of our second president.
Everything was so damned sluggish. It took them twenty minutes to make an informative political point. I could read ten rich pages of a really good book in that time and learn 20 times as much. The HBO series didn't light my fire with knowledge.
I remember when NBC had a miniseries on Peter the Great. I had read a dozen books on Peter and had a fine imaginary portrait of him in my brain. After watching the series, I became stuck in a rut with the image of Maximilian Schell; his body, his voice, his mannerisms.
I can't stand seeing actors playing historic figures. Stick to fiction. The tiniest nuance of a voice and mannerism is the essence of a person, and an actor, no matter how great, can fairly represent anyone but themselves. Actors only really bring themselves to the table. Paul Giamatti played Paul Giamatti in a John Adams costume. He did not play John Adams. He ruined John Adams for me and I only watched 90 minutes out of five hours.
With thousands of great history books and no time to read them, I will just have to live with whatever I lost by missing the rest of it. I can honestly say that I didn't learn a single important thing from watching those 90 minutes except that John Adams apparently had a lot of ugly pimples on his bald head which for some reason seemed to turn Abigail into a tigress when she rubbed it.
Forgive me. I hated it.
The special is based on the book by David McCullough. More than half of all the history reading done by the general public today is this guy with his giant New York City publicity machine selling him to the masses. I bought his book about the Panama Canal project a long time ago and I didn't like it. McCullough is the most overexposed historian in the history of the craft. A hundred times I have met someone who never ever reads history but they tell me eagerly that they read the latest hot book by David McCullouh. I see him interviewed on television so often I wonder how he ever finds time to read or write. His elderly unpleasant sluggish voice is on about 30,000 documentaries to the point where anything narrated by him is unwatchable for me. At times I think I could actually welcome another Morgan Freeman voice-over by comparison.
Again, I have no desire to persuade anyone to feel this way but I have to explain why I am not basing this chapter on McCullough's book or the TV series based on his book. Believe it or not, there are other ways to absorb information about John Adams. Now the masses are suddenly gripped with interest on John Adams when they never gave him a second thought until the publicity machines told them it was the hip thing of the moment.
Later on this year McCullough will write a book about the Battle of Brandywine, HBO will make a five part series called Brandywine starring some hip and now actors and every cabbie will be discussing the Battle of Brandywine over their coffee break.
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