John and Abigail Adams
Prior to 1776, there were few historical examples of the liberty and dignity of the individual being respected in societies worldwide. America’s founding generation changed this. The men who met in Philadelphia during the Second Continental Congress in the summer of 1776 sought a new course, one based on the idea that we all possess inalienable rights granted by God, not kings. For this new society to become a reality, the 56 men at the Pennsylvania State House needed to take the brave step of declaring the thirteen colonies they represented as independent states. These men are among the select few known as America’s Founding Fathers. Even within this elite group, there were some whose contributions to the events of the time require special recognition. One of these men is John Adams.
Like so many successful Americans, John Adams was born of humble origins in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735. His father was a farmer and deacon who wanted his son John to become a minister. But John had other callings, and after graduating from Harvard, he started his own law practice in Boston. In 1764, he married Abigail Smith, who became not only his wife but also his political partner throughout his long career. John and Abigail corresponded frequently throughout their lives, much of which was spent apart, as John was sent abroad to Europe on multiple occasions on diplomatic missions, with some postings lasting for years at a time. John usually addressed his letters to Abigail as “My dearest Friend,” and their correspondence is one of the best firsthand accounts of the Revolutionary War and founding era. John and Abigail lived it all.
John Adams became more politically active in the 1760s as events in Boston accelerated. In 1765, he authored “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” a response opposing the British imposition of the Stamp Act, which taxed all publications and legal documents. In 1767, he argued against the British imposition of the Townshend Acts, a series of taxes on imported commodities, including paper, glass, and tea. Adams believed that these taxes were illegal because they were imposed on the colonies without the colonists having the right to represent themselves before the British government.
John Adams entered the public square in a substantial way in 1770 when he agreed to represent British soldiers who opened fire on bystanders during an event known in history as the Boston Massacre. This was a big risk for Adams, as public sentiment was strongly against the British soldiers who killed 5 Boston residents. Samuel Adams, an eventual signer of the Declaration of Independence and John’s second cousin, and Paul Revere were among those who used the incident to stir up hatred against the British.
John Adams showed a character trait that repeated itself throughout his life. He was willing to stand behind a principle he believed in even if it was not popular. One of these principles was the belief that everyone deserved a fair trial, free of mob rule, in a court of law. After arguing that the soldiers were first attacked by the bystanders, and that it was not known who shouted the order to fire, six of the eight British soldiers he defended were acquitted, with the other two being found guilty of manslaughter. John Adams said of his advocacy in defense of the British soldiers, “It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.” The American justice system has followed Adams’ example ever since.
Events in 1770s Boston only intensified. In 1774, a meeting of representatives from all the colonies was called in response to what was considered increasing British authoritarianism. John Adams was elected to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia on behalf of Massachusetts, joining other famous figures such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams.
A Second Continental Congress was called in 1775, only a few weeks after the beginning of the Revolutionary War on April 19, after shots were exchanged at Lexington, Massachusetts. Again, John Adams served on behalf of Massachusetts.
On June 15, 1775, it was decided that the American colonies needed an army rather than relying on local militias, which had done most of the fighting to that point. It was John Adams who proposed the nomination of George Washington of Virginia to lead the new Continental Army. Washington took command of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775, shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Continental Congress continued to meet as the war continued, and with it, a debate over how the colonies should respond to increased hostilities. While many colonists called for continued dialogue and a peaceful resolution to the war, other colonists sought a more radical action – to declare the colonies independent of Great Britain. John Adams became the voice of the independence movement.
The Debate Over Independence
Americans today have the benefit of hindsight. Those living out the events of the American Revolution in real time had no such luxury. Declaring independence and fighting a successful revolution against Great Britain to make this new independent nation a reality faced long odds. It required a lot of bravery from many people.
In January 1776, Thomas Paine released his pamphlet, Common Sense, which became the most widely read document of the time and persuaded many colonials to support independence. For Paine’s vision to become reality, he needed political support within the Continental Congress. As events unfolded in early 1776, the Continental Congress sought a peaceful solution to the war. However, the American attempts towards peace were largely met with continued British authoritarian policies.
The debate within Congress intensified over the summer of 1776. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution “that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.” For John Adams, this was the moment he had been waiting for. A few important decisions were made, including the idea that independence should not simply be declared; rather, a document needed to be drafted to explain to the world why the British colonies in North America deserved to be treated as a sovereign country. A committee of five members of Congress was selected to draft this document. This included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and the 33-year-old Virginian Thomas Jefferson. It was John Adams who sought Thomas Jefferson to be the principal author of what became the Declaration of Independence for the simple reason that he believed Jefferson to be the best writer of the five.
For all the accomplishments John Adams would go on to achieve for the United States, his strong support for the cause of independence was his most important. By this time, some of the other delegates in Congress began to call him the “Atlas of independence” for his ever-increasing advocacy. The debate over Lee’s resolution that the colonies should be free and independent states was intense and needed careful consideration. While every member expressed his opinion and tried to represent the wishes of the colony they represented, there were two leading advocates for the two different positions. John Adams was the passionate voice in support of Lee’s resolution, while John Dickinson of Pennsylvania was the leading voice against the resolution.
John Dickinson is often unfairly represented as the protagonist of the story. However, he might have been the most realistic delegate about what the colonists were facing. The war had already been raging for over a year when Congress took up the resolution. Many Americans had been killed, many more wounded, and life throughout the colonies was tense and uneasy. The newly formed Continental Army faced supply issues throughout the war, and financing the war was another constant problem for the colonies. While the thirteen colonies were slowly coming together, they remained independent of one another and had their own interests to consider. The British possessed the largest and best-equipped army and navy in the world. Dickinson’s position was to continue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Declaring independence would not accomplish this goal.
July 1, 1776, was a momentous day in American history. Nine hours of debate in the Continental Congress were devoted to the question of independence, with Dickinson and John Adams the most involved in advocating for the two opposing positions. Dickinson spoke first, understanding that opposing independence made him unpopular with many in Congress. Then John Adams spoke. In what is considered one of the most important speeches in American history, Adams spoke in favor of independence. The reason this speech is not well known or taught is that there were no notes taken nor any record of what Adams actually said. Thomas Jefferson said that Adams spoke, “with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats.” After three members of the New Jersey delegation, Richard Stockton, Francis Hopkinson, and the Reverend John Witherspoon, arrived late to Adams’ speech, they asked him to repeat what he had said. Adams first objected, but he did just that. He spoke on his feet for over two hours.
John Adams’ speech to the Second Continental Congress advocating for independence, as depicted in the HBO miniseries.
While there is no record of his words, Adams did seem to understand the historical weight of the decision and the effect this vote would have on future generations. Language taken from a letter Adams wrote at the time seems to capture the essence of his message. He wrote, “Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world.”
Each colony received one vote for or against the resolution to declare independence. The vote for independence taken on July 1 finished with four states not voting yes. Pennsylvania, John Dickinson’s state, voted no along with South Carolina. Delaware’s two delegates split on their votes. New York abstained without clear instructions from its legislature on how to vote.
The next day, July 2, some overnight politicking among the delegates changed the voting. Caesar Rodney arrived and changed Delaware’s delegation’s vote from 1-1 to 2-1 in favor of declaring independence. South Carolina changed its vote to yes as well. Pennsylvania’s delegates were split, and two important delegates against voting for independence, John Dickinson and Robert Morris, were absent on July 2. This was by choice, as the pair saw where the vote was heading. This changed Pennsylvania’s vote to yes. Morris eventually signed the Declaration of Independence and was the most important financier of the Revolution in the colonies. Because of his no vote, John Dickinson was accused of being a British Loyalist; however, the same man who sought peace went on to serve in the Pennsylvania militia during the war against the British, rising to the rank of brigadier general. New York again abstained, but with no votes against, the motion to declare independence from Great Britain was passed.
John Adams wrote to Abigail about the July 2, 1776, vote with excitement. He said, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Adams may have been two days early, but he understood better than most how important this moment was in history.
The painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence to Congress by artist John Trumbull. John Adams is depicted standing to the far-right of Thomas Jefferson as one of the five members of the drafting committee.
Thomas Jefferson submitted the first draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress on June 28. July 3 was spent making changes to the document by the whole Congress. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence. The next day, copies of the document began to be printed. While most Americans recognize the famous words authored by Thomas Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” it is likely these words would never have entered the public domain without John Adams. Historian David McCullough and others refer to Thomas Jefferson as “the pen” of independence and John Adams as “the voice” of independence.
John Adams went on to serve his new nation in many other capacities, both during the Revolutionary War and after. He was asked to serve as an ambassador to France, America’s most important ally. He was the first United States minister to the Netherlands, where he secured a vital loan from the Dutch to help finance the war. Adams said about this loan, “If this had been the only Action of my Life, it would have been a Life well spent.” He was one of three men representing the United States, along with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, who signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally ended the Revolutionary War. He became the first United States minister to Great Britain after the war, where he met with his former adversary, the British King George III. During all this, Adams solely handwrote the world’s oldest written constitution, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in 1780. It is still the Massachusetts Constitution today.
John Adams served eight years as the nation’s first vice president under George Washington and four years as its second president, during which he kept the United States out of what could have been a disastrous war with France. After his presidency, Adams returned to Massachusetts, away from public service. He apparently found happiness during these years. He also began correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, who was living away from public service at Monticello, his Virginia home. The two great Founding Fathers had had a falling out over political differences that became very personal. After many years of not speaking to one another, the two made peace.
Adams never lobbied for any public position he held. He was asked by the Continental Congress and later by voters to help the new nation. He believed his sense of public virtue required him to accept. This left him overseas at a time when traveling to Europe by ship was very hazardous. It also kept him away from Abigail and his four children for years, something that was difficult for all of them. During one of his trips to France in February 1778, his ship was tracked by a British warship. He was with his young son and future president, John Quincy. As had happened many times throughout this period of American history, a fortuitous storm, or some would say the Hand of Providence, helped Adams’ vessel break away from his British pursuers. Had Adams been captured, imprisonment or execution were realistic possibilities for his fate.
Abigail Adams died on October 28, 1818. While John Adams is a Founding Father, Abigail Adams is one of America’s Founding Mothers. She was not only the second First Lady in American history but the mother of America’s sixth president, John Quincy Adams. Her correspondence with John shows a wise woman whose advice not only benefited him but the whole country.
The American Revolution required everyone, men and women, to be successful. Women took the lead in holding the fabric of life in the colonies together at a time when life was badly disrupted and contributed to the war effort in many different ways. While John was serving in the Continental Congress in March 1776, Abigail wrote to tell him to “remember the ladies” as the men in Congress were contemplating the future of the colonies. Abigail wrote a vast amount, but this quote gets to her essence, highlighting her belief in the importance of character and virtue: “To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.”
On July 4, 1826, the day of the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the United States, ninety-year-old John Adams died at his family farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. His last words were reported to be, “At least Jefferson lives.” What he did not know was that Thomas Jefferson had passed away a few hours earlier in Virginia. “The voice” and “the pen” of American independence left this world together on the most remarkable of days.
John Adams remains America’s most underappreciated Founding Father. There are no national monuments to him, nor is he on Mount Rushmore. He was viewed by some of his contemporaries as being aristocratic, stubborn, and sensitive to criticism. However, make no mistake, John Adams is one of the very few Americans whose life can rightfully be said to have changed the course of history. We living Americans are eternally grateful that John Adams, Abigail Adams, and our founding generation sacrificed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to create the greatest country in world history. It is up to all of us to remain forever vigilant to ensure this remains the case.
Six days before his death in 1826, John Adams was approached by a group of men who asked him if he had any words he would like to share as coming from him, for an upcoming toast to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence he was so instrumental in creating. He apparently only responded, “I will give you, ‘Independence Forever!'” 250 years and counting.
Recommended Reading:
John Adams by David McCullough (The HBO miniseries of the same name is also highly recommended)