Leader of the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, senior diplomat to France, Netherland, and Britain, the second (and father of the sixth) president of the United States... John Adams was one of the prominent founding fathers of the nation, the like of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, if only without any dollar bills bearing his image.
But unlike Washington or Jefferson, who were wealthy Southern plantation owners*, Adams was the son of a humble farmer in New England who, growing up, wanted to be just another farmer like his father.
Except his father had a different idea. One day father and son set off to the creek to cut thatch and worked through the day. At night at home, father said, "Well, John, are you satisfied with being a farmer?" Though the labor had been very hard and very muddy, John answered, "I like it very well, sir."
"Aya, but I don't like it so well: so you will go back to school today."
John went but was not so happy as among the creek thatch.
Later, when he told his father it was his teacher he disliked, not the books, and that he wished to go to another school, his father immediately took his side and wasted no time with further talk. John was enrolled the next day in a private school down the road. He made a dramatic turn and began studying in earnest.
Though John's father, a respected deacon at the local church, wanted him to become a minister, John's own experience under his father's roof, seeing many "ecclesiastical councils" going through there, gave him second thoughts.
"I saw such a spirit of dogmatism and bigotry in clergy and laity, that if I should be a priest I must take my side, and pronounce as positively as any of them, or never get a parish, or getting it must soon leave it."
He had no heart for such a life and told his father he would take the career of law even if that profession was not generally held in high esteem then.
A successful lawyer he had become, and when the infamous "Boston Massacre" – where a platoon of British soldiers inadvertently fired at a disorderly, violent crowd, killing five civilians – occurred and no other attorneys would come to the soldiers' defence, Adams came forward, believing no person should be denied the right to counsel and a fair trial, and got most of the British soldiers acquitted.
During the Revolutionary War Adams was appointed a commissioner to France to help negotiate a French alliance against Britain. Leaving his wife, children, his home, his livelihood, and knowing nothing of European politics or diplomacy and unable to speak French, Adams took the assignment with pure patriotic sense of duty and boarded a newly commissioned warship for a 3,000-mile voyage across the North Atlantic in a treacherous traveling season.
They escaped the chase of three British frigates at the beginning of the journey, but encountered another heavily armed British merchant vessel three weeks later. Adams was advised to stay at his cabin when the captain informed him they were about to engage with the British enemy.
The fighting was soon over, after a few cannon shot exchanges, the British vessel surrendered.
During the fighting, however, the captain found Adams had taken a place in the heart of the action, musket in hand.
"I then went unto him and said, 'My dear sir, how came you here,' and with a smile he replied, 'I ought to do my share of the fighting.' This was sufficient for me to judge of the bravery of my venerable and patriotic Adams."
America was a divided nation 250 years ago (as today), before and during the Revolutionary War. It was estimated one third of the colonists favored the Revolution, one third opposed it, and one third were undecided. And soon after the independence, partisan politics took over (as today) between the Federalists and the Republicans, resulting in comical theatrics as seen in some newly developed democratic countries today:
"Vicious animosity of a kind previously confined to newspaper attacks broke out in the first physical assault to occur in Congress. In the midst of debate, when Federalist Roger Griswold of Connecticut insulted Republican Matthew Lyon of Vermont, Lyon crossed the chamber and spat in Griswold's face. Soon after, Griswold retaliated with a cane. Lyon grabbed fire tongs from the fireplace, and the two went at each other until, kicking and rolling on the floor, they were pulled apart."
As a young man, Adams had done some soul searching of himself and concluded "honesty, sincerity, and openness... are essential marks of a good mind," and was determined to be a man of integrity: "reputation ought to be the perpetual subject of my thoughts, and aim of my behavior," but confessed vanity – being overly proud, conceited – was his chief failing.
Perhaps that was why though he had accomplished plenty for the country, he was not well liked by many of his political peers, who, while admiring his patriotism and integrity, deemed him aloof, arrogant, and combative. But that might well be his temperamental side, another key trait of his personality, at display. As Adams himself admitted in his old age:
"[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."
By all standards, Adams had a happy, satisfactory family life through his life: He married his intellectual soulmate who became his lifetime political counsel, had three sons and two daughters, one of them (John Quincy Adams) became the sixth president of the United States, and fifteen grand sons and grand daughters whose company he enjoyed in retirement.
But tragedies also struck: One of their daughters died at two, the other one died in her forties of cancer. Two of his sons, though both having outstanding personalities and great ability, were considered mentally unstable and died of alcoholism, one at the young age of 30.
He tried to hang in through these with his philosophy and religion. "Rejoice always in all events, be thankful always for all things is a hard precept for human nature, though in my philosophy and in my religion a perfect duty."
He remained as he had been, clear-eyed about the paradoxes of life and in his own nature. Once, in a letter to an old friend, he had written, "Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding."**
He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th birthday of the nation he helped create.
* John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were the only two of the first twelve US presidents who never owned slaves
Except his father had a different idea. One day father and son set off to the creek to cut thatch and worked through the day. At night at home, father said, "Well, John, are you satisfied with being a farmer?" Though the labor had been very hard and very muddy, John answered, "I like it very well, sir."
"Aya, but I don't like it so well: so you will go back to school today."
John went but was not so happy as among the creek thatch.
Later, when he told his father it was his teacher he disliked, not the books, and that he wished to go to another school, his father immediately took his side and wasted no time with further talk. John was enrolled the next day in a private school down the road. He made a dramatic turn and began studying in earnest.
Though John's father, a respected deacon at the local church, wanted him to become a minister, John's own experience under his father's roof, seeing many "ecclesiastical councils" going through there, gave him second thoughts.
"I saw such a spirit of dogmatism and bigotry in clergy and laity, that if I should be a priest I must take my side, and pronounce as positively as any of them, or never get a parish, or getting it must soon leave it."
He had no heart for such a life and told his father he would take the career of law even if that profession was not generally held in high esteem then.
A successful lawyer he had become, and when the infamous "Boston Massacre" – where a platoon of British soldiers inadvertently fired at a disorderly, violent crowd, killing five civilians – occurred and no other attorneys would come to the soldiers' defence, Adams came forward, believing no person should be denied the right to counsel and a fair trial, and got most of the British soldiers acquitted.
During the Revolutionary War Adams was appointed a commissioner to France to help negotiate a French alliance against Britain. Leaving his wife, children, his home, his livelihood, and knowing nothing of European politics or diplomacy and unable to speak French, Adams took the assignment with pure patriotic sense of duty and boarded a newly commissioned warship for a 3,000-mile voyage across the North Atlantic in a treacherous traveling season.
They escaped the chase of three British frigates at the beginning of the journey, but encountered another heavily armed British merchant vessel three weeks later. Adams was advised to stay at his cabin when the captain informed him they were about to engage with the British enemy.
The fighting was soon over, after a few cannon shot exchanges, the British vessel surrendered.
During the fighting, however, the captain found Adams had taken a place in the heart of the action, musket in hand.
"I then went unto him and said, 'My dear sir, how came you here,' and with a smile he replied, 'I ought to do my share of the fighting.' This was sufficient for me to judge of the bravery of my venerable and patriotic Adams."
America was a divided nation 250 years ago (as today), before and during the Revolutionary War. It was estimated one third of the colonists favored the Revolution, one third opposed it, and one third were undecided. And soon after the independence, partisan politics took over (as today) between the Federalists and the Republicans, resulting in comical theatrics as seen in some newly developed democratic countries today:
"Vicious animosity of a kind previously confined to newspaper attacks broke out in the first physical assault to occur in Congress. In the midst of debate, when Federalist Roger Griswold of Connecticut insulted Republican Matthew Lyon of Vermont, Lyon crossed the chamber and spat in Griswold's face. Soon after, Griswold retaliated with a cane. Lyon grabbed fire tongs from the fireplace, and the two went at each other until, kicking and rolling on the floor, they were pulled apart."
As a young man, Adams had done some soul searching of himself and concluded "honesty, sincerity, and openness... are essential marks of a good mind," and was determined to be a man of integrity: "reputation ought to be the perpetual subject of my thoughts, and aim of my behavior," but confessed vanity – being overly proud, conceited – was his chief failing.
Perhaps that was why though he had accomplished plenty for the country, he was not well liked by many of his political peers, who, while admiring his patriotism and integrity, deemed him aloof, arrogant, and combative. But that might well be his temperamental side, another key trait of his personality, at display. As Adams himself admitted in his old age:
"[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."
By all standards, Adams had a happy, satisfactory family life through his life: He married his intellectual soulmate who became his lifetime political counsel, had three sons and two daughters, one of them (John Quincy Adams) became the sixth president of the United States, and fifteen grand sons and grand daughters whose company he enjoyed in retirement.
But tragedies also struck: One of their daughters died at two, the other one died in her forties of cancer. Two of his sons, though both having outstanding personalities and great ability, were considered mentally unstable and died of alcoholism, one at the young age of 30.
He tried to hang in through these with his philosophy and religion. "Rejoice always in all events, be thankful always for all things is a hard precept for human nature, though in my philosophy and in my religion a perfect duty."
He remained as he had been, clear-eyed about the paradoxes of life and in his own nature. Once, in a letter to an old friend, he had written, "Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding."**
He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th birthday of the nation he helped create.
* John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were the only two of the first twelve US presidents who never owned slaves
** From the book "John Adams" by David McCullough
