John+Adams

//(Redirected from John "The Bauss" Adams) //

//(Not to be confused with John Quincy Adams, John Adams Smith, John Adams (1691-1761), or John Adams (1803-1834)) //

//"We are in the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations." // //-**John Adams**, 1776 //

**John Adams** (1735-1826) was the second president of the United States of America. He was a very influential person in American history. Born in Massachusetts, he attended Harvard University and later became a lawyer. He was the second cousin of Samuel Adams, and he married Abigail Smith in 1764. He gained wide notability beginning with his opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765. His son, John Quincy Adams, would grow up to become the sixth President of the United States.

flat

﻿Revolution
Throughout the entire revolution, John Adams always maintained a strong opposition to loyalism and consistently worked for American independence. He was a representative from Massachusetts at the First and Second Continental Congresses, dealing with the American responses to Lexington and Concord. Foreseeing the then probable (and later eventual) outcome of going to war with England, Adams nominated George Washington of Virginia to be the commander in chief of the army, partially to gain support from the South.

To describe his views on what type of government should be formed during the revolution, he wrote //Thoughts On Government// in 1776. In this pamphlet, Adams described how the most desirable government would be the one that works for the happiness and goodwill of the people. It described the necessity of the separation of powers between the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches of government as well as the restriction and legitimacy of enumerated powers. The pamphlet was very influential in the writing of many State Constitutions.

John Adams, along with Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, was in a group with the purpose of writing a Declaration of Independence. The Declaration itself was mostly written by Thomas Jefferson; John Adams contributed little in its actual writing. However, he did much in the debate over its ratification, convincing many on the issue of its adoption. Later, he would be one of 56 people who would sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

﻿Ambassadorship in France
 On November 27, 1777, the Continental Congress, facing tough times in their war against the British, decided to send John Adams to France to serve as ambassador there and to try to work out an alliance with the French. On February 13, 1778, John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams boarded the Boston in the most secrecy to avoid British detection, and set out on what would be a close to two month journey across the Atlantic from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Bordeaux, France. Upon arriving in France on April 1, 1778, Adams learned that his initial mission had already been accomplished when an alliance between the French and the Americans was signed on February 6, 1778, seven days before he and John Quincy had left for France.

In France, Adams quickly met his co-ambassadors Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. Franklin was insanely popular in France, representing the American spirit to the French. After spending several weeks in close company of Franklin, however, Adams quickly realized who Franklin was, or more accurately, who Franklin no longer was. Franklin, now in his 70s, was no longer youthful and full of vigor; he was aloof, careless with funds, and not very productive, spending most of his days confined to his bed and taking only a few callers a day. Adams' other co-ambassador was just as strange. Arthur Lee was very hostile and suspicious; he accused many around him of being spies (of which some turned out to be, but the ambassadors would never know). During the couple months or so of his first ambassadorship to France, Adams would have to learn to deal with his fellow ambassadors.

After British Ships attacked French ships at sea in June of 1778, Adams felt that it should be his duty to hold administrative duties; he straightened the accounts of agents of Congress in France, established what to do British ships taken at sea, as well as negotiate with the British over how they should treat American prisoners of war. Adams also made it clear to the French that provided they supplied a strong naval presence on the coast of the colonies, the war would surely end in their favor. During this time, Adams began to feel more and more lonely; he hadn't heard from Abigail in more than three months, he had difficulty fraternizing with Franklin, and Lee was inhospitable as usual. A letter of hers finally arrived on June 16, 1778, and Adams immediately sent back a response, as well as many more in between when he would hear from her again. Unbeknownst to either of them, most of their letters were lost, captured at sea, or stolen. In the mean time, there was no news from Congress either. In taking into account the time it took to get mail back and forth between France and Philadelphia, Adams, Franklin and Lee took to deciding matters on their own without the approval of Congress.

On September 14, 1778, Congress named Franklin the minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Louis XVI and dispatched Lee to Madrid, and in the act got rid of the three-man co-ambassadorship. Adams, angry and insulted that he had not been mentioned, decided that he was no longer needed in France and submitted a request to Congress asking for a ship to take him back where he assumed all his duties were since it had not mentioned him. On August 2, 1779, John Adams and John Quincy Adams were back in Boston. In October, Congress had once again chosen Adams to be sent to France, this time as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with the British; on November 15, Adams was aboard the //Sensible// and on his way to France. On his second voyage to France, Adams would work with John Jay over the heads of Franklin and the French government in negotiating directly with Great Britain. When Adams received the news of Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown on November 23, 1781, he was elated; his persuasion of the French to provide a strong navy had paid off. After much negotiation, on September 3, 1783, the peace treaty was signed and the revolution was over. The United States of America was officially a nation of the world.

Presidency
John Adams was the second President of the United States of America, directly following George Washington. He was elected in the year 1796. He was only President for one term. He was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. In the election that he won, Adams beat Thomas Jefferson by a vote of seventy-one to sixty-eight. His perspective wasn’t perfect. During the campaign, Alexander Hamilton created a large amount of animosity towards Mr. Adams. At the beginning of his presidency, Adams wasn’t even the center of attention; the citizens were still paying attention to George Washington. Large numbers wept at Washington leaving office instead of celebrating the entrance of Adams. Adams, because of his enormous ego and sensitivity, took this very personally. After the election, Adams and Jefferson quickly made amends; they had never hated each other, only their followers had created the negative campaigns.

 During his presidency, Adams and other great men appeared small because of the feuds that occurred during that time, specifically the bitterest feud in American history. This feud was between Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Adams tried to pursue a course of statesmanship, only to be stopped by his own hotheadedness. During this time, the French revolution was occurring, and Adams was in a pinch between the French and the British. There were abundant reasons to start a war between either of them: Jefferson hated England; Hamilton hated France; and both countries were acting in a manner that causes animosity between countries.. Adams held himself back and kept the U.S. at peace with both countries; in fact, his tombstone states, “Here lies John Adams, who took it upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800.” Unfortunately, Adams’ attempt at peace with France worked against the ideas of his political party (whose ideas were created by his enemy Alexander Hamilton). Due to his efforts to appoint a minister that would have negotiated with France, Hamilton started to turn Federalists against Adams. Adams was not re-elected because of Hamilton turning his party against him. Adams was probably the most active lame-duck president of all time. During that period, he appointed John Marshall to the Supreme Court. Marshall created a very good example of what a chief justice of the Supreme Court should do. He started the use of the elastic clause of the Constitution, which states that the government can do whatever is “necessary and proper.

 Adams also signed in laws called the Alien and Sedition Laws. The Alien Laws raised the residence requirements for aliens who desired to become citizens from 5 years to 14 years. They also stated that the President could deport or jail foreigners in times of peace or hostilities. The Sedition Act stated that anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials would be liable to a heavy fine and imprisonment. The point of these laws was to increase the power of the President, as well as his ego while decreasing the number of Jeffersonians. These laws created many cleavages in the Federalist Party, including the incitement of James Madison (an author of the Federalist Papers) to join Jefferson's point of anti-federalism.

 Overall, Adams did very little during his presidency. He was too engrossed in his conflict with Hamilton to achieve anything truly great for the nation, compared to Washington and Jefferson. Adams was a prisoner of his own vanity, egotism, and vehemence in the middle of the defining stage of our country.

﻿References

 * [] (Creation of the Declaration)
 * Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Andrew Bailey. The American Pageant: a History of the Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Print.
 * McCullough, David G. //1776//. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. Print.
 * McCullough, David G. //John Adams//. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. Print.
 * Morse, John T. John Adams. New York: Riverside, 1885. Google Books
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]<span class="wiki_link_ext"> (Hamilton getting shot)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] (Franklin at Royal Court)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] (John Adams)