John Adams is often given the short end of the stick in the pantheon of American Founding Fathers. Perhaps it’s because his Presidency came between two of the brightest lights of the Revolution, Washington and Jefferson. Perhaps it’s because of the policies he pursued as President, including the plainly unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts. Whatever the reason, the inattention was unobserved. If Washington was the military hero of the American Revolution, and Jefferson provided its voice, then Adams was the heart, and the one who spoke up most forcefully for independence when the time came. If history has neglected Adams in even a small way, though, David McCollough does a masterful job of telling the story of the life of this American Patriot in his book, John Adams
I will admit to being a Jefferson partisan myself, and I think that America was on the whole better off that Adams lost the Election of 1800. For that reason, though, I truly appreciated this book for the insight it gives into Adams’s life and the contributions he made to the Revolution. Unlike Jefferson, who quite honestly contributed very little publicly in the years between 1776 his arrival in Paris (outside of a term as Virginia’s Governor that didn’t really go very well), Adams was a major player in the diplomatic efforts in Europe to force the British to recognize American independence. Both in France and The Netherlands, he played the role of ambassador of the new country. He was involved in the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. And, in a scene that must have been one for the ages, he was the first Ambassador of the United States to the Court of St. James in London.
Throughout the book, which draws heavily on letters written by Adams and his wife Abigail, we get insights into life in the new America and into the character of the men that helped build it, from George Washington and Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.
In many ways, though, the story of the Revolution is the story of Adams and Jefferson. The New England farmer and the Virginia gentleman. One strongly opposed to slavery, the other recognizing its faults but accepting its benefits. A more unlikely pair there probably never could have been. Brought together in the fight for independence, they quickly became friends. Again, in Europe, they worked together. Then, as the new nation took form, their differences became apparent. Where Jefferson saw the Spirit of `76 rekindled in the French Revolution, Adams saw the worst aspects of mob rule. Then, when the two finally serve together in government, years go by where they barely speak a word to each other. In the end, though, the two political and personal rivals rekindle the relationtionship that started in 1776 and engage in a decade-long correspondence that is among the most interesting in American history.
In many respects, Jefferson does not come across well in this book, but that is not surprising given McCullough’s obvious respect for Adams. At times, that respect causes McCullough to lose objectivity when writing about his subject, but, when you’re talking about one of the Founding Fathers, that can be forgiven.
It took me five years to get around to reading this book, and I’m glad I finally did. As he did in his biography of Harry Truman
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