John Adams
John Adams contemplated a "Declaration of Independency" long before he and other delegates from the thirteen colonies got together in 1776 to debate our separation from England. Although Adams had legally defended nine British soldiers after an uprising in Boston in 1770, he was later to become a leader in securing our independence from the British monarchy.
After the Revolutionary War began, Adams was sent to France to seek their support against the British forces. He worked there with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Several years later he was joined by his wife Abigail and several of his children. Finally in 1788 they returned to America, and in 1789, George Washington became President and John Adams Vice President.
Adams did not become our second President until 1797. Thomas Jefferson was the Vice President, but the friendship they had known in France soon vanished. Adams did not agree with Jefferson on his defense of slavery, nor on his support for the French Revolution, which could have led to war. The fact that Jefferson was Republican and Adams more a Federalist didn't help their relationship while in office, either.
Alexander Hamilton also caused problems while Adams was President. He wanted George Washington's position as top general of the army, plus the fame that went with it. But Adams' refusal to go to war stopped him. He might have had Hamilton in mind when he stated, "Genius in a general is often an instrument of divine vengeance... than a guardian angel." Hamilton died in 1804, in a duel with Aaron Burr, then Vice President under President Jefferson.
But John Adams' strongest supporter, in politics and at home for over 50 years, was his wife Abigail. The many letters between her and John greatly enhanced a devout romance, something that not every President has enjoyed.
However, Abigail died in 1818 and was not alive when their son John Quincy Adams became the 6th President. John lived until 1826, and during his last years, he renewed his friendship with Jefferson by way of letters. In reminiscing on their many accomplishments, he wrote Jefferson that, "No effort in favor of virtue was lost."
Then, as most readers know, he and Jefferson both died on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. All the other signers had died years before.
McCullough's outstanding research shows not only John Adams' important contributions in the first crucial years of American independence, but it exposes some unusual strengths and weaknesses in other Presidents and important men of that period. The author also describes the beginning of the electoral college and the number of votes needed to win the presidency. However, he omits how voting polls functioned at that time, or who was allowed to vote.
What makes this chapter in American history unique today, but difficult for us to imagine, is the terrible slowness in traveling and communicating. Adams' journeys on horseback from Boston down to Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress met, could take him 30 days. And letters didn't move much faster. Correspondence sent from France to America took many months, depending on when a ship going across the Atlantic set sail.
David McCullough's biography of JOHN ADAMS, published in 2001, also includes three sections of fascinating pictures, paintings and drawings.