Not Your Father's Founders (2 page)

Weymouth, Massachusetts
November 11, 1744−October 28, 1818
A Woman Ahead of Her Time

Abigail Adams, like most girls of her era, was educated at home. She had a significant advantage over many of the other girls, though. Her father, William Smith, a Congregationalist minister, had a large private library, as did many ministers of the era, who were often the best-educated individuals in eighteenth-century America.

So did her mother's father, John Quincy, who was a member of the colonial governor's council and a militia colonel. The two men instilled in her a love for esoteric subjects such as philosophy, theology, ancient history, government, and law.

Adams was a straight-laced young lady in her youth. By her own admission she did not sing, dance, or play cards. For amusement she read and wrote letters to friends and relatives. Those activities helped prepare her for her life with John, whom she met at her sister Mary's wedding in 1759.

Their courtship was slow. They were married by her father on October 25, 1764, when she was nineteen years old and he was just five days shy of his twenty-ninth birthday. John and Abigail had their first child, named Abigail (or “Nabby”), slightly less than nine months later. Their second child, John Quincy, was born two years later. Altogether, they had three sons and two daughters.

Their first few years of marriage were typical of the time. Abigail and John lived in a series of rented houses and eventually bought their own farm, Peacefield, in 1787. But the times were turbulent, and John, who was at the forefront of the colonists' fight for independence, traveled a lot. Abigail was often on her own, which allowed her to build a strong sense of independence. The two developed a reliance on letters to keep them up to date. Neither of them threw away all their letters, which have become a great source of the history of the time.

Once, when Adams was asked for permission to publish some of her political letters, she refused. She considered it improper to release a woman's private correspondence for public consumption. Luckily, a grandson arranged for the 1848 publication of some of her letters. The collection became the first published memoir of a First Lady. The public has been reading Adams's letters ever since.

As hostilities between the British and American armies began in 1775, the Massachusetts General Court (the colonial legislature) asked Adams, Adams's close friend Mercy Otis Warren, and Hannah Winthrop to survey women in the colony regarding their Tory (loyal to the king) tendencies. The experience whetted Adams's appetite for political arguments.

Adams began a flood of letters to her husband John to report on her activities as the war progressed. The flood never ended. She never let an opportunity pass to remind John that women were people with the same rights as men. She saw the revolution as a chance for Americans to create a society in which men and women were equal. He listened, but she never convinced him that her opinion on the matter was valid.

When John went overseas to England and France, Abigail went along for part of the time to alleviate his loneliness. Even though his political assignments made their separation necessary at times, they took every opportunity to be together. She spent several years in Europe with him from 1784−89, which facilitated his political and social life, especially in France, since he did not speak French well. She was by his side most of the time when he served as vice president (1789−97) and president (1797−1801). Abigail moved with him when the nation's capital was relocated from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800, and she became the first First Lady to inhabit what eventually became known as the White House.

During her husband's presidency, she incurred a lot of criticism for her involvement with John's Federalist Party politics. Her husband's political rivals accused her of advocating a war with France, writing pro-administration editorials to friends and relatives and asking them to get the articles published, supporting laws that were unpopular in their views, and promoting public education for women. Their criticisms were as much gender-based as they were political. Abigail Adams was an anomaly at the time because she did not hesitate to speak her mind, which was difficult for some critics to accept.

Abigail did not lose her interest in politics after John lost his 1800 presidential reelection bid to Thomas Jefferson. She acted as a peacekeeper between the two, who developed a serious rift after the campaign. But Abigail did not hold anything back when she told Jefferson what she thought of the dirty politics involved in the election, telling him, “I have never felt any enmity towards you, Sir, for being elected President of the United States. But the instruments made use of and the means which were practised [
sic
] to effect a change have my utter abhorrence and detestation, for they were the blackest calumny and the foulest falsehoods.”

For the most part, Adams occupied her time raising her granddaughter Susanna Adams, the daughter of her alcoholic son, Charles, and writing letters to friends, relatives, and political acquaintances. Abigail Adams died of typhoid fever in the seventy-fourth year of her life.

Quincy, Massachusetts
October 30, 1735−July 4, 1826
One-Third of a Lifetime

John Adams, a Harvard graduate (class of 1755), burst onto the political scene in 1765 when he published
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
in opposition to the Stamp Act. The eloquent, yet feisty, words he used in the essay made John Adams a household name around Boston in the 1760s, which was good for his career. His law practice was not paying the bills, but the essay attracted the attention of prominent Bostonians who opposed British policies. They welcomed him into their ranks. The public exposure helped launch his political career.

His constant agitation against Britain earned him a seat in the provincial legislature in 1770 and a subsequent election to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775, which carried over into 1776.

The seemingly inexhaustible Adams was one of the driving forces behind the Declaration of Independence. He proposed in 1775 that such a declaration be created and that Thomas Jefferson should write it. Adams served as one of the editors after Jefferson completed his draft. He impressed his political cohorts with his energy, intellect, and ambition, but some people had to wonder about his sanity at times. His manic behavior, outspoken demeanor, and lack of tact sometimes exasperated his fellow delegates.

What other people thought did not interest Adams. He had a country to help build, and he was willing to do whatever it took, even if it went against his principles occasionally. For instance, he did not protest when the Congress eliminated any condemnation of slavery from the final version of the Declaration of Independence, even though he fiercely opposed the practice. As he told fellow patriot and congressional delegate Benjamin Rush, “I will see it out, or go to heaven in its ruins.” He did not slow down once the document was signed and the Revolutionary War expanded.

Congress needed a diplomat to keep the French on the Americans' side. Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Lee represented the United States in Paris, but they were not well suited to working together effectively. Lee was seldom ready to work before 11
A.M.
, in contrast to Franklin; Lee accused Deane and Franklin of siphoning off some of the money they were supposed to use to buy arms from the French. Franklin allegedly was more interested in socializing than negotiating a treaty of alliance.

Congress dispatched Adams in February 1778 to restore peace and harmony. By the time he arrived in Paris, a Treaty of Amity and Commerce negotiated by Franklin, Lee, and Deane had already been signed. Nevertheless, he remained in Europe, finalizing a pact of assistance with the French and soliciting loan and trade agreements with the Dutch. Neither activity earned him a ticket home. He was too valuable in Europe.

With unusual tact, diplomacy, and energy, Adams worked to draw up the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

He stayed in Europe as a diplomat and minister to England until 1788. He was alone for about half of the ten years he was overseas. Abigail and their daughter Nabby joined him in 1784, while his other children remained in Massachusetts to complete their studies.

Abigail and Nabby's presence made his life more bearable. The tranquility they brought him would not last.

The face of politics in America had changed after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. There was a split among those who wanted a strong federal government (Federalists) with limited citizen involvement and those who preferred a weak one (Democratic-Republicans). Adams got into the middle of the fight. He believed in a strong federal government, but he did not discount the citizens' role in it. Adams wanted them to be as engaged in the politics and welfare of their country as he was. He served as George Washington's vice president for two terms, then won his own term as president in 1796.

John Adams was the first president to live in the Executive Mansion, which did not become officially known as the White House until 1902, during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

Adams had a turbulent four years. Two issues dominated his presidency: the Quasi-War with France and the unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts.

The Alien and Sedition Acts comprised four laws passed in 1798 in anticipation of war with France. They increased the waiting period for naturalization, authorized the expulsion of aliens who were considered dangerous, and curtailed press criticism of the U.S. government.

Although the acts expired or were repealed by 1802, they killed Adams's chances of reelection in 1800. Thomas Jefferson, who had opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts, won the election. Adams not only lost the presidency, but he temporarily lost Jefferson as a friend. They reconciled in 1812.

Adams spent the last quarter of his life at their farm, Peacefield, with Abigail and their children and grandchildren. The man who had traveled so much to build a country seldom left home after 1801.