{"id":17750,"date":"2024-06-16T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=17750"},"modified":"2024-10-02T14:18:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T18:18:32","slug":"2-adams-john","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=17750","title":{"rendered":"#2. Adams, John"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas <\/em>\u2013 John Adams (October 30, 1735 \u2013 July 4, 1826) was the first vice-president of the United States and the first vice-president who then became president. He was the first president who FOUGHT to be president, and he even FATHERED a president. How did these presidential leanings begin? I\u2019m going to give you three words; watch for them as the story continues. One is \u201cprestige,\u201d one is \u201cHumphrey,\u201d and one is \u201ctea.\u201d John was not a tall, slender, easy-with-people kind of guy. He was 5\u20197\u201d with a round tummy and a Puritan heart. If you invited him to your party, he would not come; or if he did, he would not have danced. But he would have observed everything, and gone home and written notes about everyone there. He was a famous diarist, who paid attention to what was going on. He had strong feelings, and never failed to express them. He did not have a military career, but he was a fighter nonetheless. He was a WORD fighter. His big brain was bursting with ideas, opinions, and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Yes, John was well educated. He was even born in Braintree! (Now Quincy, Massachusetts.) John was the firstborn of John Sr and Susanna Boylston Adams; he was three when brother Peter came along and six when brother Elihu was born. They lived on the family farm; his father was a farmer, a cordwainer (shoemaker), a deacon in the Congregational Church, and a councilman who supervised the building of schools and roads. John\u2019s formal education began when he was six \u2013 a school for boys and girls, conducted at a teacher\u2019s home; the textbook was the New England Primer. Next he went to Braintree Latin School and studied Latin, Rhetoric, logic, and arithmetic. Maybe the teacher was dull \u2013 John skipped classes until his father commanded him to stay in school. \u201cYou shall comply with my desires,\u201d was the word. John Sr took another action as well \u2013 he hired a new schoolmaster! It worked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John entered Harvard at age sixteen and was a keen scholar; he studied the works of ancient writers such as Plato and Cicero in their original languages. He graduated in 1755 (age 20) with an A B degree and taught school for a while. His father expected him to become a minister, but John was more interested in \u201cprestige\u201d (note that word), and honor. He wrote to his father that he would become a lawyer, as he found among lawyers \u201cnoble and gallant achievements,\u201d but among the clergy the \u201cpretended sanctity of some absolute dunces.\u201d So there!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 1758 John earned an A M from Harvard, and in 1759, at the age of 24, was admitted to the bar. His habit of writing in his diary about events and his impressions of people continued; he was inspired by James Otis Jr\u2019s 1761 argument challenging the legality of British writs of assistance, which allowed the British to search a home without notice or reason. John observed the packed courtroom as Otis argued passionately for the colonists\u2019 rights; later he said \u201cThen and there the child independence was born.\u201d In 1763, at the age of 28, John wrote seven essays for Boston newspapers under the name \u201cHumphrey Ploughjogger,\u201d (note the word Humphrey!). He ridiculed the \u201cthirst for power\u201d he perceived among the Massachusetts colonial elite. His influence began to emerge from his work as a constitutional lawyer and his analysis of history; but his bluntness was often a constraint in his career.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John got married though, to Abigail Smith, a third cousin. The wedding took place October 25, 1764\u00a0 — he was 29, she was 20 \u2013 and though at first he had not been fond of Abigail and her sisters, they became close because they had two things in common \u2013 a love of books, and kindred personalities. John had inherited an 8-acre farm in 1761 when his father died; he and Abigail lived there until 1783; they had six children; four reached adulthood and one became president.<\/p>\n

What was the third word I asked you to remember? It was \u201ctea,\u201d as in, The Boston Tea Party<\/em>. Date: December 16, 1773. Action: The British schooner Dartmouth loaded with tea to be traded subject to the new Tea Act dropped anchor in Boston harbor. Demonstration: Protestors demolished 342 chests of tea; in today\u2019s dollars worth about $1 million. The next day, John wrote to his friend James Warren about the audacious stroke:<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Night 3 Cargoes of Bohea Tea were emptied into the Sea. This Morning a Man of War sails. This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered\u2014something notable And striking. This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Boston Tea Party<\/em> proved to be one of the many reactions that led to the American Revolutionary War; you know how that ended. As for John Adams’ blazing patriotism and activism, he became a principal leader of the Revolution. He assisted in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was its foremost advocate in Congress. As a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the peace treaty with Great Britain and secured vital governmental loans. He was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influenced the United States’ own constitution, as did his earlier Thoughts on Government<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here is his resume with regard to government positions:<\/p>\n