President John Adams
2nd President of the United States
interesting facts
John Adams was the last Federalist elected President.
quote
"Thomas Jefferson still lives!" - (John Adams said this in his death bed. He was wrong, Thomas Jefferson had died a few hours earlier)
biography
John Adams was the eldest son of John Adams, a farmer, and Susanna Boylston Adams, whose Boston family included several noted physicians. Young Adams was born and raised in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, on the farmland his great-grandfather had cleared 100 years earlier. Throughout his life, Adams felt a deep attachment for the Adams farm and for the town of Braintree.Education Adams attended school in Braintree, and at the age of 16 he entered Harvard College. After graduating in 1755, he took a teaching position in Worcester, Massachusetts, and continued to study. Latin, history, and law were the subjects that particularly interested him, and he soon abandoned his early plans to become a clergyman. He turned instead to the law. A disciplined scholar, he gained a knowledge of government and law that was probably unexcelled in colonial America. In 1758 Adams began to practice law in Braintree. He slowly gained recognition as an able lawyer, first in Braintree, then in Boston. During this period, Adams also met many influential men who would later join with him as leaders of the Massachusetts colony.
In 1764 after a courtship of three years, Adams married Abigail Smith, daughter of a Weymouth, Massachusetts, minister. The couple had five children. One of them, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president of the United States.
The marriage lasted 54 years, until the death of Abigail Adams in 1818. Between 1774 and 1784 the Adamses saw very little of each other, because John Adams was continuously serving the young nation, first in the Continental Congress and later abroad. But in 1784 Abigail joined her husband in Europe and thereafter remained at his side, serving him as a confidante and offering him sound political advice.
The Constitution of the United States had been drafted in 1787 and ratification by the states had begun. Under its provisions, members of the Electoral College, who were chosen by the states, voted in February 1789 to choose a president and vice president. At that time, each elector cast two votes. When the votes were tallied, the person who got the most votes became president and the runner-up became vice president. (The system was later changed to permit separate choices for president and vice president.) In 1789 all 69 electors voted for George Washington, electing him president. John Adams received the second largest number, 34 votes, and became the first vice president of the United States.
Adams took office on April 30, 1789. He served as vice president under Washington for eight years. The office, which was intended to provide a head of government in case of the president's death, did not suit the spirited Adams. He regarded the vice presidency as unworthy of his abilities, calling it "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived."
Adams did exert some influence by casting tie-breaking votes in his role as president of the Senate, the newly created upper house of the Congress of the United States. In 20 such votes, on a variety of issues, Adams consistently supported Washington's policies. He helped to decide on U.S. neutrality in a new war between France and Britain and the adoption of reprisals against Britain for interfering with American shipping. He also supported financial measures proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
During his vice presidency, Adams was part of the beginning of the political party system in the United States. President Washington regarded himself as president of the entire nation and deplored the division of the country into partisan groups. His Cabinet, however, fostered the very divisions he sought to prevent. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, favored a strong central government. They soon became the Federalist Party. The anti-Federalists or Republicans (later to become the Democratic-Republican Party), under Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, sought more power for the individual states and urged that all citizens be given a voice in government.
Adams had begun his career as a defender of the rights of the people. He did not, however, share Jefferson's belief in people's basic goodness, and he feared tyranny of the masses as much as tyranny of a monarch. The disorder and bloodshed of the French Revolution (1789-1799) confirmed his fear of unbridled popular rule. "It has been said," he wrote in a postscript to his Davila papers, "that it is extremely difficult to preserve liberty … It is so difficult, that the very appearance of it is lost over the whole earth, excepting one island (England) and North America." Now Adams stressed the necessity of a balanced government with "an independent executive authority, an independent senate, and an independent judiciary power, as well as an independent house of representatives." In time, although he was a close friend of Jefferson's, Adams found himself siding with the Federalists.
The Federalist Party, however, was by no means united. Adams and Hamilton, although they often supported the same policies, were divided on basic issues. Adams did not share Hamilton's belief in a government controlled by a small group of wealthy aristocrats.
Election of 1796: In 1796 Washington, who had twice been unanimously elected president, declined to run for a third term. For the first time in the history of the United States the office of president was contested. The election of 1796 set the pattern for all future U.S. elections. There were rival candidates and rival parties. The chief contenders were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Hamilton supported Thomas Pinckney, former diplomatic representative to Great Britain. A fourth contender was Aaron Burr, one of the leaders of the Tammany Society, a political machine in New York City. Adams and Pinckney were Federalists. Jefferson and Burr were Republicans.
Most of New England stood firmly behind Adams but was willing to support Pinckney for vice president. Some New England electors then decided they would vote for Adams but not for Pinckney. This would ensure that Adams got a majority of the electoral votes. Hamilton argued against this move, insisting that Jefferson might become vice president.
Fortunately for Adams, New England held firm and withheld many votes from Pinckney. Some Federalist electors in other sections of the country switched their votes to Pinckney and, if New England had followed Hamilton's advice, Pinckney would have won. The final vote stood: Adams, 71; Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; and Burr, 30. It was the only time the nation had a president and vice president from different political parties.
John Adams was inaugurated as president at Federal Hall, Philadelphia, on March 4, 1797. Philadelphia was then the nation's capital. Adams spent only the last few months of his presidency at the new capital, Washington, D.C.
President Adams was immediately confronted with a number of pressing issues. The most urgent was a threat of war with France. For four years the United States had remained neutral in the struggle between France and Britain. Britain, however, had a policy of seizing neutral ships-including those of the United States-that traded with France. To stop this seizure of American ships, the United States negotiated Jay's Treaty of 1794, which appeased Britain by giving it various trading concessions. The treaty was unpopular in the United States; moreover, it enraged the French, who believed the Americans were aiding the British. Early in 1797 the French began attacking American shipping, and by June they had seized 300 American ships. France had broken relations by sending the U.S. diplomatic representative home. Many American leaders now saw war as the only option.
Adams would not find it easy to continue Washington's policy of neutrality, although he had consistently supported it. Many Federalists did not shy away from war with France. Hamilton, especially, supported war with France. Jefferson and his followers, on the other hand, defended France's actions and urged support of France against England. Adams called a special session of Congress to deal with the French question. In his message to Congress he urged a peaceful policy. He proposed that a new mission be sent to negotiate the differences with France and that the U.S. Army and Navy be kept ready in case negotiations should fail. His recommendations were well received, and a three-man diplomatic mission was dispatched to France.
XYZ Affair: The French government did not receive the new mission. Instead the diplomats were approached by agents of Charles Talleyrand, the French foreign minister. The agents proposed that the United States could make reparations for its alleged injuries to France by paying Talleyrand a huge bribe and financing a large loan to the French government. These terms were so exorbitant and dishonorable that the American diplomats rejected them. When Adams, who had been waiting anxiously for news, got their report, he tried to keep it secret. But Jefferson's pro-French Republicans accused Adams of suppressing information that was favorable to France and thereby driving America into war with that country.
Adams finally let the report be published. The names of the French agents were changed to X, Y, and Z, but the details were left unchanged. Jefferson now found himself on the defensive as anti-French feeling rose over the XYZ Affair, as it was called. He argued that there was no reason to believe that the agents were actually speaking for the French government. Hamilton, although out of office, took advantage of the growing antagonism toward France to advocate war. Still controlling a faction of the Federalists in Congress and in the Cabinet, he was able to influence Congress to renounce all the treaties it had made with France during the American Revolution. Congress also ordered an expansion of the army, created the Department of the Navy, and commissioned the building of naval fighting ships. George Washington was called out of retirement to lead the army, with Hamilton as his second in command. By the end of 1798 more than a dozen American men-of-war had been launched, and an undeclared naval war with France had begun. Adams did not like the vast military preparations, but he complied with the nation's wishes.
Adams and Hamilton The rift between Adams and Hamilton slowly grew during this period of international crisis. Adams favored a strong stand against France, so that the French government would respect the United States. He was willing to fight, but he preferred to avert war. Hamilton would profit from a war because it would discredit his rival Thomas Jefferson, who had always been friendly toward France. Until the beginning of 1799, Adams seemed to be allowing Hamilton to have his way.
Gradually, however, Adams lost trust in his own Cabinet. Thus, he consulted no one before announcing a new policy toward France. On February 18, 1799, he named a new diplomatic representative, with full treaty powers, to France. His choice was William Vans Murray, then diplomatic representative to the Netherlands.
Negotiations With France: The Federalists were outraged, but the country welcomed Adams's move. Hamilton, taken by surprise, could not oppose it without seeming to want war. Adams's enemies in the Cabinet held up the departure of Murray and the two other members of his peace commission. Finally, in another independent and unexpected act, Adams issued final instructions and ordered the commission to sail without further delay.
Negotiations with France were long and complex, but they ended in an agreement. Adams had succeeded in preventing war. In so doing, however, he had won the hatred of Hamilton.
In 1798 Adams signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts, which seriously limited the right of free speech and dissent in the United States. Their purpose was to curb anti-administration criticisms by Jeffersonian newspaper editors and to ensure Federalist success at the polls. The laws were proposed by the Federalists in Congress. Although Adams signed the laws, he did not enforce them vigorously. Nevertheless he came to be associated with them in the public mind. They resulted in an outpouring of protest throughout the country that greatly aided the Jeffersonian Republicans.Split with the Federalists Two members of Adams's Cabinet whom he had come to distrust were Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and Secretary of War James McHenry, who were more loyal to Hamilton than they were to their president. Often, they ignored Adams's orders and acted on directives from Hamilton. In May 1800 Adams forced the resignation of McHenry and fired Pickering. The price of Adams's refusal to be dominated by Hamilton was a split in the Federalist ranks that contributed to his defeat in the election of 1800.Election of 1800 The presidential nominations of 1800 were made in caucuses (party meetings) in Congress. The Federalists, because of the influence of New England members, named John Adams and diplomat Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina as their candidates. The Republicans, who had begun to call themselves Democratic-Republicans, nominated Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
By this time, Hamilton completely opposed Adams and campaigned for Pinckney. Without the main Federalist support, Adams lost, but Jefferson and Burr tied with 73 electoral votes each. The tie-breaking vote was decided by the House of Representatives, which eventually elected Jefferson as president. Adams was stunned. He felt repudiated by the country he had served so long and so ardently. The leaders of his own party had turned against him. On the day of Jefferson's inauguration, Adams left the executive mansion in Washington, D.C., alone. He was too hurt to observe the courtesy of attending his successor's inauguration.
One of Adams's last official acts was to fill a large number of lifetime judgeships with Federalist judges. These were the so-called "midnight judges," whose appointments angered Jefferson's party because Adams named them after the election. Among them was Secretary of State John Marshall, whom Adams appointed Chief Justice of the United States. Marshall's 30-year tenure firmly established the prestige of the judicial branch of the government and strengthened the federal government much as Adams and the Federalist Party would have wished it to be strengthened.
Last Years Adams spent his last 25 years on his farm in Massachusetts. Although he never again participated in public life, he remained interested in and informed about the affairs of his country. The career of his son John Quincy Adams gave him great pleasure, and he lived to see him elected president of the United States in 1824.
As the years passed, the bitterness that had developed during Adams's administration spent itself. The American people came to appreciate his patriotism and integrity. In 1812 Adams and Jefferson were reconciled. They began a correspondence, covering their favorite subjects of history, philosophy, and religion, that continued for the remainder of their lives.
Adams died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
| events during john adam's administrations 1797-1801 |
cabinet and supreme court of john adams |
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