In a myth-like synchronicity, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was a fitting concurrence, not only for its symbolic significance for the nation, but because these two men, who for so much of their lives were bitter political rivals, lived out the end of their days in amicable friendship.
Tracing this dramatic friendship was famed historian David McCullough’s original task when he set out to write the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book John Adams, but McCullough found Adams so compelling that he decided to make him the focus. After reading the book, it’s easy to see why.
Adams, the second president of the United States, is one of the less studied of our great Founding Fathers, in part because of the decided lack of controversy surrounding his life and career. Additionally, as McCullough himself notes, Adams “served only one term, and Americans… have not been kind in their evaluations of one term presidents.” Yet with John Adams, McCullough has successfully presented Adams as a paragon of virtues deserving far greater renown and respect than he has previously received.
McCullough depicts Adams as a man of resolute moral convictions throughout his life. After eight British soldiers fired into a crowd of Bostonians killing five men in 1770, all of Massachusetts was livid over what would be called the Boston Massacre. When John Adams was asked to defend the soldiers and informed that no other lawyer was willing to do so, he immediately “accepted, firm in the belief… that no man in a free country should be denied the right to counsel and a fair trial, and convinced, on principle, that the case was of utmost importance.”
Although Adams risked his reputation by defending the British soldiers, his commitment to the virtue of justice overrode any self-interested calculation. This theme of subordinating his own self-interest to virtuous conduct was evident through much of Adams’s career.
As a politician, Adams never involved himself in the mudslinging war of words that characterized much of 18th century political discourse, and he shied away from the machinations of party politics. Other founding fathers like Hamilton and Jefferson each issued or commissioned vociferous polemics against their political opponents, and readily engaged in covert schemes to consolidate power within their respective parties. Reasoning that such behavior wasn’t fitting or conducive to national unity, Adams held himself above the fray.
Years later, Adams’ presidency was defined by another virtuous commitment to the common good. When Adams took office in 1797, he made “his determination to maintain American neutrality” a center point of his inaugural address. At the time, tensions between the United States and France were high. France and Great Britain were at war, and the French essentially regarded the treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain that had ended the Revolutionary War as an alliance.
Over the next several years, antagonistic French actions brought the U.S. into a simmering, undeclared naval conflict. Much of the country, along with Adams’ own political party the Federalists, was clamoring for outright war. Yet as McCullough writes, “to his everlasting credit, at the risk of his career, reputation, and his hold on the presidency, [Adams] chose not to go to war when that would have been highly popular and politically advantageous in the short run.” Adams’ patience was rewarded when a formal treaty was signed with France in 1800 that ended the quasi-war, but his pursuit of peace “cost him the full support of the [Federalist] party, and thus… [re]election.”
In any historical exploration of the founding era, one invariably comes across criticisms of Adams for his vanity. Yet McCullough’s biography does much to reveal this characterization as largely exaggerated.
Acknowledging that Adams could be “vain, cranky, impetuous, self-absorbed, and fiercely stubborn,” McCullough depicts these characteristics as the kind of ordinary faults common among all men rather than the major liability critics would suggest. McCullough paints Adams as a man plagued by “spells of despair … especially when separated from his family or during periods of prolonged inactivity,” but suggests that the majority of Adams’s supposedly self-righteous writings and statements were either honest appraisals of his achievements or the product of his insecurity over how history would remember him. Though McCullough notes, “ambitious to excel — to make himself known — he had nonetheless recognized at an early stage that happiness came not from fame and fortune … but from ‘an habitual contempt of them,’” it seems even Adams was not immune from considering his legacy.
McCullough’s high esteem for John Adams seems well deserved, but there are times when he brushes over Adams’ faults too lightly. In discussing the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, a law that, among other things, criminalized the spread of false information that criticized the government, and was arguably the greatest mistake of Adams’ career, McCullough simply writes that Adams’ failure to oppose or veto the legislation has been “rightly judged by history as the most reprehensible act of his presidency,” before describing historical context that seems to provide some justification for the passage of the act.
One can’t help thinking that McCullough has missed an opportunity here. Outlining the specifics of why these anti-free speech laws were so counter to the ideals of the U.S. Constitution would provide readers lacking knowledge about the Alien and Sedition Act with a greater understanding of why it was such a stain on Adams’ legacy.
Despite this small lapse, McCullough has crafted a work that captures the imagination and brings Adams’ character alive.
Beyond the joy of reading an engaging story and the wisdom gained from learning about the period from so well-researched a work, this book should be read by all Americans as a lesson in our country’s virtues. John Adams’ estimable moral virtue and lifelong devotion to the ideals upon which this country was founded make him an icon within the annals of our founding history — a man we should all strive to emulate.
With John Adams, David McCullough has crafted a biography that does justice to the legacy of this foremost of our founders.
Jack Hipkins (@J_Hipkins) is a Young Voices contributor based in San Diego, Calif.
