John Adams

John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts October 30, 1735. His Puritan great-great-grandfather, Henry Adams, sailed from Devonshire, England seeking religious freedom as did his Mayflower pilgrim ancestors John Alden and Pricilla Mullins who landed at Plymouth Rock. His father, John Adams, was a Harvard educated farmer who supplemented his income by making shoes.

John Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755 and became a schoolteacher. After a year he decided to become a lawyer, in 1758 was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Braintree. In 1764 at age 29 he married his 19 year old cousin Abigail. They were devoted to each other; she was his “Dearest Friend,” in letters – his “best, dearest, worthiest, wisest friend in the world”—while to her he was “the tenderest of husbands,” her “good man.” They had five children, the oldest son John Quincy, became sixth President of the United States. Abigail would be the very first lady of the White House, and the first woman to be wife of one President and mother of another. There has only been one other, Barbara Bush in 2001.

In 1766 Adams moved his law practice to Boston, became active in politics, and improved his reputation as a lawyer. After the Boston Massacre in 1770 that killed five colonists, Adams and Josiah Quincy acted as defense attorneys for the nine British soldiers charged in the deaths. Adams and Quincy won the acquittal of all soldiers but two who were reprimanded.

Political events drew Adams into public life and he became identified with the patriotic cause. In 1774 Adams was elected as a delegate from Massachusetts to the first Continental Congress. He visited places he had never seen and met political leaders in New York, Princeton and Philadelphia. Adams convinced the delegates to organize the Sons of Liberty who were besieging the British in Boston. Adams nominated George Washington to be commander in chief of the Army. After the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, Adams wrote “The die is now cast. . . Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country is my unalterable determination.” Adams was reelected to the second Continental Congress.

On June 11, 1776 a committee of five was chosen to prepare a declaration. Those members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Two days later the committee members met but Benjamin Franklin was not present for the meetings, as he was suffering from an attack of the gout. Thomas Pickering later wrote to Adams wondering why young Thomas Jefferson was selected to draft the Declaration of Independence, and not Richard Henry Lee. When Jefferson arrived in Congress June 1775, he brought a reputation for literature, and a talent for composition. In his letter to Pickering Adams explained that “Thomas Jefferson thought Adams should write the declaration as he had worked longest and hardest for independence. Jefferson proposed to Adams ‘You write the draft.’ Adams said, ‘I will not,’ Jefferson said ‘You should do it.’ Adams replied ‘Oh! No.’ Jefferson said ‘Why will you not? You ought to do it.’ Adams said ‘I will not.’ Jefferson questioned ‘Why?’ Adams replied ‘Reasons enough.’ Jefferson said ‘What can be your reasons?’ Exasperated, Adams declared “Reason first – you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second – I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third – you can write ten times better than I can.” ‘Well,’ said Jefferson, ‘if you are decided, I will do as well as I can.’ When Jefferson finished he and Adams looked it over. Adams was “Delighted with its high tone and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning Negro slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. We reported it to the committee of five. It was read and all approved it. We were in haste as Congress was impatient. Congress cut out nearly a quarter of it, as I expected they would; but they obliterated some of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if anything in it was.”

Monday July 1, 1776 John Adams believed would be a momentous day. Adams had risen early and wrote to a friend “This morning is assigned the greatest debate of all.” John Hancock gaveled the Second Continental Congress to order at ten o’clock and they would debate for more than nine hours—into the evening. Outside the rain came down in torrents flooding the roads and lightning flashed from the darkened skies. Three weeks earlier, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia had called for a vote on the issue looming before Congress for months. “That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.” Today they would vote on Lee’s proposal.

John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, one of the principal authors of the Olive Branch Petition, was the first to speak. He argued that the colonies were no match for British military power, and Americans were unprepared for war. After Dickinson’s speech silence filled the room–no one countered Dickson’s argument. Adams hesitated and waited for some one else to speak, but finally he could wait no longer, and rose to answer Dickinson. Adams began by saying he wished had the oratorical skills of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for surely, he proclaimed, “none of them ever had before him a question of more importance to his country and to the world.”

He spoke for nearly an hour when he was interrupted by the entrance of Richard Stockton, Rev. John Witherspoon and Francis Hopkinson. The three New Jersey delegates were arriving to take their place as new members of Congress, and had been caught in the violent thunderstorm — their clothes were soaking wet. The storm had delayed them, and John Adams was concluding his speech. As they had not been present for the entire speech, Richard Stockton asked Adams to repeat what they had missed. Adams refused; he had been interrupted and was, no doubt, vexed by the appeal, saying “why should he do so? Was he an actor there to entertain? Or a gladiator, there to do battle?” At the urging of Edward Rutledge, who said “only Adams had the facts at his command.” Richard Stockton repeated his request for Adams to make the case for independence once more.

Adams then rose and delivered an impassioned oration that kindled embers in the hearts of many men present. “I summed up the reasons, objections, and answers in as concise a manner as I could,” Adams would later recall. Again, Adams spoke for nearly an hour and according to Jefferson, Adams spoke “with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats.” Joseph Hewes of North Carolina, who earlier had opposed separation from Britain, started suddenly upright, and lifting up both his hands to Heaven, as if he had been in a trance, cried out, “It is done! And I will abide by it.”