ohn Adams,
1735-1826, 2d President of the United States (1797-1801), b.
Quincy (then in Braintree), Mass., grad. Harvard, 1755. A lawyer,
he emerged into politics as an opponent of the Stamp Act and,
after moving to Boston, was a leader in the patriot group
opposing the British measures that were leading to the American
Revolution. Sent (1774) to the First Continental Congress, Adams
distinguished himself, and in the Second Continental Congress he
was a moderate but forceful revolutionary. He proposed George
Washington as commander in chief of the Continental troops to
bind Virginia more tightly to the patriot cause. He favored the
Declaration of Independence, was a member of the drafting
committee, and argued eloquently for it. As a diplomat seeking
foreign aid for the just-born nation, he had a thorny career.
Appointed (1777) to succeed Silas Deane as a commissioner to
France, he accomplished little before returning home (1779) to be
a major figure in the Massachusetts constitutional convention.
Back he went (1779) to France, where he quarreled with Vergennes
and was able to lend little assistance to Benjamin Franklin in
his peace efforts. His attempts to negotiate a loan from the
Netherlands were fruitless until 1782. Adams was one of the
negotiators who drew up the momentous Treaty of Paris (1783) to
end the American Revolution. After this service he obtained
another Dutch loan and then was envoy (1785-88) to Great Britain,
where he met with British coldness and unwillingness to discuss
the problems growing out of the treaty. He asked for his own
recall and ended a significant but generally discouraging
diplomatic career. In America once more, he was chosen Vice
President and served throughout George Washington’s
administration (1789-97). Though he inclined to conservative
policies, he acted somewhat as a balance wheel in the partisan
contest between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In the
1796 election Adams was chosen to succeed Washington as President
despite the surreptitious opposition of Hamilton. The Adams
administration was one of crisis and conflict, in which the
President showed an honest and stubborn integrity, and though
allied with Hamilton and the conservative property-respecting
Federalists, he was not dominated by them in their struggle
against the vigorously rising, more broadly democratic forces led
by Jefferson. Though the Federalists were pro-British and
strongly opposed to post-Revolutionary France, Adams by
conciliation prevented the near war of 1798 (see XYZ Affair) from
developing into a real war between France and the United States.
Nor did the President wholeheartedly endorse the Alien and
Sedition Acts (1798), aimed at the Anti-Federalists. He was,
however, detested by his Jeffersonian enemies, and in the
election of 1800 he and Hamilton were both submerged in the tide
of Jeffersonian democracy. After 1801 Adams lived in retirement
at Quincy (in a mansion given in 1946 to the nation as a historic
site), issuing sober and highly respected political statements
and writing and receiving many letters, notably those to and from
Jefferson. Their famous correspondence was edited by Lester J.
Cappon in The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959). By remarkable
coincidence he and Jefferson died on the same day, Independence
Day, July 4, 1826. John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams,
founded one of the most distinguished families of the United
States; their son, John Quincy Adams, was also President. A
definitive edition of the voluminous writings of the Adams family
was begun with four volumes (1961) containing the diary and
autobiography of John Adams. Until completion of the definitive
edition, see Adams’s Works (10 vols., ed. by J. Q.
Adams and C. F. Adams, 1850-56; Vol. I is a biography by C. F.
Adams); The Selected Writings of John Adams and John Quincy
Adams (ed. by Adrienne Koch and William Peden, 1946). See
also James Truslow Adams, The Adams Family (1930);
Zoltan Haraszti, John Adams and the Prophets of Progress
(1952); Manning J. Dauer, The Adams Federalists (1953);
Stephen G. Kurtz, The Presidency of John Adams (1957);
biographies by John T. Morse (1884), Gilbert Chinard (1933), and
Page Smith (1962). [The Illustrated Columbia Encyclopedia, 3rd ed.,
1969]
Adams, John (1735-1826),
second president of the United States (1797-1801) and one of the
great figures in American history. In the years before the
American Revolution (1775-1783) he joined with other patriots in
resisting British rule. When the revolution began, Adams was
among the first to propose American independence. He served on
the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and
then helped persuade the Second Continental Congress to adopt the
declaration.
Adams served the patriot cause in Congress and in diplomatic
missions abroad. Together with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay,
Adams helped negotiate the treaty that ended the American
Revolution. When George Washington became the new nation's first
president in 1789, Adams became the first vice president.
Adams ranks as one of the greatest of American political
philosophers. His A Defense of the Constitutions of
Governments of the United States of America (3 volumes, 1787-1788)
and Discourses on Davila (1805) contributed profoundly to
American political thought. In addition to his formal works,
Adams wrote letters and papers that provide a vivid account of
his life and the events that led to the founding of the United
States.
Early Life
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.
Marriage
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.
Early Career
Adams and the American Revolution
Adams spent the early part of his career practicing law in
Braintree and developing his interest in government.
Stamp Act
At that time the American colonists were loyal subjects of
Great Britain. Although there were political disputes and
complaints, they were no more than the everyday disagreements
between government and the governed. There were laws regulating
trade and imposing duties on imports to America, but they were
rarely enforced.
All this changed, however, when the Seven Years' War ended in
1763. The war—actually a series of worldwide conflicts, some
of which involved defending the American colonies from the French
and their Native American allies—had been costly for Britain,
and its government was determined to make the colonies bear a
portion of the financial burden. Britain not only enforced the
old trade laws more strictly, but also enacted a series of new
laws in 1764 and 1765. One of these laws, the Stamp Act, provoked
bitter opposition among many colonists, including Adams.
The Stamp Act required a tax on all legal documents, licenses,
contracts, newspapers, pamphlets and other papers, signifying the
paid tax with a stamp. Adams drew up a set of resolutions
protesting the stamp tax. The resolutions were adopted by the
Braintree town meeting and then, virtually without change, by 40
other towns in Massachusetts.
Adams's argument against the Stamp Act was based on English
law. He insisted that the act was not binding on the colonies
because they were not represented in Britain's Parliament and had
not consented to the tax levy. Adams did not support separation
or independence from Britain at this time. He only argued that
British subjects in the colonies were entitled to the rights
guaranteed to British subjects elsewhere.
Almost overnight, John Adams became well known throughout the
colonies. When the Boston town meeting drew up a petition against
the Stamp Act, Adams was called on for assistance. He was one of
the three delegates who presented the petition to the lieutenant
governor of Massachusetts.
Townshend Acts
The colonists won a temporary victory in 1766, when the Stamp
Act was repealed. In the following year, however, they were again
aroused by a new series of laws, called the Townshend Acts. One
of the acts imposed duties, or import taxes, on glass, lead, tea,
and other commodities. The colonists responded with a boycott of
British goods and with violence against British customs officials.
In 1768 Adams moved his family to Boston and busied himself
with his growing law practice. He found time, nevertheless, to
help the patriot cause. Adams drafted a circular letter, sent by
the Massachusetts legislature to the other colonies, protesting
the Townshend Acts. He also gave legal assistance to Boston
patriots who resisted the British authorities.
The royal governor, aware of Adams's ability and growing
influence, offered him the post of advocate general in the
admiralty court. Adams declined the appointment, recognizing it
as a bribe to bring him over to the side of the British
government.
Adams and the Boston Massacre
Adams generally supported the popular resistance to the
British government, but he did not condone violence or mob action.
Adams was greatly disturbed by the Boston Massacre of 1770, an
incident in which five men were killed after unruly demonstrators
provoked British troops into firing into the crowd. When Adams
was asked to defend the British soldiers who were charged with
murder as a result of this clash, he promptly accepted. With the
help of two other lawyers he won acquittal for all but two of the
men. His reputation as a patriot was such, however, that his
defense of the British soldiers seems not to have damaged his
political career. In June 1770 while he was preparing for the
trial, the Boston town meeting elected him to the Massachusetts
legislature.
Temporary Retirement
Adams served in the legislature for only a few months. That
winter, illness forced him to leave politics. After nearly three
years in Boston, Adams returned with his family to Braintree. He
was determined to "throw off a great part of the load of
business both public and private." He returned to Boston
late in 1772 to look after his law business but still intended to
remain "disengaged from public affairs with a fixed
resolution not to meddle with them."
Political events, however, soon brought Adams back into public
life. In a series of articles in the Boston Gazette, Adams
fought Britain's plan to place Massachusetts judges in the pay of
the king. He also opposed the royal governor, who challenged the
power of colonial legislatures. As always, his arguments were
founded on his sure knowledge of the law, and they were still
aimed at reconciliation with Britain. However, in December 1773,
Adams supported what became known as the Boston Tea Party, where
patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea tax
and the monopoly on the importation of tea that Britain had given
to the East India Company. Thereafter he firmly supported the
patriotic measures that led step by step to American independence.
First Continental Congress
In 1774 Adams attended the First Continental Congress, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a member of the Massachusetts
delegation. Twelve of the thirteen British colonies from
Massachusetts to Georgia were represented in the Congress. They
met to respond to the British laws known as the Intolerable Acts,
which placed even greater restrictions on colonial life. Like
most members of Congress, Adams was there to uphold the rights of
the colonies but not to propose independence. Even the most
radical of the delegates, like his cousin Samuel Adams, were not
ready for a complete break. "There is no man among us,"
John Adams told Congress, "that would not be happy to see
accommodation with Britain." Nevertheless, he urged Congress
to take a strong stand in view of Britain's violations of
citizens' rights in the colonies.
Although Congress made a united protest against British
misrule, Adams was not satisfied. Congress had, by one vote,
rejected a proposal known as the Galloway Plan, which would have
provided for a union of the colonies under one government. Adams
returned to Braintree, still insisting that "an American
Legislature should be set up without delay."
Second Continental Congress
When John Adams set out in May 1775 for Philadelphia and the
opening of the Second Continental Congress, the American
Revolution had begun with the battles at Lexington and Concord,
Massachusetts. Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other New
England delegates arrived in Philadelphia ready to press for
action against Britain. They wanted the colonies to mobilize for
war and to set up a confederation of independent colonies.
Finding many delegates hesitant to act, Adams, who was always
intolerant of delay, became impatient and irritable. Trying to
remain calm, he observed philosophically: "America is a
great unwieldy body. Its progress must be slow. It is like a
large fleet sailing under convoy. The fleetest sailors must wait
for the dullest and the slowest."
After two weeks, when nothing had been accomplished, Adams
could hold back no longer. He addressed Congress in blunt terms.
Before talking of peace with Britain, he said, Congress should
adopt a program to set up an independent government in each
colony. It should use the New England militiamen, who were then
blockading the British in Boston, as the basis for a Continental
Army, and should name a commander-in-chief who would be
responsible to Congress. Finally, Adams proposed, Britain should
be told of these steps. Then, if the war continued, the colonies
should seek alliances and support in France, Spain, and the
Netherlands.
Only one of Adams's proposals was adopted. A Continental Army
was authorized, and Colonel George Washington of Virginia was
named commanding general. Adams had recommended Washington not
only because he had military training, but also because he was
from the South. Adams felt that, to form a national army, the
South as well as the North should be represented in it. Therefore
the New England troops had to have a Southern commander.
Early in 1776, Adams saw another of his proposals enacted. On
May 6, he and his allies in Congress presented a resolution
urging all the colonies to form independent governments. The
resolution, which to Adams was the most important of his
proposals, was passed on May 15.
Declaration of Independence
In June 1776 Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia,
moved that Congress declare "that these United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and independent States." The
resolution was referred to a committee consisting of Thomas
Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston,
and John Adams.
Jefferson wrote the declaration and Adams was spokesman for it
when it was presented to Congress. A great debate preceded the
final vote. There were many reluctant delegates who still hoped
for reconciliation with Britain, but Adams won most of them over.
On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
In a letter to his wife written on July 2, the day Lee's
resolution was approved, Adams wrote that the day "will be
celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary
festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance…with
pomp and parade, with…guns, bells, bonfires, and
illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other…"
At the Second Continental Congress, Adams also served as
chairman of the Board of War and Ordnance. It was charged with
supplying troops, raising money for their pay, and naming
officers of the army. Responsible for the actual conduct of the
war, this committee took most of Adams's time until 1777.
American Diplomat
Late in 1777 Congress elected Adams commissioner to France.
When he joined the other members of the diplomatic mission,
however, he learned that their important work had been completed.
France had extended recognition to the United States, and
treaties of friendship and commerce had been signed. Adams
remained in Paris for a year, studying European political affairs
and sending detailed reports to Congress. Because he was also minister
plenipotentiary (diplomat with broad powers) to the
Netherlands, he made his first attempt to obtain a loan for the
colonies from that country.
At the end of 1778, on Adams's recommendation, Congress
abolished the commission and named Benjamin Franklin as American
diplomatic representative to France. Finding himself without
official appointment, Adams returned home.
At home, Adams took a leading part in the Massachusetts
constitutional convention. The constitution adopted by
Massachusetts was largely his work and became the model for those
of many other states. Although it has been amended many times,
this constitution is still in use today. Before its final
approval in 1780, however, Adams was again sent to Europe.
Peace Mission
On his second mission, Congress sent Adams to Paris with full
power to negotiate a treaty to end the war with Great Britain. He
was also authorized to negotiate a commercial agreement with
Britain and to become the U.S. diplomatic representative to that
country when peace was concluded. However, Britain refused to
discuss peace if it meant American independence. France, another
party to the talks, wanted the United States to be independent of
Britain but subservient to French interests.
Adams was instructed to make no agreements without prior
French approval. However, the French soon learned that Adams
would not compromise U.S. rights. He quarreled often with the
French foreign minister, and after a few fruitless months left
for the Netherlands to try again to secure a loan.
In July 1782 after long and difficult negotiations, Adams
secured a $2 million loan from Dutch bankers, and in October the
Netherlands recognized U.S. independence. Adams then negotiated a
treaty of friendship and commerce.
Adams returned to Paris that same month because Britain was at
last willing to negotiate. He was joined by Benjamin Franklin and
John Jay, whom Congress had appointed to serve with Adams on the
U.S. peace commission. For a time there were further delays
because France still insisted on prior approval of any peace
agreement. Jay urged, with Adams's support, that the U.S.
commission ignore its instructions and conclude tentative
articles of peace without French oversight. Franklin reluctantly
agreed, and soon a treaty was negotiated.
The final Treaty of Paris, officially ending the American
Revolution, was not signed until September 3, 1783. Adams made an
important contribution by helping to set the boundaries between
the United States and Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake
Superior. He also secured U.S. fishing rights in the North
Atlantic Ocean.
Representative to Great Britain
Adams continued to live in France after the treaty was signed.
He negotiated a second loan from the Netherlands and then, in
1785, became the first American diplomatic representative to
Britain. He found the British cordial to himself and his family
but cool and skeptical toward the country he represented.
Frustrated in his attempts to carry out the terms of the peace
treaty, Adams asked Congress to recall him. His service in
Britain and his career as a diplomat ended in February 1788.
Vice President of the United States
National Election
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.
President of the United States
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.
Alien and Sedition Acts
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. His last words were "Jefferson
still lives." But Jefferson himself had died only a few
hours before. [Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia]
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