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Speaker 1: On this episode of Newsworld, as part of Founding Fathers Week,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original

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Speaker 1: founders and the impact they've had in our country. On

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to talk about probably the most

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Speaker 1: misunderstood of the Founding Fathers, John Adams. Adams is a

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Speaker 1: little bit of an odd duck, partly because he's from

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Speaker 1: New England, which at that time was just very different

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Speaker 1: from either New York or Virginia. Partly because Adams himself

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Speaker 1: was really really smart, but he was very argumentative and

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Speaker 1: he was very blunt. He also had enormous courage. Adams

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Speaker 1: had really developed over time a view of the British

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Speaker 1: as a tyranny. He didn't arrive at it immediately. He

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Speaker 1: was also, of all of the Founding Fathers, probably the

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Speaker 1: one who believed the most deeply in the rule of law,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, one of the most creative and courageous

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Speaker 1: parts of his life was his willingness to defend the

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Speaker 1: British soldiers who were charged with murder during the Boston Massacre.

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Speaker 1: It was very unpopular in Boston because there was sort

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Speaker 1: of a lynch mob desire to just hang them, and

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Speaker 1: Adam said, no, I mean, this whole thing is about

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Speaker 1: the rule of law. He ultimately wrote the Massachusetts Constitution,

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Speaker 1: which served as a model for the US Constitution, and

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Speaker 1: he worked very, very hard to knit together the country.

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Speaker 1: He understood that Virginia, as the biggest colony and then

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Speaker 1: biggest state in population and the wealth had to be

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Speaker 1: at the center. But at the same time he also

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Speaker 1: realized that bringing all of New England and really really mattered.

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Speaker 1: And it's important to remember that in this period, the

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Speaker 1: idea of America is a really sort of vague idea

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Speaker 1: to most people. Most people think themselves in terms of

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Speaker 1: their colony, or later on in terms of their state.

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Speaker 1: On Adam's case, he was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

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Speaker 1: So it's again hard for us to look back and realise.

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Speaker 1: But his early life, starting in seventeen thirty five, when

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Speaker 1: he was born, you know, he was English. He thought

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Speaker 1: of himself purely as a colonist. He didn't think it

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Speaker 1: was a nationalist. He was educated at Harvard, the first

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Speaker 1: university created in the United States, and gradually came to

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Speaker 1: believe that the British were behaving in the manner of

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Speaker 1: a dictatorship and the real fight here is overpowered. It's

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Speaker 1: not over money. The stamp tax and other kinds of

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Speaker 1: things are points they fight over, But what they're really

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Speaker 1: fighting over is a core question. Can the British Parliament

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Speaker 1: sitting in London past laws that affect directly people in

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Speaker 1: the colonies, And the colonies had become increasingly independent and

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Speaker 1: they were increasingly welcomed. By a seventeen ninety they would

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Speaker 1: have about three million people where Britain had about five million,

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Speaker 1: So they were really pretty big already, and of course,

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Speaker 1: given their geographic size, they're rapidly going to pass Britain

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Speaker 1: in size and ultimatellion power. So they're looking around thinking,

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Speaker 1: wait a second, why is this parliament sitting in London

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Speaker 1: telling me what to do? And why are they taking

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Speaker 1: money out of my pocket? And why are they rigging

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Speaker 1: the trade laws to favor the British and to hurt

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Speaker 1: the Americans. So all these things began to build a

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Speaker 1: momentum of criticism in a place like Boston, which had

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Speaker 1: a very very busy port and which had a trade

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Speaker 1: which included the West Indies. The fact is that they

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Speaker 1: were subject to British regulation in ways that they're very

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Speaker 1: much disadvantaged the Boston sailors and advantage the British sailors.

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Speaker 1: And so there was a resentment both about regulations. There

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Speaker 1: was a resentment about taxes, but most of all there

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Speaker 1: was a resentment about power. But where the center of

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Speaker 1: power ought to be. Adams is one of those who

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Speaker 1: comes to believe that in the end the colonies have

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Speaker 1: to become independent, and they recognize that to become independent

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Speaker 1: they need all the colonies on the same side. The

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Speaker 1: Massachusetts by itself isn't big enough, isn't strong enough to

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Speaker 1: take on the British. So I think it's important to

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Speaker 1: recognize that Adams and his cousin, Samuel Adams, who is

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Speaker 1: more radical than John Adams, more of a populist, rabbel rouser,

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Speaker 1: the kind of guy who would dress up like an

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Speaker 1: Indian and protea in the harbor, very very different. John

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Speaker 1: Adams is a scholar, He's an intellectual. He's a man

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Speaker 1: who operates in a law court. He doesn't operate out

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Speaker 1: in the street arousing people. The other thing, by the way,

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Speaker 1: is that adams wife, Abigail Adams, is the most famous,

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Speaker 1: certainly the most literate, of the founding mothers, and her

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Speaker 1: letters to John are just amazing, and it's very clear

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Speaker 1: that she is sort of the archetype of the modern woman.

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Speaker 1: She operates dependently. He has gone for a long time.

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Speaker 1: She's running the family farm. She is sending him advice

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Speaker 1: on everything. She's very well educated. She's just such a

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Speaker 1: remarkable woman. Adams himself born in Massachusetts October thirty, seventeen

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Speaker 1: thirty five, was the oldest son to John Adams Senior

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Speaker 1: and Susannah Boyleston. His father was a deacon in the

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Speaker 1: Congregational Church and earned a living as both a farmer

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Speaker 1: and shoemaker in Braintree, Massachusetts. John wanted to become a farmer,

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Speaker 1: but his father said no, he had to get an

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Speaker 1: education and hoped he would become a minister, which in

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Speaker 1: that period was a very very prestigious position. But Adams

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Speaker 1: at fifteen, and it's useful to remember, by the way,

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Speaker 1: that back then people went to college at a much

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Speaker 1: younger age. They also went to work at a much

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Speaker 1: younger age. In Adam's case, at fifteen, he's off to college. Now,

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Speaker 1: from Braintree to Cambridge is only twelve miles, but it's

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Speaker 1: a very big twelve miles from rural farming to the

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Speaker 1: Center of Learning in America. At that time, Adams was

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Speaker 1: so anxiety written he almost went home, and his diary

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Speaker 1: he wrote quote, I had first resolved to return home,

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Speaker 1: but for seeing the grief of my father and apprehending

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Speaker 1: he would not only be offended with me, but my master,

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Speaker 1: to whom I sincerely loved, I aroused myself and collected

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Speaker 1: resolution enough to proceed. Also gives you sort of a flavor.

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Speaker 1: This guy's a little bit pompous. He thinks about himself,

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Speaker 1: he thinks about life is perfectly at home. Once he

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Speaker 1: gets used to Harvard, he excels academically, graduates in seventeen

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Speaker 1: fifty five at the age of twenty. But he doesn't

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Speaker 1: want to be a clergyman, so he decides instead to

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Speaker 1: teach in the Latin school term tuition fees to study

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Speaker 1: the law. Now, back then, you usually studied the law

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Speaker 1: by working with a lawyer. When they talked about reading

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Speaker 1: the law, that's what they literally meant. You were in

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Speaker 1: a law office and you were reading all these lawbooks.

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Speaker 1: You were learning about the process. And Adams becomes a lawyer.

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Speaker 1: Now he's not a very good lawyer. He only had

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Speaker 1: one client in his first year, didn't win his first

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Speaker 1: case until three years after he opened his practice. And

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Speaker 1: part of it is being a lawyer in a small

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Speaker 1: town requires a pleasing personality. Well, Adams wasn't very big

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Speaker 1: on pleasing anybody, including himself, these who represented sort of

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Speaker 1: the curmudgeonly New England kind of religiosity. And as long

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Speaker 1: as God was happy with him, what did he care

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Speaker 1: about the rest of us. But begins to get drawn

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Speaker 1: into the politics of the time. He spoke very much

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Speaker 1: against the Stamp Act of seventeen sixty five, which was

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Speaker 1: the first effort by a parliament to get money out

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Speaker 1: of the Americans. I mean, here's what had happened with

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Speaker 1: the help of the Americans, the British one what they

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Speaker 1: called the Seven Years War, what we called the French

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Speaker 1: and Indian War. Now, the upside and downside of that

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Speaker 1: was they drove the French out of Canada. It was

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Speaker 1: an upside obviously because Britain was dominant in all of

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Speaker 1: North America. It was a downside because it meant the

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Speaker 1: Americans no longer looked too great Britain to protect him

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Speaker 1: because there was no overt threat from France. And so

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Speaker 1: the Americans kind of relaxed and thought, you know everything peaceful,

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Speaker 1: why are you bothering us. The British, however, had run

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Speaker 1: up a huge debt and they were trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out a way to pay off their debt. And their

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Speaker 1: thinking was, wait a second. You know, we saved you

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Speaker 1: from the French and the Indians. You owe us. And

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Speaker 1: the Americans are going, no, we don't. We volunteered, we

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Speaker 1: fought in the war. It's not our fault. You guys

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Speaker 1: are stupid, and it took longer than it should have

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Speaker 1: because of you, And the result was that the Americans

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Speaker 1: were unhappy to pay it and the British were unhappy

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Speaker 1: not to get paid. Well, that's sort of like a

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Speaker 1: bad marriage. By seventeen sixty five, Adams is writing an

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Speaker 1: anonymous essay in the Boston Visit entitled A Dissertation on

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Speaker 1: Cannon and Feudal Law, and this is what he wrote.

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Speaker 1: It seems very manifest from the stamp Act itself that

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Speaker 1: a design is formed to strip us in a great

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Speaker 1: measure of the means of knowledge, by loading the press,

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Speaker 1: the colleges, and even an almanac in a newspaper restraints

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Speaker 1: and duties, and to introduce the inequalities independencies of the

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Speaker 1: feudal system by taking from the poorer sort of people

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Speaker 1: all their little subsistence and conferring under a set of

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Speaker 1: stamp officers, distributors and their deputies. This is, by the way,

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Speaker 1: the attitude Americans will take to the Internal Revenue Service,

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Speaker 1: and the general attitude Americans have had ever since, which

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Speaker 1: is why is the government bothered me? I made the money,

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Speaker 1: I want to keep the money. Why are you're putting

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Speaker 1: your hand in my pocket? Now? Adams went on to

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Speaker 1: write the Braintree Instructions, which were in opposition to Stamp Act.

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Speaker 1: He presented it on September twenty fourth, seventeen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: at the Braintree Town Meeting, which unanimously approved it. And

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Speaker 1: this is a key thing, he says, and noticed, this

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Speaker 1: is about power. The tax itself is just what they're

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Speaker 1: fighting over. But the underlying core question is where does

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Speaker 1: power lie? This is what Adams wrote. This is seventeen

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Speaker 1: sixty five, now more than a decade before we would

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Speaker 1: declare independence quote, and we have all is understood to

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Speaker 1: be a grand and fundamental principle of the British Constitution

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Speaker 1: that no freeman should be subjected to any tax to

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Speaker 1: which he has not given his own consent, in person

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Speaker 1: or by proxy. The paper was published in Draper's papers

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Speaker 1: and in newspapers across Massachusetts. More than forty towns endorsed

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Speaker 1: and adopted it. Then, in October seventeen sixty five, representatives

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Speaker 1: from Massachusetts and eight other colonies met in New York

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Speaker 1: for what was called the Stamp Act Congress. Using Adam's

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Speaker 1: Braintree instructions and other resolutions across the colonies, Pennsylvania lawyer

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Speaker 1: John Dickinson drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which

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Speaker 1: was sent to George the Third. Now this again is

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Speaker 1: eleven years before we will declare our independence. In December eighteenth,

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Speaker 1: seventeen sixty five diary entry, Adams called the Stamp Act

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Speaker 1: quote an enormous engine fabricated by the British Parliament for

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Speaker 1: battering down all the rights and liberties of America. Notice again,

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Speaker 1: this is not about money. It is only to repeat this,

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Speaker 1: an enormous engine for battering down all the rights and

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Speaker 1: liberties of America. This is an attitude about our rights

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Speaker 1: and liberties which continues up to today. It's why the

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Speaker 1: Second Amendment fight is so deep. That's why the whole

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Speaker 1: fight over the rule of law is so deep. It's

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Speaker 1: why the intrusion of government spying on us aroused of

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Speaker 1: such rage. The fact is Americans have now for three

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Speaker 1: hundred years had this deep sense that we are a

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Speaker 1: free people and we deeply distrust any government. The British

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Speaker 1: passage of the Towns in Action seventeen sixty seven led

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Speaker 1: to mob violence throughout the Culments. On March fifth, seventeen seventy,

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Speaker 1: a group of British soldiers were struck with snowballs, ice

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Speaker 1: and stones. In the chaos, they opened fire and shot

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Speaker 1: five civilians. A few days later, Adams received a note

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Speaker 1: from Captain Preston, who was in jail and on trial

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Speaker 1: for murder of several Boston citizens during the massacre. Preston

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Speaker 1: asked Adams if he would defend him in court, since

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Speaker 1: no one else would have it. This is not let

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Speaker 1: me go to Adams because he's the best lawyer around.

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Speaker 1: Is let me go to Adams because he's the only

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Speaker 1: lawyer dumb enough to defend the British. Adams, bleeding in

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Speaker 1: the rule of law and the right to trial, agreed

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Speaker 1: to defend not only Captain Preston, but the eight other

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Speaker 1: British soldiers charged with murder. Now, think about this. Here's

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Speaker 1: the guy who's not a very successful lawyer anyway, who

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Speaker 1: he's a great political writer. He's already having an impact

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Speaker 1: all the way across America with his writing. And now,

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Speaker 1: even though he's a patriot, even though he's been very,

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Speaker 1: very opposed to what the British are doing, he does

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Speaker 1: something which confuses the average person. He agrees that he

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Speaker 1: will defend these soldiers. During the week long trial, Adams

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Speaker 1: argued that it was impossible to prove that Captain Preston

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Speaker 1: had ordered his soldiers to fire. He brought in over

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Speaker 1: twenty two witnesses. Adams during the trial said quote, facts

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Speaker 1: are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations,

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Speaker 1: are our dictates of our passion. They cannot alter the

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Speaker 1: state of facts and evidence. It's a very powerful moment

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Speaker 1: because in the rule of law, the jury's job is

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Speaker 1: determine the facts, not to determine the emotions. Adams later

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Speaker 1: went on to say, quote, it is more important that

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Speaker 1: innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished

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Speaker 1: for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world

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Speaker 1: that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself

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Speaker 1: is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die,

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Speaker 1: then the citizen will say whether I do good or

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Speaker 1: whether I do evil as immaterial, For innocence itself is

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Speaker 1: no protection. But there's seldom bit of better explanation of

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Speaker 1: why the rule of law matters. It is the law

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Speaker 1: which protects us from ourselves. It is the law which

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Speaker 1: protects us from the mob. It is the law which

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Speaker 1: protects us from a sudden wave of emotion. During the

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Speaker 1: trial of the Abritiyh soldiers, Adams argued that they acted

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Speaker 1: in self defense. Adams argue that since it was unclear

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Speaker 1: as to which soldier fired quote, it's of more importance

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Speaker 1: to community that innocence should be protected than it is

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Speaker 1: that guilt should be punished. The jury acquitted six of

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Speaker 1: the eight soldiers, while two who fired directly into the

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Speaker 1: crowd were convicted of manslaughter. This is not an outcome

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Speaker 1: anyone could have predicted at the beginning. What Adams took

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Speaker 1: on the trout on the third anniversary of the Boston

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Speaker 1: massacre March fifth, seventeen seventy three, Adams wrote in his diary,

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Speaker 1: judgment of death against those soldiers would have been as

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Speaker 1: foul of stain upon this country as the execution of

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Speaker 1: the Quakers or witches. This, however, is no reason why

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Speaker 1: the town should not call the action of that night

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Speaker 1: a massacre, nor is it any argument in favor of

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Speaker 1: the governor or a minister. I noticed his reference back

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Speaker 1: to executing Quakers, and which is remembered that Massachusetts had

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Speaker 1: been the scene of the Salem Witchcraft trials, a period

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Speaker 1: of people allowing emotions to run a muck, to create

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Speaker 1: threats that did not really exist, to prosecute people who clearly,

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Speaker 1: in retrospect to innocent. There was a deep feeling that

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Speaker 1: controlling passion and doing what the law required in a

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Speaker 1: calm and reasonable way was essential to avoid the kind

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Speaker 1: of injustice that the sale of witchcraft files had led to. Hi.

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Speaker 1: com slash book. Adams, himself hardly a shrinking violet, later

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Speaker 1: called his defending of the British soldiers quote one of

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Speaker 1: the most gallant, generous, manly, and disinterested actions of my

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Speaker 1: whole life, and one of the best pieces of service

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Speaker 1: I ever rendered my country. As you can tell, Adams

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Speaker 1: is not a man of modesty or what we might

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Speaker 1: have called somebody who was hiding his talents. He was,

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Speaker 1: in fact quite cheerful about telling you how great he was.

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Speaker 1: He lost about half of his Boston law practice by

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Speaker 1: defending the British soldiers. But I think he looked back

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Speaker 1: and thought that was exactly right. Now, this did not

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Speaker 1: mean he was pro British and when he was pro

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Speaker 1: the rule of law. And you can tell that because

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Speaker 1: shortly after this period he ends up in April seventeen

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Speaker 1: seventy six writing Thoughts on Government in response to a

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Speaker 1: resolution of the North Carolina Provincial Congress. In it, he

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Speaker 1: outlined why he believed three branches of government was necessary. Quote.

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Speaker 1: Representation of the people in one assembly being obtained. A

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Speaker 1: question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive,

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Speaker 1: and judicial shall be left in this body. I think

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Speaker 1: a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy whose

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Speaker 1: government is in one assembly close quote. It's important to

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Speaker 1: remember that the founding fathers were very skeptical of the

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Speaker 1: rule of the mob. They thought that the us of

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Speaker 1: Athens had been that when you have a pure democracy,

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Speaker 1: that passion influences it, that no one is safe, and

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Speaker 1: then the moment of passion, anyone can be killed, or

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Speaker 1: anyone can have their property taken away. And as a result,

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Speaker 1: there had been a constant effort to try to find

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Speaker 1: a structure to think themselves, sort of as architects of

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Speaker 1: self government, and they had taken a great deal from Montesquieu,

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Speaker 1: the French theoretician's Spirit of the Laws and the Spirit

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Speaker 1: of the Laws. Montescueu outlines the idea of dividing power

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Speaker 1: into three separate agencies, an agency for the judicial, an

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Speaker 1: agency for the executive, and an agency for legislation, with

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Speaker 1: the thought that by dividing power into three, they will

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Speaker 1: balance each other, and it will be much harder to

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Speaker 1: threaten the freedom of people, because there will be no

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Speaker 1: way to gather all that power from all three at

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Speaker 1: the same time. Now, Adam's taking that model became the

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Speaker 1: primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in seventeen eighty, which

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Speaker 1: is four years after the Eclatier independence, but right in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the Revolutionary War. The Massachusetts Constitution included

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Speaker 1: many of the themes of the US Constitution. It says,

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Speaker 1: partly drawn from the Declatias dependence quote, all men are

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Speaker 1: born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and

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Speaker 1: unalienable rights, among which we we reckon the right of

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Speaker 1: enjoying and defending their lives and liberties that of acquiring, possessing,

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Speaker 1: and protecting property, and find that of seeking and obtaining

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Speaker 1: their safety and happiness. Every subject has a right to

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Speaker 1: be secure from all unreasonable searches and seizures of his person,

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Speaker 1: his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. The people

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Speaker 1: have a right to keep and bear arms for the

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Speaker 1: common defense. Original purpose of the Second Amendment, growing straight

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Speaker 1: out of this line in the Massachusetts Constitution, is simple.

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Speaker 1: The people have a right to keep and to bear

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Speaker 1: arms for the common defense. And what did that mean?

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Speaker 1: It meant both defense against foreigners and defense against their

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Speaker 1: own government. And they got to this because in seventeen

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Speaker 1: seventy five in April, when the British army marched to

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Speaker 1: Concord and Lexington to seize the American weapons, if they

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Speaker 1: had not had a militia, if they had not been

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Speaker 1: prepared to fight, if they had not been able to

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Speaker 1: bear arms, the British would have won instantly. The Revolution

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Speaker 1: would have been over. And it was the fact that

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Speaker 1: the Massachusetts farmers did have weapons, did know how to

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Speaker 1: use them, were training as a militia that enabled them

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Speaker 1: to drive the British back into Boston, suffering substantial casualties.

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Speaker 1: Every one of the founding fathers understood that every one

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Speaker 1: of the founding fathers believed that you had to have

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Speaker 1: the right to bear arms remain free, and that if

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Speaker 1: you gave up the right to bear arms, sooner or later,

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Speaker 1: you'd be faced with a dictatorship that would take away

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Speaker 1: all of your rights. And Adams, in that sense is

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Speaker 1: an explicit direct statement of that. He goes on to

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Speaker 1: say in the Massachusetts Constitution quote, the people have a right,

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Speaker 1: in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble, to consult

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Speaker 1: upon the common good, to give instructions to their representatives,

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Speaker 1: and to request to the legislative body, by the way

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Speaker 1: of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done

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Speaker 1: them and of the grievances they suffer. No subsidy charge, tax,

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Speaker 1: impost or duties ought to be established, fixed later, or

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Speaker 1: levied under any pretext whatsoever without the consent of the

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Speaker 1: people or their representatives in the legislature. Now, if you

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Speaker 1: listen carefully in the Massachusetts Constitution in seventeen eighty, you

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Speaker 1: see the forerunner of the Bill of Rights. And while

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Speaker 1: Jefferson has given credit and Madison actually offered it in

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Speaker 1: the Congress, it's clear that their concept of the Bill

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Speaker 1: of Rights was deeply shaped by John Adams, who gets

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Speaker 1: almost no credit for it. And it's one of Adams's

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Speaker 1: great problems that he was, in fact a remarkably important person.

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Speaker 1: He was extremely thoughtful, but at the same time he

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Speaker 1: didn't have a very good publicity machine. He wasn't a

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Speaker 1: very attractive personality. He was always in Washington's shadow, and

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Speaker 1: then as you'll see, he's also in Hamilton's shadow. And

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Speaker 1: so Jefferson gets great press as a great propagandist, and

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Speaker 1: he and Madison get the credit for things that in

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Speaker 1: fact John Adams did. Now, after the war and after

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Speaker 1: the Constitution is adopted, Adams comes in second to Washington.

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Speaker 1: The Washington has elected unanimously. They had not thought this through,

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Speaker 1: and so you actually voted for the president vice president

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Speaker 1: at the same time, and whoever came in first got

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Speaker 1: to be president, whoever came in second got to be

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Speaker 1: vice president, and so you cast both ballots. This would

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Speaker 1: really lead to a mess with Jefferson because Jefferson and

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Speaker 1: Aaron Burr tie, and so they have a huge fight

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Speaker 1: because everybody understood Jefferson was supposed to be president. But

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Speaker 1: Aaron Burr, who's a total snake, tries to steal the presidency,

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Speaker 1: something which of course permanently estranged him from Jefferson Well.

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Speaker 1: And the very first election we ever had with people

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Speaker 1: voting twice, Washington is elected president unanimously, and in the

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Speaker 1: second ballot, Adams comes in second, but he only gets

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Speaker 1: thirty four votes to Washington sixty nine. Now, Adams was

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Speaker 1: kind of humiliated because even though Washington clearly was the

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Speaker 1: giant who had won the Revolutionary War and the man

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Speaker 1: who had presided over the Continal Congress, adams ego is

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Speaker 1: such that he thought he should be the first or

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Speaker 1: just go home. But he then decided that he would

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Speaker 1: accept it and become vice president. His job was to

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Speaker 1: preside over the Senate. He was not allowed to debate,

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Speaker 1: which he had done in the Continal Congress, and so

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Speaker 1: in a sense he has this job that is symbolic,

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Speaker 1: which is not exactly what Adams warning. And Adams doesn't

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Speaker 1: quite get populism. When they're debating over what's the title

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Speaker 1: for the president, Adams suggests his Highness the President United

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Speaker 1: States of America and protector of the rights of the same.

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Speaker 1: This is not a country which says his Highness very easily,

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Speaker 1: and it just gives you a flavor that Adams is

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Speaker 1: never quite the common man and never quite has the

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Speaker 1: common touch. And part of Jefferson's genius was that while

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Speaker 1: he was an intellectual and had no more interest in

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Speaker 1: commoners than Adams did, he nonetheless was able to pretend

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Speaker 1: with great skill, and Adams just couldn't. It wasn't worth

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Speaker 1: the effort to him. He had a reasonable relationship to Washington,

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Speaker 1: but he was never a close advisor. He didn't help

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Speaker 1: shape policies. So for eight years he's just sitting around

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Speaker 1: and has a very similar attitude towards the vice presidency

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Speaker 1: that a number of other vice presidents will get. He

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Speaker 1: writes Abigail at one point, quote my country has, in

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Speaker 1: its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that

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Speaker 1: ever the invention of man contrived, or his imagination conceived.

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Speaker 1: He considered seriously resigning, but he stayed on for eight years. Now.

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Speaker 1: The fact is a vice president's basically job was to

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Speaker 1: wait around and see if the president died, and so

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Speaker 1: Adams was deeply, deeply frustrated. However, his patients worked out

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Speaker 1: and a four way race between Adams and Thomas Pinkney

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Speaker 1: on the Federalist ticket and Jefferson and Aaron Burr on

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Speaker 1: the Republican Adams received seventy one electoral votes and Jefferson

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Speaker 1: sixty eight, and therefore as Vice President, Adams, as President

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Speaker 1: of the Senate, opened and read his own election results,

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Speaker 1: proclaiming himself president. In seventeen ninety six, Alexander Hamilton urged

431
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: Federalist leaders to support Thomas Pinckney as president to ensure

432
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: Jefferson's defeat, but Hamilton made no secret of his preference

433
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: for Pinkney over Adams. In a January seventeen ninety seven

434
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: letter to his wife, Abigail Adams said of Hamilton, quote, Hamilton,

435
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 1: I know to be proud, spirited, conceited, aspiring mortal, always

436
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:34,800
Speaker 1: pretending to morality with as debauched morals as old Franklin,

437
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,360
Speaker 1: who is more his model than anyone I know, as

438
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: great a hypocrite as any in the US. His intrigues

439
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,919
Speaker 1: in the election. I despise that he has talents, I admit,

440
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 1: but I dread none of them. I shall take no

441
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,919
Speaker 1: notice of his puppyhood, but retain the same opinion of

442
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: him I always had, and maintain the same conduct towards

443
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 1: him I always did. That is keep him at a

444
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: distance close. By the mid seventeen nineties, two political parties

445
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 1: existed in the United States, the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans.

446
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: By the time Adams became president, the nation was facing

447
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 1: worsening relations with France. France, who thought the United States

448
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: should honor the French American alliance during the American Revolution,

449
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: was angered that the US signed the j Treaty with

450
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: Great Britain. French privateers started seizing hundreds of US merchant

451
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 1: ships in the Caribbean beginning in mid seventeen ninety seven.

452
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: Adams wanted to resolve the issue diplomatically. However, the Federalist

453
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: Party demanded war. Adams, going against what his party wanted,

454
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 1: established a committee of three American diplomats to meet with

455
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,439
Speaker 1: France's Minister of Foreign Affairs. When the committee arrived, the

456
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 1: French commanded large bribes before any negotiations. The diplomats disagreed

457
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 1: on whether to pay the bribe, and they eventually left

458
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: without meeting anyone. Fearing that this would push the United

459
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:10,119
Speaker 1: States into war, Adams initially refused to turn over any

460
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: notes from the diplomats to Congress. When he finally did,

461
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: Adams redacted the names of the French officials that tried

462
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: to bribe them, calling them X, Y, and Z instead.

463
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,400
Speaker 1: The Democratic Republican Party were angered with France over the bribery,

464
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: but were against going to war with France. The Federalists, however,

465
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 1: were ready to go to war. Adams asking Congress to

466
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:38,719
Speaker 1: appropriate funds to create a navy, improve their coastal defenses,

467
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: and for authority to summon militiamen active duty if needed.

468
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: The Navy Commission privately owned American ships and gave captains

469
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: permission to seize French ships. Between seventeen ninety eight and

470
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, the private ships captured about eighty French ships,

471
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: but war had never been officially. Adams again tried a

472
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: diplomatic solution, sending diplomats in early eighteen hundred. The Democratic Republicans,

473
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 1: more moderate Federalists, and most of the country agreed with

474
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: this move, but Hamilton and other Federalists were opposed, wanting

475
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: to go to war instead. By the time the diplomats

476
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 1: arrived in France, Napoleon had seized control of the French government.

477
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: Napoleon signed the Treaty of Montefontaine, which released the United

478
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: States from its Revolutionary War alliance with France, and brought

479
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: an end to this quasi war with France. Adams viewed

480
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: this peace three of France as his greatest accomplishment as president,

481
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: later writing to James Lloyd in January eighteen eighteen that

482
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 1: he quote desired no other inscription over my gravestone. Then

483
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 1: here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility

484
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: of the peace with France. In the year eighteen hundred, However,

485
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: Hamilton and many Federalists were deeply upset over Adams negotiating

486
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: with France. As president, Adams decided that he would keep

487
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: Washington's cabinet rather than appointing his own. Hamilton, who was

488
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: not a part of adams administration, influenced several members of

489
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: adams cabinet. In the spring of eighteen hundred, Adams requested

490
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 1: the resignation of two cabinet members, Timothy Pickering, the Secretary

491
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: of State, and James McHenry, the Secretary of War, for

492
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: listening to Hamilton instead of himself. Pickering opposed Adams's nomination

493
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: of William S. Smith and Henry Knox's adjutant general and

494
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: second in command of the army. Pickering also conspired against Adams,

495
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: reporting to Hamilton and other federalists what went on in

496
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 1: cabinet meetings with President Adams. On May tenth, eighteen hundred,

497
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: Adams wrote a letter to Timothy Pickering requesting his resignation. Quote,

498
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: as I perceive a necessity of introducing a change in

499
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: the administration of the Office of State, I think it

500
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: proper to make this communication of it to the present

501
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: Secretary of State, that he may have an opportunity of

502
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: resigning if he chooses. I should wish the day on

503
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: which his resignations take place to be named by himself. Pickering,

504
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 1: on May twelfth, eighteen hundred, responded in a letter refusing

505
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: to resign. Quote, Nevertheless, after deliberately reflecting on the overture

506
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: you have been pleased to make to me, I do

507
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:34,120
Speaker 1: not feel to be my duty to resign. Adams responded

508
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 1: by discharging Pickering, quote, diverse causes and considerations essential to

509
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 1: the administration of the government, in my judgment, require a

510
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: change in the Department of State. You are hereby discharge

511
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: from any further service as Secretary of State. One May six,

512
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, James mc chenry on, like Pickering, wrote his

513
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: letter of resignation. Immediately after Adams requested his resignation, in

514
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 1: preparation for the eighteen hundred election, Adams separated himself from

515
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: Hamilton and the Federalists opposed to him. The Federalist Party, however,

516
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 1: chose Adams as their presidential candidate and Pinckney as their

517
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: second choice. Democratic Republicans decided to stay with their seventeen

518
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 1: ninety six choices, with Thomas Jefferson as their presidential candidate

519
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 1: and Aaron Burr as their second choice. Eighteen hundred was

520
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 1: the last presidential election where the runner up of the

521
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: election would become the vice president, so each party had

522
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: two candidates, hoping to get their most popular candidate as

523
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: president and their second most popular as vice president, with

524
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: the possibility the one candidate from each party could become

525
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: president and vice president, which, remember is what had happened

526
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety six when Adams became president but his

527
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:02,239
Speaker 1: rival Thomas Jefferson became president. Was a flaw in the

528
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: original design of the constitution. From the beginning, Adams had

529
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 1: two major issues against it. The first was the deep

530
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: divide within his party on Adams deciding not to wage

531
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: war with France on October twenty fourth, eighteen hundred, Hamilton

532
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: wrote a very long pamphlet. It was called concerning the

533
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: Public Conduct of John Adams, on why he believed Adams

534
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: should not be reelected as president. Hamilton stated that Adams

535
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: quote does not possess the talents adapted to the administration

536
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: of government, and that there are great and intrinsic defects

537
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: in his character which on fit him for the chief

538
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 1: magistrate has certain fixed points of character which tend naturally

539
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: to the detriment of any cause of which he is

540
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: the chief of any administration of which he is the head.

541
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: It is a fact that he is often liable to

542
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: paroxysms of anger, which deprive him of self command and

543
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 1: produce very outrageous behavior to those who approach him. Most,

544
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: if not all, his ministers, and several distinguished members the

545
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 1: two Houses of Congress have been humiliated by the effects

546
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 1: of these gusts of passion close quote. In addition to

547
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:22,399
Speaker 1: the really deep, bitter hostility between Hamilton and Adams, there

548
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 1: was an unpopularity of the alien and sedition laws. These

549
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: laws basically were an effort to censor the American people.

550
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,520
Speaker 1: They said, if you said certain things, you could be charged.

551
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,319
Speaker 1: It was just short of treason. People hated the idea

552
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: that the government could try them for saying the wrong things.

553
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: In the election, Jefferson and Burr, both the Democratic Republican candidates,

554
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: tied with seventy three electoral votes. Adams won sixty five votes,

555
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:58,280
Speaker 1: Pinckney one sixty four, and John Jay received one vote.

556
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: Remember that Jay had been the co author of the

557
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 1: Federalist papers. Interestingly, you can now end up with Jefferson

558
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 1: and BurrH clearly in violation of their agreement. Burr, who

559
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: was a snake who will later on shoot Alexander Hamilton

560
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: and then after that engage in treasonous acts trying to

561
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,960
Speaker 1: steal parts of the West from the United States. Burr

562
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 1: would not concede the Jefferson. The tie went to the

563
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: House representatives. Everybody understood Jefferson was the candidate for president,

564
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 1: Burr was the candidate for vice president. But Burr's ego

565
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: and ambition led him to try to somehow usurp Jefferson,

566
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 1: who was really the founding genius behind the rise of

567
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 1: the Democratic Republican Party, which is today the longest existing

568
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:51,400
Speaker 1: political party in the world. The Democratic Republican Party evolved

569
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: into just being called the Democratic Party, and it is

570
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: literally the longest serving political institution in the world today.

571
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: The trip at both to Jefferson and to whatever patterns

572
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 1: he developed in that party. Adams became the last Federalist president.

573
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 1: This was really an amazing moment in history. There was

574
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:15,479
Speaker 1: no real experience of an opposition party peacefully taking over.

575
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 1: Normally it involved a military coup deca, sometimes it involved

576
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:23,360
Speaker 1: a revolution. But here you had a moment where Washington,

577
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 1: who had set the stage by voluntarily giving up power

578
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 1: when he surrendered his sword after the American Revolution and

579
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,399
Speaker 1: then once again giving up power by leaving after eight

580
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:37,480
Speaker 1: years in presidency, had really set a tone that people

581
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:43,319
Speaker 1: operated within the constitution, and Adams, within the constitution, had

582
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: lost and so you had literally the rise of an

583
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: opposition party, which then became the governing party. And in

584
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:55,759
Speaker 1: some ways Adam's willingness to follow the constitution, to be

585
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,319
Speaker 1: a part of a larger system, and to subordinate his

586
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: ego to his pay traetism is one of the key

587
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 1: moments in American history. Months after losing the eighteen hundred election,

588
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: Adams threw himself into writing for the rest of his life.

589
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 1: Adams wrote his autobiography, he wrote letters to other Founding Fathers.

590
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 1: In eighteen twelve, a mutual friend brought Jefferson Adams together again,

591
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 1: and they exchanged hundreds of letters until their death fourteen

592
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 1: years later. Interestingly, both Adams and Jefferson died on the

593
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 1: same day, July fourth, eighteen twenty six, the fiftieth anniversary

594
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 1: of the signing of the Declation Independence. Jefferson died at

595
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:43,760
Speaker 1: twelve fifty pm. A few hours after Jefferson's death, Adams

596
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:48,359
Speaker 1: woke from sleep and said, Thomas Jefferson survives. These were

597
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: his last words as he fell into a coma. Shortly afterwards,

598
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 1: at about six pm, Adams died. He was ninety one

599
00:37:56,280 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 1: years old. One of the remarkable Founding fathers, A man

600
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 1: whose dedication to the rule of law, dedication to the

601
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:09,760
Speaker 1: concept of a constitution, dedication to a belief in ideas

602
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:15,280
Speaker 1: and that legitimate argument mattered, and dedication to subordinating himself

603
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:19,760
Speaker 1: to the greater cause of American independence in American self

604
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 1: government make him one I think of most honorable and

605
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: most respected of the Founding Fathers. And John Adams can

606
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,800
Speaker 1: be always approached with an idea that you're going to

607
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,319
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more by reading what he said,

608
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 1: and it's even more true if you will also read

609
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: what his wife, Abigail wrote. She was clearly the most

610
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: literary of all of the Founding Fathers wives, and she

611
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 1: had a tremendous impact on John by the letters she

612
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 1: wrote and by her commitment to public life. So I

613
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 1: look back on Adams and think how lucky we were

614
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,759
Speaker 1: as a country to have citizens like this willing to

615
00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 1: dedicate themselves to the development. Thank you for listening, and

616
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,879
Speaker 1: you can learn more about John Adams at our show

617
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,719
Speaker 1: page at Newtsworld dot com. News World is produced by

618
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:17,840
Speaker 1: Gingwish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Garnsey Sloan,

619
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 1: our producer is Rebecca Howe, and our researcher is Rachel Peterson.

620
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 1: The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.

621
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 1: Special thanks to the team at Gingwich three sixty. If

622
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,720
Speaker 1: you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple

623
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give

624
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 1: us a review so others can learn what it's all about.

625
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of news World can sign up for

626
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 1: my three free weekly columns at Gingwich three sixty dot

627
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 1: com slash newsletter. I'm Newt Gingrich. This is news world,