JOHN ADAMS 1735-1826 The force and vitality of thousands of ordinary men seem to have been used by nature in the making of this extraordinary personage. The ardor of his soul was unquenchable and inexhaustible; it burned for more than ninety years, and radiated warmth from one end of the country to the other, and even across the seas to Europe. There was nothing ambiguous or uncertain about Adams; he believed in himself, and the views which he adopted on all matters coming before him, seemed to him the only views which could reasonably be entertained by honest men. He designed nothing but good to the country; but he could never be brought to see that any good except the good he saw could have any real virtue in it. During his long life, he failed to meet a man, from Washington down, who, in his opinion, possessed abilities and merits comparable with his own. So sincere was he in this conviction, and so great were his abilities, that there was turmoil wherever he went; he was fighting somebody or something from one year's end to another; and the more he was opposed, the greater was the number of those whom he was compelled to regard as dishonest or irrational. He always occupied a leading position in public affairs, and was first Vice-President and then President of the United States; but he never would admit that he had received his just recognition; he was always sure that, however well things might go, they would have gone better had they gone his way; and when he finally retired from the public stage, after having been defeated in his second attempt to capture the presidential office, he took his departure in a huff, and did the best he could to embarrass his successor. And yet there never was a truer patriot than John Adams, or one who, in spite of his faults, inspired heartier respect and love. He was so transparently honest, so truthful and generous, he had so powerful a brain and so dauntless a heart, that America could not have done without him; and during the time immediately before and during the war, when his energies were chiefly devoted to the discomfiture of the common enemy, the effect of his activities was almost wholly good. No one could be a coward, or despair of the issue, while John Adams was in the neighborhood; and without his daring and firmness at critical moments during the struggle, it is quite possible that the colonists might have hesitated and been lost. As the champion of the oppressed, his single might was the equivalent of an army. As an orator he was aggressive and inspiring, energetic and persuasive. What his speeches lack in smoothness they make up in energy. His Inaugural Address" is a good example of his terse matter-of-fact oratory. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735, graduated at Harvard twenty years later, studied law, and in 1770 was fully ready to defend the patriots against the aggressions of England. He was a member of the Massachusetts and of the Continental Congresses, signed the Declaration of Independence, acted as negotiator in Europe, and as Vice-President and President of the United States. After the expiration of his presidential term he retired to Quincy, whence he rayed out wisdom to the end. He died in 1826. INAUGURAL ADDRESS Delivered before both Houses of Congress on Assuming the Presidency of the United States, March 4, 1797 WH HEN it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained, between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole, and over the parts, of this extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty. The zeal and ardor of the people during the revolutionary war, supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order, sufficient, at least, for the temporary preservation of society. The confederation, which was early felt to be necessary, was prepared from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain, with any detail and precision, in history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever considered. But, reflecting on the striking difference, in so many particulars, between this country and those, where a courier may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was then VOL. I.-4 49 certainly foreseen by some, who assisted in Congress at the formation of it, that it could not be durable. Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals, but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences. Universal languor, jealousies, rivalries of States, decline of navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations; and, at length, in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening some great national calamity. In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy constitution of government. Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the constitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads, prompted by good hearts; as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines, it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed; and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage in common with my fellow-citizens in the adoption or rejection of a constitution, which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It was not then nor has been since any objection to it, in my mind, that the executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it, but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress and the State Legislatures, according to the constitution itself, adopt and ordain. Returning to the bosom of my country, after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things; and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the constitution. The operation of it has equalled the most sanguine expectations of its friends; and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have acquired an habitual attachment to it, and veneration for it. What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love? There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences; but this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the other chamber of Congress of a government in which the executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of the legislature, are exercised by citizens, selected at regular periods by their neighbors, to make and execute laws for the general good. Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more amiable or respectable, when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity, than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented; it is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time, is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what object of consideration, more pleasing than this, can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence. |