Dead President # 2: John Adams Traditional Cache
Dead President # 2: John Adams
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John
Adams
This cache is part of Fugglestone’s Hall of Dead
Presidents (GC1W1AP)
series.
Learned and thoughtful, John Adams was more remarkable as a
political philosopher than as a politician. "People and nations are
forged in the fires of adversity," he said, doubtless thinking of
his own as well as the American experience.
Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A
Harvard-educated lawyer, he early became identified with the
patriot cause; a delegate to the First and Second Continental
Congresses, he led in the movement for independence.
During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in
diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. From
1785 to 1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James's, returning
to be elected Vice President under George Washington.
Adams' two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for
a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He complained to his
wife Abigail, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the
most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived
or his imagination conceived."
When Adams became President, the war between the French and British
was causing great difficulties for the United States on the high
seas and intense partisanship among contending factions within the
Nation.
His administration focused on France, where the Directory, the
ruling group, had refused to receive the American envoy and had
suspended commercial relations.
Adams sent three commissioners to France, but in the spring of 1798
word arrived that the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand and the
Directory had refused to negotiate with them unless they would
first pay a substantial bribe. Adams reported the insult to
Congress, and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which the
Frenchmen were referred to only as "X, Y, and Z."
The Nation broke out into what Jefferson called "the X. Y. Z.
fever," increased in intensity by Adams's exhortations. The
populace cheered itself hoarse wherever the President appeared.
Never had the Federalists been so popular.
Congress appropriated money to complete three new frigates and to
build additional ships, and authorized the raising of a provisional
army. It also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, intended to
frighten foreign agents out of the country and to stifle the
attacks of Republican editors.
President Adams did not call for a declaration of war, but
hostilities began at sea. At first, American shipping was almost
defenseless against French privateers, but by 1800 armed
merchantmen and U.S. warships were clearing the sea-lanes.
Despite several brilliant naval victories, war fever subsided. Word
came to Adams that France also had no stomach for war and would
receive an envoy with respect. Long negotiations ended the quasi
war.
Sending a peace mission to France brought the full fury of the
Hamiltonians against Adams. In the campaign of 1800 the Republicans
were united and effective, the Federalists badly divided.
Nevertheless, Adams polled only a few less electoral votes than
Jefferson, who became President.
On November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams arrived in the
new Capital City to take up his residence in the White House. On
his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote his
wife, "Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of
Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it.
May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof."
Adams retired to his farm in Quincy. Here he penned his elaborate
letters to Thomas Jefferson. Here on July 4, 1826, he whispered his
last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives." But Jefferson had died at
Monticello a few hours earlier.
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