Not Your Father's Founders (3 page)

Quincy, Massachusetts
July 11, 1767−February 23, 1848
His Father's Son

Ideally, the best way for a Founding Father to make sure the ideas of his generation were carried over to succeeding generations was to inculcate them in a son. That way, the son would act as a conduit. It did not quite work out that way for John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams.

By the time he was fifteen years old, he had visited more places and done more things than most people several times his age. He accompanied his father to Europe in 1768 and 1780, traveled to Russia, began his studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and participated as an “additional secretary” in the peace talks in Paris to end the Revolutionary War.

Throughout his life, he worked to expand on his father's and his contemporaries' visions of a strong republic, although he did not always agree with his father's political views. He had many opportunities to accomplish the mission.

By the time he graduated from Harvard in 1787 and passed his bar exam three years later, he was an experienced diplomat. President George Washington took advantage of his experience.

In May 1794, Washington appointed Adams the U.S. minister to the Netherlands, then transferred him to Portugal. After John Adams was elected president, he redirected his son to Berlin in 1797, where he negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce with Prussia.

His ministerial career came to an abrupt halt in 1801 after Thomas Jefferson became president. John Quincy returned to the United States and applied his talents to politics, starting his legislative career as a state senator. In 1803 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He broke away from his father's Federalist Party once there. He sided with the Democratic-Republicans on issues such as the Louisiana Purchase and a trade embargo against Britain.

That was contrary to the wishes of the people of Massachusetts and resulted in the state holding a special election several months before his term was scheduled to end. He lost the election and resigned from the Senate to become a professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard.

He switched to the Democratic-Republican Party and resumed his political career after his three-year hiatus as a teacher.

His father's old—and growing older—friends continued to advance John Quincy's career. President Madison named him as minister to Russia, a post he filled from 1809−14. Next, he accepted the same post in Britain, where he served from 1815−17.

Adams did not stay in England long. He returned to the United States in 1817. President James Monroe appointed him as secretary of state. That opened the door for Adams to participate in two major events: the 1820 acquisition of Florida and the 1823 implementation of the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European powers for the first time to keep their distance from the United States' sphere of influence, which included South America and the Caribbean islands.

Adams campaigned to replace Monroe after Monroe's second term ended. Adams entered a four-candidate race in which he ran second to Andrew Jackson in the popular election. Because no one achieved a majority of the popular or electoral votes, the House of Representatives cast the deciding vote.

The House of Representatives voted for Adams. Jackson was convinced that Adams had promised Henry Clay—a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, an unsuccessful candidate for president, and a political ally of John Quincy Adams—a position as secretary of state in exchange for using his influence to woo House members to vote for Adams. Jackson called it a “corrupt bargain” and withdrew his support for Adams during his presidency. The feud that developed between Jackson and Adams as a result prevented Adams from accomplishing anything significant during his term, since Jackson's followers in Congress refused to support the president's initiatives. Jackson ran against Adams again in 1828 on an anticorruption platform and won election by a wide margin.

John Quincy Adams returned to Massachusetts to retire. His retirement did not last long. Like his parents, he did not have the patience to sit and do nothing when there were constituents to serve.

Any bitter feelings he experienced following the presidential election of 1828 dissipated after the people of Massachusetts elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1830.

For the next eighteen years, John Quincy Adams concentrated on abolishing slavery. At first, he was like a man with laryngitis whispering into a gale force wind: Nobody heard his message. Gradually, he started winning converts. By the time his tenure in Congress—and his life—came to a close, he had made significant progress in bringing about the end of slavery.

Adams did not live to see it happen. He suffered a stroke in the House of Representatives on February 21, 1848, and died two days later.

It was a fitting end for a man who strived diligently to uphold the virtues and goals of his father and his contemporaries: His political career ended in a legislative building as he was fighting for what he and they believed in so strongly.

Boston, Massachusetts
September 27, 1722−October 2, 1803
Liberty, Not Beer

Like many young men of his era, Adams struggled trying to find an occupation that suited him. It was difficult for him to find a lasting job because he was obsessed with politics and colonial independence.

A growing number of colonists were distraught with British taxation policies leading up to the Revolutionary War. Adams was among them; he considered the policies taxation without representation. Ironically, he was a tax collector.

The Boston Town Meeting elected Samuel Adams as a tax collector in 1756, but he made a mess of that job. He frequently failed to collect taxes owed. By 1764, his accounts were short more than £8,000, and he was out of the job. Eventually, Adams and some of his friends paid part of the missing funds and the town meeting wrote off the rest.

Samuel Adams did not become an active opponent of British taxation policies until 1763, when the citizens of Boston formed a committee to let the king and Parliament know how they felt about the new levies. They appointed Samuel Adams to the committee, putting him in the ironic position of protesting British-imposed taxes while he was collecting them. Nevertheless, he accepted the honor with relish and developed some pointed rebukes to the British, such as this one: “If our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands, and every thing we possess, or use? This we conceive annihilates our charter rights to govern and tax ourselves.”

Adams's eloquent arguments raised his stature in the citizens' eyes. They looked at him as their protester-in-chief, and he justified their faith in him. As he grew bolder in his attacks on the British, the people of Boston rewarded him by electing him to the Massachusetts General Court in 1765. That gave him a broad forum from which to lead the protests. He became almost a one-person legislature. He was appointed Clerk of the Court, which gave him the opportunity to attend every committee meeting, write the reports, and exert his influence on virtually anything the legislature did. He also produced numerous political essays for consumption outside the court, urging citizens to make their voices heard.

The Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Tea Party in 1773 inflamed the increasingly restless people of Boston. After each event, Samuel Adams exhorted the people to continue their opposition to Britain. The Boston Town Meeting organized an economic boycott of British goods in May 1774. Samuel Adams was at the forefront of the plan. He set the example; they followed his leadership.

Thomas Jefferson credited Samuel Adams with being the linchpin of the Congress. He noted, “If there was any Palinurus (helmsman) to the Revolution, Samuel Adams was the man.” When the delegates lined up to sign the Declaration of Independence, Adams added his name to the list.

Adams continued working tirelessly for the United States during the Revolutionary War.

As was his custom, Adams worked with many committees to keep his hand in what was going on. One of his most important assignments was with the Board of War, to which he was appointed in 1777. His background came in handy in that function.

The Board of War's role was to oversee the Continental Army's administration and make recommendations to Congress on how to improve its operations. Adams had many ideas, such as paying bonuses to soldiers to induce them to reenlist and confiscating the property of Tories. He could not tolerate Tories during or after the war. Adams believed they would destroy the new government the Americans had worked so hard to form.

Adams stayed in Congress until 1781. Finally, he resigned and went home to resume his political career in Massachusetts.

The people of Massachusetts welcomed Adams with open arms, and immediately elected him to the state Senate. He served as president of the body from 1782−85 and 1787−88. There were two more offices ahead for him: lieutenant governor and governor.

Samuel Adams served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1789−93, became acting governor in 1793 after John Hancock died in office, and was elected governor from 1794−97.

Ironically, Adams was not pleased with the federal government that emerged after the fight for independence ended. He was especially unhappy with the U.S. Constitution, primarily because of the strong central government it proposed and the lack of rights it afforded individuals. Once he was satisfied that a Bill of Rights would be included, he voted for the document at the Massachusetts ratifying convention. His support turned the tide in the state. (Massachusetts narrowly ratified the U.S. Constitution on a vote of 187−168.)

Adams retired from politics after his final term as governor ended in 1797. The man Thomas Jefferson called “the Father of the Revolution” left behind an unparalleled record of achievements—even though he had never mastered the art of brewing beer.