Sit down, John

So your point is, no doubt, that one iconic, unique individual does not a founding of fathers make. What about that awful John Adams?

If I was recommending Flexner on George Washington, on Adams I’d recommend McCullough. For a biography that arguably weighs more than its subject, it is compulsively readable and thoroughly entertaining and enlightening. It also demonstrates what most people know, which is that Adams was, if nothing else, an annoying pain in the patoot.

John Adams was that really energetic person who sat next to you in school and always did better than you and was always telling you how much harder he was working than you were which explained why he was so much smarter than you. He was the kid in the room who always had his hand up to answer every question, from the day he was born to the day he died. He was the person who never shut up. He was virtuous to a fault, and made sure you knew about it. He had an opinion on everything, and aired it, regardless of your interest in it. He was a workaholic. He had more energy than you ever would, and more complaints, and more to do. As I said, Adams was, if nothing else, a pain in the patoot.

He was also a man of deepest principle, and included in those principles was a belief in the sanctity of law. Why else would he defend the British in the trial of the so-called Boston Massacre? Regardless of his opinion of the British at the time, it was hardly a popular position to take. I would imagine even then that the event was mostly being billed as a momentous attack on innocents rather than a free-for-all from a bunch of hooligans. History has, to some extent, beatified the victims, especially Crispus Attucks, but there is much to be said in defense of the British at the time. I would advise you to study this in detail yourself, if you question my analysis. In any case, Adams defended the bad guys, so to speak, and you don’t do that if you don’t hold the law in high esteem, protective of all people regardless of circumstances.

My guess is that Adams, a thorough intellectual niggler, would have made a great debater, willing to argue forever any side of any argument. He was one smart operator, and he had the wisdom to marry a woman every bit his intellectual partner, very much a point in his favor. He was one of the chief architects of the revolution, as a great theorist of government, and also as one of the biggest mouths in Philadelphia, but then again, the need for revolution was greatest in Boston where the British were actually on the ground; Bostonites like Adams would be expected to be the strongest proponents for action. JA eventually moved into the diplomatic side of things (which seems remarkable given the sense one has of him being anything but diplomatic), and seems to have done quite a good job of it, at least in England and the Netherlands. And, of course, he was chosen as our first vice president, no mean feat in itself, and took over the numero uno position when George Washington trundled off back to Mount Vernon.

As a brain, I don’t think we do much better than Adams among the Founders. Read into him and find out why for yourself. I wish we had people today in politics about whom I could say, Jeez, that’s one smart operator. I can’t. Old Bill strikes me as no dummy, and Mrs. Bill probably makes Bill look like a grammar school dropout, but you’d have to look far and wide to find another CIC, real or potential, in my lifetime who was much on book learnin’. But keep in mind that Adams was acting at the time with a couple of other brains like Jefferson’s and Franklin’s, so we’re starting to get some amazing intellectual synergy. I don’t think GW was in that category by any means. He brought strength of character to the job. Adams and company brought strength of mind.

Unfortunately, however, brains aren't enough. And Adams’s personality torpedoed his presidency. It’s interesting that when you say JA, the Sailors immediately say, Alien and Sedition Acts. These controversial laws (at the time) have become to a great extent Adams’s legacy. Which is too bad because, in the event, they weren’t that big a deal. To some extent they are representative of a new government finding its way, and especially of a new form of executive finding its way. The immigration side of it may be moot, but there is no question that journalists of the day were way over the top, and to some extent this was Adams (unfortunately) blowing his top and saying that enough is enough. Anyhow, the A&S Acts weren’t that big a deal insofar as they didn’t lead to much action, and they may live on today as much because of their mellifluous sound as their import in history. Whichever. Anyhow, by the end of his presidency it was Adams's losing control of his party that cost him a second term in the White House (which, by the way, he was the first prexy to live in). Interestingly, it was one of Adams’s last acts, the appointment of judges at the end of his term, that may be the most important thing he did in office. When those appointments were later challenged in court, in a case known as Madison v. Marbury, the end result was the establishment of the abiding power of the Supreme Court through judicial review. Indirectly Adams ended up defining the purpose and scope of the Supes.

What makes Adams most interesting theoretically is, perhaps, his thoughts on aristocracy. Or better, meritocracy. He absolutely believed that there were people who ought to be a natural aristocracy, based on their abilities. This comes through in his ideas on bicameral government, constitutions, etc. Read his letters to Jefferson written after both men had long since been president and healed the riff that had grown between them as leaders of opposing parties for the clearest coverage of this. And, for that matter, a good sense of these two incredible statesmen at an incredible time.

Also, of course, for what it's worth Adams sired the first of the American political dynasties. And he and TJ, in an act of pure high operatic drama, both managed to die exactly on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after you know what.

But the initial question was, is Adams special as part of a unique moment, or was Adams’s uniqueness creative of the moment? With his smarts, combined with those other smarts, I’ve got to think that there was a special synergy there because of the qualities of these specific people. Put all these guys in a room together, and sparks are gonna fly. Or Declarations of Independence. Or other such results. I don’t think you can get that unless you have these people. I really don’t.

Still to come, Old Ben, Jemmy, the Hothead, and TJ.