Jcrfmjfdtwiu Great Americans of History JOHN ADAMS A CHARACTER SKETCH SAMUEL WILLARD, M.D., LL.D. Author of "Synopsis of History," etc. WITH SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAY, BY G. MERCER ADAM Late Editor of "Self-Culture" Magazine, Etc., Etc. IJ*£iUf>JNG , • ,. ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS, AND CHRONOLOGY, AND JOHN ADAMS' SPEECH ON THE BOSTON MASSACRE. H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. MILWAUKEE. J9°3- THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copies Receivec SEP 23 1903 CopyrigM Entiy h^-^jL •? . / ^ c 3 7 '- CLASS <^ XXc. No COPY S, Copyright, 1898, By THE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION Copyright, 1903, By H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. IN the building of a house, one man must be supreme. The plan must be the product of one mind; if there are suggestions of other minds as to plan and details, they are accepted or rejected, so that one mind finally arranges all. If the owner of the house chooses to leave the mat- ter to an architect after telling him in general what he wants,the architect's one mind perfects plan and details. We often speak of the building of a state, and compare a state to a grand structure, a house, or temple. But the constitution of a state is never the work of one man. Even if a man is called an absolute ruler, an autocrat, czar, emperor, or tyrant, he really cannot do everything at his own will. Even in Turkey and Persia the sultan and shah find that men can not be moved as if they were chessmen or checkermen. It has been said that Russia is an autocracy, tempered by assassination. Revolt and revolution dog the steps of tyranny. We have all laughed at the story of the county officers who passed three resolutions: (i) "Resolved, that we will have a new jail: (2) Resolved, that the materials of the old jail shall be used in building the new jail: (3) Re- 6 JOHN ADAMS. solved, that the old jail shall be occupied until the new- jail is built." However funny this story may be as ap- plied to a material building, it sets forth the actual prob- lem of the real statesman. As a nation advances in civilization, in knowledge, in wealth, in moral and spiritual life, its former institutions and customs become the old jail: the new life must be expressed in new laws and regulations, which the true statesman prepares. In doing so, he retains all that is suitable of the old ways; and it will be found that his changes and new enactments are few in comparison with the entire mass of customs and habits of his people: this is occupying the old jail while the new structure is erect- ed. And his changes are in the line of the healthy ten- dencies of the existing life of the community: he is thus building the new out of the materials of the old. In time, his new structure will become an old jail to a later age, cramping and confining it. Then the same course of events ensues. In several instances, communities of the ancient Greeks, upon finding themselves in political difficulties, selected their wisest man and gave him full authority to make new laws, and even a new constitution; that is, to revise fundamentally the form of government. At Ath- ens, nearly 600 years before Christ, this power was con- ferred upon Solon, who proved to be the wisest of all single legislators. Some of his changes were so great that it was said he had moved the country with an earth- quake. They were like our revolutionary war in de- stroying the exclusive power of the nobles, and like our JOHN ADAMS. 7 civil war in giving freedom to a mass of slaves. Wise as he was, he talked of some of his plans with his friends, and doubtless gave some heed to their objections and suggestions. And this is the crowning proof of his wis- dom: he recognized the necessity of further changes, saying that he had not given the Athenians the best pos- sible laws, but the best laws for them as they then were. And after he had governed them several years and ac- customed them to his laws, he left them and went out of the country, that they might use the new freedom them- selves; for he saw that it would be of no use to give them free institutions if he must stay in Athens to keep them going. Modern states, of whatever form, are the results of the thoughts and work of innumerable men, working in dif- ferent ways, often in collision and opposition to each other, sometimes in civil war and revolution. The study of history has its greatest interest in the exhibition of this fact. Jewish, Greek, Roman, Keltic, and Teutonic elements appear in our daily life, in our laws, in our con- stitutions. The excellence of the work of the makers of the con- stitution of the United States came from their taking ideas, more or less familiar to the people, and suited to American and Colonial conditions; and these they wrought into a practical and practicable form and scheme. If the geography of the country had been something else, if the history of the settlement and the growth of the colonies had been different, if the people had not been of common and cognate origin from 8 JOHN ADAMS. the British Islands and the Netherlands, the form of gov- ernment would have been something else, perhaps not even a republic. American young people, and old people too, if they have not thought over the question carefully, are apt to think that all governments should be like ours, demo- cratic federated republican. If they should hear that in the western half of China the people had set up a repub- lic, they would rejoice at the spread of free government. But experience shows that republics are suited only to very small communities imbued with a strong and narrow sense of patriotism and cohesion, or to well-trained lar- ger peoples. Scores of republics have flourished a while and then have gone to wreck; some have gone upon the rocks im- mediately. In 1789, France entered upon the path of revolution; she soon killed her king, drove out or slew her nobles and priests, and with a great flourish pro- claimed Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In less than ten years thereafter, she was under the military despotism of the first Napoleon of iron hand and stony heart: then she recalled her kings; then set up another republic; then succumbed to another military tyranny, which en- ded in 1870; and only within the last twenty years has it seemed to hopeful Americans that France is to be henceforth a republic, but with certainty of many diffi- culties to be overcome. Yet no one will deny the high intelligence and ardent patriotism of hosts of Frenchmen. Switzerland has for 600 years been free from monar- chy, and hence, called a republic; but her republicanism JOHN ADAMS. 9 has been very unlike ours; and her whole territory is only four-fifths as large as Vermont and New Hampshire together. Such facts as these should lead us to admire the more, the wisdom and unselfishness and patriotism of the founders of the indepen- dence and con- stitutional gov- ernments of the states and of the nation. Small c o m- munities have made republics more easily, be- cause their peo- ple have had similar habits and feelings, could easily Napoleon Bonaparte. communicate with each other, and could all know something of the men, chosen as officers or rulers. But the constitution of 1787 was so framed, that in connection with the tele- graph, railroads, steam navigation, and the modern press, the modern means of communication and informa- tion, it may gather under its sway, the whole of North io JOHN ADAMS. America in due time. These founders worked with ap- prehension and even fear that they were attempting an experiment the issue of which was doubtful; but they put into it sincerely and hopefully their best wisdom and effort. We can rightly admire and honor them all, though we number among them such opponents as Hamilton and Jefferson, the Adamses and Patrick Henry. And this leads to another caution which the young student of history may need to bear in mind. Political opinions are not to be confounded with patriotism. Pa- triotism is the feeling of love for one's country which leads one to give property, effort or even life for the common welfare or the commonwealth. But an opinion is not a feeling. Two men may love the country equal- ly, while one thinks revenue is best raised by a direct tax, the other says a tariff is best. However hotly they may argue over it, each may be equally willing to give his life and his all for his country. The general who retreats may be just as brave as the one who offers battle. Washington was no less patriotic when he accompanied Gen. Braddock to fight for Eng- land and King George II, than he was when he com- manded the armies of the republic for eight years against George III. In the contests of the present day, republican should not call democrat an enemy of his country, nor democrat accuse republican of lack of patriotism, so long as each deems the other honest, but mistaken. The demagogue, the political boss and the dishonorable officeseeker are the only enemies of the commonwealth. JOHN ADAMS. n Hence, in studying the lives of the early patriots, we can honor as equal patriots the opponents named above, though Hamilton and John Adams feared lest the con- stitution had framed a government too weak to survive, Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams feared it would be too strong, and Jefferson sometimes used expressions which were anarchic. Each ardently desired the welfare of his country, while differing as to the means of secur- ing that result. Let us judge their opinions, but honor their motives alike. History shows that thus far their fears have proved groundless. John Adams, the second president of the United States, had the peculiar fortune of being for a while, one of the most honored citizens of the country, intrusted with most important offices and appointments, and rendering services which were recognized as of vital importance to his native land; and then had the misfortune of retiring into private life under a load of calumny and obloquy, which made his name a byword of contempt. But with the fall of slavery and of the predominance of the polit- ical cliques and parties that persecuted him unjustly, it is possible to raise him again to his proper place as one of our foremost statesmen. In 1636, Henry Adams appears as one of the freemen and founders of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, previously called Mount Wollaston, about ten miles from Boston, to the south and east. In 1792, the northwest part of Braintree was cut off as Quincy, a place famous as the birthplace of the two presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and of John Hancock. The emi-