John Adams

In the spirit of President's Day, I thought I would blog about a President whom we will never miss a day of work for, Senor Johno Adams.

As of last weekend I finished the David McCullough biography. Here are some things I learned.

1. Dad was a farmer, shoemaker, and deacon in Braintree Massachusetts
2. Could be a long winded hot head.
3. Defended the British soldiers who were part of the Boston Massacre
4. Played a, if not the, leading role in deciding to declare independence. Although Jefferson wrote the DOI, in most of the proceedings he was quiet while Adams fervently argued the American case.
5. Sent to France to negotiate an alliance with Franklin and Arthur Lee, who were already there. Adams was surprised to find that Franklin was incredibly lazy and spent most of his time hanging with the French and flirting with the ladies. Although Adams and Franklin got along much better than Franklin and Lee, Frankling eventually sent a a very critical assessment of Adams to Congress.
6. Gossip! A congressman, Lovell, wrote flirtatious letters to Abigail Adams while John was gone where he hinted that John might be getting a little on the side. A crude double entendrer, at one point Lovell "expressed relief that her husband's 'rigid patriotism' had not left her pregnant again." Hot Sizzle!
7. Had an insane work ethic. At one point in France he had little to do, and reacted by continuing his daily miles walks, writing tons of letters to Congress, and writing to newspapers. Eventually, he went to the Netherlands without any connections and secured a loan for America's war effort
8. Humiliated himself in his first month as Vice-President by arguing vehemently that George Washington should be called "His Majesty the President." Washington distanced himself from Adams after that.
9. In some ways was a decent president. We were much closer to war with France during that time than I ever realized. Adams did build up the navy in case of a battle (angering Democratic-Republican) but avoided war (angering Federalists).
10. Restarted a friendship with Jefferson (they were at each other's throats during Adams' presidency), and wrote many letters to each other, mostly about academic subjects.
11. Adams and Jefferson died on the same day: July 4th, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence.

Overall, I am very glad I read the book. McCullough is a clear and informed biographer who manages to give you a lot of details without being boring. And, it was refreshing to read a book about a famous white male that does not have an anti-Wasp agenda. Still, I was concerned that McCullough might have been too referential. The general tone is like he's writing about his grandpa. Sort of a, "Yes, he had his bad moments, but all-in-all he's a great man". For example, there are about 10 quotes of various people calling Adams vain, including Franklin., Jefferson, and finally Adams himself. But McCullough throughout poo poos the criticism, and holds that Adams wasn't. Okay...

More disappointing to me was McCullough's treatment of the Alien and Sedition Acts (making it harder for foreigners to become citizens and making it illegal to criticize the government). This was the part of Adams life I was most curious about. McCullough does admit this as a low point, but paints it as the result of an out-of-control Federalist agenda that Adam just went along with. Maybe, but Adams still let it go through, did not publicly criticize it, and people did get in trouble for writing negative things about him (a few were sent to jail and one "tavern loafer" was fined for saying Adams had a big ass). At this point, I did not quite trust McCullough to assess how badly Adams had behaved. Additionally, I wanted some insight into how Adams changed from demanding independence to accepting severe limits on the freedom of speech.

But that is not the point in reading McCullough book. His strengths are not in deconstructing history, but in telling it straight. And he does this well. So I am left liking our second president more and wishing that our current president was even 1/8 as intelligent.