John Adams
Architect of Freedom (1735-1826)
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Chapter One The Early Years (1735-1758) "Mighty states and kingdoms change," wrote the young man. "A few people came over to this new world for conscience' sake; this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire to America. Our people will, in another century, become more nu-merous than in England itself. The united force of Europe will not be able to subdue us." The young man who wrote those words was a twenty-year old school teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts named John Adams. The year was 1755, and at that time America was a group of thirteen relatively unimportant colonies that was part of a great empire ruled by England. To most Europeans it was a wilderness for which Eng-land, France, and Spain were still contending. At the end of the century John Adams spoke of, America had a population more than double that of England and was a free and independent nation. Adams himself had helped forge that na-tion, had been an architect of its laws and constitutions, both federal and states, and after the long struggle for independence became the new nation's second president. Two centuries later the United States of America was the most powerful nation on earth, a bulwark of freedom and democracy. John Adams, born in Braintree (the name was changed to Quincy in 1792), Massachusetts on October 19, 1735,* was the fifth generation of Adams in this country. His great-great grandfa-ther, Henry Adams, had emigrated to Boston from England in 1636 and settled in Braintree, ten miles south of Boston, in 1640. He, and all his progeny, had been farmers, with the exception of John's uncle, Joseph Adams, who was a minister in New Hampshire. It was traditional to send the eldest son to college, and John’s father, a deacon in the Braintree First Congregational Church and a selectman in the town, had determined that John, his eldest son, was to be a minister. The ministry, it was felt, was the highest calling to which a young man could aspire. Ministers were not only spiritual leaders of their communities, but frequently tem-poral leaders as well. For the pulpit provided a powerful platform for the spread of ideas as well as gospel, the sermon was consi-dered the most important part of the service. John, however, had other ideas. As a young boy, he hated school. He wanted to be a farmer like his father. His greatest plea-sure, when he found time from chores and his studies, was roaming the countryside for miles around with a gun crooked over his arm, contained such “salutary” passages as the following to warn them: *In 1852, on September 3 (now September 14), England adopted the Gregorian calendar, requiring all dates before that time to be adjusted by plus 11 days to get the dates that now prevail. E.g. the correct date for John Adams’ birthday is now October 30. shooting the woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits, and crows that aboun- ded in that section of the country. One of his favorite walks was to the top of Penn's Hill, which could be seen from their house. Standing there on the gra-nite outcroppings at the top, he could see the sea and, far to the left, Boston Harbor. Born and raised near the ocean, all his life long he liked to be within sight and sound of it. The house where John was born and where he lived with his parents and his two younger brothers, Peter and Elihu, was on the main road to Boston. It was of the saltbox variety so typical of New England at that time, with two stories in front and a steep roof that sloped off to one story in the back. A shed John’s father had added to the back of the house contained the kitchen and two small rooms where the boys slept. Next door there was a tenant house that Deacon Adams also owned, which was identical to it. John walked to school each morning, first to Dame Belch-er's, the next house down on the other side of the road. There, with the other boys and girls of the town, he received his primary train-ing. Along with the three R's – reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic – he was given a liberal dose of the Puritan orthodoxy that was his her-itage. Even little six-year-old children were thought to be capable of sin, and The New England Primer that was their reader There is a hell, Where wicked ones must always dwell; There is a heaven full of joy, Where goodly ones must always stay; To one of these my soul must fly, As in a moment, when I die. When he was eight or nine, John was transferred to Joseph Cleverly's Latin School. There he developed such a distaste for scholarship that his father despaired of sending him on to Harvard. "You know I have set my heart on your education at college," his father said to him one day when he was fourteen. "Why must you resist?" "Sir," John replied, "I don't like my schoolmaster. He is so negligent and so cross that I never can learn anything under him. If you will be so good as to persuade Mr. Marsh to take me, I will apply myself to my studies as closely as my nature will admit and go to college as soon as I can be prepared." Joseph Marsh was a local tutor whose father had been a minister in Braintree some years before. Marsh had been in charge of the Latin School before Cleverly, but gave it up because he pre-ferred to teach using his own method and materials. He was known to be an excellent scholar but was suspected of being somewhat liberal in his leanings. However, John's father was desperate and willing to try anything if it would encourage his son to prepare for the career he had planned for him. The choice turned out to be a fortunate one, for Joseph Marsh was able to light a spark in John Adams for books and scho-larship that was not to be dimmed for the rest of his life. Marsh also uncovered and stimulated in the boy an amazing capacity for
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
John Adams could be, and was on occasion, cantankerous, stubborn, tactless, even rude. He was also prone to vanity and self-pity, and sensitive to what he perceived as slights, or attacks on his reputation or character. He also had a lust for fame, as did many involved in the founding of this nation.
But if fame was the spur, it was also the driving force be-hind Adams’ enormous energy, energy guided by a strong sense of honor and duty that was built into his character and stayed with him his whole life.
Adams was a realist, with a profound sense of what people en masse are all about. He seems to have drawn that knowledge from his understanding of himself. He knew that each of us has the capacity for good or evil, and the gov-ernment of checks and balances he envisioned for the new nation they were building took this into account.
Victory in the long struggle for freedom was certainly not assured. Many were Tories who wished to continue as British subjects. Many cared, but not enough to fight for the cause. We can be thankful for those who did, who initiated and carried on the War for In-dependence. Among them were the best and brightest the colonies had to offer. These were the people who tendered their lives, property, and sacred honor as collateral in the struggle for freedom. We can be grateful that John Adams was among them.
About the Author
About the Author JOSEPH COWLEY was born on October 9, 1923. He graduated from Columbia University in 1947, interrupting his academic career to serve two and a half years with the army Air Force during World War II. The last few months of service were spent overseas as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star. He earned his M.A. from Columbia in 1948 and taught English at Cornell University before enter-ing sales. Most of his career was spent writing on sales and man-agement for The Research Insti-tute of America. He took early retirement in 1982 to devote him-self to his own writing. He is the author of The Chrysanthe-mum Garden (published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster, 1982), Home by Seven, Landscape With Figures, Dust Be My Destiny, The House on Hunting-ton Hill, all novels; and the plays The Stargazers, Twin Bill, and A Jury of His Peers; two collections of shorter fiction, The Night Billy Was Born and Other Love Stories, and Do You Like It and Other Stories; and, with Robert Weisselberg, The Executive Strategist, An Armchair Guide to Scientific Deci-sion-Making (McGraw-Hill, 1969). In 2006 he published a few of his favorite writings in The Best of Joseph Cowley as a tribute to his deceased wife. His articles have appeared in trade and science journals such as Jewelers Circular Keystone, Our Army and Popular Mechanics, and his short stories in Prairie Schooner, New-Story, The Maryland Review, Ohio Short Fiction, and other literary journals. NOTE: Joseph Cowley has been listed in Who's Who, International Who's Who of Writers and Authors, Who's Who in the World, Strathmore's Who's Who, the Cambridge Blue Book, and other reference volumes. Among the few organizations he has been asso-ciated with are Mensa, Great Books, Authors Guild, and a 12-Step program.