June/July 2001

THE GLORIOUS FOURTH OF JULY

This year we celebrate the 225^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - it seems impossible to believe that the Bi-Centennial was 25 years ago!

It is also the 275^th Anniversary of the death of two of America’s greatest heros and Presidents - John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson is, of course, the one most of us remember best - partially because of the Mt. Rushmore tribute and the Jefferson Memorial in the Nation’s Capital. Adams is lesser known. But there are those who would change that - and bring recognition to this Hero of America.

The Wall Street Journal had an article on June 14, 2001 (Flag Day - how appropriate) entitled “Adams: Persistent, Principled, Patriotic and Unrecognized.” We quote:

The setting this week was perfect: With the east front of the House of Representatives in the background and two of the nation’s most eminent historians present to pay homage, there sat huge portraits of the honorees: John and Abigail Adams.

The occasion was the formal launch of a move to appropriately honor and celebrate the country’s second president, who was a crucial force behind the creation of America.
The catalyst is David McCullough’s magnificent new biography of Adams, following the superb work of fellow historian Joseph Ellis. They were both at the Capitol this week to talk about the inexplicably forgotten hero of the Founding Fathers or, as Prof. Ellis calls them, the Founding Brothers. . . .

The recognition of these accomplishments is so meager that Rep. Tim Roemer (D., Ind.) Is proposing a national memorial to honor the Adamses. There is a Washington Monument and a Jefferson Memorial, but no monument commemorating Adams. His likeness is not even on any currency. Currently, there is a stamp that features one of his many letters to Abigail.

The Roemer legislation, sponsored by Mr. Adams’s fellow Bay Stater, Edward Kennedy in the Senate, has bipartisan support and the backing of the Bush administration. The historians testified before a House committee Tuesday. “If thsi congressional committee were able to caLL George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as expert witnesses,” noted Prof. Ellis, “they would almost surely express amazement that this hearing was occurring at all.”

The goal is House passage of the legislation by July 4. It’s a perfect target date. Not only was the Declaration signed on that day, but 50 years later both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the half-century anniversary of that most extraordinary document, . . .

For the reader’s enjoyment in this issue we are pleased to present reviews of both Prof. McCullough’s new book and Prof. Ellis’ Founding Brothers, as well as another new book that reports on how America celebrated that 50^th anniversary.

We also discuss the particulars of the Roemer-Kennedy bill, and some of the reasons why the proposed memorial is not to one man - but to the Adams clan - which dominated American politics and political thought for nearly 150 years.

The Adams Family - an American Dynasty

From our school books we all remember the tales of Sam Adams and John Adams in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s urging their colonial brethren to throw off the yoke of oppression of the English crown. Their exploits, especially those of Sam - the more dashing of the two - are the stuff that made history so enjoyable for some of us.

Then came the Philadelphia story - the long hot June period when the Continental Congress debated in the hall in Philadelphia now known as Independence Hall. And John Adams was there too - again working mightily towards the goal of an independent America - but over shadowed by such personages as Benjamin Franklin, his fellow Bostonian John Hancock, and a youngster from Virginia with a way with words - Thomas Jefferson.

Adams was a farmer and a lawyer - a man of principle who in 1770 successfully defended the British troops in the so-called Boston Massacre - and he had one secret weapon - that sustained him in his failures and guided him in his successes - his wife Abigail - who, more than any other spouse of the founding fathers, proved her spirit and perspicacity in her letters to John during their long separations as the new nation was being born. If she had just done that, and John had just been the founding father and the second president of the United States - the one who kept us out of a potentially disastrous war with France, and who established the Presidency as a non-regal, but respected office after succeeding a man thought to be a deity by many Americans of the time - the Adams’ would be deserving of a memorial. But, this couple also sired a son, John Quincy Adams, who served (from his 16^th year) his nation as diplomatic secretary to Franklin, Jefferson and his Father, was ambassador to Russia and England at crucial periods in our early history, was the Secretary of State who formulated the Monroe Doctrine, served as our 7^th President, and then was elected to the House of Representatives where his distinguished career ended with his death on the floor of that august body.
And John Quincy Adams also had children - one of whom served the United Sates in many ways throughout the latter part of the 19^th century. Charles Francis Adams was a diplomat - perhaps the best of his day. He served in numerous foreign posts - including succeeding his father and his grand father as Ambassador to the Court of St, James’ - where his skills exercised during the Civil War successfully kept the English neutral.
Charles’ son, Henry Adams, was a “liberal Republican” journalist who detested the partisan bickering that followed Lincoln’s death and was the scourge of Washington throughout Reconstruction. He also displayed courage and public spiritedness in exposing political corruption and numerous scandals that came to light in the last quarter of the 19^th century. In 1918 he was awarded the Pulitzer prize for his autobiography The Education of Henry Adams.

Thus, Representative Roemer, Senator Kennedy and their co-sponsors are suggesting a memorial to the entire remarkable Adams clan. HR 1668 was introduced on May 1, 2001, has 19 co-sponsors (12 Democrat, 7 Republican) and is scheduled to move to a vote shortly. The bill, by the way, would create a Foundation to collect funds to pay for the memorial - which would be funded solely by contributions from the public.

Lester Sweeting

Book Reviews

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

Joseph Ellis¹

“No event in American history which was so improbable at the time has seemed so inevitable in retrospect as the American Revolution.”

This first sentence sets the stage for this”modest-sized account of a massive historical subject” as its author, Professor Joseph Ellis, Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mt. Holyoke College, calls it in his acknowledgments.

Here we have six chapters covering specific events in the lives of seven men who were truly the leaders of the American Revolution - John Adams of Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr of New York. Each chapter deals with one or two of those men - how they came to be a band of brothers and how their actions helped forge a new nation.

We see Hamilton and Burr at the duel that robbed both - Hamilton of his life and Burr of his rightful place in history as a patriot.

We see Jefferson as host to a secret dinner bringing arch antagonists James Madison and Alexander Hamilton together to work out a compromise that would allow the nascent government of the United States to establish international credibility financially by assuming the debts of the 13 new states.
The chapter entitled “The Silence” is most intriguing - dealing as it does with a major debate that took place in Congress in 1790, that was managed with skill by Madison, but that resulted in a tacit understanding that the issue was not to be spoken of - and it was not until the few decades before the Civil War - the issue was slavery and the slave trade. Ellis’ description of the men who framed the debate and the manipulations of Mr. Madison, as leader in the House, are most illuminating.

All-in-all, this is a very well researched book and a good read.

John Adams

David McCullough²

Thomas Jefferson once called John Adams “the colossus of independence.”. Close associates in the years up to the end of the 18^th century, political rivalries drove these two apart for a decade of more in the early 19^th century, but in retirement the Sage of Monticello and the “old oak” (as Abigail once called him) became close friends and avid correspondents. The irony of the era is, of course, that both died on the same day - July 2, 1826 - the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence both had worked so hard to produce.

McCullough, who won a Pulitzer for his excellent biography of Harry Truman, si one of our best known historians. He has recently been quoted as saying that this book began as a joint biography of Jefferson and Adams, but the more he got into the Adams history the more he wanted to limit his scope.

And, as much a biography of our second president, this is also a biography of Abigail Smith Adams, the wife and soul mate who sustained John throughout their long marriage - that ended with Abigail’s death in 1818.

Adams lived longer than any other president - 90 years (although Hoover nearly tied his record and Reagan may exceed it). He, like George Herbert Walker Bush, had the pleasure of seeing his eldest son become President.

He was far more widely traveled than most presidents of the 19^th century - having made diplomatic trips to and throughout Europe before becoming our first vice president.

And he sired a family that gave its eldest sons to the national good - from his own son John Quincy, to his grandson Charles Francis, and his son Henry.

McCullough can write history in a way that invites the reader to listen to a story - and this is a good story.

American Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered Fifty Years of Independence

By Andrew Burstein³

As we celebrate our 225^th national birthday this July 4, 2001, it is interesting to speculate on what they were doing on July 4, 1826. The United States of America, that upstart that had the courage and tenacity to break from the English crown, that saw her population grow incredibly from 4 million as of the first census in 1790 to 11 million by the time John Quincy Adams entered the White House in 1824, that had fought and won not one but two wars with the mightiest empire on earth; and had started (with Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase) on the quest for manifest destiny that would continue throughout the rest of the 19^th century. - what was happening and what were people doing to celebrate the great day.

Burstein takes us on a visit to the nation and some of its leading notables, beginning with this:

“On Tuesday, July 4, 1826, cities and towns across America celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There were elaborate parades and speeches, and dignified Revolutionary War veterans on display for awestruck youth. It is a moment that American history has forgotten, a moment when two critical generations reaffirmed their connections. The rising generation, having come into its political inheritance, stopped to acknowledge what had silently occurred some time earier: it had separated from its constituting predecessor, it had taken the place in society of those who had given birth to the United States.”

Burstein begins in 1824, with the much heralded return of the great friend of the United States, General the Marquis de Lafayette. His triumphal tour took him to all corners of the United States as it was then - involved many long and arduous trip, and many long and probably arduous dinners, balls and other festivities.

He then moves on to discuss the comings and goings of that son of Bladensburg in Prince George’s County - William Wirt - who is described as follows:

“If the Americans of 1826 were a people of longings, underappreciated by later historians, no better symbol exists to warrant their resuscitation than William Wirt. A name known to very few by the twentieth century, he was once a nationally prominent figure–indeed a virtuoso. Author of fiction and biography, a famed trial attorney who argued several of the most significant Supreme Court cases of his era, he holds a record for government service that remains unbroken, as U.S. Attorney General for twelve successive years, through the administrations of James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.
“Wirt arguably did more than anyone else of his generation to link the Romantic movement in America with the Revolutionary spirit. When all is said and done, it was Wirt whom the city of Washington selected to cap off the season of observances in 1826 with a masterful oration in the U. S. Capitol–Wirt, who had devoted his public life to furthering the work of the founders; Wirt, who admitted to having wept ‘like a child’ on reading newspaper accounts of Lafayette’s welcome in 1824; Wirt, whose serialized essays Letters of the British Spy, had much earlier established for him a reputation as a patriot susceptible to outbursts of emotion in defense of the national heart. But it was his Life of Patrick Henry, first published in 1817 (the same year that he received his appointment to the cabinet), that delivered the pathos and poignancy which gave him the credentials for conveying the general spectacle of the national jubilee.”

I recommend this book - it is fun reading and interesting.

¹ Ellis, Joseph, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2000, 288 pp. Notes and index.

² McCullough, David, John Adams, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001, 432 pp, index, illustrated.

³ Burstein, Andrew, American Jubilee, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001, 361 pp, index, illustrations