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John Adams: American Founder and Second President

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“The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great measure of independence is Mr. John Adams.” That was from a delegate to the Continental Congress. But how much do you know about this influential thinker and second president of the United States? Brad Thompson, Professor of Political Science at Clemson University, tells Adams’ remarkable story.

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Script:

Everybody knows what happened on July 4th, 1776: America was born. But three days earlier, on July 1st, independence hung in the balance. 

There was a great case to be made not to secede from Great Britain. The colonists had no army, no navy, and almost no money. England had a lot of all three. It would have made perfect sense to bend to the will of the Crown, pay some extra taxes, and call it a day. There were plenty of people in Philadelphia prepared to make that case. They could have easily prevailed. Yet, they didn’t. They didn’t because of the words of one man: John Adams. 

At a key moment in the congressional debate, when the forces against independence appeared to have the upper hand, Adams rose to his feet. Without notes and without any preparation, he made the case for independence. By the time he sat down, the case had been won. We don’t have a transcript of what he said. If we did, Adams might rank even higher than he does now among the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson said years later that the speech was so powerful in “thought and expression” that it “moved us from our seats.” Adams was, Jefferson said, “our Colossus on the floor.”

If Washington was the sword of the American Revolution, and Jefferson the pen, then Adams was its engine. Brilliant, demanding, meticulous, but often irascible, he was not an easy man to love. At some point in his life, he irritated, if not alienated, everyone with whom he worked. Yet these same people would invariably come to appreciate him. That included Washington and especially Jefferson, with whom he sometimes fought bitterly. 

Ironically, for all his cantankerousness, his marriage to Abigail Adams stands as one of the great love stories of American history. Their correspondence, spanning five decades, is a vibrant, living history of the nation’s early years. Abigail frankly described her husband as “short, thick, and fat.” But what he lacked in good looks and physical stature, he made up in intellect, personal integrity, and clarity of thought.

Born in 1735 near Boston, Adams relentlessly pushed himself to rise early, work hard, and live a moral life. He strove—in the language of the day—for a life of virtue over vice. He first came to public attention in 1765, when he issued a stirring rebuke of the much-hated Stamp Act. For the next 18 years, he fought unceasingly against British tyranny and for American liberty, dedicating his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor to the struggle. 

These were not idle words. In his forties by the time of the Revolution, he didn’t fight in the war; instead, he crossed the Atlantic four times on diplomatic missions, braving winter storms, diseases such as pneumonia and dysentery, and British war ships. Capture would have meant summary execution.

In Europe, as befit his character, he was all business. He helped Benjamin Franklin bring the French into the war on the American side, and he arranged critical loans from Dutch banks. When the war ended, it was Adams, along with Franklin and John Jay, who negotiated the treaty in which England officially recognized the new United States.

For all these efforts, Adams was paid virtually nothing. But fortune was never his aim. Creating a new, better, freer country than the world had ever known was all that he cared about. As one delegate to the Continental Congress said, “The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great measure of independence is Mr. John Adams.”

For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/john-adams-american-founder-and-second-president

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33 Comments

  4. This basically sums up to Adams was great because Britain bad
    Yet this video doesn't go into the arguments Britain had which were very good in my opinion. Often we only hear the secessionist side of things but the loyalists had an excellent case as well. The least of which being that Britain was becoming increasingly hostile to slavery. Something many Americans never like to mention is that Britain had begun outlawing slavery in the 1770s and in the war of 1812 we liberated slaves in captured american territory. Not ot mention that before America every democracy had failed usually spectacularly.

    I think America should have seceded but give the arguments against secession as well as the ones for secession

  14. Our Founding Fathers were ordinary people of varying backgrounds and abilities who had had enough and envisioned a free place to live for everyone to persue their own individual dreams with hard work and respect for your fellow countryman. John Adams was such a man who fought for the fairness of everyone.

  15. Adam's hated slavery and wanted to end it in 1776…so all you geniuses who say all the founding fathers were slave owners learn the true history of slavery….their is not only White guilt but Arab and African guilt their just as guilty over slavery as the White Europeans🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

  28. This nation is now facing its greatest test. Greater than WWII? Greater than the Civil War? No one really thought we would be successfully invaded by Germany or Japan and even if the North had lost the Civil War the country – albeit smaller – would have survived. No threat is greater than the one we face from the left, progressives and Democrats who are intent on bringing down the entire constitutional order and therefore America itself and what it stands for. It is reminiscent of 1930's Germany when the National Socialists (a small group but extremely organized and aggressive) first took control and started the country's slow march into oblivion. Though horrified at what they saw regular Germans stood by and just watched, not saying a word, dismissing the Socialists as they went about their daily business thinking they would just fade away if ignored. But by the time they realized their mistake it was too late. The Socialists had amassed too much power and speaking out then meant cancellation, retaliation, jail – even death.

    Americas today have a choice, stand by and watch as these forces of evil gain strength or stand up, resist and stop them before they become too powerful. The country lies in the balance. What say YOU? #JoinTheRevolution