John Adams

“To be good, and to do good,

is all we have to do.” — John Adams

I’ve always looked at the American Founding Fathers with a lot of respect, but I also have often fallen into the common trap of thinking of them as George Washington, Tomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.  There were fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence.  There were thirty-nine signers of the U.S. Constitution.  Both of those documents were inspired documents, and there was a lot of inspiration and many miracles that went into them both, contributing to and guiding the creation of the United States of America, which has thenceforth been a blessing for so many people.  I figured 2026, the 250th anniversary of America’s birth, would be great time to get to know some of the other Founding Fathers a little better.

 
John Adams by David McCullough (ISBN: 0-684-81363-7) provides a deep and broad look at the second president and a man who is often credited as being the voice of independence.  The book starts just a little before John Adams was born, telling the reader about his parents and lineage before getting into the details of the future president’s life.  McCullough tells the Founder’s life story in great detail, in part because Adams left extensive diaries and letters to draw from.  One learns about his schooling, his law practice, his family life, his farm in Massachusetts, and his ascendency onto the national stage, where he flourished.  One learns about his shortcomings as well, including a propensity to get down on himself, a willingness to let others’ opinions of him matter (vanity), and a sometimes quick temper.  Once Adams makes to Philadelphia to advocate for independence, the book goes into great detail, explaining his thinking and his actions and then follows his career.  He was a diplomat, helping Benjamin Franklin in France and forging his own path in the Netherlands, where he, on his own, secured loans to help the American cause as the Revolutionary War dragged on.  He was the new country’s first ambassador to England and then the country’s first vice president.  In all of his positions, he advocated for what he thought was right.  He didn’t back down and wasn’t afraid to take a little heat sometimes.  The book paints him as a man of strong moral convictions based on a faith in God.  During his time as president, he successfully kept America out of a war with France, which greatly helped America, a weak and fledgling nation, find its wings.

I thought the book was masterfully written, which is not a surprise, considering it’s written by the author of another great work, 1776.  I got to know John Adams quite well over the course of the book.  His letters and diaries are woven tightly into explanatory prose.  The book was well balanced, noting where Adams had personal and professional shortcomings or hiccoughs.  Like most of us, life tended to knock off a few of the rough edges, and he grew and improved throughout his life.  I was impressed by his strong sense of morality and how that guided him in all that he did.  His role in America’s early years was grand, and he liked to think of himself as grand, but also realized that he was happiest when surrounded by a few good books and the daily labor of running a farm.  He made the most of the opportunities presented to him, sacrificed time, money, and even his family for the callings he had, and left the world a better place.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License and is copyrighted © MMXXI John Pruess.