The Republic; or, a history of the United States of America in the administrations from the monarchic colonial days to the present times

Front matter

THE REPUBLIC; OR, A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE ADMINISTRATIONS, Prom the Monarchic Colonial Days to the Present Times. BY JOHN ROBERT IRELAN, M. D. IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES. Volume II. CHICAGO: Fairbanks and Palmer publishing Co. Boston : Martin Garrison & Co. New York : John Cummings. Philadelphia: Faulkner & Allan. Cincinnati : The Cincinnati Publishing Co, Washington, D. C: W. F. Morse. Minneapolis : Buckeye Publishing Co. San Francisco : J. Dewing & Co. 1887. COPYRIGHTED BY L. T. RALMBR, 1886. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Preface

. THE name of Adams is found among the most illustrious on the pages of American history. After half a century or more of partisan turmoil, when most of the great barriers to fair and compre hensive judgment have crumbled in the face of the grand spectacle of national progress, at least one mem ber of the Adams family stands so identified with the birth and establishment of this Government as to merit for him the undivided esteem of his countrymen in all ages. The learning and virtue of John Adams, one of the founders of the Republic, shedding luster on his own times, have become a part of the perpetual heritage of a great and exemplary people. Although Mr. Adams left a monument to himself and his age in his voluminous published and unpub lished writings, as well as in his public and official services, yet his name has never been suggested as a fruitful theme for biographers ; and hence the task of placing his life and character in a suitable form before the world fell to a worthy descendant, who executed the delicate work with great candor, justness, and wisdom. To that work, from the pen of Charles Francis Adams, and the numerous volumes of the writings

PREFACE.

. of Mr. Adams, edited by the same able hand, I have frequently been compelled to refer. While I have sought information from all other possible sources, I feel under no obligations to mention them here. In all cases, in the body of the work, credit has been given where it was due. And at all times I have kept in view the predetermination to make the mere man subservient to historic events, worthy theories and principles, and virtues deserving of admiration and eternal perpetuation. The numerous quotations throughout this volume, or in any other part of this work, the reader is requested not to look upon as excrescences, nor, in deed, as springing from an attempt to ornament the text. While they prop and supplement that they are to be regarded as an essential part of the plan on which the entire work was projected.

The leading object has been to embody in the books the greatest possible amount of information on the subject in hand without sacrificing their popular tone or making too great a demand upon the reader. The quotations have been selected with great care as bearing directly on the character or the event, and while they thus at every step form an important feature in the development of the general scheme, it is hoped that no apology will be needed for a course which compels the man to portray his own character or that of his times. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Page. Early History of the Adamses — John Adams — Graduates at Harvard — Becomes a School-teacher — Compares the Professions and Selects — Why he WOULD NOT BE A PREACHER 13

Chapter II

Mr. Adams's Picture of Himself — The Lawyer — His Progress — Farming — Society — No Amours to Start a Blush, Corrode a Conscience, or Stain a Life 27 CHAPTER LH. Mr. Adams as a Lawyer — Appears for the British Soldiers in the Case of the "Boston Massacre" — " Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" — The Man and his Profession 44

Chapter IV

The Lawyer and Politician — Bold Plea for the De struction of the Tea — Patriotic Ecstacy — Mr. Adams sets out for the Fleist Continental Congress CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Page. Mr. Adams and the Stamp Act — Americans Lighting the Lamps of Industry and Economy ... 82

Chapter VI

Pretexts and Real Causes of the Revolution . . 97 CHAPTER VH. Causes of the American Revolution . . . .116 CHAPTER VLH. The Continental Congress ....... 128

CHAPTER IX.

Second Session of the Continental Congress — Mr. Adams's Great Work — He Chooses General Washington and makes Easy the Way of the Union . 138

CHAPTER X.

Mr. Adams d* the Continental Congress — Appointed Chlef Justice of Massachusetts— His Great Exertions for Independence — His Thoughts on Government — His Views of Tom Paine and " Common Sense" ..." 161

CHAPTER XI.

Mr. Adams in the Continental Congress — His Form of Government for the States .... 17g CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER XII.

Page. Independence in the Continental Congress — The Great Work of Mr. Adams— His View of Mr. Jefferson 190

CHAPTER XIII.

Mr. Adams's Last Days in the Continental Congress — The Cabal against Washington — Dr. Franklin gives his Theory of Colds to Mr. Adams — Strong Wives make Great Husbands .... 208

CHAPTER XIV.

Mr. Adams m the Continental Congress — His Services as the Ftrst American Minister of War — The Articles of Confederation 221

CHAPTER XV.

France and the United States — Mr. Adams as a Foreign Minister 243

CHAPTER XVI

Mr. Adams as Foreign Minister — The Work at Last Accomplished — America Free — The Treaty . . 264

CHAPTER XVII.

Mr. Adams as Foreign Minister — First Mission to England — Some Causes of his Success . . . 282

CHAPTER XVIII.

Mr. Adams as the First Vice-President of the United States — His Views on Presidential Etiquette — Mrs. Adams to be Autocratrix .... CONTENTS. •■

CHAPTER XIX.

Page. Second Vice - Presidency — Third Presidential Election — Mr. Adams's Views to his Wife . . . 325

CHAPTER XX.

The Presedency — Mr. Adams's Inaugural Address — Mrs. Adams's Blessing 337

CHAPTER XXI.

Mr. Adams as President of the United States — Special Session of Congress — Preparation for War with France 347 CHAPTER XXH. The President's History of Events in his Messages — "The Alien and Sedition Laws" . . . .361

CHAPTER XXIII.

The President and his Cabinet 379

CHAPTER XXIV.

The President and the Cabinet — Fourth Annual Speech — Closing Scenes in the Presidency of Mr. Adams 389

CHAPTER XXV.

Last Scenes in Mr. Adams's Presidency — The " Alien and Sedition Laws" again — His Administration — Its Benefits to the Country — Had Luck any Part in his Successful Career? . . ■ . . . CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTER XXVI. PAGE.

Mr. Adams on his Little Farm — Declines to Write an Address to the People — Family History — Quincy AND MONTICELLO — Mr. AdAMS DEFENDS THE " ALIEN and Sedition Laws" 415 CHAPTER XXVH. The Last Fourth of July — Earth to Earth and Dust to Dust 429

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Mr. Adams's Religion — The Man, his Character and Writings 436

CHAPTER XXIX.

Mr. Adams and his "Dearest Friend" — The Second "Lady of the White House" — Her Lofty Sentiments — Her Matchless Patriotism . . . 450

CHAPTER XXX.

Ftrst of American Women — The Capital on the Potomac—Mr. Adams and his Family — The Shrine at Quincy 470

CHAPTER XXXI.

Some of the More Striking Sentiments and Sayings of John Adams LIFE, ADMINISTRATION, AND TIMES OF John Adams, FIRST VICE=PRESIDENT AND SECOND PRESIDENT OR THE UNITED STATES. March 4, 1797, to March 4, 1801.

Chapter I. Early History Of The

ADAMSES— JOHN ADAMS— GRAD- UATES AT HARVARD— BECOMES A SCHOOL TEACHER- COMPARES THE PROFESSIONS AND SELECTS— WHY HE WOULD NOT BE A PREACHER. IN the latter part of the thirteenth century, and early in the succeeding century, Lord Ap Adams (Sir John Ap Adams) figured as a Welsh member of the British Parliament, but the Adams family is more directly of English origin, and a record of some of its members as looking to a settlement in this country is found as far back as 1628. Not long after this date the name first appears at Braintree, now Quincy, Massachusetts, a point which has become his toric from being the residence of this distinguished family. The early Massachusetts Adamses were small land owners and tradesmen. Some of them held trifling town offices; and, although one of them, Joseph Adams, was especially educated for the ministry, and held the position of pastor in one Church at Newing ton, New Hampshire, for sixty-eight years, and Han nah Adams became noted among the early historical writers of the country, they were mainly people of plain manners and circumstances, little being known of them until the appearance of Samuel and John in the affairs of the Revolution.

In 1848, in speaking of John Quincy Adams, "the Rev. William P. Lunt said : — "Mr. Adams's ancestors on the paternal side were worthy specimens of the Puritan emigrants who settled this northern por tion of the American continent, who had left ' dear England,' as they affectionately called their native land, only for the sake of what to them was still dearer, freedom of the mind and soul. And if we separate into distinct parts the aggregate of the blessings which have accrued to the world, from the Christian enterprise, into the wilderness, of those heroic men and women who, more than two centuries since, ventured their all here for God and for posterity, it is not perhaps too much to say that no richer, riper fruit has dropped from the tree of the Pilgrims' plant ing, than that which has now, alas! been plucked by insa tiate death."

John Adams, the President, was the son of John Adams the son of Joseph Adams, who was the son of Joseph Adams the son of Henry Adams, who was the father of this old Massachusetts family. To the memory of these ancestors, many years before his death, and during his long period of early and somewhat obscure retirement, Mr. Adams erected four plain monuments in the little burying-ground at Quincy, and on them still may be read the following inscriptions : — I. IN MEMORY OF HENRY ADAMS, Who took his flight from the Dragon persecution in Devon shire, in England, and alighted with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England ; and after taking time to explore the Country, four removed to Medfield and to the neighboring towns ; two to Chelmsford. One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, who was an original proprietor in the Township of Braintree, incorporated in the year 1639.

This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great-great-grandson, from a veneration of the piety, humility, simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry, and perseverance of his ancestors, in hopes of recom mending an imitation of their virtues to their posterity. II. Dedicated to the memory of JOSEPH ADAMS, Senior, who died December 6, 1694, and of ABIGAIL, his wife, whose first name was Baxter, who died August 27, 1692, by a great-grandson, in 1817. III. In memory of JOSEPH ADAMS, son of Joseph, senior, and grandson of Henry ; and of HANNAH, his wife, whose maiden name was Bass, a daughter of Thomas Bass and Ruth Alden; parents of John Adams, and grand-parents of the lawyer JOHN ADAMS, Erected December, 1823. Sacred to the memory of MR. JOHN ADAMS, who died May 25, A. D. 1761, aged 70, and of SUSANNA, his Consort, born Boylston, who died April 17, A. D. 1797, aged 88.

The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when they sleep In dust. Susanna, the mother of John Adams, was the daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline, Massachu setts. Both parents, while not especially worthy of mention above their neighbors, were possessed of admir able traits besides being earnest .and exemplary Chris tians. His father was one of the leaders in the affairs of the Church, and was for many years a trustee of Braintree. These worthy parents had two other children, Peter Boylston Adams and Elihu Adams. According to the custom of giving at least one son an education fitting him for a public career, they selected John with a view of thoroughly preparing him, as it was hoped, for the Christian ministry. While it cer tainly was not, however, the custom of the country to set aside and educate one son for a public life, it was so with some, and the Adamses had, for several generations, pursued this course.

And while this usage did not go very far towards establishing any claim to superiority which might be made for the parents of John Adams, the character of the children, according to an old and mainly true standard of judgment did, perhaps, give no doubtful value to such a claim. Whatever importance, however, may be attached to blood, true, right education is the supreme, royal way to noble character and virtuous life. No education, worth the name, can be gauged by the amount of Greek or Latin or mathematics or any other form of book-learning it may have in it, but only by the aggregate of good and useful sense and virtue, the amount of true wisdom which it brings into actual life. Whatever were the real, intellectual, and fleshly foundations of this Adams family a glimpse of its true spirit may be seen in the following remark made by John Adams when serving his country as one of its first foreign ministers : "Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great-grandfather or great-grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years ; so that you see, I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American."

John Adams was born October 19, 1735, at Brain tree, Massachusetts. Little has been recorded in any way relating to his boyhood days, and although the circumstances of his father would justify the idea of his having occupied much of his early youth in labor, as the children of that time, especially in New England, were accustomed to do, yet it is more than likely that being designed by his parents for a learned profession, he was early sent to school. From his own statements it does not appear that he at first took much interest in books, but spent a great deal of his time in hunting, fishing, and other not wholly useless sports. The expectations of his parents did not seem in a fair way of realization in him at the outset. But 2— B a change of tutors brought a change in his inclina tions, and almost his entire after life became, distinguished for its success in letters.

He is represented as having prepared for college under the tutorship of the Rev. Joseph Marsh, Congregational minister at Braintree, and Joseph Cleverly, sometime " reader " in the English Church at the same place. He entered Harvard College in 1751, and graduated in 1755. Three years afterwards he received the degree of mas ter of arts. It is said that Mr. Adams stood as num ber fourteen in a graduating class of twenty-four ; and then, too, the standard of Harvard was not very high. It should not be forgotten, however, that Mr. Adams graduated in Harvard's aristocratic colonial era, when students were assigned places in the grad uating classes according to the adjudged social position of their families. Number fourteen only meant the social grade assigned to old John Adams, and had no relation to the intellectual standing of the son.

A few years later Harvard, advancing with the republican spirit of the times, arranged her graduates, without any such distinction, in alphabetical order. The real fact in the case was that Adams stood high in the college, as on this account he was selected to teach the "grammar school" at Worcester. In the summer of 1755, he entered upon this work as a teacher, and soon began to display qualities which had given him some distinction at college, and which were destined to attract general public notice. He was now under twenty-one, but this did not prevent his taking a deep interest in the political issues then beginning to occupy the American people. In a letter to his friend, Nathan Webb, at this time, Mr. Adams exhibits himself as one of the early dreamers on America's future glory. In this letter he speaks of independence and the conditions pointing to national supremacy.

The following is the greater part of this letter : " Worcester, 12 October, 1755. "All that part of creation which lies within our observation is liable to change. Even mighty states and kingdoms are not exempted. "If we look into history, we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading their influence till the whole globe is subjected to their sway. "When they have reached the summit of grandeur, some minute and unsuspected cause commonly effects their ruin, and the empire of the world is transferred to some other place. Immortal Rome was at first but an insignificant village, inhabited only by a few abandoned ruf fians ; but by degrees it rose to a stupendous height, and excelled in arts and arms all the nations that preceded it. But the demo lition of Carthage (what one should think would have established it in supreme dominion), by removing all danger, suffered it to sink into a debauchery, and made it at length an easy prey to barbarians.

" England, immediately upon this, began to increase (the par ticular and minute causes of which I am not historian enough to trace) in power and magnificence, and is now the greatest nation on the globe. Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into the new world for conscience' sake. Perhaps this appar ently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me ; for if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks, our people, according to the exactest computa tions will, in another century, become more numerous than Eng land itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas ; and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us.

The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us. Divide et impera. Keep us in distinct Colonies, and then some great men in each Colony desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each other's influence and keep the country in equilibrio. "Be not surprised that I am turned politician. This whole town is immersed in politics. The interests of nations and all the dira of war make the subject of every conversation. I sit and hear, and after having been led through a maze of sage observa tions, I sometimes retire, and by laying things together, form some reflections pleasing to myself." Mr. Adams did not evidently consider the school teacher's calling a very desirable one, or his chances of greatness very certain in its pursuit. In one of his letters he remarks : — "The school is indeed a school of affliction.

But Dr. Savil tells me, for my comfort, ' by cultivating and pruning these tender plants iu the garden of Worcester, I shall make of them plauts of renown and cedars of Lebanon.' However this may be, I am certain that keeping this school any length of time would make a base weed and ignoble shrub of me." Although in one of his letters, written at this time, he freely discusses the chances and character of thfe three so-called learned professions, medicine, law, and divinity, he concludes by saying that "the man who lives wholly to himself is of less worth than the cattle in his barn," and adds : " However, I am yet very con tented in the place of a school-master. I shall not, therefore, very suddenly become a preacher." On the 22d of August, 1755, he wrote in his Diary : — " Yesterday I completed a contract with Mr. Putnam to study law under his inspection for two years.

I ought to begin with a resolution to oblige and please him, and his lady in a particular manner. I ought to endeavor to oblige and please every body, but them in particular. Necessity drove me to this determination, but my inclination, I think, was to preach. However, that would not do. But I set out with firm resolutions, I think, never to commit any meanness or injustice in the practice of the law. The study and practice of law, I am sure, does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion." It does not appear from these reflections that Mr. Adams then had a very exalted idea of the profession he was about to enter, but he certainly struck the key note to the way of making it or any other calling noble, by doing no meanness, and in no way losing the sense of moral and religious obligation.

He was start ing in the royal road to an honorable position in the legal profession. At the time of engaging to study under Mr. Put nam, he also agreed to teach the school at Worcester during the two years' term of that engagement. This was his only means of support at the time. He was also to board in the family of Mr. Putnam, and hence he felt the necessity of pleasing the lawyer's wife. But in announcing his disposition to please everybody, he was at the outset putting forward one of the great elements of success in his character, to which, how ever, he did not always adhere in after-life. Although the legal profession had stood very low in this country, partly by reason of the method of conducting matters of law and justice by the British king, and partly from the little need of lawyers which had been felt; yet at the time he made choice of pursuit, against the desire of his family and friends, who preferred his entering the ministry, the law profession was becoming of more importance in the Colonies, and many of the leading young men of the country were entering it, believing it the most extended field for the exertion of talent, and rising to public consequence ; some of these being Mr. Adams's more favored friends.

A letter written to Charles Cushing, dated Worcester, October 19, 1756, sets forth in a decided tone Mr. Adams's preference for the course selected, and indicates some of his reasons for rejecting the one desired by his friends. He wrote as follows : — "My Friend, — I look upon myself obliged to give you the reasons that iuduced me to resolve upon the study and profession of the law, because you were so kind as to advise me to a different profession. " When yours came to hand, I had thoughts of preaching, but the longer I lived and the more experience I had of that order of men, and of the real design of that institution, the more objections I found in my own mind to that course of life. "I have the pleasure to be acquainted with a young gentle man of fine genius, cultivated with indefatigable study, of a generous and noble disposition, and of the strictest virtue; a gentle man who deserves the countenance of the greatest men, and the charge of the best parish in the Province.

But with all these ac complishments, he is despised by some, ridiculed by others, and detested by more, only because he is suspected of Arminianism. And I have the pain to know more than one, who has a sleepy, stupid soul, who has spent more of his waking hours in darning his stockings, smoking his pipe, or playing with his fingers, than in reading, conversation, or reflection, cried up as promising young men, pious and orthodox youths, and admirable preachers. As far as I can observe, people are not disposed to inquire for piety, in tegrity, good sense, or learning, in a young preacher, but for stupidity (for so I must call the pretended sanctity of some abso lute dunces), irresistible grace, and original sin. I have not, in one expression, exceeded the limits of truth, though you think I am warm.

Could you advise me, then, who you know have not the highest opinion of what is called orthodoxy, to engage in a profession like this? But I have other reasons too numerous to explain fully. "The students in the law are very numerous, and some of them youths of which no country, no age, would need to be ashamed. And if I can gain the honor of treading in the rear, and silently admiring the noble air and gallant achievements of. the foremost rank, I shall think myself worthy of a louder tri umph than if I had headed the whole army of orthodox preach ers. The difficulties and discouragements I am under are a full match for all the resolution of which I am master. But I com fort myself with this consideration, the more danger the greater glory. The general, who at the head of a small army encounters a more numerous and formidable enemy, is applauded, if he strove for the victory and made a skillful retreat, although his army is routed and a considerable extent of territory lost.

But if he gains a small advantage over the enemy, he saves the interest of his country, and returns amidst the acclamations of the people, bearing the triumphal laurel to the capitol. I have cast myself wholly upon fortune. What her ladyship will be pleased to do with me, I can't say. But wherever she shall lead me, or what ever she shall do with me, she can not abate the sincerity with which I trust I shall always be your friend." The term orthodoxy, as Mr. Adams uses it here, has a sense somewhat peculiar to the time, and was more general in its application than at this day. Many orthodox Christians now are Arminians. They are found even in the Church of England. The dissolute habits of many of the clergy of the Established Church had much to do in determining the course Mr. Adams took, as also the great dearth of morals and religion in the Church.

He again wrote as follows, farther describing his course, and the difficulties which surrounded him : — "Between the years 1751, when I entered, and 1755, when I left college, a controversy was carried on between Mr. Bryant, the minister of our parish, and some of his people, partly on account of his principles, which were called Arminian, and partly on account of his conduct, which was too gay and light, if not immoral. Ecclesiastical councils were called, and sat at my father's house. Parties and their acrimonies arose in the Church and con gregation, and controversies from the press between Mr. Bryant, Mr. Niles, Mr. Porter, and Mr. Bass, concerning the five points. I read all these pamphlets and many other writings on the same subjects, and found myself involved in difficulties beyond my powers of decision.

At the same time, I saw such a spirit of dog matism and bigotry in clergy and laity, that, if I should be a priest, I must take my side, and pronounce as positively as any of them, or never get a parish, or, getting it, must soon leave it. Very strong doubts arose in my mind, whether I was made for a pulpit in such times, and I began to think of other professions. I perceived very clearly, as I thought, that the study of theology, and the pursuit of it as a profession, would involve me in endless altercations, and make my life miserable, without any prospect of doing any good to my fellow-men. " The last two years of my residence at college produced a club of students (I never knew the history of the first rise of it), who invited me to become one of them. Their plan was to spend their evenings together in reading any new publications, or any poetry or dramatic compositions that might fall in their way.

I was as often requested to read as any other, especially tragedies, and it was whispered to me and circulated among others that I had some faculty for public speaking, and that I should make a better lawyer than divine. This last idea was easily understood and embraced by me. My inclination was soon fixed upou the law. But my judgment was not so easily determined. There were many difficulties in the way. "Although my father's general expectation was that I should be a divine, I knew him to be a man of so thoughtful and consid erate turn of mind, to be possessed of so much candor and moderation, that it would not be difficult to remove any objections he might make to my pursuit of physic or law, or any other reason able course. My mother, although a pious woman, I knew had no partiality for the life of a clergyman.

But I had uncles and other relations, full of the most illiberal prejudices against the law. I had, indeed, a proper affection and veneration for them, but as I was under no obligation of gratitude to them, which could give them any color of authority to prescribe a course of life for me, I thought little of their opinions. Other obstacles more serious than these presented themselves. A lawyer must have a fee for taking me into his office. I must be boarded and clothed for several years. I had no money ; and my father, having three sons, had done as much for me, in the expenses of my education, as his estate and circumstances could justify, and as my reason or my honor would allow me to ask. I, therefore, gave out that I would take a school, and took my degree at college undetermined whether I should study divinity, law, or physic.