John Adams

Summary

David McCullough's John Adams is a full narrative biography of the second president of the United States, built largely on the Adams family papers and especially on the letters between John and Abigail Adams. It follows Adams from his boyhood on a farm in Braintree, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1735, through Harvard College, schoolteaching in Worcester and the law, to his marriage in 1764 to Abigail Smith, whom McCullough presents as his closest adviser and equal partner. As a Boston lawyer Adams defends the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre of 1770, believing every accused man deserved counsel. In the Continental Congress at Philadelphia from 1774 he becomes the most forceful advocate of independence, proposes George Washington as commander of the army, serves on the committee that asks Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration, and argues the case for independence on the floor in July 1776, while Abigail manages the farm and family through war and a smallpox epidemic. The middle of the book follows Adams abroad. He sails for France in 1778 with his ten-year-old son John Quincy, works uneasily beside Benjamin Franklin in Paris, returns home to draft the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, and then wins Dutch recognition and loans for the United States, falling gravely ill in Amsterdam. With Franklin and John Jay he negotiates the Treaty of Paris of 1783, is joined by Abigail and their daughter Nabby, forms a close friendship with Jefferson in Paris, and serves as the first American minister to Great Britain, where he presents himself to George III. Returning in 1788, he becomes vice president under Washington and in 1796 is elected president. McCullough treats his single term in detail: the crisis with revolutionary France, the XYZ Affair and the undeclared naval war, the building of the navy, the Alien and Sedition Acts that he signed, the division within his own Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton, and his decision, against much of his party, to send a peace mission to France, which he later counted the proudest act of his life. He moves into the unfinished President's House in November 1800 and loses the election of that year to Jefferson. The last part describes a long retirement at Peacefield in Quincy: grief at the death of his son Charles, the illness and death of Nabby, the renewal in 1812 of his friendship and correspondence with Jefferson through Benjamin Rush, Abigail's death in 1818, pride in John Quincy's election as president in 1825, and Adams's death on 4 July 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of independence and the same day Jefferson died. The book was published by Simon & Schuster in May 2001, was a best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2002.

Plot or Argument

• Part I, Revolution: Braintree to Philadelphia

  Adams's farm boyhood, Harvard, the law, marriage to Abigail, the Boston Massacre trials, and his work in the Continental Congress for independence, ending with the Declaration of 1776 and the war years at home.

• Part II, Distant Shores: diplomacy in Europe

  The voyages to France with John Quincy, a difficult partnership with Franklin, the Massachusetts Constitution, recognition and loans from the Dutch Republic, the Treaty of Paris, friendship with Jefferson, and the mission to London.

• Part III, Independence Forever: vice president and president

  The vice presidency under Washington, election in 1796, the crisis with France, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the quarrel with Hamilton, the peace mission and the election of 1800.

• Part III, continued: Peacefield

  Retirement in Quincy, family sorrows, reconciliation and correspondence with Jefferson, the death of Abigail, John Quincy's presidency, and Adams's death on the Fourth of July, 1826.

Characters

• John Adams, subject

  Massachusetts lawyer, revolutionary, diplomat and second president, shown as honest, ambitious, irritable and devoted.

• Abigail Adams, wife and correspondent

  Partner, adviser and manager of the family farm, whose letters give the book much of its voice.

• Thomas Jefferson, friend and rival

  Colleague in Congress and Paris, political opponent in the 1790s, and correspondent of Adams's old age.

• John Quincy Adams, eldest son

  Companion of his father's diplomatic journeys and later sixth president.

• Benjamin Franklin, fellow diplomat

  Senior American envoy in Paris, whose methods Adams distrusted.

• George Washington, commander and president

  Proposed by Adams to lead the army; Adams serves as his vice president.

• Alexander Hamilton, Federalist leader

  Rival within Adams's party who opposes him over France and in the 1800 election.

• Benjamin Rush, physician and friend

  Philadelphia doctor who brings Adams and Jefferson back into correspondence.

Lessons

• Defending the unpopular in the name of law

  Adams agrees to defend the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre because he believes no one should be denied counsel, and he wins acquittal for most of them at real cost to his popularity. McCullough treats the decision as a sign of the integrity that marked his public life.

  • Why did Adams take the soldiers' case when public feeling in Boston ran against them?
  • What risks did he face, and what did he gain?
  • When is it right to defend someone most people believe is guilty?

• A marriage of equals

  Through years of separation, John and Abigail write to each other about farming, children, war, politics and faith. McCullough presents their partnership as a source of Adams's strength: Abigail runs the farm, advises him frankly and bears hardships of war and illness while he serves abroad.

  • What responsibilities does Abigail carry while John is in Philadelphia and Europe?
  • How do their letters show trust and honesty between them?
  • What does the Adams marriage suggest about the sacrifices public service asks of a family?

• Choosing peace over party

  In 1799, against the wishes of many in his own party, Adams sends envoys to France and avoids a full war. McCullough argues that Adams put the country's interest above his own reelection, and records that Adams later regarded this as the proudest act of his life. Historians have also weighed it against the Alien and Sedition Acts he signed in the same crisis.

  • Why did Adams's peace mission divide the Federalists?
  • How does McCullough weigh the peace mission against the Alien and Sedition Acts?
  • Should a leader ever act against his own party's wishes for the sake of the country?

• Friendship restored

  Adams and Jefferson become friends in Paris, bitter rivals in the 1790s and correspondents again after 1812, when Benjamin Rush encourages them to write. Their late letters on philosophy, religion and the Revolution show that old enemies can be reconciled.

  • What divided Adams and Jefferson in the 1790s?
  • What part did Benjamin Rush play in bringing them back together?
  • What makes reconciliation possible after a long quarrel?

Context

Adams's life (1735-1826) spans the whole founding era: the crisis over parliamentary taxation in the 1760s, the Revolutionary War, the diplomacy that won recognition and peace, the framing and first decades of the Constitution, and the rise of the first party system. Massachusetts shaped him as a Congregationalist farmer's son, a Harvard-trained lawyer and a student of political history; his writings, including Thoughts on Government (1776), the Massachusetts Constitution (1780) and A Defence of the Constitutions (1787-88), argued for balanced government with separated powers. His presidency fell in a period of war between Britain and revolutionary France that divided Federalists, who favored commercial ties with Britain, from Republicans, who sympathized with France.

Composition

McCullough first planned a joint biography of Adams and Jefferson and turned to Adams alone as his research deepened. He drew above all on the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the largest family archive of the period, including more than a thousand letters between John and Abigail and Adams's diary, and he visited the places Adams lived and worked in America and Europe. Simon & Schuster published the book in May 2001 in a 751-page hardcover edition, organized in three parts.

Reception

The book debuted at the top of the best-seller lists, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2002, and is widely credited with renewing public interest in Adams, long overshadowed by Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. Reviewers praised its narrative and its portrait of the Adams marriage; some historians, including Sean Wilentz, felt it gave less attention to Adams's political thought and writings than they deserved. HBO adapted it as a seven-part miniseries in 2008, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. In 2009 McCullough acknowledged that a phrase he had attributed to Jefferson about Adams had been misattributed.

Comparisons

• adams-selected-writings

  Adams's own diary, letters and political essays are the primary sources from which McCullough builds his portrait; reading them gives Adams's voice without a biographer's framing.

• a-defence-of-the-constitutions

  McCullough describes the writing of the Defence in London in 1786-87; the treatise itself shows the political thought that some reviewers felt the biography passes over quickly.

• jefferson-selected-writings

  Jefferson's papers, including letters from the late correspondence with Adams, show the other side of the friendship and rivalry at the center of the book.

• franklin-autobiography-and-poor-richard

  Franklin's self-portrait can be set beside McCullough's account of his working partnership with Adams in Paris, where their temperaments and methods differed sharply.

• the-founding-documents

  The Declaration of Independence that Adams championed in Congress and the Constitution under which he served as vice president and president.

• the-federalist-papers

  Hamilton's essays on executive power and federal government show the political thinking of the Federalist rival who later broke with Adams.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The Boston Massacre trials and why Adams took the case.
• The debates in the Continental Congress in 1776 and Adams's role in independence.
• The letters between John and Abigail during their long separations.
• The decision to send a peace mission to France in 1799 and its cost to Adams.
• The renewed friendship with Jefferson and the deaths of both men on 4 July 1826.

Key terms and names

Braintree and Quincy

Adams's Massachusetts hometown; the part where he lived was renamed Quincy in 1792, and his later home there was called Peacefield.

Continental Congress

The assembly of delegates from the colonies, meeting in Philadelphia, where Adams argued for independence in 1776.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The peace with Great Britain that Adams negotiated with Franklin and Jay, recognizing American independence.

XYZ Affair

The 1797-98 scandal in which French agents demanded bribes from American envoys, leading to the undeclared naval war with France.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Laws of 1798, signed by Adams, that tightened rules on immigrants and punished false and malicious writing against the government.

Federalists and Republicans

The two parties of the 1790s, led respectively by figures such as Hamilton and Adams and by Jefferson and Madison.

Peacefield

The Adams home in Quincy where he spent his retirement and died.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What part did Adams play in the Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776?
2. Comprehension What did Adams accomplish in the Dutch Republic and at the peace negotiations in Paris?
3. Comprehension How did Adams and Jefferson come to write to each other again after years of silence?
4. Interpretation How does McCullough use Abigail's letters to shape our picture of John Adams?
5. Interpretation Why did Adams and Franklin work so poorly together in Paris, according to McCullough?
6. Interpretation How does McCullough weigh the Alien and Sedition Acts against the peace mission to France in judging Adams's presidency?
7. Big Question Is it better for a leader to be admired or to be right?
8. Big Question What does a strong marriage contribute to a life of public service?

Faith Connections

• Proverbs 31:10-31 (Scripture)

  The capable wife manages the household and fields, and her husband trusts her. Abigail's management of the Braintree farm during the war and her counsel to John fit this portrait closely.

• Matthew 5:9 (Scripture)

  Jesus calls the peacemakers blessed in the Beatitudes. Adams's decision in 1799 to seek peace with France at the cost of his party's support can be weighed in the light of this saying.

• Proverbs 27:17 (Scripture)

  As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. The long argument and late friendship of Adams and Jefferson shows two minds sharpening each other across fifty years.

• Cicero, On Friendship (Great Conversation)

  Cicero, whom Adams read and admired, argues that true friendship rests on virtue and can survive disagreement. The renewed Adams-Jefferson correspondence tests that claim.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Adams was overshadowed in memory by Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. Yet the record of his letters shows that he did as much as any founder to win independence, secure peace and keep the young republic out of war. Therefore, McCullough argues, Adams deserves a place among the greatest founders, and his character, honest, devoted and often difficult, is the key to his achievement.

Rhetorical device: narrative juxtaposition. McCullough repeatedly sets John's public scenes beside Abigail's private ones at home, and frames the book's end with the deaths of Adams and Jefferson on the same Fourth of July.

Debate: Resolved: that the peace mission to France in 1799 was the greatest act of Adams's public life.

Writing Prompts

Essay: McCullough presents Adams as a man of integrity whose temper and pride often hurt him. Choose two episodes, one from Congress or diplomacy and one from the presidency, and explain how both traits shaped the outcome.

Comparison with Thoughts on Government and Selected Letters: Read a selection of Adams's own letters or diary entries and compare the man who appears there with McCullough's portrait. What does the biographer add, and what does Adams reveal about himself that a biographer cannot?

Medical Lens

The biography gives a sustained picture of eighteenth-century family medicine through the Adams correspondence. Adams underwent smallpox inoculation in Boston in 1764, before his marriage, and Abigail had herself and the children inoculated in Boston in the summer of 1776 while he was in Congress, a procedure that carried real risk before vaccination. Adams suffered a serious fever in Amsterdam in 1781, which McCullough describes as nearly fatal. Their daughter Nabby underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer in 1811 without anesthesia and died of the disease in 1813. Their son Charles struggled with drinking and died in 1800, a grief Adams felt deeply. Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration, appears as a friend and correspondent. Adams's old age includes tremors, failing eyesight and loss of teeth, and Abigail died in 1818 of what was then called typhoid fever. McCullough reports these events from the letters; any modern diagnosis beyond what contemporaries recorded is uncertain.

• Part I

  Adams's smallpox inoculation of 1764 and Abigail's inoculation of the children in Boston in 1776.

  Plague Epidemic Physicians Doctors
• Part II

  Adams's grave fever in Amsterdam during the negotiations with the Dutch Republic in 1781.

  Fever Infection
• Part III

  Charles Adams's decline and death in 1800 during his father's last months as president.

  Alcohol Grief
• Part III

  Nabby's mastectomy in 1811, her death in 1813, and Abigail's death in 1818.

  Surgery Death Dying Grief
• Part III

  Adams's infirmities in old age and his death at Quincy on 4 July 1826.

  Aging Senescence Death Dying

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a timeline of Adams's life in three bands, Revolution, Distant Shores and Independence Forever, placing beside each event where Abigail was at the time.

• Dialogue

  Write an exchange of letters between Adams and Jefferson in 1813, in which each explains in his own terms what divided them in 1800.

• Essay

  McCullough presents the peace mission of 1799 as Adams's finest act. Using the biography, explain the case for that view and the difficulties it created for Adams and his party.

• Fiction

  Write a scene from Abigail's point of view on the day she takes the children to Boston for inoculation in 1776.

Further Reading

• My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor (eds.)

• The Adams-Jefferson Letters, Lester J. Cappon (ed.)

• Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, Joseph J. Ellis

• 1776, David McCullough