National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior National
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Adams The political and intellectual contributions of in his community, in Massachusetts politics, and the Adams family to the Nation remain as yet in the affairs of Harvard College. Next was a unmatched by those of any other family. Presi second Charles Francis, who made his mark as dent John F. Kennedy said in 1961 that the suc an officer in the Union Army during the Civil s cessive Adamses' "vitality" and "devotion to War, as a railroad reformer and administrator, i the public interest" run like a "scarlet thread and as a biographer and historian. The third, | throughout the entire tapestry" of American his Henry, wrote three of the undisputed classics in £ C3 tory, and the record of their achievements "in American literature. The writings of Brooks, the timidates us all." Mr. Kennedy was simply ex youngest of the brothers, blended economic pressing in his own apt words what many have theory, world history, and philosophical tried to say before, and what many, many more speculation. have felt. A good claim can thus be made that the house We owe our knowledge of this remarkable rec continuously occupied by four generations of ord to the care and foresight of the Adamses Adamses from 1788 to 1927 is the most historic themselves, who were well aware of the hand house in the United States. Unlike Mount Vernon of history on their shoulders. "Whatever you or Monticello, it never passed out of family write, preserve," John Adams instructed two hands and its furnishings have not had to be grandsons who were sailing in 1815 to join their sought out or replaced. To be sure, the building father, John Quincy Adams, the new American itself has been greatly altered and added to minister to London. The advice could have over the decades, but in large part just to ac served as a family motto. Toward the end of the commodate the family's acquisitions during 19th century a visitor reported, after surveying their missions and travels to all parts of the the crowded shelves of Adams archives running world. And so, again unlike Washington's and around three sides of the family library, that he Jefferson's homes, neither the architecture nor had seen "the manuscript history of America in the contents of the house represent any single the diaries and correspondence of two Presi period of time. But by the same token the house dents and of that Minister to England [Charles tells more history. Its mixture of styles and its Francis Adams] who spoke the decisive word agreeable clutter of furniture, china, rugs, pic which saved England and America from a third tures, books, kitchen equipment, and memora war." bilia, acquired at different times in many places, show the evolution of taste and manners over After the Civil War, New England became simply nearly a century and a half as nothing else one corner of the United States, and the elec could do. Adams National Historic Site may be torate and the family agreed—somewhat reluc compared to an archeologist's "dig," with all tantly on both sides, perhaps—that Adamses the strata of successive cultures laid bare to were not to return to national office. But the enable the student to reconstruct the domestic family was by no means through with either life of one of the few dynastic families America making history or writing it. The four sons of has produced. For those who are attentive, it is President Abraham Lincoln's minister to Eng a speaking witness to the Adamses' aspirations land constituted a galaxy of talent astonishing and achievements, and, of course, to their frus in its range and influence. The eldest was a trations and failures, too. as they moved with or second John Quincy, for many years a leader against the tides of history. National Park Service National Historic Site, Massachusetts U.S. Department of the Interior "I long for rural and About Your Visit This did not preclude little tiffs and teasings, as signing of the treaty with Great Britain in 1783, Adams National Historic Site Rapid Transit, take the Red . waking or sleeping I am ever with you' domestic scenes, for the is on the corner of Adams Line from Boston to Quincy Abigail to John Adams, 1782 under the terms of which, as he characteristi when Abigail thought her husband neglected warbling of birds and Street and Newport Avenue, Center. The site is open daily cally said, his children would have, if nothing writing her and threatened to "foment" a female prattle of my children-" Quincy, Mass., about 8 miles from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., April For more than a century the Adams family in insurrection if the new American government more, "their liberty and the right to catch fish south of Boston. By automo 19 to November 10. on the Banks of Newfoundland." bile the site can be reached America, beginning with Henry Adams the immi did not provide equal rights for women. Or via Exit 24 (Furnace Brook grant (ca 1583-1646), who "took his flight from when John Adams, absent in Europe, dampened Parkway) of the Southeast the Dragon persecution" in Somerset, Eng his wife's enthusiasm about a suitor for their It was Abigail Adams who maintained the ties Expressway (Mass. 93) or via land, and "alighted with eight sons, near Mount daughter's hand by saying that he did not like of the family by sending news to the children Hancock Street to Newport Wollaston," lived out their lives with respect "this method of courting mothers." But essen and the increasing number of grandchildren, Avenue. To reach the site via ability but below the level of historical scrutiny tially they thought alike on domestic, national, and extracting news in return. Her death in 1818 on the South Shore of Massachusetts Bay. and international issues, even when separated stirred the Rev. William Bentley to recall in his Deacon John Adams (1691-1761) did make by many leagues of land or a whole ocean. Mrs. diary his last sight of her. As he had ridden by something of a mark for himself as an officer Adams willingly shouldered the tasks of tending the Adams home in Quincy, Mrs. Adams was in of the town, the parish, and the county militia; the family and farm while John Adams repre her garden "shelling beans for a family dinner but no one could have foretold that the eldest sented Massachusetts in the Continental Con to which without any ceremony or apology she of his three sons would become the second gress and the United States in Europe. He con invited me." She possessed, Bentley went on, President of the United States, or for that matter sidered her at least as good a "farmeress" as a good knowledge of the "history of our country that there would be a United States to become he was a statesman, and it is probable that the [and] of our public men and measures," which president of. This eldest son, also named John, family stayed solvent largely through her re "she was free to disclose but not eager to de was sent, a little against his will, to Harvard sourceful management during trying times. She fend in public circles. Mr. Adams always College (class of 1755) and chose the law as continued these responsibilities during his vice- appeared in full confidence, but that of an equal his profession. He had a quenchless curiosity presidency and presidency, freeing him for what and friend who had lived himself into one with about the world, the people in it, and its history he considered his chief accomplishment as the wife of his bosom." and political institutions. He also had a desire president—ending the Quasi-War with France to be heard on these subjects and a peculiarly in 1800. This courageous move lost him the John Adams made his last official appearance pungent and forceful literary style. These traits support of the Federalist party and his re-elec in 1820 at the convention to amend the State and gifts brought him quickly to the fore as the tion to the presidency, but it brought peace to Constitution he had written 40 years earlier. He contest between Great Britain and her colonies the country and confirmed the earliest name he proposed an amendment extending the equal on the North American mainland developed in gave his home in Quincy—"Peacefield." protection of the laws to "all men of all reli the mid-1760's. gions." But this was premature and failed of The Adamses' years of retirement at "Peace- adoption. On the Fourth of July, 1826, just 50 Meanwhile, he had met a parson's daughter field" were comparatively serene. John Adams' years to the day after he had voted for the Dec from neighboring Weymouth whose qualities of bruised feelings were healed by time, the in laration of Independence, John Adams died in character and abilities complemented and creasing promise of John Quincy's public ca the upstairs study of the Old House while his equaled his own. Abigail Smith descended from reer, the company of his books, and his never- fellow townsmen celebrated the anniversary a families which had long been members of the ending correspondence, much of it devoted to few hundred yards away. In his last words he religious, political, landholding, and mercantile reminiscences of his earlier life. In long letters spoke of Jefferson, who had been his colleague, "establishment" of the Bay Colony. But she her and autobiographical sketches, he fought the then his rival and opponent, and, before the self was altogether an individual, like the young Revolution over again, recalling his successful end, the warmest of friends.