17 150-163 Found2 AK 9/13/07 11:27 AM Page 150 Answer Key John Adams contemporaries. These students may point out that Adams penned defenses Handout A—John Adams of American rights in the 1770s and was (1735–1826) one of the earliest advocates of colonial 1. Adams played a leading role in the First independence from Great Britain. They Continental Congress, serving on ninety may also mention that his authorship committees and chairing twenty-five of of the Massachusetts Constitution and these.An early advocate of independence Declaration of Rights of 1780 makes from Great Britain, in 1776 he penned him a champion of individual liberty. his Thoughts on Government, describing 5. Some students may suggest that gov- how government should be arranged. ernment may limit speech when the He headed the committee charged public safety requires it. Others may with writing the Declaration of Inde- suggest that offensive or obscene pendence. He served on the commis- speech may be restricted. Still other sion that negotiated the Treaty of Paris, students will argue against any limita- which ended the Revolutionary War. tions on freedom of speech. 2. Adams was not present at the Consti- tutional Convention. However, while serving as an American diplomat in Handout B—Vocabulary and London, he followed the proceedings. Context Questions Adams and Jefferson urged Congress 1. Vocabulary to yield to the Anti-Federalist demand a. disagreed for the Bill of Rights as a condition for b. caused ratifying the proposed Constitution. c. until now 3. The Alien and Sedition Acts gave the d. beginning government the authority to deport e. struggles aliens, to lengthen the period of natu- f. remember ralization for immigrants, and to jail g. foolishness citizens who expressed opinions criti- h. separated cal of the government. The Alien and i. crises Sedition Acts were meant to quell sup- j. suffering port for France and to silence Repub- k. corruption lican criticism of the government. l. doubts 4. Some students may not deem Adams’s m. God’s care accomplishments to be on par with n. era those of George Washington or Thomas 2. Context Jefferson. Others may argue that a. John Adams wrote these Adams’s approval of the Alien and Sedi- documents. tion Acts constitutes a black mark on b. These documents were written his record that makes him undeserving on July 3, 1776. of the honor of a monument. Still other c. These are private letters to students will argue that Adams deserves Adams’s wife, Abigail. a monument because his contributions d. John Adams wrote these docu- to American independence and to the ments to share his thoughts formation of the American government and feelings with his wife, and were on par with his more famous perhaps for posterity’s sake. Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2 17 150-163 Found2 AK 9/13/07 11:27 AM Page 151 Answer Key Handout D—Discussion Guide Samuel Adams 1. Adams is referring to the Congress’s Handout A—Samuel Adams resolution to declare independence (1722–1803) from Britain. 1. Adams began to study law but soon 2. He mentions Otis’s argument against turned to a career in business instead. writs of assistance as the beginning He worked for a time as a clerk for a point of the American Revolution, the well-known Boston merchant. When resolution for independence being the Adams’s father died in 1748, he took culmination. over the family brewery. But Adams 3. Adams predicts that July 2 will be cel- was a poor manager, and the brewery ebrated as the anniversary festival (or went bankrupt. Adams next took a job Independence Day). as a colonial tax collector, but he failed 4. Suggested responses: humbled, cau- in this position too. tious, content, proud, or satisfied 2. Adams appealed to both natural and 5. Suggested responses: jubilant, happy, English rights. In “Resolutions of the enthusiastic, pleased, or realistic Boston Town Meeting,”he argued that 6. Adams believes there will be challenges the law of nature dictated that “no law ahead. He expects that it will require of the society can be binding on any sacrifice and hard work to maintain individual without his consent.” The what they have just created. But he colonists of Massachusetts, Adams held, welcomes the struggle and believes the were not represented in Parliament. new nation will be stronger for it. Therefore, the British government 7. Adams means that suffering builds could not tax them. In “The Rights of character in people as well as in nations. the Colonists,”Adams claimed that the The struggles each individual will face, American colonists were “entitled, to either as a soldier, elected office-holder, all the natural, essential, inherent, and or citizen will mirror the struggles the inseparable rights, liberties, and privi- new nation will face. Both will be leges of subjects born in Great Britain.” stronger—as a furnace or kiln refines 3. Adams signed the Declaration of and strengthens a piece of pottery. Independence and the Articles of 8. Students should provide evidence for Confederation and helped to write the their reasoning. Letter A was written Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. in the morning of July 3, 1776 and 4. Adams hoped that the country would Letter B in the evening of July 3, 1776. forever be an “asylum on earth for civil 9. Private letters, particularly those writ- and religious liberty” and “never cease ten to intimates, may be likely to reveal to be free and independent.”He hoped an individual’s true feelings more than that “Temperance,” “Frugality,” and something produced for public display. the old republican spirit of virtuous Other students will say that elected self-sacrifice for the common good officials, as John Adams was when he would characterize American society. wrote these letters, are more likely to 5. During the 1760s, Adams became a reveal vulnerabilities and doubts about leader of the Patriot resistance to the public policy when they are writing British government’s attempt to tax the private letters. Some students may sug- American colonies. With John Hancock gest that personal writings may also be and James Otis, he organized the Sons written for posterity. of Liberty, who took the lead in oppos- ing the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Answer Key.