JOHN ADAMS AND FRANCE: A REMARKABLE BUT COSTLY RELATIONSHIP By LARRY MCCREARY A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES December 2009 Winston Salem, North Carolina Approved By: J. E. Hendricks, Ph.D., Advisor ________________________________ Examining Committee: Donald E. Frey, Ph.D. ________________________________ David Coates, Ph.D. ________________________________ Introduction On March 4, 1797, John Adams was inaugurated second President of the United States in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was preceded by President George Washington, who had served two terms in office. George Washington was elected by popular acclamation due to his military leadership in the Revolutionary War. John Adams was narrowly elected and had little popular support such as had been evident in the Washington Administration for two terms. John Adams stood up for his beliefs and was willing to absorb the consequences of his actions. A staunch patriot Adams would not compromise his belief that the United States should become an independent nation. He also developed diplomatic skills and assisted the United States in gaining key recognition from Holland. As President, Adams steered the nation through turmoil and kept the nation out of a war it could not afford. Many of his contemporaries labeled Adams as being mentally unbalanced, but he achieved most of the goals he pursued with little or no support. When President Adams took office, he was faced with the problem of keeping the young nation out of war and the need to ensure that diplomats appointed by the new government were properly treated in the capitals of Europe. The United States was caught between France and Great Britain with both committing piracy on the high seas. The British were impressing American sailors and forcibly removing them from United States ships and the French were constantly harassing United States shipping. Soon after the inauguration, President Adams was faced with the rejection of President Washington’s envoy to Paris and the nation began to display an interest in immediate 1 conflict with France. President Adams realized that the young nation was not prepared to go to war with France and in his message to Congress he indicated that he wanted peace with the French people, but that diplomats must be received and respected by the French Government. The entire French social and political system had been uprooted by the French Revolution and there was much discussion in the United States as to how the United States would conduct diplomacy with the changing governmental structure in Paris. President Adams appointed three commissioners to Paris and when they arrived they were rejected by the French Government and payment of tribute was demanded prior to any negotiations. The United States populace was inflamed and people began to build ships and other goods of war to fight the French Nation. The ships and armaments were sponsored by state governments and private investment to prepare the United States to go to war. President Adams guided the nation through this difficulty and with unusual courage and valor he diplomatically obtained a treaty with France. There were no rules of succession and President Adams kept President Washington’s Cabinet intact. Questions of loyalty surfaced frequently and Adams never worked effectively with most of his Cabinet. Vice President Thomas Jefferson became alienated from President Adams as John Adams had from the Washington Administration when he was Vice President. Most of the nation wanted war with France and the Hamiltonian faction of the Federalist Party wanted to pull the nation toward Great Britain and to go to war with France. President Adams kept the nation out of war during his one term in office, but the cost was the presidential election of 1800 which was ultimately won by Thomas Jefferson. 2 President Adams served during an extremely difficult time in the nation’s history, but his diplomatic skills and his unconventional politics kept the nation from fighting a war which it could ill afford. 3 Chapter One Development of Patriotism President John Adams served during an extremely difficult time in the nation’s history, but his diplomatic skills and his unconventional politics kept the nation from fighting a war it could ill afford. From the beginning of his career, John Adams served the citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by his legal expertise and by his patriotic fervor against the mother country. He served as an attorney and as a legislator. His unorthodox decision making processes are evident in his young career and influenced his later Presidential Administration. He was willing to stand alone and take the wrath of the populace for what he believed to be the correct approach. John Adams, an extreme patriot from the beginning to the end of his career, stimulated the development of patriotic activities in the United States. Bred from hardworking generations with a Puritanical background, Adams believed in hard work and sacrifice. Born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735 from a family of modest means, Adams lived in a small cottage in the town of Braintree. Massachusetts was a flourishing colony with many rich merchants engaged in trade and other lucrative economic activities, but the Adams family did not share in this wealth. John Adams’ father was an officer in the Massachusetts militia and a deacon in the local church and had deep rooted religious convictions. A stern disciplinarian, he demanded much from John and his siblings. His emphasis on education was reinforced by his wife’s desire for their children to succeed. John Adams stated that his father managed to obtain a respectable status in the colony by hard work and honesty. Adams 4 observed that his father was one of the most honest individuals he had ever known, but experienced some conflict with him concerning his desire to participate in sports and his father’s demanding that he master the academic curriculum. This conflict continued until Mr. Adams obtained a new school master who assisted John in entering Harvard. John Adams attended Harvard University from 1751-1754 and obtained a degree.1 In 1756 Adams began his legal studies and was admitted to the bar in 1758. He practiced law for fourteen years working as a lawyer and farmer. During the time that he practiced law, the British Colonies began to change their relationship with the Mother Country. The French and Indian War changed the relationship and led to severe crises between England and her British subjects in the American colonies and Adams was in the forefront of this change. The problem originated with the tremendous expenditures from the British exchequer to defend the American colonies and the lack of contributions by the colonies to the war effort. The need to raise new revenue caused the Parliament and the Crown to enact legislation in an attempt to have the colonies participate in the payment of their defense. Several pieces of legislation were passed by the British Parliament to levy a tax on the Colonists for their defense. In 1765, the Stamp Act legislation levied a tax on virtually all paper products and installed collectors in each of the British colonies. The colonial general assemblies reacted promptly to the Stamp Act and declared that the British government had no right to tax their American possessions without representation. Another point of the Act was that offenders could be taken out of the normal judicial proceedings and placed in an admiralty court which would take away their right to trial by jury. This Act contributed greatly to the rise of radicalism in the British colonies.2 5 The Massachusetts Bay Colony, the home of John Adams, was the most radical colony of the thirteen and stood out as the leader in the dissent against the Mother Country and its taxation. John Adams displayed his dislike for the Stamp tax and became a leader in the patriotic movement against unfair treatment by the Mother Country. On December 18th, 1765 John Adams made the following entry in his journal: The Year 1765 has been the most remarkable Year of my Life. That enormous Engine, fabricated by the British Parliament, for battering down all the Rights and Liberties of America, I mean the Stamp Act, has raised and spread, thro the whole Continent, a Spirit that will be recorded to our Honour, with all future Generations. In every Colony, from Georgia to New Hampshire inclusively, the Stamp Distributors and Inspectors have been compelled, by the unconquerable Rage of the People, to renounce their offices. Such and so universal has been the Resentment of the People, that every Man who has dared to speak in favour of the Stamps, or to soften the detestation in which they are held, how great soever his Abilities and Virtues had been esteemed before, or whatever his fortune, Connections and Influence had been, has been seen to sink to universal Contempt and Ignominy. The People, even to the lowest Ranks, have become more attentive to their Liberties, more inquisitive about them, and more determined to defend them, than they were ever before known or had occasion to be.3 The essential element of this quote from John Adams documents the spread of the disdain for the British tax and the developing thoughts of freedom in the British colonies. He pointed out that almost every segment of society was beginning to consider liberty and to formulate plans for liberty’s defense. The firebrand patriotism of Adams stirred the colonists and contributed to civil disobedience against the colonial government. Adam’s leadership during this period of his career was a precursor to the type of Administration he would conduct as President of the United States.