JOHN ADAMS:Forgotten Patriot

CBS News ^ | July 1,2001 | Rita Braver

[monkey]

Why is Adams the least known of the Founding Fathers?

George Mason is the least known.

The monument to FDR, if you've not seen it, is a kissy-up, socialist advertisement. They could fit five monuments to deserving Presidents, like Adams, in the space.

[Lady In Blue]

I'm ashamed to say that I don't know anything about Mason!(blush)

[sneakers]

I'm still in the first 1/3 of the book. Yes, Dr. Wayne Smith, though a Civil War expert, taught a wonderful early American History class and used John and Abigail Adams as the focal point. He is retired now. Too bad. Truly a patriot. Probably couldn't deal with the liberal atmosphere so prevalent on campus.

[monkey]

Nothing to be ashamed of. I meant that he is the least known because little that he said or wrote survived. Even a general outline of his life can only be vaguely pieced together.

Mason conceived of and wrote the Virginia Bill of Rights, which was the basis for the Bill of Rights, and he was something of a mentor to the brilliant Madison. Mason refused to sign the Constitution (for a whole bunch of reasons, including the lack of a declaration of rights), which caused a falling out with Washington, after which he more-or-less faded from the national scene.

[lockeliberty]

I read a 2 volume set on John Adams by an author who's last name I believe is Page. These books are rather extensive and after reading them you understand how much influence Adam's had over the Continential Congress. Also, Adam's wrote a detailed defense of the Constitution while an ambassador in London. Overall Adams may have been the most influential founding father we had. His efforts in securing loans from the Dutch, French, and Prussians may have been the decisive factor in defeating the British.

[ValerieUSA]

I sent this book to my sister for Christmas, and she still hasn't read it! I can't borrow it from her until she reads it first.

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks for your post. I was just sitting here trying to remember who said the following: "If Washington is the Father of the Nation,then John Adams is the mid-wife." I think that's a great quote.I'm sure all of the Founding Fathers had worries but none and to the extent of Adams!God bless him for his labors and sacrifices for this country!

[Lady In Blue]

Overall Adams may have been the most influential founding father we had. His efforts in securing loans from the Dutch, French, and Prussians may have been the decisive factor in defeating the British.

Agreed! This new born country was so poor and with so little credit but due to Adams diplomatic skills,he was able to get the U.S.first loan from the Dutch.

[Lady In Blue]

Mason conceived of and wrote the Virginia Bill of Rights, which was the basis for the Bill of Rights, and he was something of a mentor to the brilliant Madison. Mason refused to sign the Constitution (for a whole bunch of reasons, including the lack of a declaration of rights), which caused a falling out with Washington, after which he more-or-less faded from the national scene.

Thanks for the info! I think I heard something this morning on my local all news radio.The report said that after 14 years,congress has approved a monument for Mason somewhere near the Jefferson memorial.Now,if they can do that for Mason,why in the world can't they do it for Adams?!

[Lady In Blue]

He sounds great! It's too bad that his course wasn't taped.I bet he could have made mucho bucks on it!

[dvwjr]

We needed a Constitution and so, while he was still overseas, it was modeled after the one Adams had written for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

From what I've read about the Constitutional Convention, this is not exactly so. Anyone else think any differently?

[blackie]

No, I haven't read the book...

[CougarGA7]

Its good to see someone standing up for John Adams. I'm a direct decendent of his. I didn't know about this book but I will go out and buy it today. One of the stories my father told me was of a bet that John Adams had with Thomas Jefferson. They made a bet on who would live longer. When John Adams uttered his last words, "Thomas Jefferson survives" he did not know that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier in Virginia. Both of them died on Independence Day in 1826. John Adams had won the bet but never knew it.

[Lady In Blue]

You're a direct descendant of John Adams?! That's wonderful.Do you have any of his features? I used to work with a lady who was a descendant of his on her mother's side.The picture of him on the cover is a famous painting.And boy,when I first saw it,I couldn't believe the similiarity in all of the features,even the color of the eyes,shape of the brow and the facial bone structure.You're very fortunate to be a descendant of such a great man.If you have a mind to,please contact your congressman and senators and ask them to start the process for a national monument.Thanks.

[Charles Henrickson]

Our family listened to the audio version of the book last summer on our way out to Williamsburg and D.C. for vacation. Adams truly has to rank up there with the most important of our Founding Fathers. And he was so smart!

McCullough does a fine job in writing this book, and he himself is an excellent speaker. I heard him speak here in St. Louis last June, on Adams. I had heard him also give a talk here a couple of years earlier. A wise man. And a great voice, too.

[Lady In Blue]

I agree with you on all points.I heard McCullough on C-Span during the first National Book club festival last year and he was great! I wish that I could go to Quincy,Mass.to Adams cript.I was reading some of the reviews,from regular folks,on Amazon.com the other day.One review was particularly moving to me.A guy was so moved and impressed with President Adams after reading the book that he made a pilgrimage to Quincy.He said that when he got inside,he placed his hand on John Adams cript and said:"Howdy-do,thank you."

[Lady In Blue]

I guess I should have searched first before I went on my crusade for a monument to John Adams.I just did and this is what I came up with:

Statement on Adams Memorial  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 12, 2001	CONTACT:  Jim Zoia (202) 225-6065
Remarks of Rep. Nick Rahall Ranking Democrat Committee on Resources  June 12, 2001
As this bill’s language points out, somewhere along the way, we lost sight of the extraordinary national contributions of John Adams and those of his wife Abigail and their offspring.  Among the gleaming marble facades of our presidential constellation along our  national mall, among the many sites where we pay homage to individuals throughout America’s history here in our Nation’s Capital, there is a void, an Adams void,  that should be filled.  I want to thank historians Joseph J. Ellis and David McCullough for being here today to make the case for an Adams Memorial, and also for reigniting interest in the life and legacy of John Adams and his family.  I am pleased to take this opportunity to reinforce their message with some other voices from our history.  Though we as a Nation are reacquainting ourselves with the Adams family, primarily thanks to the two gentlemen testifying today, near and at the end of John Adams’ life, Adams was remembered  along side the other founders as part and parcel to their ultimate success.  Former Librarian of Congress  Daniel Boorstin has highlighted for me a passage in a letter Thomas Jefferson sent Adams recalling the joint efforts of the two old revolutionaries, “We were fellow-laborers in the same cause... Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead, threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port... and so we have gone on, and shall go on puzzled and prospering beyond example in the history of man.”  In 1826, Daniel Webster commemorating the lives of Adams and  Jefferson on their demise, placed them side by side.  Webster proclaimed, “They live in their example: and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their own country but throughout the civilized world.”   “A truly great man,” Webster continued, “is no temporary flame.”   Rather he concluded it is “a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to rekindle the common mass of human kind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire from the potent contact of its own spirit.”  It is time we reignited the flame of Adams genius and work.  Our flint and steel will be an interpretive memorial for generations to visit, perpetually sparking their curiosities of this great American, John Adams, and his family.  Joseph Ellis has called Adams, “the supreme political realist of the revolutionary generation” and cautions, “Adams tells us what we need to know.  Perhaps now, and only now, are we prepared to listen.”   David  McCullough reminds us of Adams’ clarity and vision for America’s tomorrow,  when upon the fiftieth anniversary of our independence Adams chose precisely two words:   Independence forever!   As an American, and as the Ranking Democrat of the House Resources Committee,  I can only humbly add to the efforts to create an Adams Memorial two words: Build it.
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[Lady In Blue]

Roll Call: Opinion

June 14, 2001

Honor Adams

Washington is monument city, crowded with large and small memorials to our greatest presidents, many Civil War generals, the wars America has fought and even some poets. What's missing is recognition for founding father John Adams, America's second president, but we're pleased that attention is now being paid via a House bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) and a Senate measure by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Attention to Adams - long overdue - has been stimulated by two new books by distinguished historians David McCullough and Joseph Ellis, who testified this week along with Roemer before the House Resources subcommittee on national parks and public lands. Roemer's bill would create a monument honoring not only Adams but his wife, Abigail, one of America's most accomplished first ladies; their son, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president; and other members of a family distinguished for its public and academic service.

As with the World War II Memorial, a controversy has arisen over the placement of the Adams monument. Roemer said it should be on the Tidal Basin between the monuments to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. That's certainly fitting historically, but three federal commissions have voted to ban new monuments in that vicinity. The Fine Arts Commission, the National Capital Memorial Commission and the National Capital Planning Commission jointly agreed last year to block additional construction in that area of the Mall because they judged that too many structures were being erected there.

This judgment has to be ratified by Congress, however. The Senate passed the ban last year, but the House didn't. Commission members interviewed by The Washington Post said this week that they are not prepared to make an exception for John Adams. One person who serves on two of the commissions, John Parsons of the National Park Service, said, "The relationship between Jefferson and Adams is so strong, we will have to find a site relative to each; but not on the Tidal Basin." That might be an opening for a location near the Tidal Basin, but not on it.

We hope that Congress will indeed honor the Adams family. But Congress should also let the various commissions do their work before rushing to judgment about where an Adams memorial should go. People were in such a hurry to honor "the greatest generation" that Congress stepped in to decree approval for an architecturally undistinguished World War II Memorial that would be planted in the wrong place. The Adamses deserve an elegant memorial honoring their wisdom and service.

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[Paulus Invictus]

You are absolutley correct! The tasteless monument to FDR was pushed through by the RATs. In my estimation FDR did not come close to comparing with John Adams as a great leader. The biography of Adams was one of the best I've ever read about a president. He was a giant and deserves our gratitude and the praise of the nation.

[Lady In Blue]

All I can say blackie is that it is a real treat.My eyes are getting so weak that if I had thought about it,I would have bought the audio.I use to love listening to audios when I was commuting to work and back. It's really a great read.