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Vice President John Adams and the US government faced a turbulent
world of rebellion in this volume of the Papers of John Adams,
which chronicles the period from March 1791 to January 1797. The
grim shadow of the French Revolution and the whirlwind of a massive
European war left political leaders like Adams struggling to uphold
the young nation's neutrality. "I Suffer inexpressible Pains, from
the bloody feats of War and Still more from those of Party
Passions," he observed. With the federal system newly in place,
fresh challenges crept in on all sides. Adams and his colleagues
sought to bolster the government against the effects of the Whiskey
Rebellion, a seething partisan press, a brutal yellow fever
epidemic in Philadelphia, and violent clashes with Native peoples
on the Ohio frontier. Working with George Washington and an
increasingly fractious cabinet, Adams approached a set of issues
that defined US foreign policy for decades to come, including the
negotiation, ratification, and funding of the controversial Jay
Treaty, as well as the awkward cultivation of ties with France.
Revealing exchanges to Adams from son John Quincy, a junior
statesman who sent rich reports from war-torn Europe, underline the
family's enduring commitment to public service. Pausing on the cusp
of his presidency, John Adams amplified his lifelong dedication to
sustaining democracy, amid bouts of internal and external crisis:
"I am happy that it has fallen to my share to do some thing towards
setting the Machine in motion," he wrote.
John and Abigail Adams remained fully engaged in American political
life after they left Washington, DC, for retirement in Quincy. A
highlight of Volume 15 of Adams Family Correspondence is a series
of letters between Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson that debated
fundamental questions of the nation’s tumultuous early years. A
new generation rose in prominence in the period covered in the
volume, with John Quincy Adams returning from abroad to take a seat
in the United States Senate just in time to break with the
Federalists and support the Louisiana Purchase. The family
commented on other events of the era—Jefferson’s dismantling of
John Adams’s judicial reforms, the mobilization of the US Navy
for the Barbary wars, the growing bane of British impressment, and
the duel that killed Alexander Hamilton. Equally compelling family
stories emerge in the volume’s 251 letters. The failure of a
British banking firm proved calamitous to the family’s finances,
compelling John Quincy to quietly finance his parents’
retirement. Thomas Boylston Adams, acting as an occasional editor
of the Port Folio, carved out his public persona as a man of
letters. Louisa Catherine Adams wrote of motherhood and adjusting
to a new country of residence while providing a spirited
perspective on Washington society. As always, the heart of Adams
Family Correspondence is Abigail Adams, who survived a near-fatal
fall to continue providing letters of insight and wit that once
again show why the correspondence of the Adams family is a national
treasure.
John Adams's shaping of the vice presidency dominates this volume
of the Papers of John Adams, which chronicles a formative era in
American government spanning June 1789 to February 1791. As the
first federal Congress struggled to interpret the US Constitution
and implement a new economic framework, Adams held fast to
federalist principles and staked out boundaries for his executive
powers. Meeting in New York City, Adams and his colleagues warred
over how to collect revenue and where to locate the federal seat.
They established and staffed the departments of state, treasury,
and war. Adams focused on presiding over the Senate, where he broke
several ties. Enduring the daily grind of politics, he lauded the
"National Spirit" of his fellow citizens and pledged to continue
laboring for the needs of the American people. "If I did not love
them now, I would not Serve them another hour-for I very well know
that Vexation and Chagrine, must be my Portion, every moment I
shall continue in public Life," Adams wrote. He plunged back into
writing, using his Discourses on Davila to synthesize national
progress with republican history. Whether or not the union would
hold, as regional interests impeded congressional action, remained
Adams's chief concern. "There is every Evidence of good Intentions
on all sides but there are too many Symptoms of old Colonial
Habits: and too few, of great national Views," he observed. Once
again, John Adams's frank letters reveal firsthand the labor of
nation-building in an age of constitutions.
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Papers of John Adams, Volume 19 (Hardcover)
John Adams; Edited by Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda Mathews Norton, …
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"Huzza for the new World and farewell to the Old One," John Adams
wrote in late 1787, wrapping up a decade's worth of diplomatic
service in Europe. Volume 19 of the Papers of John Adams chronicles
Adams's last duties in London and The Hague. In the twenty-eight
months documented here, he petitioned the British ministry to halt
impressment of American sailors, toured the English countryside,
and observed parliamentary politics. Adams salvaged U.S. credit by
contracting two new Dutch loans amid the political chaos triggered
by William V's resurgence. Correspondents like Thomas Jefferson and
the Marquis de Lafayette mulled over the Anglo-American trade war
that followed the Revolution and reported on the French Assembly of
Notables-topics that Adams commented on with trademark candor. He
wrote the final two volumes of his work, A Defence of the
Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Adams
yearned to return home and see the American republic take shape.
"For a Man who has been thirty Years rolling like a stone," Adams
wrote, the choice was whether to "set down in private Life to his
Plough; or push into turbulent scenes of Sedition and Tumult;
whether be sent to Congress, or a Convention or God knows what."
Back on his native soil of Massachusetts in June 1788, Adams
settled into rural retirement with wife Abigail and watched the
U.S. Constitution's ratification evolve. By volume's end, John
Adams again resumes public life, ready to serve as America's first
vice president.
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