Posted on 07/02/2011 6:59:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
When President Obama ponders tough decisions at the White House, he may join the cadre of presidents who have sought inspiration in the Truman Balcony’s stunning vista, gazing at the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, which commemorate our first and third commanders in chief. But there’s a man missing from this presidential panorama.
Where is John Adams, our feisty second president and lifelong American patriot? If George Washington was the sword of the revolution and Thomas Jefferson the pen, why have we neglected the voice of our nation’s independence?
Adams himself predicted this omission. “Monuments will never be erected to me . Romances will never be written, nor flattering orations spoken, to transmit me to posterity in brilliant colors,” he wrote in 1819, nearly two decades after his single term in office. At his farm in Quincy, Mass., Adams worried that he would be forgotten by history, and for good reason: The temperamental Yankee could never outshine Washington and Jefferson, Virginia’s two-term presidential all-stars — one a brilliant general unanimously chosen to lead the nation, the other the eloquent author of the Declaration of Independence.
SNIP
What’s the case for Adams? Before the revolution, he was the nation’s first attendant to the American legal tradition of due process, defending British soldiers who fired on colonists during the Boston Massacre. One of Massachusetts’s representatives to the First and Second Continental Congresses, Adams was a champion of separation from England and the fiercest advocate of Jefferson’s declaration. Without his persuasive speeches in the Philadelphia chamber, the document wouldn’t have been signed. While Jefferson was silent during what he considered the convention’s editorial debasement of his work, Adams defended every clause, including an excised call for the abolition of slavery. Jefferson called Adams “a colossus on the floor” of the Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think every American in their heart believes what you have written. It was a miracle.
Heck yeah! Schools should be showing that instead of "An Inconvenient Truth", but I guess that will never happen...
His principles were wonderful. As you say; visionary.
I love his quotes.
How about this one:
“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
or this one:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
Or one just for this weekend, that he wrote on the 2nd, the very day the declaration was brought forth:
...”The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. —
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”
Plus I remember the musical, “1776” amd the John Adams charactor did so much singing some very wonderful musical sections.
What revolution, save the American revolution, ended up being for the better? I can’t think of any.
The WaPost thnks up another thing to spend money on
From the Broadway musical “1776”, “Is Anybody There”, Brett Spinner as John Adams.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAmb9Funbz0
none. and that is a good point. ours was a conservative revolution, intended to preserve the ancient rights of englishmen.
Adams doesn’t have a memorial because he was not personally likeable. He was instrumental in the founding but nobody was going to bat for him with his caustic personality. I think if he was a likeable chum, he would also have a memorial, but he was just not the kind people warmed up to.
The Alien and Sedition acts seem to reveal his vindictive nature. He didn’t listen to his advisors. He didn’t keep a civil tongue. He could be abrasive.
That’s my take on it, but of course I could be completely wrong.
I beg to differ. Hamilton never saw a government institution he didn’t like. Hamilton WAS big government, far more than Adams was. Far more.
But have you read his letters to his wife?
Because he was obnoxious and disliked.
Have you been to Mr. Rushmore. I’ve been there and if I recall correctly reading the background material from the architect, Gutzon Borglum, the real reason he chose Roosevelt was for the challenge of making his glasses. I kid you not. At least that is what the literature at Mt. Rushmore stated, again, if I remember correctly.
What he said the 4 presidents represent are:
Washington created the nation (the Father of our Country)
Jefferson expanded the nation (Louisiana Purchase & Lewis & Clark)
Lincoln preserved the nation
Teddy Roosevelt conserved the nation (established the National Park system)
But the reason I recall reading for putting Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore was for the challenge of carving his glasses. Call this “urban legend” if nobody else confirms it.
That said, Madison should have been there instead of Roosevelt, the Father of our Constitution. But then, Teddy has a much more manly face, so there you have it.
I would consider his biography by David McCullough to be one hell of a tribute.
“It is a little off the topic but I have never believed, and will never believe, that Jefferson and Adams both dying on the 50th anniversary of The Declaration was anything but the hand of God.”
Hmmm...never thought of this before. You might be onto something.
Napoleon eventually disliked the French Constitution he wrote, the “Code Napoleon”. He said it was too rigid and not adaptable enough. In time, he came to really appreciate the US constitution and thought it was superior to what he wrote.
He briefly flirted with the idea of escaping from Elba to America. He had a huge number of supporters urging him to do so. It would have prolonged his life and I have no doubt he would have been very politically active in the USA. I’ll always wonder if he would have run for Senate or become a state Governor. He was a brilliant politician and brilliant at the functions of government, and I can only wonder what he would have accomplished as an American citizen.
The thing is, he liked America, but he loved France. He and France were one and the same. Emotionally, he had no choice but to return to France.
I figure you go back far enough I am descended from Charlemagne. After all there were only about 200 million people back then, he has a lot of descendants.
Ping
John Adams defeated and then was defeated by Democrat Thomas Jefferson. His son defeated and then was defeated by Andrew Jackson. This earned them the eternal emnity of Democrats.
Uh, we don’t build memorials to lawyers.
See Shakespeare.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.