John Adams: The Most Conservative of Founding Fathers

The New American ^ | 04 July 2013 | Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.

[VitacoreVision]

There is no one among America's Founding Fathers who provides as articulate and discerning a vision of genuinely conservative thought as John Adams.

John Adams: The Most Conservative of Founding Fathers

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D. | The New American
04 July 2013

As Russell Kirk suggests in his classic, The Conservative Mind, there is no one among America’s Founding Fathers who provides as articulate and discerning a vision of genuinely conservative thought as John Adams.

Adams was a man of great learning and genius. He also is among the most prolific political authors that the United States ever produced. Kirk says that his "body of political thought exceeds, both in bulk and in penetration, any other work on government by an American." Yet uniting his voluminous writings are certain characteristically conservative themes.

Regarding the egalitarian’s dream regarding “the natural equality” of all human beings, Adams is dismissive. In a letter to his friend, turned adversary, turned friend again, Thomas Jefferson, Adams is blunt: “Jus cuique, the golden rule, is all the equality that can be supported or defended by reason or common sense.”

In his correspondence with John Taylor, Adams writes: “That all men are born to equal rights is clear. Every being has a right to his own, as moral, as sacred, as any other has. This,” he says, “is as indubitable as a moral government in the universe.” However, as for the egalitarian fiction that was taking his world by storm, “for honor’s sake,” and “for truth and virtue’s sake, let American philosophers and politicians despise it.”

Adams remarks: “But to teach that all men are born with equal powers and faculties, to equal influence in society, to equal property and advantages through life, is as gross a fraud, as glaring an imposition on the credulity of the people, as ever was practiced by monks, by Druids, by Brahmins, by priests of the immortal Lama, or by the self-styled philosophers of the French Revolution.”

The egalitarianism of his contemporaries is an “ideology.” For Adams, this meant that it is “the science of Idiocy.” Moreover, it is “a very profound, abstruse, and mysterious science” that yields no “discoveries” and “no bottom.” The ideology of egalitarianism is “the bathos, the theory, the art, the skill of diving and sinking in government.” It is what’s “taught in the school of folly,” “the academy” of which, along with several prominent French thinkers, such notable defenders of the American Revolution as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine “were the great masters.”

Adams warns his American and French contemporaries that “amid all their exultations,” these utopians would be well served to recognize that “the perfectibility of man is only human and terrestrial perfectibility.” Their best efforts will never change the fact that “cold will still freeze and fire will never cease to burn; disease and vice will continue to disorder, and death to terrify mankind.” Human beings are motivated by “self-preservation” and “emulation.” Adams adds that only “the balance of a well-ordered government will .... be able to prevent” the latter “from degenerating into dangerous ambition, irregular rivalries, destructive factions, wasting seditions, and bloody wars.”

However, even if the human perfectibility of the egalitarian dreamers was possible, it wouldn’t be desirable. “Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart; it compels them to rouse their reason, to assert its empire over their passions, propensities, and prejudices, to elevate them to a superiority over all human events.” Adams concludes that “in short,” grief makes human beings into “stoics and Christians.”

Particularly in our day, when it has become second nature for Americans, including self-described “conservatives,” to turn to their government to satisfy their material needs and desires, Adams’ individuality is a tough pill to swallow. But it is true. Just as importantly, he knew that grief, in conjunction with “the balance of a well-ordered government” — a government comprised of “a balance of power,” as Adam described it — is necessary for the preservation of liberty.

“The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition. We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.” The love for liberty is no “more rational, generous, or social, in one” man than in another “until in man it is enlightened by experience, reflection, education, and civil and political institutions.”

Liberty is not an abstraction, Adams knew, but a culturally-specific good dependent upon institutional arrangements and moral tradition.

This Independence Day, let us recall the largely lost wisdom of the man who probably is the most conservative of the Founding Fathers.

[SunkenCiv]

John Adams did one thing which was indispensible — he followed George Washington. Being who he was, Adams snarked and sniped about Washington in at least one of his letters to Abigail.

He also was attorney for the British soldiers who fired during the Boston Massacre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre#Trials

Alien and Sedition Acts
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/adams-passes-first-of-alien-and-sedition-acts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts
https://www.google.com/search?q=Alien%20and%20Sedition%20Acts

[.45 Long Colt]

Thanks for posting this. Adams was a great man. It is a real shame he was a Unitarian.

[VitacoreVision]

Yes, one down fall of John Adams was the “Alien and Sedition Act,” but you also had people who aligned themselves with the French Jacobins who were threatening a French-style Bloody Revolution in America.

Wikipedia: Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794), also known simply as The Terror (French: la Terreur), was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of “enemies of the revolution”. The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris), and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.

[gorush]

He may have fought for the Revolution as a conservative, he ruled as a liberal. (Alien and Sedition Acts)

[VitacoreVision]

Quote: He may have fought for the Revolution as a conservative, he ruled as a liberal. (Alien and Sedition Acts)

Actually, the "Alien and Sedition Acts" were targeting the Liberals of his day: the French Jacobins in America.

[A Navy Vet]

Amongst others of the time, Adams was a brilliant focused man. Adams because of his passionate hot-headness and Jefferson because of his cool may have been at odds sometimes regarding Federalism, but they were friends and recognized the need for the Bill of Rights.

One of the cable channels just replayed the series, "John Adams" on the 4th. My wife and I followed the original broadcast closely with our pocket Constitution in hand, along with the laptop to verify his journal, publications, and private letters. It was the best interpretation I've seen as how the Revolution came about and his part in it.

If you want a somewhat historical account of why and how the colonists rebelled against The Crown of England, this is as good as any, even with some dramatic license.

I wonder how many know that he and his comrade in later years, died on the same day on Independence Day, the 4th, 1826. I'm not a fatalist, but you have to admit what a coincidence for our two most influential politicians at the time to die within 5 hours apart.

As for George Washington, he was a soldier and following orders and did his job in an exemplary fashion and pretty much won the war. But he didn't start the fight, he simply accepted the request to lead the Continental Army.

The lead politicians at the time were: Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Jay, Washington to a lessor extent, and Hamilton. Of course there were many more like Patrick Henry, John Dickinson, Samuel Adams, John Hancock et al, who were more outspoken during the first Continental Convention than other delegates. Sure there's some great stories there.

But the first 7 made our nation happen against even some delegates who still wanted to continue to negotiate with the Crown. Remember, it wasn't unanimous. Some didn't want to risk there life and livelihood against England, others just didn't care that much.

Feel free to correct the above if I'm wrong. It's been awhile.

[mjp]

Regarding the egalitarian’s dream regarding “the natural equality” of all human beings, Adams is dismissive.

A division of labor society is necessary for economic progress, which is necessary for increasing prosperity. The division of labor society depends on the institution of economic equality, insofar as the latter results from the process of economic competition.

[edcoil]

I took a test once and it asked who are the Three people you would like to meet.

I said

John Adams
Dr. Arm and Hammer
Ross Perot

For John Adams, he took on the most powerful man of his time, Ben Franklin over the logo the the new USA, Adams wanted an Eagle and Franklin wanted the Turkey.

Adams won and we have the Bald Eagle.

[gorush]

True, but unconstitutionally so. He also was a big supporter of the federal bank, a Hamiltonian liberal.

[mjp]

correction:

Regarding the egalitarian’s dream regarding “the natural equality” of all human beings, Adams is dismissive.

A division of labor society is necessary for economic progress, which is necessary for increasing prosperity. The division of labor society depends on the institution of economic inequality, insofar as the latter results from the process of economic competition.

[gorush]

I think John Quincy Adams the more the interesting...and his pal Charles Dickens. To fill out my trio maybe Ayn Rand or Issac Newton.

[VitacoreVision]

John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." These words are very true. When viewing the French Jacobins, they rejected morality and religion. When you reject morality, freedom and liberty are destroyed.

[gorush]

Two of the first seven Presidents served only one term and they were both named Adams.

[A Navy Vet]

"John Adams did one thing which was indispensible — he followed George Washington. Being who he was, Adams snarked and sniped about Washington in at least one of his letters to Abigail."

Being the passionate hot-head that was Adams, he probably sniped more that once. I remember he got peeved at Franklin when he went to France to see how Franklin's negotiations were advancing for French support. Franklin was a celebrity there, and Adams being the pragmatist had little patience for the French Court and Franklin's refined diplomacy. History shows that Franklin won out because of the French fleet showing up at Yorktown, which ended the war.

"He also was attorney for the British soldiers who fired during the Boston Massacre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre#Trials"

Yes, most people don't know that Adams was a loyalist at first. It took some time, but after enough abuses by the Crown, he found his way to be one of the most outspoken delegates for revolt. Not sure, but I think it was Lexington or Concord that changed his mind.

Does the above make me one of those ultra-patriots that the DHS and ABC agencies think I'm a domestic problem? If so, I don't care any longer. I'm 63 and know what made this the greatest example of individual freedom the world has ever seen. And I also know what our politicians are doing to diminish that.

Screw socialism, communism, totalitarianism and every one who believes in such systems that never work. Oh, and screw Bambi for supporting the above. Egypt has had their fill of Islamic totalitarianism and threw out their Muslim Brotherhood supporting president. Wish we would do the same.

[tacticalogic]

Having read some of the writings of both, I can imagine Adams and Paine had some serious differences of opinion on religion, too.

[Maelstorm]

I never saw John Adams as a “conservative” at least in my research of him as the President he became. He struck me as very much an individual bent on expanding federal power. He like most Presidents had his strengths and weaknesses and for some their strengths were their weaknesses. Thomas Jefferson’s reluctance to utilize his position to strengthen the very principles of limited government he believed left the door open for great expanses that could’ve been cauterized before they had a chance to grow.

John Adams struck me as less prone to anger version of Alexander Hamilton though they hated each other interestingly enough. Forgive me my incredulity but I no more find Adams a model of conservatism than I do Teddy Roosevelt though I respect them both they both were about growing Federal power in ways that were not conservative or constitutional at all.

[skeeter]

I saw the HBO series as well. Excellent presentation.

[TBP]

The Alien and Sedition Acts were his downfall.

[TBP]

However, even if the human perfectibility of the egalitarian dreamers was possible, it wouldn't be desirable.

"If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be." -- Yogi Berra

I've long said that if the left ever achieved their utopia, they would be the ones to suffer most. No one would need them, no one would be dependent on them, and there would be no place for their controlling mentality. they'd have no work to do and no job to perform. They might be able to flip burgers in their utopia. Maybe.