250 and Counting

Category: John Adams

  • John Adams’ Rebuttal–April 14, 1776

    Cover art for April 14, 1776: a detail from Abigail Adams' "remember the ladies" letter. via Massachusetts Historical Society.

    When Abigail Adams wrote her “remember the ladies” letter on March 31, she wasn’t just filling the page with anything that came into her head. Abigail Adams was quite intelligent and John treated her as an intellectual equal, seeking out her counsel on many matters. This in an era in which such things are rare. (And shame on us for giving it short shrift.)

    This also means that John’s reply, which Mike talks about today, was in earnest, if it was a little naïve in retrospect.

    Mike also mentions that he and I were at the Massachusetts Historical Society last week, which is true, and we hope to have some material to share with you over the next few weeks. In addition, we shot a bunch of video which will need some editing, after which we’ll give you our tour of Old Boston. Or maybe Mike’s tour; I don’t appear on camera at all. Try to live with that disappointment.

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  • Notes From All Over–April 11, 1776

    Cover art for April 11, 1776: Detail of the April 11 letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams. via Massachusetts Historical Society.

    While there were a lot of smaller things going on on this day in 1776, there are typically multiple things going on for any given day. We often have to make choices regarding what we’re going to concentrate on, and don’t think we don’t feel a twinge of regret when we spot something else that happened on thus-and-such a date and had a moment of “Man, I wish we’d done that one.”

    So today we were fortunate in that there were several smaller items going on, but we didn’t have to use up a lot of audio real estate to cover all of them. It’s nice to have the luxury of telling all the stories you’ve got for a day.

    Incidentally: Mike and I are in Boston this week, absorbing history, interviewing people and shooting video for you to enjoy in a few weeks when we’ve finished editing it. It’s an extra dimension to the show that we hope you’ll enjoy.

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  • A New Job For John Adams–February 9, 1776

    Cover art for February 9, 1776: John Adams as portrayed by Mather Brown in 1788.

    One of John Adams’ stronger talents was being able to see the motivation behind the action, and because of this he was usually able to thwart unattractive actions somehow.

    In today’s case, he was able to thwart people who opposed him by simply agreeing with them. As a newly-minted Chief Justice of Massachusetts, some Loyalist (if not Loyalist, then certainly in the Don’t Declare Independence crowd) delegates from Maryland suggested that because he worked for Massachusetts, he had an inherent conflict of interest and therefore couldn’t vote in Congress.

    Now, at that time a colony’s quorum was exactly one delegate, so if he was the only person from Massachusetts attending that day, Massachusetts wouldn’t be able to cast a vote. So, Adams did the sensible thing and agreed with the Marylanders. Then he resigned from the position they thought he’d never give up.

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  • Sam Adams Also Has Concerns–January 15, 1776

    Cover art for January 15, 1776: Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
    Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

    Samuel Adams made a point of telling his second cousin John Adams that he didn’t have a lot of time to write. Then he cranked out 570 words of worries about the language in the New Hampshire constitution, which had been ratified ten days earlier.

    Then the next day he tacked on another 250 words. If he’d typed all 820 words out, it would be about three pages (double-spaced). The script for this episode is 219 words; even when Adams was in a hurry he was verbose.

    But Samuel Adams kinda-sorta had a point, in that the New Hampshire constitution hedged its bets a little bit. Clearly he had this in mind when he worked on the original Articles of Confederation (the document that preceded the US Constitution), and when he joined the Constitutional Convention for Massachusetts a couple of years later.

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  • Happy Birthday To The US Marines!–November 10, 1775

    Cover art for November 10, 1775: the US Marine Corps' 2008 Birthday celebration at Camp LeJeune. Courtesy of the US Marines. (USMC photo, ID 674; VRIN #081107-M-3189M-001.jpg)

    The United States Marine Corps celebrates its birthday every year on this day, usually with a ball (the dancing kind) and a cake-cutting ceremony. The cover art today is from their 233rd birthday celebration.

    Until 1921, the Marines marked the occasion on July 11, which was the date of the re-establishment of the Corps, since they were disbanded after the Revolution. But John Adams (again) came to the rescue and signed an act to re-organize the Corps. However, July 11 didn’t get a lot of attention. But when Commandant John Lejeune (the guy after whom the camp was named) was asked to draft an order to celebrate the Corps, he wrote Marine Corps Order 47, establishing the original November 10 date as the Marines’ birthday.

    Also, for what it’s worth, the “halls of Montezuma” refers to Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City (left). So yes, it really is a thing, and it’s still standing.

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  • Congress Gets Bad News–November 1, 1775

    Cover art for November 1, 1775: Page 1 of the Olive Branch Petition (detail). Via Library of Congress.

    In July 1775, there were still several delegates to the Second Continental Congress who thought that reconciliation with Britain was a possibility. There were a few others who may not have necessarily been of that opinion, but were willing to take a chance. Some of these men, led by John Dickinson, formed a committee to draft what’s come to be known as the Olive Branch Petition. The intent was to continue pledging loyalty to the King, but to simultaneously ask for some equitability in trade and tax regulations.

    The document asked for a firm settlement to the Colonies’ grievances, and identified all of the colonies as signatories except Georgia. The only reason Georgia wasn’t named is because they only had one delegate at the time, and he wasn’t comfortable with speaking for the entire colony. Consequently, he abstained from many votes.

    It was on this day that Congress learned what King George III had to say back in August regarding the Olive Branch Petition.

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  • Saltpeter, John–October 21, 1775

    Cover art for October 21, 1775: Portrait of John Adams by Benjamin Blyth, 1766

    The Second Continental Congress was having a busy week, with the worries about the trade embargo going on, and whether ships from other nations could get in/out safely.

    And John Adams was worried, too–worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demand for gunpowder for the soldiers. One of the components of gunpowder is saltpeter, and while it isn’t hard to make, it’s certainly easier to let someone else make it and then pay them for their efforts. Fortunately, help arrived in the form of a “recipe” for saltpeter published in a local newspaper.

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  • James Warren Likes Privateers–October 20, 1775

    Cover art for October 20, 1775: James Warren by John Singleton Copley - ABC Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons

    In the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Falmouth (then Massachusetts, now Maine), naturally there was a great deal of concern when it came to defending our shores from the British Navy.

    After all, the Brits had the most powerful navy in the the world, and the Americans…well, they’d barely gotten started putting theirs together. A couple of the colonies had started their own navies, but we had a long way to go.

    James Warren, in his capacity as a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, wrote a letter to John Adams outlining his concerns, and coming up with solutions until we could get our Navy into good fighting shape.

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  • October 1, 1775: The Adams Family Letters

    Cover art for October 1, 1775: Page 1 of the letter Abigail Adams sent to John on this date. (Blurred to keep the MHS off our tails.)

    We have two fun events for you today: first up, North Carolina reaches an important deadline it had set back in August.

    Then, by sheer coincidence, John and Abigail Adams each wrote a letter to the other. Of course, they wrote to one another quite frequently, so this probably happened more often than you’d think. But remember also that any news they received was probably two weeks old by the time the letter landed in their hands.

    I will close today’s notes with an amusing anecdote that John Adams used to close his letter. He wrote:

    A few days ago, in Company with Dr. Zubly, somebody said, there was nobody on our side but the Almighty. The Dr. who is a Native of Switzerland, and speaks but broken English, quickly replied “Dat is enough.—Dat is enough,” and turning to me, says he, it puts me in mind of a fellow who once said, The Catholicks have on their side the Pope, and the K[ing] of France and the K. of Spain, and the K. of Sardinia, and the K. of Poland and the Emperor of Germany &c. &c. &c. But as to them poor Devils the Protestants, they have nothing on their side but God Almighty.

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  • August 25, 1775: Eyewitness To The News

    Cover art for August 25, 1775: Detail of the second page of the letter that William Prescott wrote to John Adams.

    Today we take a look at two letters composed today:

    The first was an account of the activities around the Battle of Bunker Hill, from the time they were assigned to protect the hill, to the time they were finally defeated by the British—because they were out of ammunition.

    In the other letter, Thomas Jefferson composes a letter to a fellow Virginia politician in which he writes very specific prose, knowing that sooner or later it will fall into British hands. The intent was that the letter go public and let people who weren’t politicians that their leaders might not be telling the whole truth.

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