John Adams – The Unsung President

President Adams was not just a one term President who should be skipped by in history books and great discussions on our way from Washington to Jefferson. I do not always agree with Adam’s view of the role of government, but he was a true patriot and statesman as well as a loving husband and father and should be memorialized in grand fashion.
John Adams was very instrumental in the birth of our nation. He was a bright mind and a loyal diplomat to France and the Netherlands. At the early tension prior to the Revolution, Adams successfully defended the British soldiers that were involved in the “Boston Massacre” (as it was called by Samuel Adams.) John Adams did what was right rather than what was popular and that is reflected time and time again in the course of his service to his country and during his presidency. He was successful in keeping our newly born country out of a war between France and England, which I argue may have torn our young country apart. His actions were not rewarded because the votes for his second term were already cast when the news of the treaty was announced in the states. By that time Mr. Adams had been told that he would retire as a private citizen to his home, Peace Field in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Adams, more often than not, placed duty before his family. He spent many years away from both his wife and children and yet to read his letters, one learns that he loved them all dearly and they were never far from his thoughts. Adams wrote regularly and in more than one letter to his “Dearest Friend” Abigail, he lamented that he had not the time to write more. He was in fact a harsh taskmaster to his children, but it was out of love and a desire to see them come to be their best. He had very high aspirations for each of them. In today’s society children are often raised at the other end of the spectrum, coddled to a fault.
It is time that President John Adams was recognized with a memorial the likes of Washington and Jefferson. It must be on a grand scale as we seek to celebrate the life and service of an ardent patriot.

"Our obligations to our country never ceases but with our lives."
John Adams, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1808