The Legacy of the 2nd President of the United States John Adams

India Insight with Sunny Sharma

John Adams was the most consequential leader and figure when it came to the success and objectives of the American Revolution. Adams spent much of the years 1780-1789 abroad. He helped to conclude the post-war peace treaty with Great Britain, was a Diplomat to Holland and France, and served as the first United States Ambassador to Great Britain.
The Constitution of 1780, drafted by John Adams, is the oldest written constitution in the world still in effect. This Constitution, primarily drafted by John Adams, contains a written Declaration (Bill) of Rights and a Frame of Government modeled after the one articulated in Thoughts on Government. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 was the primary model for the United States Constitution and the many other subsequent national constitutions that have relied on American government as a model and it is a fitting tribute to the genius of John Adams.
The successful transfer of power was made on 4 March 1797. Adams’ presidency was fraught with difficulties: The Quasi War with France, the XYZ Affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. American political parties were just taking shape, but Adams was not a party man.
Adams's experiences in the Boston Massacre court case in which he represented 9 British soldiers would guide him as he developed and articulated his philosophy of a government based on the rule of law rather than the rule of individuals.
John Adams concluded in the Boston Massacre court case:
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence . . . . [The law] commands that which is good, and punishes evil in all, whether rich, or poor, high, or low. . . . On the one hand [the law] is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder, to the clamors of the populace."
In imagining an ideal judiciary Adams believed that judges should be non-partisan, wise and independent. His wife Abigail Adams, who was in constant correspondence with John Adams through letters, was characteristically progressive for her time period always telling her husband to "Remember the Ladies" even at the Constitutional Conventions.
Abigail Adams famously writes in her letter to John Adams:

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies. . . . If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
Some of John Adams Best Quotes which I highlight in the podcast:
1. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

2. I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
3. Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
4. Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
5. Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
I encourage my audience to read more about the precedence in government established by John Adams as well as watch the HBO series called "John Adams" to learn more about one of the most eminent leaders and ambassadors of the American Revolution and the nation.