 Book Reviews John Adams By David McCulloch Reviewed by John H. Adams October 2001 |
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“I believe it is religion, without which they would have been rakes, fops, sots, gamblers, starved with hunger, or frozen with cold, scalped by Indians, etc., etc., etc., been melted away and disappeared.” Adams, a devout Christian of Puritan stock, himself never disappeared, although most historians stuck him in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson. Now, though, Adams reappears larger than life – and larger than Jefferson – in David McCulloch’s powerful biography. Long before he finished the text, McCulloch revealed his original plan – to write of both Adams and Jefferson, two entirely different men, and treat them equally. But, for McCulloch, Adams emerged the larger figure; thus, the book is simply John Adams. Pudgy farmer human and heroic This documentary study of Adams’ career – including excerpts from previously unpublished letters to and from his wife Abigail – makes human and heroic a short, pudgy Braintree, Mass., farmer who was the political overseer for the Declaration of Independence; briefly, director of the Revolutionary war effort; of dire necessity, emissary to Europe to raise money for the war effort; the first vice president of the United States; the second president; and a practical politician who shunned the rhetoric of popularity to speak the unvarnished truth. John Adams is McCulloch’s second presidential biography. His first, Truman, won the Pulitzer Prize. For sheer drama and national importance, John Adams is the greater of the two. While denying Jefferson a place on the title page, McCulloch compares Adams and Jefferson through nearly every major development leading to war with England and the formation of the nation. Adams is the farmer. Jefferson is the plantation owner. Adams opposes slavery. Jefferson’s slaves do his bidding. Adams is an extrovert. Jefferson is an introvert. Adams is an unwavering Christian and student of Scripture. Jefferson rewrites Scripture to support his Deism. Adams is frugal. Jefferson is self-indulgent and dies deeply in debt. In sum, McCulloch raises Adams out of the shadow into the limelight. His assessment is a gift to a nation whose political leaders need a contemporary reminder that character counts. John Adams is a profile in courage, commitment, occasional excess (he, almost alone, wanted the nation to address the first president His Majesty, the President), and love. The John and Abigail Adams story is one of the great love chapters in American history. Adams “faith in God and the hereafter remained unshaken. His fundamental creed, he had reduced to a single sentence: ‘He who loves the Workman and his work, and does what he can to preserve and improve it, shall be accepted of Him,’” McCulloch says admiringly, near the conclusion of the book. That conclusion focuses on one of American history’s oddities. Adams, the exhorter, and Jefferson, the writer, were the two men most responsible for the Declaration of Independence, a document supposedly signed on July 3, 1776 – although it was almost immediately celebrated on July 4. They both died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson, who had been in and out of a coma for days, preceded Adams in death, having said at last, “No, doctor, nothing more.” Adams died a few hours later, after having been told that it was the Fourth of July, saying, “It is a great day. It is a good day.” |
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