第2任总统 约翰亚当斯

John Adams: The Nation's Second President 第2任总统 约翰亚当斯

Do you recognize that song? It is the opening to the show “The Addams Family.”

But today we are talking about a different Adams family — one from the history books, not the television program of the 1960s.

Being second is not always easy.  When you are the second president of a new country, following a popular first president such as George Washington, it is even harder.

John Adams, patriot¹ lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, found himself in that difficult position. In 1796, he was elected the second president of the United States of America. 

John Ferling is an historian who has written about the colonial times. In 2015, he published a book called “Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It.”

Ferling says a big problem for John Adams is that, unlike George Washington, he really had no experience as an executive before becoming president. Adams had a different background: he served two terms as vice² president under Washington, and he served in the Congress and as a diplomat³ abroad.

But he had never managed an army, a business or a country.

“And the result was Adams made a key blunder at the very outset of his presidency⁴, and the blunder he made was the he retained Washington’s cabinet.”

Adams kept Washington’s official advisers⁵ – his cabinet – mostly to satisfy some of his political opponents. These opponents were members of Adams’ own party, but they did not support Adams.

Later, Adams learned that some of his advisers did not support him either. They were more loyal to the former secretary of the treasury⁶, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton did not hold elected office at the time, but he continued to influence the nation’s affairs.

Historian John Ferling says Adams was “in kind of over his head, and started swimming upstream” almost from the start of his presidency.

“He didn’t know what he was getting into. I don’t think he really understood their loyalty⁷ to Hamilton. Maybe he was just incredibly naive⁸.”

Adams also was known for getting angry easily and often acting⁹ depressed¹⁰. Ferling says the second president may have suffered from an immune disorder¹¹ called Graves’ disease, which could have caused his dramatic changes in emotion.

The busiest lawyer in Boston

Even though Adams struggled as president, he was successful in other parts of his life.

He grew up outside the city of Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a farmer, as well as a church official and town leader. He hoped his son would be a minister; however, John Adams chose to attend Harvard University and become a lawyer.

Adams was a very good lawyer. In fact, he was one of the busiest lawyers in Boston. His success enabled him to buy a big, two-story house that still stands in Quincy, Massachusetts. At that time, the average farmer lived in a home the size of today’s two-car garage.

The Adams family

He also had a happy marriage.

John Adams married Abigail Smith in 1764. They had six children together.

John and Abigail’s relationship is one of the most well-known of that time because they wrote many letters to each other over the years they were apart. More than 1,000 of their letters still survive today.

John and Abigail Adams were both passionate¹² patriots¹³ who supported the American Revolution.

They also agreed about the issue of slavery. John and Abigail believed it was a “revolting institution,” according to historian John Ferling. Unlike many founding families of the U.S., the couple did not own slaves and spoke¹⁴ out against the practice of people owning other people.

A troubled presidency

Adams was elected president at a fragile time for the United States. People did not know if the country would hold together in the transition from one president to the next.

The election of 1796 followed the original rule in the U.S. Constitution. At that time, the Constitution said the person who received the majority of votes became president. The person with the second largest number of votes became vice president. In 1796, that rule meant that Adams became the nation’s second president, and his political opponent, Thomas Jefferson, became the vice president. Even though the two leaders were personal friends, they often struggled over competing ideas about the role of the federal government.

In addition to the challenges of leading a divided administration, Adams struggled to deal with a foreign policy crisis. The Revolution in France threatened to spread to other European countries. Many countries, including Great Britain, answered the threat by allying against France. Historian John Ferling says that the crisis in Europe shaped Adams’ presidency and “caused him endless troubles.”

Adams worked hard to make sure the United States did not get pulled into a war between France and Great Britain. But France did not trust the U.S.; it tried to interrupt trade between the U.S. and Great Britain by seizing U.S. ships.

John Adams wanted to resolve the problem peacefully. He threatened military action, but he also sent diplomats¹⁵ to talk with French officials. Adams aimed for “an honorable peace” with France. Eventually, he got it.

“My sense of Adams’ presidency, is while there were a great many failures in Adams’ presidency, ultimately he succeeded. He succeeded in avoiding war.”

In fact, many years later, Adams wrote that “the greatest jewel in his crown” was achieving peace with France.

No friend of immigrants

Something that Adams was not favorably remembered for is signing the Alien and Sedition¹⁶ Act in 1798.  The four Acts extended the time from five to 14 years that immigrants had to wait before becoming U.S. citizens. They permitted the government to detain citizens from enemy nations without a reason during wartime. They allowed the president to deport¹⁷ foreign citizens he believed were dangerous. And they made it a crime to criticize the president or Congress.

Adams said the laws aimed to control people in the U.S. who supported France. But many politicians at the time—as well as historian John Ferling—pointed out that the laws mostly affected¹⁸ people who supported the opposing political party, the Republicans.

“I think it’s purely¹⁹ partisan²⁰ and what they were trying to do, on the one hand, was silence the Republican press, and second they were trying to reduce the number of voters who would be voting for the Republican Party.”

Ferling says Adams may have been using the Alien and Sedition acts to protect his political career. But in fact, they damaged the president’s reputation. They made many immigrants flee the country, and raised the question for the first time of whether states had the right to ignore a federal law if they disagreed with it.

Adams and Jefferson

Adams faced a difficult re-election in 1800. His old friend Thomas Jefferson opposed him. Both parties carried out ugly personal attacks.

When Jefferson won, Adams retired²¹ to his farm in Massachusetts. His loss, however,  was not the end of a John Adams in the presidential mansion²². One of his six children, John Quincy Adams, served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825-1829.

In his later years, Adams wrote an autobiography²³ and many letters. They eventually included long letters to Thomas Jefferson. The two men often corresponded in the last years of their lives. They discussed their families, their thoughts on politics and religion, and their nation’s history. Adams and Jefferson were the last living members of the original Americans who started a new county.

Then, on July 4, 1826 – the nation’s 50th birthday – these friends, patriots and former U.S. presidents both passed away. On the same day.

The last words John Adams ever spoke were:  “Jefferson lives.”

In fact, Jefferson had died five hours earlier. But, in the days before telephones or Internet, Adams had no way of knowing his friend had gone before him.

Words in This Story

patriot – n. person who supported the revolutionary war for freedom from Britain

executive – n. a person in charge of a business as a manager

blunder – n. a stupid, careless, mistake

na?ve – adj. do not understand what is going on, lack of knowledge or judgment²⁴

revolting - adj. extremely unpleasent

fragile - adj. something that can break easily

challenge - n. to test the ability, skill, or strength of something

correspond -v. to write someone 

1 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

6 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

7 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

8 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

11 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

12 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

13 patriots   

爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Abraham Lincoln was a fine type of the American patriots. 亚伯拉罕·林肯是美国爱国者的优秀典型。
• These patriots would fight to death before they surrendered. 这些爱国者宁愿战斗到死，也不愿投降。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 sedition   

n.煽动叛乱

参考例句：

• Government officials charged him with sedition.政府官员指控他煽动人们造反。
• His denial of sedition was a denial of violence.他对煽动叛乱的否定又是对暴力的否定。

17 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

18 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

19 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

20 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

21 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

22 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

23 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

24 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。