John Adams

Abigail Adams

by Amelia Clark

This paper is about Abigail Adams and how she valued the ideals of Republican Motherhood while at the same time... more This paper is about Abigail Adams and how she valued the ideals of Republican Motherhood while at the same time providing important political advice to her husband, John Adams.

Washington's Warning

by David Cohen

In his Farewell Address as President of the United States, George Washington warned against political parties and... more In his Farewell Address as President of the United States, George Washington warned against political parties and entangling foreign alliances. His successors did not heed his advice. Both Washington and Benjamin Franklin were celebrated as heroes in pre-Revolutionary France. Washington was the model of the citizen-soldier who rather than becoming a military dictator, returned to his farm like the Roman general Cincinnatus. Franklin affected the image of Jean Jacques Rousseau's natural man. The French Revolution tested the wartime alliance between the American colonies and France during the American Revolution. Despite the similarities in republican idealogy, the two revolutions took very different courses, with the French Revolution resulting in the regicide of Louis XVI, the Reign of Terror, and the eventual rise to power of the Emperor Napoleon under the guise of Rousseau's concept of the General Will. But what distinguishes the two revolutions, in the last analysis, is the fact that the American Revolution was also an anti-colonial revolution, and the French Revolution was not.

Safety and Happiness: The American Revolutionary Standard for Governmental Legitimacy

by John Schmeeckle

Throughout the revolutionary struggle, American leaders used the phrase "safety and happiness" to summarize... more Throughout the revolutionary struggle, American leaders used the phrase "safety and happiness" to summarize their views on governmental legitimacy. The terms "safety" and "happiness" were defined in the Congressional Resolution of May 10 and 15, 1776, establishing de facto independence. "Safety" corresponds to "life, liberty, and property"; while happiness is summarized as "internal peace, virtue, and good order." This definition of happiness -- drafted by John Adams -- encapsulates the contents of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations. The elements of this definition of happiness reappear in English common-law jurisprudence, in Cumberland's Treatise of the Laws of Nature, and in Burlamaqui's Principles of Natural and Politic Law.

Classical Rhetoric in America.

by James Farrell

"'Above all Greek, above all Roman Fame': Classical Rhetoric in America during the Colonial and Early National Periods," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18:3 (September 2011), 415-436.

The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of... more The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of that ancient discipline, and in the practical approaches to persuasion adopted by orators and writers in the colonial period, and during the early republic. Classical theoretical treatises on rhetoric enjoyed wide authority both in college curricula and in popular treatments of the art. Classical orators were imitated as models of republican virtue and oratorical style. Indeed, virtually every dimension of the political life of early America bears the imprint of a classical conception of public discourse. This essay marks the various specific aspects of the reception and influence of the classical rhetorical tradition in the learning, speaking and writing of Americans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Dialect Literature and English in the USA: Standardization and National Linguistic Identity

by Lisa Minnick

In Varieties in Writing in English: The Written Word as Linguistic Evidence, ed. Raymond Hickey. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010.

This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and... more This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and especially to authorize and enforce a preferred standard. The roles of gender, race, and linguistic diversity are key considerations to the analysis in light of popular nineteenth-century assumptions that conflated ideas about a preferred national language variety with developing ideologies about national identity. This chapter outlines the ways that these assumptions found voice in the national discourse, including via the deployment of literary dialect, which both documented and participated in that discourse.

Syren Tully and the Young John Adams

by James Farrell

Classical Journal 87:4 (1992), 373-390.

James Otis and Writs of Assistance (1761)

by James Farrell

“James Otis and ‘Writs of Assistance’: The Strange History of a Famous Speech,” in RHETORIC, INDEPENDENCE, and NATIONHOOD, ed. Stephen E. Lucas, Volume 2 of A RHETORICAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN PUBLIC DISCOURSE, ed. Martin J. Medhurst (Michigan State University Press, forthcoming)

Review of John Ferling's "Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800"

by David G Terrell

John Ferling. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004. xx + 260... more John Ferling. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004. xx + 260 pp. Plutarch once admitted that, “I must be allowed to give my particular attention to the marks and indications of men’s souls, as I endeavor to portray their lives.” In Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, John Ferling continues giving his attention to the souls of early American leaders, particularly Washington, Adams and Jefferson. The 1800 United States presidential election was “a collision of three republican ideas” (p. 12) championed by Adams, Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton which delivered the first peaceful—though fraught with partisan strife—change of leadership to the new republic.

Happiness, Natural Law, and the Declaration of Independence

by John Schmeeckle

My thesis challenges the Lockean reading of the Declaration of Independence. The definition of "happiness,"... more My thesis challenges the Lockean reading of the Declaration of Independence. The definition of "happiness," as used in the Declaration, is "internal peace, virtue, and good order." John Adams wrote this definition, which Congress approved in the resolution of May 10 and 15, 1776, authorizing the suppression of royal government. This definition of happiness encapsulates Cicero's Tusculan Disputations. The elements of this definition appear in English jurisprudence, in Cumberland's Treatise of the Laws of Nature , and in Burlamaqui's Principles of Natural and Politic Law . Burlamaqui's association of natural right with happiness, informing the like principle in the Declaration of Independence, develops a similar thought in Leibniz's Codex Juris Gentium, which is rooted in Ciceronian natural law. John Witherspoon recognized Leibniz as the source of the "moral sense" philosophy of Shaftesbury and Hutcheson. American revolutionary leaders used "moral sense" as a synonym for "conscience," which the resolution of May 10 and 15 paired with "reason" (a preferred synonym for natural law) as the authorities for the colonies to suppress royal government.

The entire thesis is available online at http://gradworks.umi.com/14/56/1456018.html

John Adams's Autobiography: The Ciceronian Paradigm and the Quest for Fame

by James Farrell

New England Quarterly 62:4 (1989), 505-528.

The Writs of Assistance and Public Memory: John Adams and the Legacy of James Otis

by James Farrell

New England Quarterly 79:4 (2006), 533-556

John Adams: Boston Massacre Trial (1770).

by James Farrell

"Pro Militibus Oratio: John Adams's Imitation of Cicero in the Boston Massacre Trial." Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 9:3 (1991), 233-249.

In his closing argument in the Boston Massacre trial, John Adams relied on his classical rhetorical training and... more In his closing argument in the Boston Massacre trial, John Adams relied on his classical rhetorical training and looked to Cicero as a useful model of forensic eloquence. In deciding to speak for unpopular defendants, Adams may have been encouraged by Cicero's example in defending Sextus Roscius. In negotiating the legal and political complexities of the case, Adams may have imitated rhetorical strategies outlined by Cicero in De Inventione, and employed by the Roman in Pro Roscio and Pro Milone. Seeing Adams as a latter-day Roman advocate answers some persistent historical questions about his participation in the most important trial of Revolutionary America.

Dans son dernier argument du proces du "Massacre de Boston," John Adams comptait sur sa formation professionnelle classique et faisait appel a Ciceron comme un modele tres utile de I'eloquence judiciaire. En prenant la parole pour les accuses impopulaires, Adams s'inspirait peutetre de I'exemple de Ciceron dans sa defense de Sextus Roscius. En traitant les complexites judiciaires et politiques de I'affaire, Adams aurait bien pu imiter les strategies presentees par Ciceron dans le De Inventione, strategies utilisees de nouveau par I'orateur romain dans le Pro Roscio et le Pro Milone. En vogant Adams comme un avocat romain moderne semble resoudre les problemes historiques tenaces au sujet de sa participation au proces le plus important de I'Amerique revolutionnaire.