A History of the American People

protect New England trade), freedom of the seas, and holding the balance.' So he tried to keep the army small and build ships-in New England yards of course. Adams and his friends believed he was superbly, perhaps uniquely, qualified intellectually to be president. His crony Benjamin Rush wrote in his autobiography that Adams possessedmore
learning, probably, both ancient and modern, than any man who subscribed to the Declaration of
Independence.' American children who grew up in the early 19th century were told that, except
for Franklin, Adams was without an intellectual superior among the Founding Fathers. This may
well have been true, and Adams' writings and letters are a wonderful brantub of sharp apercus,
profound observations, and fascinating conjectures. His experience was unique. He had been a
commissioner to France, 1777-9, then negotiator in Holland, 1780-2, had negotiated, with
Jefferson and Jay, the Treaty of Paris, 1782-3, had been America's first envoy to Britain, 1785-8,
and as vice-president had assisted Washington, as far as his short temper would allow, in all
things. If ever a man had been trained for the First Magistracy it was Adams. But he was ill
suited to the office. Though he earnestly strove to maintain himself above party and faction, he
was a man of passionate opinions and even more emotional likes and dislikes, mainly personal.
He thought Hamilton the incarnation of evil.' He did not believe Jefferson was evil but he considered him a slave toideology.' This was Adams' hate-word. It seems to have been coined
by a French philosophe, Destutt de Tracy, whom Jefferson admired greatly. At his vice-
president's promptings, Adams read the man and had a good laugh. What was this delightful new
piece of French rubbish? What did ideology' stand for?Does it mean Idiotism? The Science of
Non Compos Mentisism? The Art of Lunacy? The Theory of Deliri-ism?' He put his finger
instantly on the way that-thanks to Jefferson and his ilk-ideology was creeping into American
life by attributing all sorts of mythical powers and perceptions to a nonexistent entity, The People.' When politicians started talking aboutThe People,' he said, he suspected their honesty.
He had a contempt for abstract ideas which he derived from the English political tradition but to
which he added a sarcastic skepticism which was entirely American, or rather Bostonian.
Adams believed that democracy-another hate-word-was positively dangerous, and equality a
fantasy which could never be realized. He had no time for actual aristocracies-hated them
indeed-but he thought the aristocratic principle, the rise of the best on merit, was indestructible
and necessary. As he put it, Aristocracy, like waterfowl, dives for ages and rises again with brighter plumage. He noted that in certain families, young men were encouraged to take an interest in public service, generation after generation, and that such people naturally formed part of an elite. Unlike European aristocracies, they sought not land, titles, and wealth, but the pursuit of republican duty, service to God and man. He was thinking of such old New England families as the Winthrops and the Cottons-and his own. And of course the Adamses became the first of the great American political families, leaders in a long procession which would include the Lodges, Tafts, and Roosevelts. He brought up his son, John Quincy Adams, to serve the state just as old Pitt had brought up his son William, the Younger Pitt, to sit eventually on the Treasury Bench in the Commons. All this was very touching, and the historian warms to this vain, chippy, wild-eyed, paranoid, and fiercely patriotic seer. But, whatever they think, presidents of the United States should not publicly proclaim their detestation of democracy and equality. That leaves only fraternity, and Adams was not a brotherly man either. He was much too good a hater for that. The truth is Adams, like his enemy Hamilton, was not made to lead America, though for quite different reasons. Adams was very perceptive about the future. He had no doubts at all that America would become a great nation, possibly the greatest in the world, with a populationof