John Adams an American Patriot

John Adams

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

To the modern reader the final statement of the Declaration of Independence may seem unimportant. But to the men who signed the scared document, they literally were pledging their lives, fortunes, and honor. Benjamin Franklin is once quoted to have said, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately.” If the Revolution was unsuccessful not only would the signers have been hung for treason, but were most likely risking the lives of their families who would have been left possession less. It must be understood that to the founding fathers family and honor meant everything. There were two main courses in life, either you shamed your family or you brought honor to your family, and if you chose the latter you were to defend your family and the honor of your name to the death. The founding fathers also realized that by signing the Declaration of Independence they were risking the lives of their sons, relatives, friends and countrymen. Not only were they willing to risk their own lives, but the lives of others. The man who moved the men to Independence was John Adams.

No one knew better what he was singing that Adams, at home he had a wife and four small children, who were just miles from the British fleet and the pre-war skirmishes in Massachusetts. He had also experienced the loss of close friends, including his personal physician during the early battles of the Revolution. Adams also understood that a revolution with England would also bring about, “a great expense of blood.” Not only would their actions affect their generation but it would also affect those who came long after they were dead.

The common perception of the American Revolution is that all of the founding fathers were in favor of a break with Britain. But the truth is that some were not. They were scared, scared of the unknown, scared of fighting the largest and most powerful army in the world, scared of fighting in America, scared of so many things, John Adams was able to calm their fears and persuade them to agree to sign the Declaration of Independence. He had to persuade fierce opponents, on the other side of the debate; John Dickinson was willing to sacrifice his “once great popularity” in order to stick to his principles. John Adams’s use of protracted political debate and great oratory skills had a profound impact on the continental congress. It was said of his great oration that Adams, “spoke with great power of thought and expression,” so as to, “move [the founding fathers] from [their] seats.”

Eventually it was decided to sign the Declaration of Independence, although members like John Dickinson and the delegation from New York still disagreed with a revolution, they respectfully did not participate in the vote because they realized the magnitude of the decision and wanted to make it a unanimous one. Without John Adams there may be no United States. John Adams was a true American patriot.

Why We Do It

I love to ski. I love snow and am one of a select people that does not complain about the cold of winter and pray for summer. My brother recently wrote an essay for his English class titled Why I... I thought I might a section of this essay that, in my opinion captures the essence of why we do it,

It was a cold January afternoon, with at least twelve inches of fresh snow in the Valley. My brother Zach and I decided that we were going to ski for a few hours after school. Checking the weather update for Snowbird Ski resort, I could hardly stand the sight on the computer screen. Thirty-two fresh inches of snow! This is what some skiers refer to as a major “pow” day. I barley could stand sitting through my next two classes as I knew what was waiting for me just a few miles away. After school, Zach and I threw on our ski gear and headed for the canyon. As we arrived to the Snowbird parking lot, there were hardly any cars. We bolted for the lift and rode it to the top. On the way up, we both knew what our first run was going to be, The Cirque. As we managed to work our way to the top of the mountain, I remember how excited I was. The Cirque is a wide-open bowl shaped run that requires about five minutes of traversing. For this both, scary and exciting run, I put on the best “pump up” song I could find. I let Zach get a head start down the hill, for I knew I would catch him. The first two turns I made caught me off guard. I knew there was a huge amount of snow, what I did not know is that I would find the snow up to my armpits! The next thing that I experienced was like nothing before. Imagine floating up to heaven, passing through cold, weightless, clouds. Not being able to see anything but white. Taking a deep gasp of air and inhaling nothing but fluffy snow. It was possibly the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. It had happened before, but not to this extent. This is what the skiing society calls a face shot. Many ski, but few experience this phenomenon. As I passed Zach, my legs burning, adrenaline gushing through my veins, and trying for air, the run was nearing the end. I stopped at the end, caught my breath, and waited for Zach who was near behind. We both were speechless, the only word that came to mind, was WOW! This one run reminds me why I ski.

Personal Narrative of the Middle Passage

It has been almost two months since our village was raided and attacked by the neighboring tribe, since I had seen my whole family gunned down right in front of my eyes, since I had seen our village burning in the on-setting twilight. The red of the fire stood in stark contrast to the deep purple sky. Those who had survived the raid were shackled by our necks and forced to walk towards the west for days on end. The boy behind me had been wounded during the confrontation and was bleeding profusely from a deep gash on his bulging thigh. It did not take long for the flies to settle in and drink from the crimson blood that never stopped streaming into the sand. Slowly I began to feel him get weaker. With every step we took I felt the tension on the chain get tighter until eventually he could take the walking no longer and collapsed to the ground taking the whole group down with him. Our captors quickly answered our conundrum with the stings of whips and biting words. When they finally realized what had happened my arms and back were raw with stripes. The boy behind me would not make it another day under the strenuous conditions we found our selves in. They broke the chains of his bondage and left him for dead. As we passed I saw the blood from his would slowly dripping into the sand.

It took us two weeks of walking with little water and even less food to reach the coast. When we reached the massive body of clear blue water I saw the craft that had been spoken about around the campfires of our village. It was taller than the tallest tree I had ever seen. As they forced us into the walls of the holding cell I lost sight of the spectacular vessel and would not see the ship for another week. I began to regain my strength inside the walls of the prison although the rations were meager at best. The skin on my neck had begun to wear raw. Eventually the whole prison was full of men, boys, and the occasional woman. When the prison walls were finally at their breaking point they again stood us up and forced us through low corridors until we almost reached the last doorway. Before the light of day peaked through I saw what they were doing, they were loading the groups of men onto small boats and taking them out to the huge vessel. I protested our forced march through the doorway. I grabbed onto anything I could to keep from never seeing my beloved homeland again. My complaints were quickly met with the stings of whips and prods of sticks. I realized my hopes were futile and proceeded through the door. We loaded the ship to its full capacity and more. With the craft hardly floating above the water we proceeded towards the large ship. As we approached the large vessel I saw a group of men who decided a life with out their families was no life at all jump from their boat. The weight from the chains was too much and they began to sink towards the bottom of the sea. We eventually reached the ship and were forced onboard. I caught a glimpse of the blood red sun setting in the west. That sight was the last time I would see the sun for almost a month.

If the conditions in the prison were bad the conditions on the boat were worse. It was so hot and so cramped that I often found myself gasping for the putrid air, which stank of sweat and human waste. We were rarely allowed above deck. When we were all I could see was the blue of the ocean and the grey of the sky. Everyday the poor souls that did not make it through the night or exhibited signs of sickness were thrown overboard. After over a month of endless blue and gray passed before land became visible. The dark foreboding vista was so different from my home. As we pulled into the dock, all of the men and women were unloaded and taken to markets, not like the markets at home, these markets are where humans buy humans. At last my dreadful journey was over; little did I know that it was just the beginning of the horrific journey that was to become my everyday life.

Welcome to my Blog

This blog will be used to post assignments for my American Government and Society class at BYU (and whatever else I feel like bloging about). My first assignment is to write a short personal narrative as if I was a slave being transported to America. I have found this assignment to be both thought provoking and meaningful. I have tried to explore the sure terror of the victims of the Middle Passage. The narritive is soon to follow.