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.