John Adams on Democracy and Liberty
And a travel photo to ponder. A presidential birthplace from 1735.
This Wednesday will mark the 289th birthday of President John Adams, who was born October 30, 1735.
The above photo is of Adams’ birthplace in Quincy, Massachusetts. It’s the oldest surviving presidential birthplace in the country, an old farmhouse built in the saltbox style, with two stories in front and one in the rear on the back end of a sloping roof.
The United States obviously didn’t exist when Adams was born, and wouldn’t for another four plus decades. Adams served as the country’s second president. When he lost a close battle for re-election to Thomas Jefferson in 1800, it was the first time power transferred from one political party to another. Adams set a precedent by accepting his defeat and allowing the transfer of power to proceed peacefully. It’s a precedent that held for more than two centuries, until 2020.
Adams was also a student of the history of government. He was a passionate defender of democracy, but was clear-eyed about the risks that went with democracy.
With a consequential presidential election in just nine days, the coming anniversary of Adams’ birth makes this an appropriate time to reflect on a few of his words about democracy and liberty.
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”
“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.”
“Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”
As Adams’ peer, Ben Franklin, famously noted during the Constitutional Convention, they were bequeathing Americans a republic: “If you can keep it.”
Let’s hope we can keep it.
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