Adam

                 was more remarkable as a political

                 philosopher than as a politician.

                 "People and nations are forged in the

                 fires of adversity," he said, doubtless

                 thinking of his own as well as the

                 American experience.

                 Adams was born in the Massachusetts

                 Bay Colony in 1735. A

                 Harvard-educated lawyer, he early

                 became identified with the patriot

                 cause; a delegate to the First and

                 Second Continental Congresses, he

                 led in the movement for

                 During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in

                 diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. From

                 1785 to 1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James's, returning

                 to be elected Vice President under George Washington.

                                        Adams' two terms as Vice President

                                        were frustrating experiences for a man

                                        of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He

                                        complained to his wife Abigail, "My

                                        country has in its wisdom contrived for

                                        me the most insignificant office that

                                        ever the invention of man contrived or

                 his imagination conceived."

                 When Adams became President, the war between the French and

                 British was causing great difficulties for the United States on the

                 high seas and intense partisanship among contending factions within

                 His administration focused on France, where the Directory, the

                 ruling group, had refused to receive the American envoy and had

                 suspended commercial relations.

                 Adams sent three commissioners to France, but in the spring of

                 1798 word arrived that the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand and

                 the Directory had refused to negotiate with them unless they would

                 first pay a substantial bribe. Adams reported the insult to Congress,

                 and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which the

                 Frenchmen were referred to only as "X, Y, and Z."

                 The Nation broke out into what Jefferson called "the X. Y. Z. fever,"

                 increased in intensity by Adams's exhortations. The populace

                 cheered itself hoarse wherever the President appeared. Never had

                 the Federalists been so popular.

                 Congress appropriated money to complete three new frigates and to

                 build additional ships, and authorized the raising of a provisional

                 army. It also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, intended to

                 frighten foreign agents out of the country and to stifle the attacks

                 of Republican editors.

                 President Adams did not call for a declaration of war, but hostilities

                 began at sea. At first, American shipping was almost defenseless

                 against French privateers, but by 1800 armed merchantmen and

                 U.S. warships were clearing the sea-lanes.

                 Despite several brilliant naval victories, war fever subsided. Word

                 came to Adams that France also had no stomach for war and would

                 receive an envoy with respect. Long negotiations ended the quasi

                 Sending a peace mission to France brought the full fury of the

                 Hamiltonians against Adams. In the campaign of 1800 the

                 Republicans were united and effective, the Federalists badly

                 divided. Nevertheless, Adams polled only a few less electoral votes

                 than Jefferson, who became President.

                 On November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams arrived in the

                 new Capital City to take up his residence in the White House. On his

                 second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote his wife,

                 "Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of

                 Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May

                 none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof."

                 Adams retired to his farm in Quincy. Here he penned his elaborate

                 letters to Thomas Jefferson. Here on July 4, 1826, he whispered his

                 last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives." But Jefferson had died at

                 Monticello a few hours earlier.