John Adams’ Inauguration: A Reflection of Our Present

By all accounts, March 4, 1797 was a temperate and partly cloudy spring day when the legislature convened in the House of Representatives chamber in Philadelphia’s Congress Hall. Although they had met in this room many times before, today was different - a new president was to be sworn in. The beloved General George Washington was retiring to Mount Vernon after serving only two terms. The new president was a patriot, someone who had been deeply involved in the American Revolution and the building of the early republic who had most recently served as Washington’s Vice President (twice). John Adams was inaugurated that day as the second President of the United States of America, alongside former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson as Vice President. Although a sitting President peacefully passing the torch to their successor is something to which modern Americans have grown accustomed, such was not the case in 1797.

Founding fathers: George Washington and John Adams

George Washington was the first president following our victory in the Revolution and subsequent adoption of the Constitution. He was loved by the people, who thought him to be the perfect leader of the newly independent country. He was well-tempered, intelligent, reticent (when others in power were not), concerned with doing what was right for the people and the country. Or, at least, that was largely the view at the time. Our historical hindsight now shows us a more complete picture of Washington and his public perception (but I digress). In 1797, nobody knew what was going to happen - nothing like the American experiment had been attempted prior. Executive power had never changed hands like this before in America, and there were no contemporary foreign examples upon which to draw. The model of ancient republics existed only within the pages of books while most of the United States’ contemporaries monarchies. There was no rule book, no model, no means of accurately predicting the outcome. John Adams knew this. He understood that the nation was venturing into uncharted waters; on the precipice of greatness with so many ways to go wrong. He understood that the people (or rather, the people with the right to vote) had entrusted him to be their guide on this journey and to uphold the values and principles for which they had fought & died.

John Adams’ speech well reflects this awareness. He spoke of the United States being forged in adversity, in fire, in struggle, and as he put it, “launched into an ocean of uncertainty.” They were in unprecedented territory. As a Harvard-educated political philosopher, lawyer, diplomat, and politician, John Adams had seen it all. He acknowledged that the American experiment was fragile and if the citizenry came to neglect the ideals upon which it was founded, the republic would founder and descend into chaos, “threatening some great calamity.” As he reflected on the founding of the nation, he also made his loyalty to the people clear, acknowledging that both he and the legislature were elected by the American voters (notice I don’t say people, as women, BIPOC, and white men who were not land-owners could not vote) and that their duty was to uphold the Constitution and serve the people. Their mandate was to honor the law, enact justice and preserve the republic by establishing a tradition of free and fair elections. This was Adams’ pledge.

The nation is, in many ways, still reeling from this terrifying ordeal, traumatized by the events of 2020 and fearful of what will come this week and further into 2021 as COVID-19 and its mutated offshoots burn their way through our population. We are, as Adams and his contemporaries were, facing an ocean of uncertainty. But the dust has somewhat settled, and we now know that through the power of the people, the power of our vote, we face a brighter future, one more unified than our recent past. We the people made this a reality through exercising our Constitutional rights. Now the same institutions that uphold the Constitution will make sure the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol will be held responsible for their actions. As John Adams said, “What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?”

I have this to say to my fellow Americans: Stay safe, stay well, be kind, and read up on your history - it will probably teach you something about our present and our future.

John Adams’ Inauguration: A Reflection of Our Present

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