 Hello from the National Archives Public Programs and Education staff. My name is Sarah Lyons Davis and I'm an education specialist at the National Archives in New York City. Welcome to the National Archives Comes Alive Young Learners Program. Dates and information for the future programs can be found on the National Archives website archives.gov under attend an event and on the National Archives Facebook page. This morning we meet John Adams, lawyer, champion of the Patriot cause, founding father, diplomat, and second president of the United States. John Adams is portrayed by Peyton Dixon, actor and historian from the American Historical Theater. Adams was a great political thinker and philosopher of American democratic principles. He started his career as a lawyer in Massachusetts and was an advocate of human rights, particularly as they related to fair trials. Early on he supported the Patriot cause against oppressive laws of Britain. He was nominated as a delegate of the First and Second Continental Congress and eventually became a key figure in helping draft principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence. He served as an ambassador during the American Revolution in France and Holland and then as the first vice president of the United States, serving under George Washington. After Washington left office, Adams became the second president of the United States. The National Archives has in its holdings records related to John Adams, including this portrait of John Adams. We also have a number of his papers and letters available to read on our site, Founders Online. Additional records of John Adams can be found in our DocsTeach education site, docsteach.org. In this activity, you can learn about John Adams' role in the Committee of Five and his influence on the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. The DocsTeach slide will be shared again at the end of the program. We will take audience questions via the YouTube chat box and have a question and answer session with John Adams at the end of his presentation. The chat box is monitored by National Archives staff, so please let us know where you're watching from today. All the programs are brought to you from the National Archives Public Programs and Education Team and the National Archives Foundation. September is Constitution Month, with Constitution Day on September 17th. Adams helped frame the Massachusetts State Constitution and many other principles in our U.S. Constitution. So let us give a warm welcome to John Adams. Well, I thank you, Madam Davis. Thank you very much. It is a great pleasure to be here with you and thank you for welcoming me. Thank you also for speaking my name properly and actually remembering who I am. That is no small task in itself. Many people seem to think that I might not have existed in some bits of history. I fear that sometimes history might forget me entirely, that they might remember the American Revolution as Benjamin Franklin taking one of his lightning rods, striking it into the ground in up Springs General George Washington, fully grown with his horse and completely ran off and conducted the entire warfare and business of starting this country. I wish it had been that easy. But it is a pleasure to be here with you today. It's very much like addressing the Senate, one person speaking to so many of you, although you are currently being much more polite than the Senate had been to me. But that is another story for another time. I am reminded actually of a question as I am here. I am as we are, again, as I heard you speak of the Constitution, a reminder of a question that I was asked a number of times. How did it feel when you signed the Constitution? And when I hear that question in my mind, I can envision a rather blissful scene of delegates in great agreement as they put aside their differences and peacefully place their names on this rather momentous document. But of course, if they are anything like the days of the Continental Congress, there was a great deal more bickering and arguing as they hanged over the more specific points before a rather haunting silence occurred where they signed their names to a document that would change the world. But as some of the more astute of you may realize that I can only imagine what it must have been like to sign the Constitution because I did not sign the Constitution. I was not there, unfortunately. And yet we are at a very momentous point in our time here. If my resources and my mathematics are forming me appropriately, you are coming to a point of celebrating 235 years since the Constitution was signed, which is a momentous occasion for a monumental document, which again, I did not write. I was not asked to. Nor was I in truth particularly interested in writing the Constitution. But it appeared that, well, of course, I was also across the ocean in England attempting to serve as the first ambassador to a country that wished to see us hang. So that is unfortunate. But there we are. So, of course, they seem to have enough sages and prophets and demigods that they did not need the plain Mr. Adams to join them in Philadelphia. And so I suppose, again, the more astute of you might be thinking to yourself, well, then, who am I, John Adams, to be speaking with you? Since I, of course, had a precious little to do with creating the Constitution. And to you, I would say that is a very good question. Thank you for asking. And to be in playing about it, I am impressed that I would be remembered for the Constitution, that I would be remembered at all. In truth for my father, of course, when I was younger, desired me to enter into the clergy. I actually wanted to follow my father's footsteps and enter into farming. And of course, ultimately, I became a lawyer. So I suppose nobody got their wish on that. And in truth, I was a lawyer that lost his first case. And then, of course, I did improve over time. I improved. I spoke on behalf of the British soldiers who were accused of firing into a crowd in Boston, which is unfortunately called the Boston massacre. But I defended British soldiers and for my effort in ensuring that the law was upheld, I was sent to serve in the Massachusetts Assembly and then sent to serve in the Continental Congress, which for a while was, as Mr. Shakespeare wrote, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. But of course, I spent three years in the Continental Congress before I was sent to France to help in arranging a treaty, which by the time I had arrived, Benjamin Franklin had essentially created already without me. So here I stand, a man that not everyone knows anything about. And some like me, some dislike me, it is very much like when I was alive. But of course, you may not know all of my efforts for independence and for our government, yet you might know some of my results. I did not write the Declaration of Independence itself, of course, but I did persuade a rather young and copperheaded lawyer, name of Thomas Jefferson, in order to draft the Declaration and thankfully he was persuaded to do so. I did not command the Continental Army, yet I did nominate the General George Washington, who would then go on to become our first President. And of course, in 1776, well before independence had been declared, or our Declaration had declared such causes to the world, Congress had, their tide was turning toward independence. After the writing and publishing of Common Sense by that incendiary meteor Thomas Paine, it became clear that thoughts were turning towards independence. And the Congress approved that all colonies should form new state governments. Because of course, at the time, all of the previous governments for the colonies were much more royal than an independent nation might like. But imagine, if you will, the prospect of creating new government when you had never done it before. Think of it as if you had been tasked with writing a paper or creating a project of some sort on a topic that was unknown to you. You might have heard a bit about it, but what would you do if you were unable or unknowing of such a subject of creating this paper or project? I suspect that you would do your research, you would look up certain information in your library or other resources, you would seek out librarians, you would seek out experts in the field. And of course, you would seek out opinions on the subject so that you might form a good idea of what to do with your project. And thus it was with many of my fellow congressmen in 1776. Because I had been a voice in my opinion for months on not only the need for our independence, but what would create good government for this young country. And of course, as I did so, people who were looking for information and the thoughts of what to do to create new government, they turned to me. I was approached by Mr. Wyth from Virginia, Mr. Sargent from New Jersey, Mr. Penn and Hooper from North Carolina. And they asked me each time to put down my thoughts on what I would think would be good government. And I scratched it out numerous times. And by the time that Richard Henry Lee came to ask me for my thoughts on government, I simply snatched away someone else's copy of my writings and handed it over to him. And eventually it was determined that I should have a pamphlet made of this. Well, I was not interested in it, but I had written down my ideas so many times, I would be happy for someone else to print it. And so they did. They printed a pamphlet known as Thoughts on Government, which was a discussion of what I believed in my letters were good government. And the truth of it was that I was just very busy. So I had very little time to create a pamphlet. So I was pleased that they took my ideas. In truth, I was already more than occupied at the time. I was serving on dozens of committees. I was serving on a committee for war correspondence with our soldiers. I was tasked with creating rules for a new American Navy. In all, I had over 20 committees that I was a part of. But for such a matter as how to create new government, well, I determined that it was a very important idea and I borrowed time from my sleep and I scratched out my ideas, which thus became that pamphlet. I had such beliefs as I believe that one House of Legislature, which was how eventually things will begin with the Articles of Confederation, but I believe one House of Legislature was too susceptible to the allure of its own power. And I believed that the power of the legislature should be in two houses. I also thought that there should be an executive that would be powerful enough to balance out the power of the legislature. I also believed that there should be a judiciary independent of the executive and the legislature. And such thoughts as that were written down in my thoughts on government. And as it so happens, my thoughts on government, they found their way into the constitutional conventions of New Jersey, of Virginia, of North Carolina. And later on, they were entered into the records of the constitutional convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. Of course, they also made their way into Massachusetts. But that was, well, that was because I was involved with that constitution. You see earlier in the 1770s, a committee had very quickly drafted a constitution with scarcely any approval. And not terribly surprisingly, a first attempt at their constitution was, well, to put it rather politely, it was not very good. No, no, it was not very good at all. Nor was it well received so much so that it was determined that a second constitutional convention should be formed to have representatives from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including your own Mr. Adams from Braintree. Or at least I would be from Braintree from a few more years before it became Quincy. But again, that is another story. But we formed a committee, a constitutional convention of over 300 members. And then of course, they formed a separate committee to explore the drafting of a constitution of about 30 people. And then a subcommittee of three to actually draft the constitution. And as I had made my thoughts on government very well known and the publishing of them made them even more known, I was asked to draft the document. So I became a sub subcommittee of one. And I drew upon, much as you might with your paper or project, what I had learned, what I already knew, and what I believed in my heart. I wrote about the ensuring of our rights, I the continuation of our liberties. I ensured that we had a need and support of education that our freedoms of religion and press and speech would be ensured. And I will say with very few adjustments from the larger committee, my constitution became our constitution or rather Massachusetts constitution. They even have this broad side of the constitution. This is what I wrote. And with very few exceptions, this constitution became the constitution for Massachusetts. So I suppose I did fairly well and knew a little bit about the constitution. So perhaps I have a bit of understanding about it after all. But of course, I cannot claim myself as the author of the Constitution of the United States. I'm certainly grateful for the others who have made their efforts to have such a constitution. I'm certainly grateful for James Madison for fighting the tyranny of the majority. I'm grateful for James Patterson for his defense of the smaller voices of the smaller states. Then I'm also grateful for, of course, Roger Sherman and Oliver Elmsworth pursuing the spirit of compromise in creating this constitution. It was not a perfect document. It was not certainly one that I agreed with everything that was in it. I did not think that it was exactly as it should be. But I made my support of the constitution clear. And I thought that was very important because while it was not a perfect document, it was the best document that we could achieve at the time. And I thought it was important that we should move forward as a country in a spirit of compromise to ensure that we had a stronger central government and something that wouldn't ensure that people's rights would be respected and protected. So while I was not present in Philadelphia for the constitutional convention or creation thereof, I certainly believe that my voice and my hopes for this country found their way into the constitution. And I suppose that brings me to a bit of advice for you, good people, which I would simply say that I would recommend that you do not discard your ideas, your inspirations, your writings as unimportant. I would not simply throw away your scratchings. If you have an idea, write it down. If you have hopes and dreams, put them to paper, record them, keep them in your heart, and well, it is very much more than possible that the scratchings of your pen may make a greater difference than you can possibly imagine. So do not think that what you say or think or write is unimportant because you never know who or what it might influence in the future. And that is my hope for you today. And with that, I thank you for listening to me prattle on about the constitution. But of course, very much like the Senate, you sat politely, at least until I finished talking. So I hope that you are enjoying your time and celebrating the Constitution, and I hope that you will continue to support it and its efforts. And Davis, is this a time where we have more to discuss? Well, that was so interesting to hear, Mr. Adams. Thank you so much for sharing all of that wonderful information. I know that I learned a lot about your role with the Constitution and with early American history. I just wanted to share with you, we have people watching from across the country. So we have people who are here with us from Half Moon Bay, California. So it's pretty incredible how far your ideals and these ideas about the Constitution have spread. It certainly spreads a great deal faster than it did when I was in government. I will tell you that it took a long time for anything of my voice to make its way across the country. And if you have time and would be open to it, we have a question. Of course. I'm always glad to hear from the voice of the people. Thank you. So our first question, we have a few questions. Our first one, what did you like about the US Constitution and what did you not like? Ah, well, yes. Hopefully we will not run out of time on that one, but I shall try to be as understanding as I can with that. I will say that I was in London serving as the first ambassador to England at the court of St. James at the time when I received a draft of the Constitution of the United States. And I was pleased with it to begin with. I was very pleased that was my understanding that there was a great deal of bickering and arguing over what sort of representation that there should be. There was, of course, talk of, of course, Mr. Madison and the the genius wishing population basis of government and, of course, the complaints of the likes of New Jersey and Mr. Brefler and Mr. Mr. Patterson, of course, making their points clear on having more equal representation. So I was pleased that there was a bicameral legislature that there was representation by population and and and and numbers, of course, equality. I thought it was very important. I was very pleased to see that there was the potential for an independent judiciary. I do believe that it made itself a much more equal branch, of course, once I nominated John Marshall. So I'm not set about that. But I believe that it had a great potential there. I would have liked to have seen the executive to be more powerful. I had hoped that, of course, the president would be able to nominate all of his own officers that he would not be dependent on the the legislature for all of his effort, because I thought it would be wise to have a balance between the president and the legislature. I also thought that that would be helpful if he could have an absolute power of veto rather than it be overturned by the Congress. But that is my opinion, of course. I also thought I will say the one thing that I did feel was absent was a declaration of rights. Of course, eventually there was a bill of rights added, which was, in many ways, simply amendments to the original document. When I drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, apologies, it has fallen to the floor. I have returned. The Massachusetts Constitution, the beginning here, the beginning is a declaration of rights for 30 articles, 30 plus articles of our rights, including the right of assembly, the right of religion, the right of press. All of these things were not added to the document. They were the foundation of the document itself. So this declaration of rights was something that I believe was very important. And it was my hope that it would eventually be included. But I certainly supported the Constitution from the beginning. Excuse me. I hope that serves. Yes, that's very illuminating. Thank you. And so we're wondering, were you upset or mad because you weren't the first president of the United States? I know you were the second, and I'd love to hear some more about that. Well, I apologize. Hopefully I don't have a bit of a pox, but no, I will say that when we were beginning this country, I knew in my heart that there was only going to be one first president. That would be George Washington. He was certainly the most popular, and he certainly showed great leadership in his command of the Continental Army. And I believe that he would be a fine example of a strong, skilled, deferential leader. He certainly had great many qualities. I later said to a friend that he was a Virginian, which of course was worth five qualities of any other person, because it seemed that all Virginia geese are swans in the minds of the people. And so people really enjoyed Virginians in the early days of our country. So being from Virginia, I think, was a great benefit to his character. But he also had something which I did not have, which was the gift of silence. He of course, if he's asked an opinion, he would listen, and he would give his opinion, but I would not stop giving my opinion. So perhaps that is why my popularity was not as strong as his. But I knew that no one but Mr. Washington would be the president of the United States. I was considered for many things. I heard my name being bandied about for the Vice Presidency, for the Senate, for Governor of Massachusetts, for the Supreme Court. But I was very pleased to serve as the Vice President. My biggest concern was the fact that Alexander Hamilton made a great deal of noise in how many votes I received, because there were two votes from each person, each electoral. And Mr. Hamilton did not want the general to be embarrassed with a low victory. And so he made sure that people withheld a second vote for me, rather than assure that Mr. Washington had too few votes. And so he had 69 electoral college votes, and I had 34. So it was not Mr. Washington that needed to worry about being embarrassed. So that is the only difficulty I had with being the second president and the first Vice President. But aside from the fact that the Vice Presidency seemed to be an insignificant office at the time, but that is another story for another time. Well, you certainly made your mark on it and on American history. And I know that you mentioned James Madison before. Can you tell us some more about him? Do you have an opinion of him? I'm certainly grateful for Mr. Madison. I thought him to be a fine mind. I thought him to be very interesting and a very good defender of fighting against the tyranny of the majority. He believed very much as I did that if a group became too much in power, that they had no one to keep them in check, that they would simply create their own power, that they would serve as the government of Holland did years ago. The government of Holland voted themselves from having annual elections to having seven-year elections to being offices for life, to being unaccountable to the people. And so I feared that if we kept everything in one house or we kept everything in one group, that it would very quickly descend into a monarchy or an aristocracy. And the intent was, of course, to keep balance. So I'm grateful to him for that. I certainly thought him a wise enough mind of that. I do fear that he succumbed often to the prospects of popularity, as many people did. And when he was in his days as secretary, he, of course, resigned so that he would withdraw from public life. And many politicians grow, political plants seem to grow well into shade, as it were. They seemed to grow well when they are hidden from people. Their reputation improves because they are not constantly under the sunlight of the public eye. And so when they disappear, they suddenly become well remembered, almost romanticized for their efforts of the past, rather than remembered for what they actually did. And Mr. Jefferson did this, Mr. Madison did this, many Virginians seemed to do this. But I respect him for his efforts. And while I do not agree with everything that happened in the Constitution, I was grateful that he was at least eventually willing to compromise and to offer options that were beneficial to this whole country, moving forward as this whole country. Well, thank you. And in mentioning Virginia, I'll share with you, we also now have some Virginians joining us this morning, as well as some friends from New York. So we have a wide variety. Blended. I have nothing but great respect for all of my countrymen. I found that the Virginians of my day had a very interesting way of not debating with you as much as listening to you and then talking about you when you've left the room. But I'm sure they are much better now. And of course, when I was in New York on my way to Philadelphia, I discovered that the good people of New York seem to talk very loud and very fast and very much all together. And then when they would ask you a question, they would allow you three or four words of response before they all joined in again. So I'm sure things are much more calm and civilized in New York nowadays, of course. But yes, it was a very interesting time in this beginning of this nation. Oh, I'm sure you met so many interesting people during your work and your travels. I love to have time to hear all about them, but we're going to have to move to our final question for the day. Of course. So what advice do you as John Adams have for the young people today? What advice do I have for young people today? Goodness, that is, that is a very daunting question, because certainly I have always believed that it is not simply for our lives and our fortunes and sacred honor that we are conducting the business of this country that I served the country that I did and in the ways that I did. But it was for my children, for my countrymen's children and for their children, because I do believe that our actions are not simply limited to how they affect us, but how they affect others. And I certainly hope that that will be a measure that you will regard not only how your actions might affect you, but how they might affect others or how your inactions might affect others, because many times inaction is an action in itself. And so for us to take no measure of action is to take an action. We are allowing things to continue on as they were. So my best advice, I think, would be to see where there is good that needs to be done and to do it. Because I fear that there are far too many people that would allow things to happen around them rather than step up and take responsibility for what they needed to do for the good of not only for themselves, but for those who would come after them and those who are surrounding them, their neighbors. That is my greatest hope that you would simply realize that there is more to your actions than how they affect you. And if you remember that, then perhaps perhaps this country could serve very well. And of course, as was evidenced by the creation of the Declaration of Independence, independence itself, the Constitution, never be afraid to compromise, to meet someone in the middle as it were, to be able to not only engage in what you believe is best, but also to hear what other people think is best and find common ground where you may, so that you might work together for the benefit of all and so that all may benefit. Because if we did not do that, I do not know that we would be celebrating the 235th anniversary of the Constitution. It was fortunate that we were able to reach compromise. And so I ask that you think of that in your endeavors and that you think of others as well as yourself. That would be my best advice. Well, thank you. That is really fantastic advice. And some I know that will all keep in mind as we remember your legacy and get forward and look forward to celebrating Constitution Day. Thank you for that. Thank you for allowing me to spend time with you today. And certainly it is my great pleasure. And yes, thank you for remembering the name John Adams in the midst of all of those others who served in creation of this country. Well, thank you so much for your time. And before we part today, let's take one last look at that Doc's Teach Educational Activity related to John Adams. And we'll ask all of you to join us to meet Babe Diedrichsen, one of the greatest female athletes of all time on Friday, October 28th at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Babe Diedrichsen will be portrayed by Linda Kenyon. Thank you all for participating in our program today. Do you want to ask Kim-