A Revolutionary Guest: John Adams’ letters from Ipswich
John Adams visited Ipswich many times during his tenure as the Boston representative to the colonial legislature from 1770 to 1774.
After electoral defeat, neither Adams President attended his successor’s inauguration
John Adams, our second President, and his eldest son John Quincy Adams, our sixth President, both quietly departed Washington on the eve of their opponent’s inauguration. Each did so in good conscience, leaving their successors, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson respectively, to enjoy two terms in office.
John Adams’ long walk through the Neck
“I feel unutterable anxiety. God grant us wisdom and fortitude! Should the opposition be suppressed, should this country submit, what infamy and ruin! God forbid. Death in any form is less terrible!”
The Free Press
Historic quotes from Ipswich leaders supporting the free press.
Abigail Adams to John Adams: “All men would be tyrants if they could.”
March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams to John Adams:. “In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”
The “Commonwealth”
“Commonwealth” is defined as a state in which authority is vested in the citizenry. In the 17th Century it was the radical philosophy the work and the proceeds thereof should be shared by the people.
