Prompt:Please write 500 words on John Adams by using your out of text readings, text-book and the movie shown in class.

Response:John Adams was one of the most significant people in the process of declaring Independence from Great Britain. I had heard his name as a president but I never knew how important he was other than that. John Adams initiated the idea of the colonies permanently separating themselves from England and was an advocate for the colonies of the new world to become United States. John Adams understood that the destiny the colonies, in their current state, would eventually come to was the very thing (if not worse) they had intentionally left behind when they left Europe. He knew that was the only way the colonies would survive.

His idea was by far not the most popular thing he came up with. Initially very few agreed that his idea would even work and made sure he knew their opinion. They only wanted to make peace with England; they did not want to create more problems for themselves. He was passionate and relentless in his stand. As he saw mere boys attempting to fight full armies from Great Britain he knew something had to change. He could not bear to see or hear of the injustice the soldiers from England were inflicting on these people when they were supposed to be considered citizens of England themselves. They were not being given equal rights as the people who actually lived in  England yet they were suppose to honor the King just the same and he knew that it would only get worse not better for them. He said, “He was well aware of the ‘toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration.’ Still, the end was more than worth all the means.”(McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.pg130) He knew that the things they would suffer by not doing anything would have been greater than if they fought for their Independence. He knew they would be convicted of treason and hung if they failed, but he had faith in God that this movement away from England would not fail.

John Adams was not a man of great public speaking (which is why he asked Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration instead of himself). However, when he stood to respond to Dickinson’s appeal he delivered a speech which was the “most powerful and important speech heard in the Congress since it first convened, and the greatest speech of Adams’s life, there is no question.”(pg 127) I believe the hand of God was with him to help him speak the words he want and needed to say to the men of Congress. He was a very religious man and knew it was God’s will that America should break away from England and establish its own government. He was led by the spirit to influence the opinion and vote of the other delegates in Congress.  His speech, for the most part, united the men in congress to a unanimous vote to accept the Declaration of Independence which was one of the solidifying factors that began the revolutionary war.  

Tags: John Adams Declaration Of Independence Revolutionary War Congress Vote

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