U.S Presidents 1789 - 1817: Washington, Adams, Jefferson & Madison Documentary

[Music] The Man known to history as George  Washington was born on the 22nd of February 1732 at his father's Plantation of Pope's Creek  in Westmoreland County in the colony of Virginia one of the 13 British colonies in North America  his father was Augustine Washington a member of Virginia's landed gentry and a successful  businessman who owned several tobacco plantations as well as iron operations in Virginia and  neighboring Maryland in partnership with the English principio company he was al

so active in  the local militia and was a justice of the peace and sheriff for Westmoreland County Augustine  had married his first wife Jane Butler in 1715 Who Bore him four children before her death in  1729. a couple of years later in 1731 he would marry the 23 year old Mary Johnson ball who would  give him a further six children of whom George was the eldest Mary Washington was born in 1708  to an elderly father who died three years later leaving her 400 acres of land while her mother  died

when she was 12. the orphaned Mary was left in the care of family friend George Eskridge  who was probably responsible for introducing her to Augustine Washington thus when Mary gave  birth to her first son she named him George brought up as a loyal subject of the British  Empire as a child George Washington could never imagine that one day he would be responsible for  leading the successful military Rebellion to break free from Britain and establish the United States  of America he grew up in E

astern Virginia amidst a vast expanse of Farmland with Plantation houses  and small towns dotted across the landscape within the British social hierarchy the Washingtons  were considered commoners far removed from the Regal Splendor of the court of King George II  nevertheless within the American colonies the Washingtons were by no means poor and with over  ten thousand acres of Plantation land together with his other commercial interests Augustine  Washington was certainly a member of the local

Elite his wealth and prosperity depended in part  on slave labor allowing plantation owners a lot of free time which was typically filled with  Fox Hunt horse races and other entertainments Augustine Washington's tendency to move around his  properties to better manage his business interests meant that George had an unsettled childhood in  1735 the family moved to the 2500 acre estate of little Hunting Creek on the banks of the Potomac  River and three years later in 1738 they moved once again

to Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock  River across from the port of Fredericksburg and a short ride away from the Ironworks at  Accokeek Creek from his house George could see the ships being loaded with tobacco iron and  other Commodities which would soon fuel the very early stages of the Industrial Revolution and in  return the colony of Virginia grew steadily richer one of the most important figures in George's  childhood was his half-brother Lawrence 14 years older than George Lawrence studied a

t  Appleby grammar school where he stayed on as a teacher until the age of 20. it was around  this time when George was six years old that the two brothers first met he heard stories of  Lawrence's Service as a captain in a Virginia Company in 1739 during the war of Jenkins  ear against Spain named after the British Naval Captain whose ear had been cut off during an  altercation with the Spanish several years earlier Lawrence was part of an expeditionary Force  led by Admiral Edward Vernon which

attacked the Spanish Port of Cartagena in South America  the effort proved a bloody failure as the force was cut down by the enemy and yellow fever  Captain Washington never made it off the ship blaming General Thomas Wentworth who treated the  American soldiers with disdain and did not even let them leave their ships in spite of this  Lawrence Washington proudly served the British army as a commissioned officer and was appointed  adjutant general of Virginia with responsibility over the organi

zation of the colonies militia  companies when his father transferred him to the management of the estate at little Hunting  Creek he renamed it Mount Vernon after the Admiral George may have expected to receive the same  classical education as his Elder half-brothers but such hopes were extinguished on the 12th of  April 1743 when his father died at the age of 49 the 11 year old George's share of his father's  inheritance was Fairy Farm but his mother Mary continued to run the estate and would

continue to  do so as George reached adulthood Mary's strict upbringing of her five surviving children meant  that the relationship between mother and son was cool and distant with George addressing her  informal terms in his letters as honored Madam he looked forward to his trips to visit Lawrence  at Mount Vernon as an escape from his overbearing mother details of George Washington's Early  Education are sketchy and any instruction he received was likely rather basic the available  evidence su

ggests that he had lessons in basic mathematics and picked up knowledge of business  and economics of his own accord as a teenager he would read widely in history and philosophy as  well as the popular fiction of the time he also enjoyed physical activity and Outdoor Pursuits  swimming in the Rappahannock and proved to be an excellent horseback rider an attribute that  would serve him well in his military career later in life Washington regretted not having  the opportunity to study French Latin

and Greek the signs of Social and intellectual distinction  of the day among his better educated friends and colleagues such as John Adams Thomas Jefferson and  Alexander Hamilton Who provided the theoretical and intellectual foundations of the United States  of America Washington's intellect seemed backward and provincial in his own terms however he was  an intelligent man who could translate ideas into action after losing his father Washington came  to rely even more heavily on his brother La

wrence who had not only been elected to the House of  Burgesses but had married Anne Fairfax whose family owned more than 5 million Acres managed  by her father Colonel William Fairfax on behalf of his English cousin the sixth Baron Fairfax the  young George Washington befriended Anne's brother George William Fairfax who was eight years his  senior and also won the affection of her father the colonel in 1746 the Elder Fairfax and Lawrence  planned to help George escape the clutches of his mother

by joining the Royal Navy unwilling to lose  a useful helping hand on the farm Mary eventually vetoed the plan thwarted in his Ambitions to go  to Sea at the age of 15 George decided to become a surveyor a lucrative profession as settlers  continued to expand westwards this training allowed him to appreciate geographical features  on maps and in the real world a skill which he would use throughout his professional life his  first job in the spring of 1748 was to help the fairfaxes Divide up the

ir vast domains into plots  for further development within a couple of years he would make his first investments in land buying  up over 2 000 acres by the time he turned 20. George would add to his land Holdings in 1752  following the death of Lawrence from tuberculosis that July at the age of 34 leaving behind his  wife and a baby daughter Lawrence stipulated that in the event of their deaths his estate of  Mount Vernon would pass on to George the death of his brother dealt a heavy blow to Geo

rge  who had hoped to emulate Lawrence's military career after lobbying the lieutenant governor of  Virginia Robert dinwiddy he was appointed adjutant general of his home District in February 1753  with the rank of major major Washington would soon be a very busy man by 1753 both the British  and French Empires owned large tracts of land in North America the 13 British colonies stretched  along the eastern coast bounded by the Allegheny Mountains to the West while the French territories  ran fro

m New Orleans in the southwest through the Mississippi to the great lakes and the Saint  Lawrence River in the north as both Empires expanded their footprint they soon had competing  claims on the vast Ohio country in 1752 the French began building several forts in the disputed  territory and the following year lieutenant governor dinwiddy a leading investor in the Ohio  company received permission from London to build a set of British forts alongside instructions to  inform the French to leave

the area the 21 year old Washington was chosen for this special Mission  and set off with a small company and crossed the alleghenies in November 1753. Washington executed  his task diligently not only carrying out his diplomatic duties but Gathering Intelligence on  the terrain and the strength of the French and Native American presence in the area upon his  return to the Colonial capital of Williamsburg in January 1754. his Journal was adapted into a  report for the council and was passed on t

o London where it informed British military preparations  to defend the Ohio country against the French Washington secured for himself a major role  in these military preparations leading a small militia Force who would March to the forks of  the Ohio river and construct a fort at the same time he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant  Colonel though he was disappointed that as a colonial officer his salary was much lower than  those of regular officers in the British army who had Royal Commiss

ions in early April  Washington set out with 160 men Into the Wilderness only to learn that a force of one  thousand Frenchmen had captured the fort the British were building at the forks and renamed  it Fort Duquesne after the governor-general of French Canada Washington and his native American  Allies called for reinforcements and made camp on the 28th of May 1754 Washington and his company  found a small group of French soldiers encamped in a secluded position believing them to be up  to no g

ood Washington men surrounded them and a quick firefight resulted in a French surrender  during the Skirmish a French officer delivering a diplomatic message asking the British to evacuate  the Ohio County was supposedly brutally killed by one of Washington's Native American Allies  the ACT sparked an international incident and while Washington was applauded in the colonies for  being a hero the authorities in London considered his behavior Reckless and further evidence  that Colonial soldiers c

ould not be trusted anticipating a French response Washington  hastily constructed a wooden fort named Fort Necessity during these preparations his commanding  officer had died after falling off his horse and Washington took command of the Virginia regiment  as Colonel when he disregarded his native American Allies advice to withdraw on account of the  inadequate defenses provided by the fort they deserted him and left the British to fight alone  when the French and their Native American Allies

attacked on the 3rd of July Washington put up  a brave fight but lost a third of his men and was forced to surrender it was a humiliating  defeat and he had made many mistakes owing to his lack of experience but he learned from it the  effectiveness of the enemy's mobile tactics and the futility of Defending poor positions the  defeat could have ended Washington's military career before it started but instead after a few  weeks and passed he and his men were praised for their Brave last stand ag

ainst the odds while  the Virginia regiment was disbanded leaving Washington without a command his personal fortunes  improved when his late brother Lawrence's daughter died at the end of December as Anne had already  remarried Washington agreed to lease the estate of Mount Vernon from his sister-in-law and made  it his main residence not long after he moved into Mount Vernon Washington received news in February  1755. the general Edward Braddock had landed with two regiments of reinforcements f

rom Britain  Washington rushed to offer his services and Braddock was happy to have him as aide decomp  leaving his younger brother Jack in charge of Mount Vernon Washington joined Braddock in June  and the Army made its slow progress towards Fort Duquesne although personally warm towards  Washington Braddock held the same disdain for Colonial soldiers as many of his fellow  officers in the regular army and refused to heed his aide decomp's advice to travel lightly before  eventually giving in t

o the situation to pick up the glacial pace of the Advance on the 9th of July  Braddock approached Fort Duquesne with more than 2 000 men and divided his army into three columns to  attack the British were surprised by the Ferocious defense of 900 French and Native Americans whose  tactics once again proved Superior Washington bravely carried out Braddock's orders to rally  the troops exposing himself to Great danger with two horses shot from underneath him this was not  enough to bring Victory

and Braddock himself was mortally wounded following Braddock's death the  Virginia regiment was reformed and Washington was appointed commander of all of Virginia's forces  despite these rapid promotions Washington remained unhappy about not receiving a royal commission  he resented London's strategy to pursue active operations in Canada while remaining on the  defensive on the frontiers of Virginia leaving him nothing to do but to train and drill his men  he was dismayed by the state of the mil

itiamen under his responsibility many of whom deserted on  mass in late 1757 he was struck down by a grave illness that prompted him to return to Mount  Vernon during this time he would begin to make changes to the estate and create a house fit for  an English Country Gentleman in early 1758 after a brief courtship he was engaged to Martha Dandridge  custis a wealthy 26 year old Widow whose husband had died the previous summer leaving her with two  young children a warm and sociable woman Martha

was the polar opposite of her mother-in-law Mary  and proved to steadfast support in her husband's life and career capable not only of carrying out  the domestic duties of a housewife but also of running the Mount Vernon estate in her husband's  absence in July 1758 Washington returned to action as the British made a further attempt to seize  Fort Duquesne and Avenge the loss of Braddock this time serving under the Scottish General John  Forbes in the meantime he entered political office for th

e first time by handsomely winning election  to the Virginia House of Burgesses representing Frederick County a reflection of his reputation  as a war hero despite some disagreements with his Superior and a devastating friendly fire incident  which claimed the lives of more than 20 of his men Washington LED 2 500 men and successfully  recaptured Fort Duquesne in November 1758 instead of the Ferocious defense he had met on previous  occasions he encountered no resistance at all as the French chos

e to abandon and destroy  the fort after falling out with their Native American Allies the British rebuilt it and named  it Fort Pitt after war minister William Pitt while the city that was built around it would take the  name of Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania the action would be Washington's last in the  French and Indian War better known as the seven years war in Europe where the fighting between  Britain and France supported by their respective allies would last until 1763. Washingto

n returned  to Mount Vernon and married Martha on the 6th of January 1759 making him one of Virginia's richest  landowners in their efforts to emulate the upper class in England importing the latest fashions  from London Washington became increasingly indebted to his London agents and resented their  power over the colonial Planters at the same time he carried out his Civic duties in the House  of Burgesses serving on committees related to military matters and limiting any speeches  to the most

important points of the debate for the next two decades of his life Washington  would devote his energies to his Plantation in particular to growing tobacco this proved a poor  economic decision and one Washington would later regret as the quality of the tobacco crop was  highly dependent on weather conditions while international market prices were volatile  these factors contributed to Washington's struggles repaying his debts to his creditors in  London another key aspect of tobacco farming wa

s its labor intensiveness and dependence on slavery  during his life Washington owned over 600 slaves he and his fellow Planters treated slaves as  any other type of property to be bought and sold although over time he grew to despise the  practice and treated his slaves more humanely than most of his peers looking after their health  and eventually refusing to sell any of his slaves in order to keep families together the French and  Indian War ended in 1763 in a decisive victory for the British

in North America France had lost  Canada to Britain and Louisiana to Spain the cost to the British treasury had been enormous  and half the national budget went on interest repayments on government debt in an effort to  fill the hole in government coffers Parliament attempted to impose taxes and other economic costs  onto the North American colonies preventing the existing colonies from further Westward Expansion  as a soldier Washington had resented the superior attitude of the British authori

ties and the  refusal to give him a royal commission as a businessman Washington now had cause to consider  the decisions of the British authorities to be detrimental to his economic interests the most  infamous piece of legislation passed by parliament was the Stamp Act of 1765 which imposed attacks on  all printed material Inc including legal documents newspapers and playing cards Washington may  not have been the most radical of the voices protesting against the Stamp Act on the political  st

age but he considered the tax unconstitutional and wrote to his representatives in London that  the colonies would begin to boycott British goods in favor of domestic substitutes and courts  would shut down preventing British creditors from collecting their dues from their American debtors  at around the same time and perhaps concerned about his dependency on British credit Washington  decided to diversify away from tobacco eventually abandoning the crop altogether in favor of wheat  corn hemp a

nd dozens of other crops Mount Vernon also had an extensive fishing Enterprise from  the plentiful stocks on the Potomac initially for consumption within the house and later  salted and cured for export to International markets the diverse certification away from the  labor-intensive tobacco crop encouraged Washington to train his Surplus slaves in a number of crafts  such as carpentry bricklaying smithing and baking although parliamentar appealed the Stamp  Act in 1766 it continued to assert th

e right to taxation in the colonies prompting  sustained opposition which spread throughout the 13 colonies in 1767 the Townsend acts named  after the British Chancellor of the exchequeror at the time levied duties on paint lead glass  paper and tea during the winter of 1768 to 69 Washington's attitude became more radical and he  supported a boycott of British goods while he did not rule out armed Insurrection against what  he considered a sustained attack on American Liberties he believed that

non-violent economic  measures should be used first in April 1769 Washington took a more proactive role in the  House of Burgesses intending to present a plan for the importation of British goods developed  alongside his friend George Mason of Fairfax County 20 the following month the assembly voted  in favor of a set of results which asserted that the House of Burgesses had the sole right to tax  Virginians in response the Royal Governor Lord Boko dissolved the body forcing the Burgesses  to re

convene in a Tavern where they debated and adopted Washington's proposals to boycott the  goods subject to taxation under the town's end acts the move had some effect prompting the new  British government under Lord North to repeal the town's end acts keeping only the levees on T to  continue asserting parliament's right to taxation the situation had temporarily been defused but  the remaining taxes on T provoked the Boston Tea Party on the 16th of December 1773 when a group  of men from the Ame

rican Patriot organization Sons of Liberty boarded a merchant ship belonging  to the East India Company and dumped its valuable cargo of tea into Boston Harbor while Washington  was dismayed by the protest he was furious at the British response which involved passing a number  of draconian measures against Boston collectively known as the Intolerable Acts the most important  of which closed the port of Boston to trade until the East India Company was compensated for the  loss of cargo in the Hou

se of Burgesses Washington supported an initiative to show solidarity with  Boston by convening a Congress of all 13 colonies to protect their Collective rights in July  1774 while chairing a meeting in Fairfax County which he had represented since 1765. Washington  passed the Fairfax resolves which he had drafted alongside George Mason asserting that taxation  and representation are in their nature inseparable Washington thus became one of the leading  Advocates of resistance against Britain an

d on the 5th of August he was elected to Virginia's  seven-man delegation to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia which would meet the  following month surrounded by some of the finest orators of the day Washington spoke rarely  but effectively bringing together different viewpoints as the delegates were increasingly  convinced that war would break out Washington's name was on many of their lips when it came to a  commander-in-chief the 42 year old Washington had developed a sense of p

olitical maturity that  had been absent in his younger days and did not actively Lobby for the command confident that  his reputation would be enough to secure the post for the time being the Continental Congress was  content to set up a continental Association to coordinate efforts among the colonies the band  trade with Great Britain on the 19th of April 1775 British Redcoats and American militiamen  exchanged fire at Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts marking the outbreak of the American 

Revolutionary War Washington had already secured election to the Second Continental Congress which  opened on the 10th of May with the agenda firmly focused on raising militia and volunteers across  the colonies Washington appeared in the Congress wearing his Colonel's uniform and his expertise  in military Affairs was in high demand among his fellow delegates on the 14th of June the Congress  assumed control of the volunteer army laying Siege to the British forces in Boston under the  command

of General Thomas Gage thereby creating the Continental Army and Washington was appointed  General and commander-in-chief of the army of the United Colonies on the 16th while on his way  to take command of the Continentals in Boston Washington received news of the Battle of Bunker  Hill on the 17th of June where two thousand men under General William Howe successfully captured  the American positions but at the cost of 1 000 casualties demonstrating that the Continentals  were more than capable

of putting up a fight upon arriving in Boston Washington sought to instill  in his men the idea that they were a national Army rather than from a collection of States upon  inspecting his army he was disappointed to find that he only had 14 000 men fit for Duty living  in poor conditions while supplies of gunpowder were dangerously low fearing British spies he  kept quiet about these deficiencies to all but his closest confidants during this period the  commander-in-chief came to be particularly

close to Brigadier General Nathaniel Greene from Rhode  Island as well as 25 year old artillery Commander Colonel Henry Knox a Boston Bookseller who had  learned everything about military affairs from the books and the British offices he talked to  in his shop Washington struggled in his efforts to create a professional standing army recruits  were authorized to serve for one year with the effect that no sooner had they been trained and  drilled to fight effectively they would melt away and ret

urn to their homes as he faced losing his  entire Army on the 1st of January 1776 Washington attempted to persuade the men to re-enlist but  fewer than ten thousand would agree to do so by the end of the year in order to bolster numbers  Washington considered recruiting from the black population while black soldiers had fought in  the ranks of the volunteers in Massachusetts and were considered every bit as Brave as  their white counterparts as a leading figure of Virginia's slave holding class

the thought of  of arming black men raised the prospect of slave rebellion at a war council in October Washington  prohibited any black soldiers from serving in the Continental Army but upon hearing that Virginia's  Governor Lord Dunmore had promised to free slaves who were to join the British army Washington  compromised and allowed free blacks to serve in his ranks who would make up around 10 percent  of the Continental Army as winter approached Washington realized he could not abandon his arm

y  and return to Mount Vernon and instead invited his wife Martha to stay with him Martha Washington  would spend half the war with her husband on campaign serving as a trusted Confidant for his  concerns and anxieties about his Army and the war the condition Washington's men found themselves  in during the first winter of the War caused morale to plummet leading the men to question if  their cause could ever succeed the politicians in Philadelphia were still split on whether to  declare indepen

dence and some still believed in petitioning King George III and reconciling  with Britain the publication of Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense in January 1776 highlighted  the tyrannical power of monarchy and galvanized the movement for Independence Spirits further  increased on the 17th of January when Henry Knox arrived after accomplishing the incredible  logistical feat of hauling almost 60 pieces of cannon from 40 Condor Roga in New York near  the Canadian border across the December snow

s to Washington's Camp although Washington still  lacked the powder for a Full Assault on Boston he successfully maneuvered the cannon onto the  Dorchester Heights overlooking the city during the course of a single night on the 4th of March  leaving the British with no choice but to evacuate having captured Boston without losing a single  man Washington hurried to New York believing that General Howe would attempt to take the city  although the city's geography made it difficult to defend from t

he British Army and there was a  large population of loyalists sympathizing with the British Washington recognized the political  and Commercial importance to the Continental cause and felt compelled to make a stand despite  being significantly outnumbered meanwhile the drum beat for Independence was sounding ever louder  and the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson Washington's colleague in  the Virginia House of Burgesses was adopted by Congress on the 4th of July 1776 and w

as received  with wild enthusiasm by the Continental Army when Washington read the Declaration to them on the  8th the enthusiasm was premature as the British Army and Navy commanded by Brothers William  and Richard Howe soon descended on New York at the head of 30 2000 men and 70 warships  Keen to defeat the Rebellion once and for all by mid-august Washington had 23 000 men under  his command but most were inexperienced recruits meanwhile when the British landed two-thirds of  their Force at Lo

ng Island Washington misread it as a diversion and only sent six thousand men  to defend the Brooklyn Heights to the west of the island keeping most of his men in Manhattan on  the 26th the Continentals were surrounded by the British with 300 killed and one thousand captured  but on the night of the 29th of August Washington took advantage of Howe's reluctance to stage of  full Pursuit by evacuating all the men from Long Island to Manhattan the commander himself was  on the last boat across the

East River shrouded from the British by thick fog a few days later  Washington withdrew from the city to the north the Continentals had built Fort Washington  and Fort Lee overlooking the Hudson River but these were taken by the British in November  for using the Continentals to flee across to New Jersey these setbacks also called into question  Washington's command abilities and his subordinate General Charles Lee schemed to replace him upon  discovering the plot Washington said nothing to Lee

who received his comeuppance in mid-December  when he was captured by the British Washington's continental army was a bedraggled group of fewer  than 4 000 men when it crossed the Delaware River to Pennsylvania while Howe's Army was in Striking  range of Philadelphia forcing the Continental Congress to evacuate to Baltimore with little to  lose and with a few thousand extra reinforcements under General Horatio Gates Washington planned  a daring operation back across the Delaware to surprise thre

e regiments of Hessian mercenaries  stationed in Trenton New Jersey Washington planned to cross the River on the night of Christmas day  in order to surprise the enemy whom he expected to be drunk at the time despite a fierce snowstorm  which meant his main column of 2400 men only got the other side of the river by four in the morning  on the 26th Washington pressed on to Trenton although the Hessians were sober they failed  to believe that Washington would attempt such a daring operation in suc

h foul weather the element  of surprise and the effectiveness of Henry knox's artillery combined with Washington's effective use  of terrain to beat back a counter-attack obliged the Hessians to surrender the Continentals killed  and wounded 100 Hessians and captured 900 more all for the loss of fewer than 10 men while Washington  is usually considered a defensive General who avoided battle with the odds against him he was  capable of some of the most daring attacks in the history of warfare the

success at Trenton was  followed up by a similarly lopsided victory at Princeton a few days later enabling Washington's  men to push forward and expel the British almost completely from New Jersey the victories  provided a boost to morale and allowed Congress to move back to Philadelphia but with only a few  thousand men Washington was obliged to remain on the defensive launching frequent raids into enemy  territory in March 1777 the 22 year old artillery Captain Alexander Hamilton joined Washi

ngton's  staff as a decomp The Talented Hamilton was able to handle much of the commander-in-chief's  correspondence and would later become his chief aide at the end of July Washington welcomed to his  side the Marquis De Lafayette a 20 year old French Aristocrat who shared in the political ideals of  the American Revolution and defied a royal order to travel to America and volunteer his service to  the cause with Lafayette at his side Washington and Congress hoped that France would be persuaded

  to join an alliance with the nascent United States foreign the first half of 1777 Washington remained  on the defensive and awaited house movements by the end of August the British commander landed  on the Chesapeake Bay and marched on Philadelphia Keen not to lose the capital without a fight  Washington hurried to cut him off and deployed his army amongst The Ravines of Brandywine  Creek on the southwestern approaches of the city anticipating a decisive battle on the 11th  of September Howe l

aunched his attack sending 5 000 Hessians to attack Washington's main defensive  position in a frontal assault while he led a force of more than 8 000 men on a long flanking maneuver  aiming to cross the brandy wine at a couple of undefended forts while the Continentals held firm  against the frontal assault by midday Washington wondered about the whereabouts of the main enemy  force and soon began to receive reports of an enemy flanking maneuver the American Commander  realized that he had been

outwitted and galloped to the sector in question to find two brigades of  Redcoats not realizing that Howe's entire force was on its way by four in the afternoon three  columns of British troops were thrown into the attack routing the Continentals at the end of  the battle the Continental sustained more than 1 000 casualties including 400 captured while  British casualties were half the number the defeat at Brandywine resulted in the British  occupation of Philadelphia forcing Congress to evacu

ate again this time to Trenton although the  Continentals had fought bravely at Brandywine once again Washington's failure to prepare adequately  and his inability to respond quickly when the battle did not unfold as planned resulted in  catastrophe for the American course the American Commander was not disheartened and on the 3rd  of October less than a month after Brandywine Washington planned a daring night attack on  house camp at Germantown hoping to repeat his heroics at Trenton the previo

us winter however  this time around Washington's plans unraveled in the middle of the night and he was forced to  abandon the attack after sustaining twice as many casualties as the British once again he tried  his best to make light of the defeat in reports to Congress and his audacious attack demonstrated  to the British that the was still a lot of fight left in The Battered and bruised Continental Army  while Washington's Main Army had suffered a series of setbacks against General Howe on the

17th of  October General Horatio Gates had defeated and captured a British Army of 5 000 men under General  John Burgoyne at Saratoga in New York which had been attempting to March South to join Howe while  Washington welcomed the news of gates stunning Victory he felt threatened by a subordinate who  had previously been a Critic and whom he believed was seeking the Supreme command for himself  these fears were confirmed when Gates was named as the president of the Congressional Board of War  g

iving him supervisory Powers over Washington and his army the board of War also appointed General  Thomas Conway as Inspector General with extensive Powers over training and discipline which bypassed  Washington promoting him to Major General in the process when Conway arrived at Washington's camp  at Valley Forge to announce his appointment the commander was incensed and informed Conway that  his generals would not recognize his authority obliging Congress to send Conway elsewhere  Washington h

ad stood firm retained his command and increased his authority Washington's quarters  for the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge 20 miles to the northwest of Philadelphia has entered  into American Legend for yet another winter the Continental Army was in a desperate State and  risked falling apart with thousands of men sick hungry cold and demoralized Washington's efforts  to beg Congress for supplies came to nothing and he came to realize that the existing Constitution  the Articles of Confeder

ation which left most political power with individual states gave  congress little power and undermined his efforts to create a national Army yet Washington's  Presence at the camp helped to keep his men together in these trying times when other armies  may have melted away while Martha Washington's care and attention for the men won her respect and  affection throughout the ranks Washington was also helped by the arrival of Friedrich von Steuben  a Prussian officer who had served in Frederick t

he great armies during the Seven Years War the  Prussian Army was considered the best in Europe famous for its discipline and Order attributes  which the Continentals sorely lacked within a matter of weeks stoiven drilled the Army in line  and column formations and Associated Maneuvers and also began working on a drill manual which would  remain in use by the United States Army for almost a century by the beginning of March Washington  had 12 000 men at his disposal ready for action a far more s

ignificant boost to the American war  effort came in the form of an alliance with France signed in Paris on the 6th of February 1778.  the alliance changed the Strategic picture of the war forcing the British troops under their  new Commander Sir Henry Clinton to withdraw from Philadelphia to New York and attach 8 000 men  to defend the West Indies from the French while Clinton's men were on the retreat Washington  ordered General Charles Lee recently released in a prisoner exchange to take up h

is previous  role as second in command to lead a Vanguard of 5 000 men against the British at Monmouth Courthouse  Lee who had advised against the operation launched a half-hearted attack that was easily repulsed by  the British sending The continental's Reeling and inviting a counter-attack a furious Washington  rallied his reserve of six thousand men and managed to turn the tide of the battle due during  two hours of fierce fighting Washington decided against sending his exhausted Army to purs

ue the  British who managed to slip away to Safety in the middle of the night in the weeks following the  Battle General Lee was court-martialed and found guilty and Washington was happy to see the back  of him for the next three years the British forces turned their attention to the South during this  period Washington would not fight a major battle though he was by no means inactive in the summer  of 1778 the French navy sailed up the Chesapeake to join Washington though the cooperation betwee

n  the subjects of an absolute monarchy and the citizens of a revolutionary Republic was far from  seamless as the Americans realized that the French were motivated foremost by animosity against  the British rather than support for the American cause and once again Washington found himself  interacting with European Military Officers who looked down on Americans and rarely kept  him updated on their whereabouts the following summer Washington managed to stop Clinton from  controlling the Hudson

River and cutting off New England from the rest of the United States  but this period otherwise proved uneventful by 1780 Washington's Army was low on money and  supplies and Military success seemed impossible without the assistance of the French Lafayette  had been in France since the beginning of 1779 and lobbied for greater French assistance to the  American cause King Louis XVI answered the call by sending an expeditionary force of 6 000 men to  America under the command of the com de rosham

bo in conjunction with the fleet commanded by the  Chevalier de tarne who landed in Newport Rhode Island on the 10th of July 1780. meanwhile the  Continentals had suffered a series of setbacks in the south beginning with the loss of the Port of  Charleston in South Carolina in May and followed by Horatio Gates defeat to General Charles  Cornwallis at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina on the 16th of August whose dismissal by  Congress and the aftermath of the debacle removed the final challe

nge to Washington's Authority in  the Continental Army worse was to follow in late September when Washington belatedly recognized  the treachery of Benedict Arnold the courageous continental army officer who had fought with  distinction at Saratoga but had been nursing a wounded ego after being overlooked for promotion  in August Arnold had been appointed commandant of the vital strategic Fort of West Point  but rather than strengthen his defenses he plotted to surrender it to the British managi

ng to  escape just in time when the plot was discovered by 1781 British successes in the South and  Arnold's defection threatened Washington's home state of Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson  whose own home at Monticello had been occupied by Arnold's men urged Washington to lead his  men's South to defend his home state though the American Commander was anxious about the fate of  his beloved Mount Vernon and had centered division under Lafayette to confront Arnold in Virginia  Washington prefer

red to keep his men in New York and believe the decisive blow against the British  would fall there though his French allies planned an operation in the South instead by mid-august  Washington abandoned his designs on New York when he received news that a French Fleet of 29 ships  under the command of Admiral DeGrasse had set sail from the West Indies and intended to land a force  of 3500 men on the Chesapeake in early September Washington had also received news from Lafayette  that Cornwallis h

ad retreated to Yorktown located on the Eastern tip of the Virginia Peninsula and  surrounded by water on three sides Washington and roshambo hurried South in an effort to  trap Cornwallis and force him to surrender by the beginning of September the Gracie's  Fleet had arrived on the Chesapeake as planned overcoming limited British resistance leaving  Cornwallis trapped between the French ships at Sea and lafayette's small force on land by  the 18th of September Washington and roshambo met with

the Admiral to discuss plans for the  siege the glass was adamant that he would have to return to the West Indies no later than the 1st  of November allowing little more than a month for the operation when Washington and roshambo began  to lay Siege to Yorktown on the 28th of September the American Commander deferred to his French  counterpart who was more experienced in Siege tactics cornwallis's Army of nine thousand  men was significantly outnumbered by the 19 000 French and Americans besiegi

ng Yorktown  and the British general desperately pleaded for additional reinforcements from General Clinton  after the French Engineers built two lines of inches allowing Allied artillery to rain down  cannonballs into Yorktown on the 14th the Allies successfully captured two British radettes in  front of the town and by the 16th they were so close to the British lines that Cornwallis  attempted a last-ditch evacuation across the York River which was scuppered by poor weather on  the morning of

the 17th of October 1783 Cornwallis sent Washington a message to discuss the terms  of surrender which was signed on the 19th cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown did not  end the war but it persuaded the authorities in London that it was no longer worth sustaining  the costly effort to retain the American colonies upon hearing of the news of Yorktown Lord North  is said to have exclaimed oh God it's all over and his government duly collapsed in early 1782.  Henry Clinton was replaced as commander

-in-chief by Sir guy Carlton whose role was largely reduced  to organizing the evacuation of British assets from their former colonies Washington regarded  Carlton's peace offers with suspicion and still anticipated continued hostilities however aside  from a handful of skirmishes in the south over the course of 1782 the war was over and preliminary  peace terms were signed in Paris on the 30th of November 1782 an extraordinarily generous  settlement recognized using the independence of the Unit

ed States of America with borders  stretching North to the great lakes and west of the Mississippi setting the stage for  a final piece ratified in September 1783. although he had been the most powerful individual  in the United States with an army at his disposal Washington chose to return to Life as a private  citizen at Mount Vernon and relinquished his Commission on the 23rd of December 1783 following  the example of Lucius quintius cincinatus the 5th Century BC Roman general famed for relin

quishing  his powers as dictator after being summoned to defeat Rome's enemies Upon returning to Mount  Vernon Washington set out to give his estate a new lease of life after the neglect it had  suffered during the war during this period Washington was courted by anti-slavery campaigners  including Lafayette who proposed an experiment to educate and free slaves who would become tenant  Farmers Washington had always believed slavery was an economically inefficient institution and  after the war h

e became morally opposed to slavery but he could not bear overhauling the entire  economic system on which his livelihood as a planter dependent like many of his fellow  Planters Washington naively believed that the institution of slavery would die out naturally in  the future despite his desire to leave public life Washington's reputation meant that he could  not remain in obscurity for long throughout the war he had longed for a stronger central  government that could compel the states to supp

ly his army and he had not departed from  this belief Washington therefore welcomed an initiative to revise the Articles of Confederation  led by his former aide Alexander Hamilton and The Virginian politician James Madison and was invited  by the latter to head a delegation from Virginia to a constitutional convention in Philadelphia  scheduled for May 1787. after months of hesitation Washington answered the call of duty and was duly  elected president of the Constitutional Convention on the 25

th of May the role was a perfect fit  for the non-partisan Washington who intervened occasionally to broker agreement between different  points of view the convention was dominated by 2 two major questions both relating to  representation the more populous states such as Virginia wanted an assembly with seats  allocated according to population while smaller States desired equal representation in mid-july a  compromise was reached whereby all states would be represented equally with two members i

n the Senate  while the seats of the House of Representatives would be based on population the second compromise  was over slavery while slaves would not have any political rights slave holding States could  count three-fifths of the slave population in determining their representation in Congress the  convention also created an independent executive branch from Congress and it was widely assumed  that Washington would become the first president the proceedings in Philadelphia were concluded  on

the 17th of September 1787 but it was not until July 1788 when the Constitution was ratified  with Washington's native Virginia being one of the last to do so Washington hesitated to declare  his candidacy for the presidency responding to fears that he might have Royal Ambitions though  his reputation as the American Cincinnatus and his childless status helped to calm fears of a  hereditary monarchy and led admirers to call him father of the country thus when the presidential  election was held

in early 1789 Washington was unanimously elected president while John Adams  of Massachusetts was elected vice president after the election was certified on the 6th of April  Washington traveled to New York the temporary home of the federal government and was inaugurated  as president on the 30th of April 1789. when Washington took office as president the  institutions of the federal government were still being set up the Constitution had left the  duties of the president deliberately vague and

it was up to Congress and Washington to delineate  their respective Powers Washington's four-man cabinet was assembled by the spring of 1790  including his former subordinates in the Army and his fellow Virginians Alexander Hamilton was  appointed Secretary of the Treasury Henry Knox Secretary of War Thomas Jefferson Secretary of  State and Jefferson's cousin Edmund Randolph as attorney general the Constitution did not provide  for a cabinet in the British sense and Washington typically worked

directly with his cabinet  secretaries in the early stages of his presidency Washington also relied heavily on the advice of  James Madison the father of the Constitution who served as a congressman representing Virginia in  the House of Representatives Washington's vice Pres President John Adams played a minor  role in his administration and took his duties as president of the Senate more seriously  among Washington's cabinet secretaries the most brilliant was Alexander Hamilton who labored har

d  to strengthen the power of the federal government carrying out his duties as tirelessly as he  had done as Washington's Chief aide during the Revolutionary War unlike the President Hamilton  had a Grand Vision for the architecture of the federal government and had also developed an  expertise in financial matters that Washington could not match effectively making him into  an unofficial prime minister despite being an admirer of Washington Jefferson viewed Hamilton's  designs with suspicion b

elieving that they would lead to a despotic presidency and criticized the  president privately for going along with such ideas the Hamilton and Jefferson rivalry reflected  the intellectual and ideological debates over the future direction of the American government and  while Washington allowed free debate among his cabinet members he was no imp partial Observer  and played an active role in decision making controlling the agenda and requesting papers from  his cabinet secretaries for his perso

nal approval each day Washington's leadership style was slow  and deliberative and he consulted widely before making decisions a privilege that he did not  have while a general in the heat of battle the debate over Hamilton's economic agenda  dominated Washington's presidency in January 1790 Hamilton delivered his report on the Public Credit  which proposed the creation of a national debt to be paid over time and financed by new taxes  additionally Hamilton proposed that the federal government s

hould assume State debts in effect  transferring the Loyalty of debt holders from the states to the national government Washington  shared Hamilton's belief in a powerful national government which could raise funds to meet  its financial obligations and was happy to let his treasury secretary work out the details any  talk of Taxation brought up memories of British colonial rule prompting Madison to come out in  opposition and break his alliance with Hamilton and Washington withholding Congressi

onal support  for the proposals the president was disappointed by the loss of a close Ally as well as the  beginnings of the split between the northern and southern states which would continue to Define  American politics until the present day Washington would also prove a supporter of Hamilton's  proposals for a National Bank despite the arguments from Jefferson and his fellow Virginians  that such a move would be unconstitutional the debate over the public debt coincided  with disagreements ab

out the location of the permanent capital of the United States many  Southerners hope to bring the capital further to the South and Madison favored a location in  Virginia along the banks of the Potomac where both he and Washington had property naturally the  president welcomed this Prospect but Congress was now deadlocked on both issues a crucial meeting  between Hamilton Jefferson and Madison in June 1790 saw the three-man broker a deal whereby  the Virginians agreed to drop opposition to Hami

lton's economic program in return for Hamilton  supporting the proposal to move to Philadelphia as a temporary capital for 10 years while a permanent  one was being built on the Potomac Washington was given power to choose the site and Julie picked  a location not far from Mount Vernon and the Commissioners he had chosen to oversee the project  later decided to name the City Washington in the District of Columbia the two debates which had  threatened to dissolve the union were therefore both res

olved in Washington's favor the debate  over the future of the union and the powers of the federal government easily spilled over into  Foreign Affairs although he had fought against the British Washington and Hamilton realized that the  prosperity of the United States remained dependent on trade and commerce with the former Imperial  Master which recovered rapidly after the end of the war Jefferson Washington's Secretary of  State and chief foreign policy adviser remained attached to France esp

ecially after Louis xvi's  absolute monarchy was overthrown by the revolution of 1789 which Jefferson witnessed firsthand as  Ambassador de France shortly before his return to the United States Lafayette had emerged as one  of the leaders of the Revolutionary government inspired by the ideas of Liberty which he had  fought for in America Washington feared that the French Revolution made Ascend into mob violence a  fear that proved prophetic in the subsequent years when the radical Jacobin factio

n took over in  September 1792 and executed King Louis and Queen Mary Antoinette the following year while Lafayette  was forced into exile despairing in Hamilton and Jefferson's rivalry whose supporters had coalesced  into two parties the Federalists and Republicans respectively Washington sought to bring the two  men together despite his skill in finding common ground across political divides at the Continental  Congress and in the Constitutional Convention the president struggled to do so in t

he face of  these two towering personalities who had taken to attacking each other by writing Anonymous letters  in the Press Washington intended to step down from the presidency after one term but was persuaded by  both men to stay on believing that he was the only man who could keep the country together during the  winter of 1792 he was re-elected to a second term while Adams remained in post as vice president  seeing off a challenge from Jefferson however the Jeffersonian Republicans had won

a clear majority  in the House of Representatives so setting the stage for strong Congressional opposition to  Washington's Administration during his second term Washington's second term was dominated by  foreign policy issues arising from the war which had broken out between Britain and France  in 1792 while Jefferson argued that the United States and France were still allies from the war  Hamilton and Knox believed that the alliance was null and void now that Louis XVI had been  overthrown and

executed Washington hoped to remain neutral between the two warring Nations  knowing that the United States was too weak to exert much diplomatic or military pressure  following Washington's proclamation of American neutrality on the 22nd of April 1793 the French  Envoy edmal Charles Journey went to Philadelphia in an effort to persuade the United States to go  to war against Britain while the Frenchmen proved popular among the American public Washington  received him coldly as someone seeking

to interfere in American politics Janae made matters  worse by incur urging French privateers attacking British shipping to sail into American ports and  threatened to go over Washington's head and appeal to the American people these insults damaged the  pro-french cause and prompted the American cabinet to ask for janae's recall but upon learning  that the Jacobins were recalling their Envoy and planned to put him on trial Washington granted  him asylum in the United States the conduct of the B

ritish during this period also increased tensions  with the United States in the summer of 1793 the British began to intercept neutral ships Bound  for French ports thereby confiscating the cargo of American ships the British Navy's practice of  impressment rounding up British deserters aboard American ships to serve in the Navy frequently  caught innocent Americans in the net responding to Federalist calls for a special Envoy to be sent  to Britain to negotiate a treaty of Commerce and diffused

the threat of War Washington dispatched  John Jay an experienced Diplomat who was serving as chief justice a choice which raised questions  about the separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches of government the  treaty negotiated by Jay in February 1795 did not address all of the American Grievances and tilted  the economic relationship in favor of Britain but stopped the drift towards War Washington was  prepared to sign this imperfect document but its publication in the

Press provoked outrage  among the Republicans Jefferson had left his post of Secretary of State in 1793 and attempted  to Rally House Republicans to withhold funding to implement the treaty the attempt failed narrowly  but promoted Washington to break his ties with his erstwhile friend and advisor Washington's support  for the Jay Treaty provoked a tide of Republican criticism and the luster of his exploits during  the Revolutionary War was no longer sufficient to shore up his reputation in Jeff

ersonian  circles exhausted by the burdens of office and having suffered from a series of illnesses  during his presidency the 64-year-old Washington announced his desire to retire from public life  after serving out his second term by doing so he created a powerful precedent of a two-term limit  that would only be broken once in his farewell address drafted by Hamilton and published in  September 1796. the departing president pleaded for National unity in the face of domestic and  international

challenges Washington was succeeded by John Adams on the 4th of March 1797 but his  calls for Unity went unheeded and the factionalism between the Federalists and Republicans would only  become more into sense Washington's retirement would prove to be short and when war with France  appeared imminent in 1798 Washington was named as the head of the army but his efforts to have  Alexander Hamilton as his second in command in the stead of more senior officers such as Henry  Knox was vigorously opp

osed by President Adams poisoning Washington's relations with both atoms  and nox diplomatic overtures to France managed to avert the tide of war and Washington returned  to Mount Vernon he retained an active interest in farming matters despite his Advanced age  and on the 12th of December 1799 he spent five hours riding around his estate encountering  an unexpected snowstorm the exposure to the elements made him ill and he died on the 14th  of December 1799. a few months before his death Washin

gton wrote a new will which stipulated  that his property would pass on to Martha but upon her death the 120 slaves he left her would  be freed Martha had not been consulted on the will and was afraid that the slaves might be motivated  to kill her and decided to free her late husband slaves on the 1st of January 1801 a little more  than a year before her own death in May 1802 Washington's death was met with widespread  mourning across the United States and he continues to be admired as one of A

merica's greatest  generals and presidents over the course of his 67 years he had been a key participant in some  of the most important events in world history born into a colonial family of modest means Washington  began his military career as a headstrong officer in the British colonial army resentful of his  treatment by London he would end it as the man who defeated one of the most formidable European  armies in war securing Independence for a country founded on the principles of Liberty and

equality  he would then play a key role in The Establishment and consolidation of the American political  system by presiding over the Constitutional Convention and serving as the first president of  the United States Washington's belief in a strong federal government to ensure the security and  prosperity of the new nation made him an opponent of his fellow Virginian Planters but helped to  pave the way for the United States to become the global hegemon of the 21st Century the universal  admir

ation for Washington May Overlook some of its deficiencies as a soldier and politician over the  course of his military career Washington lost more battles than he won and his mistakes at New York  and Brandywine were responsible for devastating defeats while Washington managed to keep his army  alive he could not have dealt the Victorious blow at Yorktown without the assistance of the French  Army and Navy as a politician Washington lacked the intellectual vision of the likes of Hamilton  and J

efferson and was naive to believe that it was possible to avoid the partisan divides that  have defined American politics ever since on the issue of slavery while Washington's attitude later  in life was far more Progressive than most of his peers he was unwilling to challenge the southern  Planters on the future of the institution even after breaking with them on Hamilton's economic  program instead he would fur the issue to Future generations of political leaders what do you  think of George W

ashington was he a great military figure whose inspirational leadership enabled a  ragtag army to defeat the might of the British Empire and a skillful politician whose pragmatism  held the union together while the Constitution laid down its roots or was he a mediocre  General and a politician who was given the credit rightfully belonging to his subordinates  and allies both in war and politics please let us know in the comment section and in the  meantime thank you very much for watching [Music

] thank you The Man known to history as John Adams  was born on the 30th of October 1735 in the town of Braintree in Massachusetts just south of Boston  and overlooking Boston Harbor his father was John Adams senior a farmer and Deacon who also  dabbled in shoemaking and was a tax collector in the local region he was the great grandson of  Henry Adams who had immigrated to Massachusetts from Braintree in Essex in England in 1638 and  established the First Colonial settlement at Braintree Massach

usetts which he named after his  hometown back in England John Adams senior was an affluent enough figure in Braintree that he  was able to purchase his own Farmstead at Quincy to the north of the Town itself though the family  could not be said to have been especially wealthy John's mother was Susanna Boylston a member of a  prominent Massachusetts family from Brookline who had married John Adams senior in 1734 the first  child John Jr arrived the following year they had two further Sons togeth

er Peter born in 1738 and  elihu born in 1741. John's early life was typical of the middle classes of colonial Massachusetts  in the mid-18th century he was educated in a mixed gender school where the curriculum centered  on the New England primer a textbook which had been first published by Benjamin Harris in  the late 1680s and which comprised of readings which inculcated New England's children into the  puritanical religious beliefs that had drawn their ancestors to New England to begin with

in the  17th century a place where they could worship freely while the catechisms and religious accepts  of the New England primer prepare children like Adams for the spiritual world and help them to  learn to read and write they did little for The Wider intellect and so once he had finished his  Elementary schooling Adams was sent to Braintree Latin School here he undertook the first stages of  a classical humanist education in which he learned Latin rhetoric logic philosophy and arithmetic  th

ough the curriculum was fast-changing in line with the scientific breakthroughs made in  Europe since the 16th century and the advance of the Enlightenment Adams was clearly an intelligent  student but already in his early teenage years his rebelliousness and his questioning of authority  got him into considerable trouble while attending the Latin School in Braintree his fractious  Spirit would later prove ideal for a revolutionary Adams was born and grew up at a time when America  was a very di

fferent place to the one which he would live in during his later years in the  mid-18th century the east coast of North America was dominated by British French and Spanish  colonies the Spanish held Florida while the French had colonized New France a region approximate  to what is now Eastern Canada the British had begun settling colonies between these French and  Spanish positions in the early 17th century first in Virginia and New England and then expanding  further north and south from those

positions by Adam's time there were 13 individual colonies  stretching from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the South these were generally divided  into three categories in the north were the New England colonies of New Hampshire Rhode Island  Connecticut and Adams native Massachusetts which with the city of Boston was the most prosperous  part of new England to the South were the middle colonies consisting of New York New Jersey  Pennsylvania and Delaware these were the most ethnically

and religiously mixed of the 13  colonies and were growing in economic importance owing to the growth of the cities of New York and  Philadelphia the southern colonies of Maryland Virginia North Carolina South Carolina and Georgia  were less urbanized and their economies centered on the production of cash crops such as cotton  and tobacco a development which had led to the emergence of a large slave population here  all 13 colonies were controlled by the British government the colonial Communit

y was subjects  of the crown and paid taxes as such though they had no political representation in England all  issues which would soon lead to political unrest Revolution was not on John Adams mind in the  1750s instead he was growing into a substantial scholar in 1751 he had begun attending Harvard  University in nearby Cambridge Massachusetts the oldest college in North America here he became  keenly interested in the works of the great Greek and Roman authors notably historians  such as thuc

ydides Livy and tacitus and the rhetorical and political writings of Cicero  and quintillion he was also influenced by the new political philosophical and cultural writings  and viewpoints of the European Enlightenment which were discussing the idea of political Liberty  and representation in reaction to the absolutist monarchies of countries like Russia and France  during the pre-revolution osion regime a highly influential work in this regard was the spirit  of law published by Charles Louis d

e second de Montesquieu in 1740 E8 this was quickly translated  into English in 1750 and with its arguments about political Liberty and the rights of citizens  before the law was a seminal text in influencing some of the founding fathers such as Adams in  the 1750s and 1760s indeed Adam's interest in the law had become profound having completed his  artium baccalaureus or a B at Harvard in 1754. he quickly began studying law earning an am the  equivalent of a masters from Harvard in 1758 and the

n gaining admittance to the bar to practice  law in 1759 when he was just 24 years of age around the time that he was completing his am  and entering the bar Adams had begun courting his third cousin Abigail Smith it was a slow courtship  by the standards of the time and Adams did not propose for several years consequently they were  not finally married until October 1764. it was a relationship based on mutual respect and Abigail  was a moderating voice on John who while always viewed as honorab

le by his political colleagues in  later years was often guilty of being unwilling to accommodate the views of others and also showed a  certain level of arrogance he and Abigail settled down on his nine and a half acre farm at Quincy  outside Braintree which had been inherited after his father's passing in 1761. Adams began building  a successful legal practice one which was based on his growing reputation for intellectual and  legal rigor in the city of Boston he and Abigail also soon started

a family when a daughter named  Abigail after her mother was born in 1765. five more children would follow John Quincy in 1767  Susanna in 1768 Charles in 1770 Thomas in 1772 and Elizabeth in 1777. unfortunately their two younger  daughters did not survive Susanna died in infancy in 1769 while Elizabeth was still born while  Adams was studying building his law practice and courting Abigail the 13 colonies were embroiled  in Conflict back in 1756 Britain and France went to war in a conflict which

has become known as  the Seven Years War and which has been viewed as the first global conflict of modern history as it  involved clashes between the two main belligerents plus their allies in Europe the Americas and  Asia the causes of the war were anglo-franco rivalry in general but border disputes and  clashes between the British position and the 13 colonies and the French in New France or Canada  and Louisiana was also a major contributory Factor many British subjects in the 13 colonies fou

ght  for the British during the conflict Adams did not go to war as he was studying at Harvard when  it broke out in 1756 however he like many other British subjects in the 13 colonies was enormous  impacted on by the conflict when it ended the British were victorious and acquired Canada from  France in the peace of Paris which brought it to an end in 1763. the colonial community of the 13  colonies had made an enormous contribution to the war effort and many believed in the aftermath of  the co

nflict that they should be given a greater degree of political representation by the British  government instead they would be disillusioned to find that London's only intention was to  impose higher levels of Taxation on the colonies this would begin to radicalize atoms  and many others from the mid-1760s onwards Adam's political views were beginning to become  clearer during these years and he began to write and publish frequently on many political issues  he did this somewhat secretly publish

ing articles under the pseudonym Humphrey plow jogger in the  Boston Evening Post here he assumed the Persona of a simple-minded New Englander to criticize the  political views of several prominent bostonians who had been publishing in the Boston Gazette  and other newspapers of the time in total he published at least six essays under the guise of  Humphrey plow jogger between 1863 and 1867 while elsewhere he assumed the pseudonyms Clarendon and  Governor Winthrop in his writings of the 1860s th

roughout he tried to maintain a non-partisan  stance criticizing writers who were themselves overly critical of British rule in the 13  colonies where he deemed it appropriate but elsewhere suggesting that one needed to  appraise Crown officers in North America on the basis of their actions rather than solely  on their designation as representatives of the crown there was a growing sense in  these that he wished to defend the rights of the colonial Community against overt  British interference i

n the 13 colonies but Adams was not at this point committed  to overturning British rule in North America in 1765 the British government introduced the  Stamp Act this was a decree that all the subjects of the 13 colonies would have to pay a tax on  almost any form of paper or printed material which they purchased be it a newspaper or a deck of  playing cards these were all to be embossed with a revenue stamp hence its name the Act was designed  to increase the revenue generated for the British

government from its subjects in the 13 colonies on  the basis that the crown had paid large amounts of money to protect them from Invasion by the French  during the Seven Years War but it was markedly unpopular when it was introduced in 1765. Adams  became a vocal opponent of it in Massachusetts Penning several articles under his pseudonym  Humphrey plow jogger and another document called the Braintree instructions in which he laid out  his opposition on the grounds that Americans were not being

taxed in the same way in which subjects  of the crown in England were such was the Ferrari which had provoked that the British government  quickly rode back on its decision and repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766 nevertheless it is viewed  as a major episode in the growing disaffection of the colonial community in the 13 colonies  with crown rule it also saw Adam's publicly identify himself as an opponent of British  policies in Massachusetts for the first time by the late 1760s Adams had move

d his young family  to Boston and emerged as the pre-eminent lawyer in the city he continued to voice his complaints  against heavy-handed policies imposed by the Westminster parliament in England notably the  town's end acts which were introduced in 1767 and 1768 and involved new taxes again on the  13 colonies yet he was also capable of acting in accord with the government this was seen  most clearly following the Boston Massacre an incident which occurred on the 5th of March 1770  on King Str

eet in the city when a group of British soldiers were surrounded by an angry mob leading  them to open fire and kill five people although the Boston Massacre was heavily criticized by  Leading New England political figures such as Adam's own cousin Samuel Adams John agreed to  provide legal defense for the British soldiers who had been involved in in the incident at the  trials Adams expertly contrived to pack the juries with sympathetic citizens and succeeded in having  Captain Thomas Preston t

he British officer in charge and his soldiers acquitted of all charges  just a few months later Adams was appointed to the Massachusetts legislature when a seat opened up  all of this indicates that while he was critical of elements of British rule in North America by  the early 1770s he was not yet committed to the idea of revolting against the crown if there was  an incident which finally convinced Adams that the position of the inhabitants of the 13 colonies  could not be improved by peaceful

negotiating with the crown and the British government and  that violent opposition would be needed it came in 1773 with the introduction of the Tea Act this  was an action by the British government designed to crack down on the illegal smuggling of tea  into the colonies by Dutch merchants and at the same time forced the colonial community in North  America to purchase the Surplus tea stocks which were being held in warehouses in London by the  British East India Company although the desire to

crack down on illegal tea smuggling was somewhat  understandable on the British government's part the manner in which the Tea Act was introduced  was so badly handled that it aroused violent unrest in the colonies the most famous example was  unquestionably the Boston tea party when enraged bostonians boarded the Dartmouth a British ship  in Boston Harbor on the 16th of December 1773 destroying 342 crates of tea much of which was  thrown into the harbor this action which resulted in the destruct

ion of tea which was worth nearly 2  million dollars in today's money was applauded by Adams as one of the grandest events in the history  of opposition to British rule in the 13 colonies it was not just the Tea Act which had aroused  Adam's indignation and radicalized him against the British government in the course of the  early to mid 1770s there were also growing signs of judicial and political overreach in  the colonies by Westminster for instance the British government had begun paying the

wages of  judges in Massachusetts and elsewhere directly from England an action which Adams and others  viewed as a move to end judicial Independence and established tyranny in the 13 colonies this  was compounded when in response to the Boston Tea Party the British imposed a naval blockade  on Boston Harbor The Fallout was the decision by opponents a British rule in North America  who would come to be known as the Patriots to convene a meeting of delegates from 12 of  the 13 colonies Georgia a

ccepted to decide how they could act in conjunction with each  other against the government the first com Continental Congress as it became known met  in Philadelphia in September 1774. Adams was selected as one of the four delegates from  Massachusetts and headed for Pennsylvania at the First Continental Congress Adams  developed a reputation immediately as someone who could bring the different parties together  to compromise on issues before them of the 56 delegates some such as John's cousin

Samuel were  Radical Patriots who were in favor of initiating a military conflict in order to establish a new  nation independent of Britain but others believed that there was still room for negotiation with  London on the far end of the spectrum there were those who believed that the first Continental  congress's aim should be to gain concessions from King George III in England but that there  could be no talk of splitting from the crown and Britain permanently John offered a middle ground  and

was one of the key figures in ensuring that the delegates arrived at a compromise within  a few weeks this came in the shape of the Continental Association an agreement whereby each  of the 12 colonies represented at the Congress s agreed to boycott British trade with the goal  of pressurizing the decision makers in London into granting concessions and addressing the Patriots  grievances petitions outlining their complaints and what exactly they wanted were also addressed  to King George III an

d the English Parliament with this done the First Continental Congress  disbanded and Adams returned to Massachusetts the response in Britain to the Continental  Association and other developments in the colonies was not conciliatory pointing to the  fact that militias of irregular soldiers were being formed by the Patriots in Massachusetts  and elsewhere the parliament at Westminster sent a statement to the king in February 1775 in which  they declared that the colonies were in Rebellion agains

t the crown in all practical senses thus in  mid-april the commander-in-chief of the British armed forces in North America Thomas Gage ordered  that all militiamen begin relinquishing their arms when they attempted to forcibly disarm units in  New England on the 19th of April 1775. the first armed clashes of the American Revolutionary War  occurred at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts the outbreak of hostilities and the refusal of the  government in England to offer any concessions in respo

nse to the petitions of the first Continental  Congress convinced Adams that British rule now needed to be overthrown all together in the 13  colonies though he would continue for some time to present himself as a moderate figure who  sought reconciliation with the British on the 22nd of April he visited a patriot militia camp  where he sounded his support for their actions but was disturbed by how poorly equipped the men  were just days later he was chosen to lead the Massachusetts delegation t

o a new meeting  of representatives from the 13 colonies at Philadelphia he arrived to what is now known  as the second continental congress in mid-may the summer of 1775 following the convening of  the Second Continental Congress on the 10th of May was a very significant period in the American  Revolution one of its first major measures which were as promoted strongly by Adams in response  to his concerns about the state of the militias their poor equipment and lack of discipline was  to establ

ish a professional Army to fight the war against Britain thus on the 14th of June 1775 the  Continental Army was established by decree of the Second Continental Congress Adams proposed that  George Washington a Virginia landholder who had extensive military experience from his time as  a British commander during the French and Indian Wars and the Seven Years War should be made its  first commander-in-chief the goal being to acquire greater support for the Revolt in the southern  colonies by appo

inting a Virginian as head of the Patriots Army as such Adams was critical  in the ascendancy of George Washington at this time conversely he played a much more limited  role in drafting the Olive Branch Petition an appeal which was adopted by the Congress on the  5th of July and sent directly to King George III professing the Loyalty of the colonial community  and imploring the king to intervene directly and open negotiations between the government and  the Congress Adams signed the petition as

did all members of the Congress but he viewed  this late effort at negotiating as pointless and now believed war and Independence was the  only realistic path forward for the Patriots the Olive Branch Petition was rejected  unequivocally in Britain and in August the colonies were formally declared to be in Rebellion  thus during the course of the autumn and winter of 1775 and into 1776 Adams and the other members  of the Second Continental Congress began building a government from scratch with

all the Manifest  issues of raising revenue and appointing officials to carry out Myriad duties by the early summer  of 1776 as the war continued to intensify and the crown and government in England showed no  sign of adopting a more conciliatory line the time had come to declare to the world that a  new nation was being created in North America in order to do so a committee of five members of  the Congress was established to draft a document declaring their independence from British rule  Adams

was one of the five and was joined by Benjamin Franklin Rogers Sherman Robert Livingston  and a Virginian named Thomas Jefferson Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of  Independence which created the United States of America but he did amend the tax he had written  and introduced new points which were raised by his fellow committee members particularly Adams  and Franklin it was the beginning of a close relationship between Adams and Jefferson one  which would see them Ally with

each other as friends and lockhorns as enemies for decades  to come one of their first acts was to present the Declaration of Independence to the Congress  which was duly ratified on the 4th of July 1776. after Adams had defended it passionately before  the other Congress members the United States had been established now it would have to make a  reality of its independence through armed conflict in its first major phase between 1775 and 1778  the American Revolutionary War was largely fought i

n New England and the middle colonies  after a lengthy Siege the Patriots succeeded in capturing Boston from the British in the  spring of 1776 following which the British commander-in-chief Sir William Howe decided on  a new strategy of trying to cut New England off from the Patriots capital in Philadelphia by  securing New York and New Jersey he himself was relatively successful in this effort seizing New  York City in November 1776 before moving against Philadelphia itself and capturing the s

eat of  the second continental congress in the summer of 1777. though the leaders of the revolution had  fled from the city in advance of his arrival but while Howe was successful the British war effort  was dealt in immense blow in October was 1777 when a large army of over 7 000 troops which had  come south from Canada under the command of John Burgoyne was utterly defeated at the Battle of  Saratoga in the Hudson River Valley by a section of the Continental Army led by Horatio Gates and  Bene

dict Arnold nearly a thousand of burgoyne's men were killed or wounded and the remaining 6000  were taken prisoner with this the tide of the war changed and France which had been providing  financial and material Aid to the Patriots for some time officially joined the conflict on the  congress's side henceforth British policy changed to trying to secure the southern colonies and  the Continental Army soon recaptured Philadelphia throughout these early years of the war Adams was  a senior member

of the Second Continental Congress and a key figure in many of its activities he  sat on 90 different committees and chaired over two dozen of them a workload which was unmatched  by any other Congress member two of his positions Stand Out above others in June 1776 he was  appointed as head of the board of war and ordinance this was effectively the administrative  arm of the Continental Army before any Soldier could fire a rifle or musket at Saratoga or in  New England someone had to oversee acq

uiring weapons and gunpowder for the Continental Army  that someone was John Adams who spent months in the second half of 1776 and into 1777 working  18-hour days to ensure that the Patriot armed forces were provisioned properly this was tied  to his second major role all during these years his efforts to Foster strong diplomatic ties with  some of the other major European powers such as France the Dutch Republic and Prussia in order to  acquire weapons and other necessary equipment from them ac

cordingly he was Central to the drawing  up of the model treaty a template for commercial treaties between the United States and these  European nations in time these diplomatic and economic ties would expand into direct military  alliances with France and the Dutch Republic measures which were hugely significant in shaping  the course of the American Revolutionary War the model treaty and Adam's advocacy of closer  ties to some of the European powers who were antagonistic to Britain soon saw hi

m leaving North  America of all Europe's Nations none had more to gain from British weakness than France and it was  the most likely Nation to Ally with the new United States from early in the war it began providing  economic aid and War material but with the victory at Saratoga in October 1777 the Second Continental  Congress believed it could convince King Louis the 16th government in Paris to agree to a more formal  military Alliance where France would dispatch an armada and soldiers to North

America to fight  the British to this end Adams was appointed as a commissioner to France in November 1777. just a  few weeks after Saratoga he departed in the early spring of 1778 bringing his eldest son John Quincy  along with him and leaving Abigail who by now was growing used to her husband's extended absences  at home in Braintree with the other children the mission to France was a mixed Affair by the time  Adams arrived in Europe he learned that the French government had already agreed to

a military  Alliance but thereafter Adams was frustrated in achieving anything the French preferred the  more relaxed and somewhat differential approach of Benjamin Franklin whereas Adams was increasingly  ignored by Louis xvi's ministers by the end of 1778 a decision was taken in Philadelphia to a  point Franklin as Minister planet potentiary to France effectively making him the official U.S  ambassador to the country Adams felt slighted by all of this and decided unilaterally to sell for  hom

e arriving back in Massachusetts in March 1779. upon his return to North America the Second  Continental Congress determined that the war had reached a point where negotiations might  be entered into with the British Adams was selected to oversee the possibility of this he  was consequently sent back across the Atlantic to Paris once again just over six months after  returning to New England where it was hoped he would be able to send feelers out to London there  the old problems with the French

arose and the war had reached something of a stalemate by early 1780  which made the British reluctant to enter into concerted peace talks frustrated Adams took leave  of Paris in mid-1780 and headed for Amsterdam in hopes of convincing the Dutch Republic to  provide greater support to the United States yet here too he was met with indifference the  government in The Hague refusing to acknowledge Adam's credentials as the U.S ambassador to  the country consequently Adams was growing increasingl

y pessimistic about the European  powers perceiving that each was interested in manipulating the war in North America to their  own Advantage but none were true unequivocal allies of the United States worn out by years  of exhaustive work he suffered a major bout of illness in Amsterdam in August 1781 which may  have been a minor nervous breakdown of some kind Adam's despair in Europe in the late summer  and Early Autumn of 1781 was relieved by news from North America concerning the war followin

g  the disaster at Saratoga in October 1777. the focus of the British was on securing the southern  colonies and using them as a base to continue the war against the Patriots further to the north  however even this effort was thwarted by the shifting International situation Francis entry to  the war had brought Naval support for the Patriots and in time Spain and the Dutch Republic went  to war with Britain as well in 1780 5500 French troops landed on Rhode Island to help Washington's  continent

al army try to seize New York the only major city in the Middle Colonies and New England  still in British hands however they soon changed course and headed south to besiege General Charles  Cornwallis and his significant Force at Yorktown in Virginia a three-week Siege followed in the  Autumn of 1781 with a combined franco-american Army of approximately 16 000 men and nearly  30 warships pinning cornwallis's 9000 men into Yorktown Washington oversaw The Siege which  quickly resulted in British

surrender with a capture of over 7500 British troops it became  untenable for the British to continue the war in any meaningful fashion and from late 1781  onwards peace negotiations commenced in Paris when news of what had occurred at Yorktown  reached Europe late in 1781. Adams found his position beginning to change as popular sentiment  in the Dutch Republic quickly turned in favor of the Patriots in April 1782 he convinced the Dutch  government in The Hague to acknowledge the United States a

s an independent nation and negotiated a  large loan for the Congress thereafter he headed for Paris again where concerted peace negotiations  to end the war had been entered into following the arrival of a British delegation headed by David  Hartley it was now inevitable that Britain would have to recognize the independence of the United  States but many issues still had to be resolved concerning for example the boundary between the  new country and Britain's colonies in what is now Canada whil

e fishing rights in the waters around  Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were also major concerns as were reparations to British loyalists  who wish to leave the United States and return to Britain these were all worked out by late 1782 but  it took until the 3rd of September 1783 before the Treaty of Paris was signed by Hartley for the  British and Adams Franklin and John Jay for the United States officially bringing the American  war of independence or Revolutionary War to an end the end of the war

and the signing of the treaty  did not lead to Adam's returning home instead he was appointed to perhaps his most difficult  ambassadorial position yet when he was made the first ambassador of the United States to Britain  he arrived in London in 1785 where his brief involved nothing less than trying to establish  cordial relations with the country the U.S had just been at war with and which was the largest  trading Nation on Earth and also the country with which the United States had its longe

st border he  met King George III shortly after his arrival in England and they established a genial relationship  based on a certain mutual respect but Adam's time in London was otherwise Complicated by the failure  of both the British and the U.S governments to fulfill all of the elements of the Treaty of Paris  in Philadelphia for instance the government was in no rush to compensate British merchants and  American loyalists while in turn the British refused to relinquish control over a number

of  forts along the Ohio River as had been promised Adam's frustrations though were relieved by the  fact that his children were now old enough that Abigail was able to join him in London the first  time they had spent a protracted period of time together in some years by 1788 it was clear that  Adams could accomplish little more in England than could be achieved by a less senior figure moreover  back home the political landscape was shifting as senior Statesman were drafting the constitution 

for the new country and plans were being put in place to hold the first presidential election  Adams and Abigail consequently took their leave of Britain and headed home there he witnessed a  tussle between Advocates of a popular democracy with a wide franchise and conservatives who wanted  a limited form of democracy where landholders and the wealthy would hold much of the power the end  result was the U.S Constitution primarily drafted by James Madison a Virginia political theorist  who had be

en a member of the Second Continental Congress along with others such as Alexander  Hamilton Madison was significantly influenced by the Massachusetts constitution of 1780 a document  which Adams had contributed significantly towards in the late 1770s the U.S Constitution which was  finally agreed on in 1789 provided for a bicameral Congress one consisting of an upper house called  the Senate after the Senate of ancient Rome and a lower house called the House of Representatives  as such the desi

re for a popular democracy would be met by the House of Representatives while the  Senate would plausibly more serve the interests of the landed Elite and Wealthy business class  additionally the Constitution provided for a federal government as each state regardless of  its size population or wealth would send two delegates to the Senate thus ensuring that each  state had the same power as any other to decide on legislation Beyond Congress the Judiciary would  be overseen by a supreme court of

Judges while the executive branch would be formed of a president  elected for terms of four years through the votes of the Electoral College a system whereby each  state would have a certain amount of votes in an election effectively this was a compromised  Constitution designed to offer something to conservatives and liberals and also to those who  wanted a strong federal government and those who wanted individuals to retain a large amount of  Independence it was intended that sufficient checks

and balances would exist within it whereby  one branch of government could block another from exercising too much power John Adams watched the  proceedings in developing the U.S Constitution with interest from his home at Quincy near  Braintree in Massachusetts for Adams was eager to serve as the nation's first president however  it soon became apparent that George Washington was the overwhelming favorite across the 13  states in the presidential election which was held over several weeks in la

te 1788 and 1789.  accordingly Adams and several other candidates threw their hats into the ring to become vice  president leaving Washington unchallenged for the more senior position in America's early days the  vice president was elected through the Electoral College too rather than being a running mate  chosen by the president as it is today Adams won the race to become vice president consequently  in the spring of 1789 he set off for New York City which had briefly become the temporary capit

al  of the nation in the late 70 80s though it was soon removed back to Philadelphia while a new  administrative Capital was being built along the Potomac River a place which would eventually  be named Washington DC after the first president while the office of vice president has become more  powerful in modern times for much of the history of the United States it has been a rather  insignificant post with the vice president holding little by way of constitutional power  other than to preside ov

er the Senate from the beginning Adams aroused opposition from members  of the Senate primarily over the issue of how the President should be addressed Adam's conservatism  and suspected residual appreciation of monarchy was on display when he proposed that the term  highness which was usually reserved for kings and queens should be used most of the Senators  dissented and Mr President was eventually decided upon these and other actions early in his  vice presidency earned him the animosity of m

any senators and though he cast more deciding  votes in the Senate than any other vice president other than John Calhoun in the 19th century  he soon became disillusioned with his role and became more withdrawn this was compounded by  George Washington's decision to largely ignore him the exception was concerning France where  the revolution broke out in the summer of 1789 followed by the Revolutionary Wars Washington  was interested in Adam's view of developments there owing to the vice preside

nt's former  experience of the country for his part Adams was hopeful concerning the revolution when it  began but soon perceived it to have descended into barbarism once the so-called Terror began  in the early 1790s Washington's consultation with him on French Affairs aside Adams was  broadly speaking marginalized within the administration as vice president and in time he  began to assert that the government had created for him quote the most insignificant office that  ever the invention of ma

n contrived Adam's years as vice president in the 1790s with significant  more broadly in U.S politics for the development of the first party system this was dominated  by two parties the Federalist Party which was established by Alexander Hamilton and which as its  name implied was strongly in favor of fostering a strong Federal Union in the new nation as well as  encouraging industrial growth in the cities it had a stronger base of support in New England and more  urbanized states such as New

York and Pennsylvania their Rivals were the Democratic Republican  party established by Jefferson and Madison with a strong base of support in the southern  plantation States the Jeffersonian Republicans as they became colloquially known were promoters of  republicanism agrarianism and were more in favor of slavery than the Federalists this Forerunner of  the democratic party also promoted U.S believing the country should be looking to establish itself  as the preeminent power in North America A

dams soon joined the Federalist Party being in favor  of Hamilton's fiscal policies and the party's view that it should look to establish closer relations  with Britain in opposition to the Revolutionary government in France he also was an advocate  of a strong centralized federal government when Washington decided towards the end of  his second term that he would not stand for re-election believing the presidency would take on  the heir of monarchy or a military dictatorship if one person occup

ied the office for too long  he'd opened the way for the first contested presidential election in U.S history Jefferson  was the front-runner for the Democratic Republican party though both parties put forward multiple  candidates though Hamilton and Adams distrusted each other Hamilton could not deny that Adams  had the best chance of defeating Jefferson and so he became the primary candidate for the  Federalist Party the various candidates did not campaign in person as was the custom at the  t

ime but the war of words in the newspapers was acrimonious highlighting the divisions between  the once United founding fathers in the end Adams emerged with a narrow Victory receiving 71  Electoral College votes compared to Jefferson's 68 while the other Federalist candidate Thomas  Pinckney came a close third with 59 votes the Democratic Republican party had overwhelmingly  carried the southern states for Jefferson while the Federalists were dominant in New England but  Adams had picked up eno

ugh support in the middle states of Pennsylvania New York New Jersey and  Delaware the original swing states to win the election as Jefferson had come second he became  vice president though he and Adams had Grown Apart throughout the 1790s and their friendship had  descended increasingly into Rancor and rivalry Adams was sworn into office on the 4th of  March 1797. his presidency was dominated by the issue of whether or not to declare war  on France a nation that was now at war with most of the

major European powers and whose  own revolution had descended into radicalism and extreme antipathy towards organized religion  an issue which moved some in the U.S in favor of joining the anti-french alliance led by Britain  Adam's Federalist Party was strongly in favor of war and towed a pro-british line but many  in the U.S still harbored strong anti-british feelings and viewed the French as their allies  from the war of independence Adams thus inclined towards peace and centered diplomatic

Embassy  to France but it ended in disaster when Three French ministers codenamed x y and Zed in the  dispatches demanded Hefty bribes before they would fully commit to negotiations when word  of this was eventually released into the public domain attitudes towards the French sowed across  the U.S Adams could have used this development to bring the us into the war against France but  he resisted calls to do so the U.S would largely remain neutral in the conflicts which raged  until 1815. althoug

h the second half of 1798 and early 1799 saw Naval clashes with France which  forced Adams to begin re-militarizing the country yet this quasi-war never developed into a major  conflict and the U.S avoided involvement in the main Wars across the Atlantic establishing  a precedent which would last in one form or another until the second world war of trying to  avoid becoming entangled in European conflicts while the U.S avoided full-scale war with France  in the late 1790s the XYZ Affair did see

a series of measures introduced to combat the possible  development of a fifth column of foreign interests in the U.S the Alien and Sedition Acts involved  four pieces of legislation that specifically targeted french-born settlers living in the United  States and agents of the French government all four acts were passed in the space of two weeks in  the summer of 1798. they were soon being employed against pro-democratic Republican party newspapers  they were consequently criticized as being ins

truments designed to allow atoms to attack his  political opponents particularly Jefferson but this ignored many issues surrounding the Alien  and Sedition Acts notably the fact that they were not proposed by Adams but originated amongst  members of Congress while Adams only reluctantly agreed to sign them into law nevertheless Adams  has regularly been accused of censorship of the press and executive overreach ever since Adam's  presidency was also notable for his being the first president to r

eside in Washington D.C  the capital of the United States in its first years was typically in Philadelphia with a  brief transfer to New York in the late 1780s but a decision was taken early in Washington's  presidency to establish an entirely new city as the capital of the new nation the site selected  was the Potomac River on the border between the states of Maryland and Virginia the goal being to  Foster greater ties to the southern states which were least in favor of a strong federal governm

ent  in the 1780s and 1790s the new city which was eventually christened Washington DC after the  war hero and first president took several years to construct but at last in November 1800 things  were Advanced enough that Adams was able to move into the president's Mansion which would later  be renamed the White House and congress met for the first time in what was called at the time  the Congress house later known as the capital building yet not all was harmonious shortly before  the move to DC

Pennsylvania had been disturbed by civil unrest led by a german-american named John  friese fries's Rebellion as it became known was bloodless in the end but was the third tax revolt  that had occurred since Independence an indication that whereas the British could be removed from  the country excessive taxation was still viewed with disapproval across much of the nation as  it has been ever since in the United States for his part Adams was inclined to show leniency  towards the leaders of the

revolt and issued an executive pardon to fries and several others  who had been sentenced to hang the late 1790s were also notable for the further deterioration  of the relationship between Adams and his vice president Thomas Jefferson what had once been a  close friendship had deteriorated greatly even before Adams entered office in 1797. things  did not get any better during Adam's time as president at the heart of the issue was the simple  fact that Adams and Jefferson held opposing views on

most of the major policy issues of the day for  instance Jefferson was unequivocally pro-french and even after the XYZ Affair continued to press  for an alliance with the Revolutionary government in Paris they also held different views on the  nature of the government while they occupied polar opposite positions when it came to the institution  of slavery Adams termed it an abhorrence and was Central to Massachusetts becoming one of the first  states to gradually abolish slavery beginning as ear

ly as the 1780s while Jefferson was a strong  Advocate and owned over 600 enslaved people during his lifetime all of this increased the divisions  between the pair and Adams rarely consulted with Jefferson as his vice president in much the same  way that Washington had not consulted him the Discord between Adams and Jefferson would come to  a head in 1800 as Adam's first term neared an end the presidential election of that year would see  the two one-time friends and now Rivals square off again

as they had in 1796 however on this occasion  the rules of the election had been changed this was the first election where the two main parties  nominated a single candidate who then chose a running mate who would be vice president in the  event of him winning Adams was the Federalist candidate with Charles Pinckney as his running  mate while Jefferson was the Democratic Republican Party candidate with Aaron Burr a lawyer and  Veteran of the Continental Army running with him it was a rancorous c

ampaign with Jefferson's party  attacking Adams for his handling of relations with France and Britain and excessive taxation while  also arguing that the government was trying to create an overly powerful centralized government  in Washington at the expense of the independence of the individual states in this sense it was a  surprisingly modern campaign and elements of these arguments have persevered in American politics for  over two centuries in the end this Unity within the Federalist Party b

etween Adams and Hamilton  damaged their ability to present a unified front and Jefferson won the election narrowly  receiving 73 Electoral College votes to Adams 65. when he left office Adams returned to his family  farm at Quincy outside Braintree already in his mid-60s he intended to retire largely from public  life and instead concentrate on farm work and writing he began an autobiography though he never  completed it Adams was also beset by financial difficulties in retirement much of his m

oney was  held by and invested in bird Savage and bird a london-based trading company which specialized in  exporting manufactured goods from England to North America and bringing back raw materials such as  cotton from the United States to feed the textile factories which were springing up everywhere in  cities like Manchester and Sheffield in Industrial Age Britain the company collapsed spectacularly  in the last months of 1802 and early 1803 losing Adam's some thirteen thousand dollars which 

would be more than 300 000 dollars in today's money luckily his eldest son John Quincy was by  that time a successful lawyer and Diplomat and was able to provide his parents with liquidity  by buying some of their property but while John Quincy was a success Adams was troubled by his  other Sons Charles had begun drinking heavily while still a teenager in the mid-1780s after  years of alcoholism and extramarital Affairs he died of pleurisy in 1800 a few years later after  John's retirement his

youngest son Thomas who had trained as a lawyer moved back to Quincy there he  also gradually descended into alcoholism largely abandoning his legal practice and increasingly  working as a caretaker around the farm gripped by debt and mental health problems which  caused his father no little amount of concern Adams was determined upon his retirement to  follow the precedent established by George Washington of staying out of politics and not  interfering in the administration and policy decisions

of his successes however Adams  was less successful in this endeavor than Washington while he did largely remain silent  for the first years of Jefferson's presidency eventually major events Drew him into the public  sphere such was the case in 1803 when Jefferson's government proposed buying a huge swathe of land  from the French government comprising much of what is termed the Midwest today the Louisiana  Purchase was carried out for 15 million dollars and brought over 2 million square kilome

ters of  land stretching from New Orleans in the South to Montana and North Dakota in the north and west  to Wyoming and Colorado under United States ownership Adams was broadly supportive of the  move though he was critical of the Embargo Act of 1807 which imposed an embargo on the trade of  all foreign nations in an effort to try to prevent the British royal Navy from coercing American  Sailors to join their Fleet an issue which had Arisen as the war between Britain and Napoleonic  France inte

nsified in Europe elsewhere Adams supported the presidential bids of Jefferson's  eventual successor James Madison and was broadly favorable towards Madison's handling of the War  of 1812 when war broke out afresh with Britain Adam's retirement also saw a complete sundering  of his relationship with Jefferson when he left office early in 1801 he wrote to his successor  wishing him good fortune in his time as President Jefferson rather discourteously decided not to  respond though this may have b

een owing to Adams having not attended Jefferson's inauguration  leaving the White House at 4am on the morning of the day Jefferson was sworn into office it was  the last straw in a relationship which had become severely strained in the course of the 1790s and  as a consequence of it Adams and Jefferson would not speak to each other or correspond with one  another for the next 11 years despite an attempt by Adam's wife Abigail to begin corresponding  with Jefferson in 1804 following the death of

his daughter Polly from complications of  childbirth when she was just 25 years old in the end it was not until 1812 that a  Reconciliation between the two men who had written the Declaration of Independence and then convinced  the Second Continental Congress to adopt it was affected with Benjamin Rush a fellow member of the  Congress in 1776 and a signer of the Declaration acting as a mediator in their approachment What  followed was an extensive correspondence over the next 10 plus years earl

y on Adams attempted to  turn their discussions towards their political differences stating that quote you and I ought  not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other Jefferson demured though and said they  should let bygones be bygones Adams eventually agreed and their letters took on the shape  thereafter of two men in the Twilight of their lives describing their habits in retirement and  reflecting on their philosophical views of life Adam's last years were tinged with sadness an

d  no doubt a certain Pride Abigail died of typhoid fever in 1818 at 73 years of age her last words to  her 82 year old husband were John it will not be long in actuality John would survive for another  eight years in that time he lived to see his eldest son John Quincy who had spent years serving  in various ambassadorial roles to Europe which Adams himself had held decades earlier also serve  as U.S Secretary of State in the administration of President James Monroe between 1817 and 1825  when

Monroe's second term ended John Quincy stood for election as the Democratic Republican Party  candidate beating Andrew Jackson in one of the closest elections in U.S history thus the second  President of the United States lived long enough to see his son sworn in as the sixth president on  the 4th of March 1825 Adams died just over a year later at 90 years of age on the 4th of July 1826  at his farm near Quincy by a most remarkable set of coincidences this was the 50th anniversary of  the signin

g of the Declaration of Independence and just hours before Adams died Jefferson had also  passed away at his home at monticella in Virginia Adams was laid to rest at the United First Parish  Church in Quincy in Massachusetts next to Abigail John Adams was one of the most significant  figures of the American Revolution this was perhaps somewhat surprising as he was a late  convert to the Patriot cause having believed for much of the 1760s and early 1770s the British  rule could continue in the 13

colonies if the crown made concessions and reformed its governing  methods in North America he even acted as legal counsel for the British following the Boston  Massacre in 1770. however the Tea Act and other developments between 1772 and 1774 convinced him  that British rule was descending into tyranny and the establishment of a new independent nation  was the only path forward when the American Revolution began he was critical to it proposing  the creation of the Continental Army acting as it

s administrative head by running the board of war  and Ordnance and playing a significant role in both drafting the Declaration of Independence and  ensuring it was ratified by the Second Continental Congress his accomplishments did not stop there  in the 1780s he successively acted as ambassador to the Dutch Republic helped negotiate the  Treaty of Paris then served as ambassador to Britain a fraught role in the post-war period  and then returned to America to become the first vice president of

the nation finally in 1797 he  became the second President of the United States throughout he was surprisingly enlightened for  his time in viewing slavery as disgraceful and of the five founding fathers who eventually  became president of the United States he was the only one not to be a slave owner few of the  founding fathers were as distinguished as he was and yet there has always been a paradox to  Adams as a political figure one in which he constantly played second fiddle to others Adams 

was Central to the creation and management of the Continental Army but he was overshadowed  by George Washington who led it in the field of battle he was an important contributor to the  Declaration of Independence but Thomas Jefferson gets nearly all of the Acclaim for writing it in  the 1780s he was one of the main negotiators for the United States in Paris but the Treaty of  Paris is usually credited to Benjamin Franklin and when he finally obtained the presidency it  was only for his time i

n office to be mired in controversy and plagued by the issue of whether to  go to war with the French who had reviled Adams in Paris 20 years earlier and had now returned to  plague his presidency as a result of the first five presidents of the United States the only  5 who have a claim to having been involved in the American Revolution and were consequently  founding fathers of the nation only Adams was limited to one term leaving office after four  years where Washington Jefferson Madison and

Monroe each served for eight years this is most  likely the reason why Adams is less revered and regarded by the general public than some of his  colleagues in the formation of the United States but as has been made clear perhaps Adams was  every bit as consequential a figure as George Washington Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin  Franklin in the birth of the United States what do you think of John Adams was he perhaps the  greatest of the founding fathers whose role in the American Revolution has b

een unfairly eclipsed  by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson please let us know in the comment section and in the  meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] [Music] The Man known to history as Thomas Jefferson  was born on the 13th of April 1743 at his father's estate of Shadwell in Albemarle  County in the Commonwealth of Virginia his father Peter Jefferson was a surveyor and  planter who owned several plantations in Virginia including the tobacco Plantation  of Shadwell which he fo

unded in the 1730s worked by slaves and free laborers at the time  Virginia was one of the 13 British colonies in North America but in just over three decades it  would become one of the leading States behind the creation of the United States of America the  nation which would call Jefferson one of its most prominent founding fathers The Jeffersons  had been in Virginia since 1612 and Peter was a wealthy and influential member of Virginia  Society assuming positions of responsibility as a colone

l of the militia and a member of the  Virginia House of Burgesses as a surveyor Thomas's father would find himself charting unknown  lands encountering wild animals on occasion as well as other dangers and so the young Thomas  looked up to his father as a powerful figure who commanded the respect of his peers Thomas's  mother Jane Randolph hailed from Virginia's most prestigious family a reflection of his  father's social standing the randolphs first came to Virginia in 1642 and by the 1670s  Ja

ne's grandfather William Randolph began to acquire tens of thousands of acres of land  eventually establishing 11 plantations nine of William's ten children survived into  adulthood and the family's Wings spread far and wide across the colony centered on the  Great Mansion at Turkey Hill near modern day Richmond Williams third son Isham Randolph was  a sea captain who moved back and forth between Virginia and London where his daughter Jane was  born in February 1720 in the Parish of Shadwell in

East London which would in turn give its name  to her husband Peter's Plantation after he married her in 1739. the couple would have six daughters  and two sons of whom Thomas was the eldest Thomas Jefferson enjoyed a privileged upbringing  as part of the Virginia Elite spending his childhood between Shadwell and Tuckahoe the estate  of his mother's late cousin William Randolph where the Jeffersons had moved in 1745 so that Peter  could manage the estate before moving back to Shadwell in 1752 Pe

ter Jefferson resented the  fact that he never had a formal education and chose to send his eldest son to school at the  age of nine Thomas was sent to live with Reverend William Douglas a local clergyman who taught  him basic French and The Classical Languages of Latin and Greek he would later fall under the  wing of Reverend James Mori whose credentials as a classicist were of a higher standard under  mori's influence Jefferson was introduced to classical literature history and philosophy of t

he  ancient Greeks and Romans with this Foundation he left to study Classics at the College of William  and Mary in Williamsburg the capital of Virginia by the time Jefferson left for Williamsburg he  was already the official head of his household his father had died in 1757 when Thomas was 14 years  old leaving behind the memory of a Virginia landed Aristocrat in whose steps the sun would dutifully  follow as the eldest son Thomas inherited Shadwell together with its 66 slaves and more than 275

0  acres of land although his mother would take on the duties of day-to-day management of the  estate in 1770 a devastating fire left Shadwell in Ruins but Jane was determined to rebuild the  house which would remain the home of two further generations of the Jefferson family after Thomas  Thomas's relationship with his mother is difficult to assess since the letters were lost in the fire  but the fact that he continued to live at Shadwell into his adulthood indicates that he and his  mother enj

oyed a cordial relationship until her death in 177 26. at William and Mary Jefferson not  only studied Greek and Latin but also mathematics under Dr William small a Scottish Professor the  distinction between Arts and Sciences did not yet exist at the time and small also taught moral  philosophy and it was during these interactions that Jefferson was introduced to the ideas of  the Enlightenment thinkers which had taken hold in 18th century Europe they believed that human  reason rather than any

spiritual belief or ancient Traditions should be the driving force in the  pursuit of truth and the organization of Human Society Jefferson was a keen reader and was said  to have studied for 15 hours a day familiarizing himself with the works of the great English  scientist Isaac Newton the political philosopher John Locke the Scottish philosopher and Economist  Adam Smith and many other leading intellectuals in addition to his academic Endeavors Jefferson  also committed to exercising two hou

rs a day and was an accomplished violinist who would perform  at the governor's Palace where he acquainted himself with the leading political figures of  the day including his cousin Payton Randolph who served as the Royal attorney general the  senior legal officer in the Virginia government the colonial government was largely controlled  by the British crown which appointed both the colonial governor and the Council of state which  served as the Upper House of the Virginia General Assembly the

lower house the House of Burgesses  was elected by the free white male population and it was in this body that Thomas's Father Peter  had served as the representative of Albemarle County this Arrangement mirrored that of the  British political system with the king or queen exercising power alongside the hereditary House  of Lords and the elected House of Commons in a mixed government which was designed to protect  against both Royal tyranny and MOB rule Peter Jefferson had considered himself a l

oyal subject  of the king and brought up his son to believe the same The Virginian aristocratic Elite to which  The Jeffersons belonged believed that as British subjects they had the same political rights  in Virginia as their fellow British subjects in Middlesex or Norfolk but this belief would  be shattered in the Years following Jefferson's graduation in 1762. after leaving William and  Mary Jefferson spent the next five years training to become a lawyer spending his time between  Williamsbur

g and Shadwell as tensions steadily increased between the government of Virginia and  the authorities in Britain while Jefferson was a teenager British Armed Forces had fought a costly  But ultimately Victorious war against the French in the Seven Years War which lasted between 1754  and 1763. the war was fought over three continents including North America where it is better known  as the French and Indian War Britain had won a convincing victory in North America gaining  control of all the Fre

nch colonies in Canada while the vast province of Louisiana was ceded  to Spain in exchange for the British gaining control of Florida although the French threat  had been eliminated the 13 colonies continued to face threats from the Native American  population and the British army chose to maintain a military presence on the Frontiers the  British authorities accordingly decided that the North American colonies should share more of the  financial burden for their defense and in 1764 and 1765 pa

rliament passed a number of measures to  raise new taxes from the 13 colonies on the 9th of March 1764 British prime minister George Grenville  stood up in the House of Commons and announced the Sugar Act imposing new duties on the colonies  for a range of products the Prime Minister told members of parliament that he hoped that the power  and sovereignty of parliament over every part of the British dominions for the purpose of raising  or collecting any tax would never be disputed grenville's h

opes would soon prove to be in vain  as the Sugar Act caused an outcry among the 13 colonies not least in Virginia where a resolution  was sent to Parliament asserting the principle that people should not be taxed without their  consent or those of their Representatives adopting the slogan no taxation without representation  these complaints did nothing to prevent the passage of the infamous Stamp Act on the 22nd  of March 1765 which levied taxes on all printed material including paper documents

newspapers  and playing cards this prompted a further wave of protests and riots across the colonies many  of which were organized by the Sons of Liberty a political group first established in Boston in  August 1765 with branches spreading across the colonies over the course of the following year  Thomas Jefferson was an interested Observer of the impassioned debate taking place in the House  of Burgesses and was especially impressed by the oratory of the lawyer Patrick Henry who called for  th

e most radical measures though his denunciations of King and Parliament were labeled treason by  his more moderate colleagues despite the fiery rhetoric echoing through the legislatures of  Virginia and the other colonies there was no suggestion even from the likes of Henry that the  13 colonies should break their connection to the British crown and certainly no willingness to  take up arms in order to do so by late 1765 Parliament recognized the strength of feeling in  the colonies against the

Stamp Act and eventually repealed the duties in February 1766 while at  the same time passing a declaratory act which asserted the authority of parliament to make laws  binding in the colonies under all circumstances while Parliament saw the declare archery act as  a means of Saving Face the colonies were far from appeased and the disputes between North America  and Britain were no longer about money but about political rights and freedom from arbitrary  government over the following decade Lond

on would repeatedly attempt to assert its Authority  and the colonies would repeatedly defy them until there was no turning back and pens and pamphlets  were traded for rifles and muskets meanwhile in Virginia Jefferson had been admitted to the bar in  1767 and began his legal career living in Shadwell but traveling to courthouses across Virginia to  argue his cases the following year on the 15th of December 1768 he was elected as a representative  of his native Albemarle County to the House of

Burgesses the first of many officers he would hold  in a long and successful political career several months earlier in May 1768 Jefferson decided to  build for himself a new house on a hill two miles from Shadwell which he would name Monticello the  Italian for Little Mountain built to Jefferson's own design and constantly remodeled to keep  up with the latest fashions Monticello would forever be associated with Jefferson especially  after the devastating fire at Shadwell in 1770 which not only

destroyed his library but also the  legal papers he was working on the fire prompted Jefferson to move to Monticello while the main  house was still being built and it was there that he brought his wife Martha after they married  in 1772. Martha Wales Jefferson known as Patty to her family and close friends was born in 1748  to a Virginia landowner named John Wales who was one of Jefferson's clients as a lawyer married at  the age of 18 and widowed a couple of years later in 1768 Martha became

the target of a long line  of suitors including Jefferson taking advantage of their mutual love for music Jefferson Enchanted  her with his performances on the violin and piano and the couple were married on New Year's Day 1772  although the newly married couple would have the occasional argument prompted by Martha's strong  personality she was also one of the only people who could calm her husband's anxieties which  would only grow as the political temperature increased over the coming years Th

e Jeffersons  would prove a loving couple and they had six children together though only two would survive  infancy in an era of High childhood mortality away from Monticello London and the colonies continue  to trade political blows on the 16th of December 1773 the Boston branch of the Sons of Liberty  sabotaged a shipment of tea from the British East India Company arriving in the harbor boarding  the ship and throwing the valuable cargo into the sea the event known to history as the Boston Tea

  Party prompted Parliament to pass a package of new punitive measures in 1774 which would collectively  be known as the Intolerable Acts one of these was the Boston Port Act of May 1774 which stipulated  that the port of Boston would remain closed to trade until money was paid to compensate the East  India Company for the loss of the cargo Jefferson and his colleagues in Virginia passed a resolution  in solidarity with the bostonians and a couple of months later they called for an immediate ban

  on British Imports asserting that we will ever be ready to join with our fellow subjects in  the defense of their constitutional rights as opposition to the British authorities spread  across the colonies a Continental Congress was scheduled for the 5th of September in Philadelphia  although Jefferson was not a delegate he set about writing a set of instructions for Virginia's  delegates which among others included his cousin and former Attorney General Payton Randolph  Patrick Henry and a for

mer British army officer by the name of George Washington who had played a  part in the outbreak of the French and Indian War 20 years earlier in his pamphlet under the title  a summary view of the rights of British America Jefferson laid out the intellectual justification  for the American cause to be treated as the equal of King George's subjects in Europe pleading to  the king to no longer persevere in sacrificing the rights of one part of the Empire to the  inordinate desires of another but

deal out to all equal and impartial right at the age of 31  Jefferson pamphlet made him a political celebrity across the 13 colonies and elevated him to the  first rank among The Advocates of the American cause as well as demonstrating his skills as a  political writer which would remain in high demand by late 1774 it was becoming clear both to  the British and the American colonies that they were on the path to Civil War the colonies  mobilized their militias to protect themselves against the p

rospect of a military Crackdown by  the British authorities which sought to secure caches of weaponry and ammunition and prevent  the Colonials from using them the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired at  Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts on the 19th of April 1775 extinguishing any faint hopes of a  Reconciliation between Britain and the 13 colonies the disputes over Colonial Liberties and the  powers of parliament could only be resolved on the field of battle either in

Victory for the British  crown and the reassertion of British Authority in America or in Victory for the American Rebels and  the breaking of all Colonial ties with the British Empire the second continental congress convened in  Philadelphia in May 1775 with Peyton Randolph as its president however when Randolph was summoned  back to Williamsburg to preside over the House of Burgesses Jefferson was sent as his replacement  and arrived in Philadelphia on the 11th of June now that hostilities had

broken out the second  continental congress became a permanent political body to coordinate the war effort among the United  Colonies a few days after Jefferson's arrival in Philadelphia Congress approved the appointment  of George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army following a proposal by the  Boston lawyer John Adams Jefferson and Adams would strike up one of the greatest political alliances  in American history and the two men worked closely during the struggle for Indep

endence unlike Adams  Jefferson was not an accomplished public speaker and preferred to spend his time working behind  the scenes in small committees and channeling his Mastery of the written word drafting  resolutions declarations and reports by June of 1776 Congress was debating whether to formally  declare independence from the British Empire and appointed Adams and Jefferson to draft a  declaration for that purpose recognizing Jefferson as the superior writer and as a representative  from Vi

rginia the most populous of the colonies Adams prevailed on his friend to write the  first draft and Jefferson duly set to work on the Declaration seeking inspiration from the  Enlightenment thinkers he had read at University after an introduction which announced the desire  to separate from the British crown Jefferson set out in the Preamble the founding Creed of the new  nation the United States of America we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created  equal that they are en

dowed by their creator with inalienable rights that among these are life  liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights governments are instituted  among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that whenever any form  of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to  abolish it and Institute new government laying its foundations on such principles and organizing  its powers in such form as to them shall seem m

ost likely to affect their safety and happiness  Jefferson's Preamble was followed by a list of indictments against King George III as if he were  Prosecuting a case against the British king in a Virginian Court the strong denunciations of the  king ensured that there would be no turning back since the colonies had previously appealed to the  king as their protector blaming his ministers for the unequal treatment of the colonies after  Jefferson's draft was debated by Congress a number of change

s were made in an effort to tone  down the criticisms of Britain and a denunciation of slavery and the slave trade which appeared in  Jefferson's first draft had also been removed to placate the sensibilities of delegates from the  southern states whose Plantation economies were dependent on slave labor although disappointed  by the changes made to his text Jefferson could be proud of the fact that when the Declaration  of Independence was ratified by Congress on the 4th of July 17 76 it was his

words which would  echo through the centuries to the present day having achieved International Renown as the most  articulate advocate of American independence Jefferson longed to return to Virginia he had  encountered a series of personal tragedies over the previous year including the death of his  mother one of his daughters had his cousin Payton Randolph the giant of Virginia politics with his  wife also in poor health Jefferson declined the invitation to join a delegation to France to  pers

uade King Louis XVI to join an alliance against the British while a franco-american  Alliance was formalized in February 1778 Jefferson set about reforming Virginia's laws now  that the British were no longer in charge reducing the power of landed Elites and widening access  to the education system the cause of religious toleration was particularly close to Jefferson's  heart believing that there was no reason why Christian teachings were any closer to the  truth than those of other faiths while

Jefferson proposals for religious toleration were defeated  at the time they were reintroduced a decade later and adopted Jefferson also thought hard about  the question of slavery a slaveholder himself who owned over 600 slaves during his life Jefferson  was opposed to the institution on a philosophical level but did not believe that free whites and  free blacks could live together in harmony and proposed that slaves should be freed and deported  once they had reached the age of 21. his fellow

landowners in the Virginia government voted  down the proposal in order to protect their economic interests and Jefferson came to accept  that the battle over slavery could not be won the late 1770s were an anxious time for  Jefferson and his new country and it seemed that Washington's continental army was hanging by a  thread facing one of the best armies in the world in late 1778 the British launched a campaign in  the South advancing into Georgia and threatening South Carolina leaving Virgin

ia vulnerable to  attack from the south and east during this time of great danger Jefferson was elected governor  of Virginia in the summer of 1779. during his two years in Office Jefferson played the role  of a civilian War leader putting down loyalist uprisings while also trying to confront attacks by  Native Americans on the western Frontiers he also took the momentous decision to move the capital  of Virginia from Williamsburg to Richmond located further Inland and less prone to attack from 

the sea however this did not prevent an invasion of Virginia in December 1780 led by Benedict  Arnold the former continental army General who had switched sides earlier in the year Jefferson  was slow in mobilizing the Virginia militia and narrowly avoided capture by escaping to the hills  above Richmond while Arnold's men sacked the city Arnold's Invasion had been a shock to Jefferson  but worse was to follow in the spring of 1781 the British forces in the South turned their  attention towards

Virginia led by the commander Lord Cornwallis and Lieutenant Colonel Bannister  talaton a dashing but cruel officer who commanded a fearsome Cavalry force in response Jefferson  moved the capital once again to Charlottesville some 70 miles further Inland from Richmond  writing to George Washington asking him to lead reinforcements in person to save Virginia  from the British during the early hours of the 4th of June 1781 as he was preparing to step  down as Governor Jefferson was at Monticello

when he received news that tarleton's cavalrymen  were riding towards his home with the express purpose of taking him captive once again  he managed to escape and narrowly avoided falling into British hands tarlton's men are  said to have drunk some of Jefferson's wife to toast King George's 43rd birthday  but otherwise Monticello was left intact after leaving the Governor's Office Jefferson  faced an inquiry by the general assembly into his conduct during the previous year although  cleared of

wrongdoing Jefferson considered his reputation damaged even after news reached him  of cornwallis's surrender to Washington and his French allies at Yorktown on the 19th of October  1781 prompting the British authorities to agree to peace talks recognizing the independence of  the United States Jefferson's political anguish was soon followed by personal anguish after giving  birth to a daughter in May 1782 Martha Jefferson's Health declined rapidly and she was confined to  bed with her husband a

t her side she died on the 6th of September 1782 after extracting from him  a promise never to remarry a widower at the age of 39 Thomas Jefferson kept the promise made  to his dying wife but his personal life after Martha's death is one of the darkest and most most  controversial chapters of his life among those at Martha's bedside was a nine-year-old slave  girl called Sally Hemmings who happened to be the half-sister of the dying woman the product of  a liaison between John Wales and his mixe

d-raced slave Elizabeth Hemmings which resulted in 10  children of whom Sally was the youngest within a few years she would go on to play a major but  unacknowledged role in Jefferson's personal life with the loss of his wife and seeking the  opportunity to restore his political reputation in 1783 Jefferson happily accepted an assignment  to join the American delegation taking part in peace talks in Paris but before he could leave he  received news that the American representatives in France had

already agreed the terms of a draft  treaty with Great Britain which offered extremely generous terms to the United States in order to  isolate her French and Spanish allies instead on the 6th of June 1783 Jefferson was elected to  represent Virginia at the Continental Congress a weak political body that delegated significant  powers to the States Jefferson was convinced that Congress had to be strengthened in order to avoid  the prospect of the states fighting against each other the body even

struggled to reach a quorum  of nine states to ratify the Treaty of Paris only doing so on the 14th of January 1784. on the  5th of July 1784 after spending less than a year in Congress Jefferson finally had the chance to  go to France as the ambassador of the peacetime United States of America he had been an admirer of  France ever since she chose to Ally herself with the United States during the Revolutionary War  and he was determined to strengthen the French Alliance in order to guarantee Am

erican Security  in case the British were to try to retake their former colonies arriving on the 31st of July  with his daughter Patsy and a small party of servants Jefferson would remain in France  until September 1789 as well as carrying out his diplomatic duties by negotiating a number of  trade agreements Jefferson inserted himself into Parisian society and met with some of the greatest  political thinkers of the age he struck up a friendship with Thomas Paine the radical English  writer who

se best-selling pamphlet Common Sense had been a major factor in encouraging popular  support for Independence in 1776. he would go on to write the rights of man in 1791 and the Age of  Reason in 1795 powerful denunciations of monarchy and religion which echoed Jefferson's own views on  the subject but while paying the writer could set out his ideal vision of society and government  Jefferson the Statesman and politician had to be more pragmatic during his five years stay  Jefferson witnessed Fr

ance's gradual descent into Revolution King Louis XVI government was  heavily indebted by military expenditures partly incurred as the result of French participation  in the American Revolutionary War against Britain despite widespread hunger and poverty among the  ordinary French people the powerful and Wealthy nobility and Catholic Church did not agree to pay  additional taxes to improve the condition of the poor with his coffers almost empty and running out  of other options the king reluctan

tly summoned the Estates General an ancient political body with  representatives from the church the nobility and the commoners which had once served as a  source of advice to the Monarch but had not been called for more than a century and a half  the election of Representatives to the estate's general led to a large number of proposals to  improve the French political system and ensure that it was more responsive to the needs of the  Common People Jefferson followed the course of events closely

and welcomed the prospect  of the end of Royal absolutism in France while in Paris Jefferson continued to keep an  eye on political events back home in the United States between the 25th of May and the 17th of  September 1787. the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in order to establish a stronger  central government while Jefferson had lamented that the existing National institutions were  too weak his experiences in France caused him to worry that the central government might be to

o  strong and tend towards tyranny there were even rumors that one of the sons of King George III  might be invited to the United States to serve as a constitutional Monarch and many delegates  still believed that the British political system was an example to follow when he read the draft  Constitution Jefferson welcomed the separation of powers between the executive legislative and  judicial branches of government respectively the president Congress and the Supreme Court  however he was concer

ned about the office of President since although there were elections  every four years the holder of that office could theoretically remain there for life he was also  disappointed that there was no declaration of rights to protect the rights of individuals and  States against the federal government although he recognized it as an imperfect document Jefferson  believed it could be improved upon with amendments over time and a Bill of Rights was later drawn up  as a package of 10 amendments to t

he Constitution even before its ratification on the 21st of June  1788 in July 1787 Jefferson was reunited with his younger daughter Polly whom he had not seen  for three years she was accompanied by Sally Hemmings around 14 years old and bearing a  strong resemblance to her late half-sister Martha Jefferson the relationship between  Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings remains a controversial subject but it is likely that they  were involved in a sexual relationship from 1788 or 1789 since Sally

was pregnant when Jefferson  prepared to return to the United States in the summer of 1789. she had initially refused to  accompany him knowing that she could apply for her Liberty in France and live as a free woman with  far greater prospects compared to returning across the Atlantic and living the rest of her life as  an enslaved woman eventually she agreed to return on the condition that her children would be freed  from slavery at the age of 21. Thomas Jefferson one of the most powerful men

in the United States  was forced to make concessions to a mixed raced girl no older than 16. Sally gave birth shortly  after their return to Virginia but the child did not live long she had five more children  with Jefferson four of whom would survive into adulthood Jefferson only freed them formally after  his death in his will but those who had reached 21 were allowed to leave Monticello in spite of his  concessions to Sally and his personal belief that slavery was immoral the uncomfortable f

act remains  that the man who had declared so eloquently that all men are created equal kept his own children as  slaves while largely accurate rumors about their liaison were spread by Jefferson's opponents in  the United States later in his political career the relationship was unacknowledged and was  only confirmed by DNA testing in the year 2000. Jefferson's final months in France coincided with  the French Revolution the Estates General could still not decide on the proper procedure for its

  deliberations and the Third Estate representing the commoners declared itself the National  Assembly Royal Authority melted away in the face of widespread rioting and protests and the  National Assembly became the Effective Government of France after the storming of the Bastille  on the 14th of July 1789. Jefferson was a close friend of many of the national assembly's leaders  including the Marquis De Lafayette the French General who had served alongside Washington in the  Revolutionary War an

d was present at the British surrender at Yorktown at the time Lafayette was  perhaps the most popular person in France serving as commander of the National Guard whilst also  responsible for keeping order in Paris and for protecting the king and the royal family from the  more radical elements of the revolution Nation Jefferson collaborated with Lafayette on drafting  the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen which was adopted by the National Assembly  on the 26th of August this k

ey document served as a statement of the values of the Revolution  and opened with the assertion that human beings are born and remain free and equal in rights  echoing Jefferson's Declaration of Independence after making his contribution to French politics  Jefferson left France at the end of September 1789 and arrived back in Virginia on the 23rd  of November he had intended to return to Paris to resume his ambassadorial duties the following  year but in December he was offered the post of Sec

retary of State by George Washington who  had been unanimously elected president under the new Constitution and had taken office on  the 30th of April 1789 as Secretary of State Jefferson was to be the President's chief foreign  policy advisor a role he was suited to given his experience in France he accepted the invitation  and left Virginia for New York then the seat of federal government and took of his post in March  1790. although Jefferson's office was primarily concerned with foreign affa

irs as a member  of Washington's cabinet he was also involved in the debates concerning the future political  development of the United States the Washington administration was dominated by the Federalists  a group who believed that a strong federal government was essential for National prosperity  and security Jefferson's old friend John Adams Washington's vice president was one of the leaders  of the Federalist Party and the president himself was sympathetic to this position its Chief  Advocat

e was the 34-year-old Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton a New York lawyer  who had served as the senior staff officer at Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary  War and was one of the president's closest Associates after the end of the war Hamilton  wrote most of the Federalist Papers a series of essays calling for more power to be concentrated  in the federal government rather than the states which led to the Constitutional Convention  and the adoption of the Constitution

of 1789. Jefferson was opposed to the Federalist position  and described himself as a democratic Republican defending the rights of the states and the  individual against that of the federal authorities he believed that Hamilton was promoting the  interests of commercial Elites in the north at the expense of the poor farmers of the South Jefferson  considered Hamilton his main political rival and a man whose vision of government would create  the conditions for the kind of tyranny that the coun

try had recently thrown off Hamilton proposed  the creation of a National Bank to manage the national debt enabling Congress to raise finances  for government expenditures he also suggested consolidating State debts into a national debt in  effect granting the federal government the power of taxation to pay off those debts these proposals  were supported by heavily indebted northern states such as Massachusetts and Hamilton's native  New York but opposed by Southern states such as Virginia and N

orth Carolina which had managed  their finances more prudently thanks to the influence of Jefferson's political Ally and fellow  Virginian James Madison the measure was defeated in the House of Representatives in April 1790 Keen  to break the deadlock in Congress Jefferson and Hamilton came to a deal Hamilton's proposals were  allowed to pass but in return the federal capital would be moved from the northern Commercial Center  of New York to a purpose-built city further south on a parcel of land

known as the District of  Columbia by the banks of the Potomac River the arguments over domestic policy spilled over  into foreign policy Adams and Hamilton were Keen to repair relations with Great Britain since  they still regarded the British constitution as the ideal form of government Jefferson on  the other hand favored closer relations with revolutionary France however from September 1792  the revolution had turned bloodier as members of the radical Jacobin Club seized control of the  Nat

ional Assembly forcing Lafayette to go into Exile in fear for his life in 1793 the Jacobin  leader maximilia Robespierre Unleashed A Reign of Terror which saw thousands of Frenchmen and women  go to the guillotine including King Louis XVI and queen Marie Antoinette even though the Federalists  warning about Anarchy seemed to be justified Jefferson did not abandon his support for France  and the revolution in his mind to do so would be to abandon the ideals of the American Revolution  therefore w

hen the French Republic declared war on Britain on the 1st of February 1793. Jefferson  privately protested against Washington's proclamation of neutrality but the Secretary of  State's pro-french cause was undermined by the visit of a French Envoy Admiral Charles Journey  who insulted Washington and tried to provoke the Americans into hostilities against Britain by late  1793 the political tensions between Jefferson and Hamilton reached Breaking Point both men told  the president of their inten

tion to resign from office although Washington succeeded  in having Hamilton stay on he reluctantly accepted Jefferson's resignation on New Year's  Day 1794. for the next two years Jefferson lived in Monticello with his family in semi-retirement  spending much of his time remodeling the house to a grander Italian design although he wrote  to his friends and acquaintances about feeling liberated at no longer being at the center of  the political debates he continued to receive updates from politi

cal allies about the latest  developments in domestic and international policy for Jefferson and the Republicans the signs  were not good Keen to avoid war with Britain Washington had dispatched Chief Justice John J to  London to negotiate a treaty signed in November 1794. the ensuing Jay Treaty strengthened the  trading relationship between Britain and the United States being welcomed by the Federalists  while infuriating the Republicans the terms of the treaty also outraged France and it seeme

d as  though Washington's desire to prevent a war with Britain might provoke a war with France after a  bitter political battle the treaty was ratified by the senate in August 1795 and went into effect  the following February though it was only by the end of April 1796 that Congress granted funding  to the federal government to fulfill its treaty obligations after a knife edge vote following  this political setback and with Washington's second term drawing to a close the Republicans  looked amon

g themselves for a challenger to the presidency there was only one possible option on  the 19th of September 1796 President Washington published his Farewell Address signaling his  intention to retire from public life and not to seek a third presidential term by limiting  himself to two terms Washington set a strong precedent which would only be broken once in  the next 200 years and Jefferson's concerns about a presidency for life did not come  to pass in his farewell address Washington urged t

he country to remain United and warned  against the spirit of party which he argued would be a permanent source of political  instability and create the conditions for a despot to emerge promising order and stability  Washington witnessed how the disagreements between Jefferson and Hamilton threatened to break  his administration apart but his warnings went unheeded and Washington's retirement led  to the first competitive presidential election in American history the Federalists and Democratic 

Republicans went into the election with their Prof third candidates the former supported John Adams  for president while the latter backed Jefferson under the Constitutional Arrangements of the  time the president was chosen by a college of electors each of whom would have two votes  the candidate with the highest number of votes would be elected president provided he received  the support of more than 50 percent of electors the runner-up would become vice president if  the top two were tied a

vote in the House of Representatives would determine the winner in  Most states the electors would be chosen by the state legislatures and only in a handful  of states were they chosen by a popular vote the electors usually made it public who they would  be voting for in the Electoral College there was no campaigning as such and everything depended on  political networks and mobilizing support behind the scenes after the votes were tallied Adams  narrowly defeated Jefferson 71 votes to 68. on th

e 4th of March 1797 John Adams took office as  the second President of the United States and Thomas Jefferson became his vice president  and the president and vice president had been close friends and collaborators during the  Revolutionary years but the disagreements between the Federalists and the Republicans had caused  them to drift apart the fear of war with either Britain or France created a sense of permanent  crisis in American politics which threatened the very existence of the Young Na

tion in the  spring of 1798 Adams revealed that an American mission to France had failed when Three French  officials codenamed X Y and Z demanded bribes and an apology for signing the J treaty in order to  resume cordial relations it was widely suspected that one of the officials in question was the  skillful but notoriously corrupt French foreign minister Charles Maurice talirond the French  demands may have been a standard request in European diplomatic negotiations but the Americans  felt in

sulted and Jefferson recognized that once again the actions of the French government had  undermined his political position president Adams prepared for war and in July 1798 the so-called  Quasi War broke out an undeclared war which saw French attacks on American shipping in order  to protect National Security Adams introduced a series of laws known as the Alien and Sedition  Acts which gave the president the power to deport resident foreigners considered a national security  risk while making i

t illegal to publish anything which defamed the United States and its government  although Jefferson's worst fears about despotic government were coming true he was Adam's vice  president and unable to attack the government directly but behind the scenes he encouraged his  supporters to criticize the Alien and Sedition Acts in the press and advise state governments  on how to resist the federal laws Jefferson's tenure as vice president was an unhappy one  finding himself in the awkward position

of being the de facto leader of the opposition to an  Administration he served in in 1800 the government moved from its Temporary Home of Philadelphia to  its permanent seat in the city of Washington named after the first president who had played on the  14th of December 1799. it was also election year and Adams and Jefferson geared up for a rematch of  their contest four years earlier the election of 1800 proved to be one of the most dramatic in the  history of the United States in the spring o

f that year thanks to the influence of Senator Aaron Burr  of New York Jefferson's preferred candidate for vice president in the coming presidential election  the Republicans were able to win a majority in the New York legislature which would in turn  lead to New York appointing electors voting for The Republican ticket in the presidential  election and by early December 1800 Jefferson was quietly confident that he would succeed Adams  as president however when all the results came in Jefferson

and Burr were tied on 73 votes each  and it was up to the House of Representatives to decide whether Jefferson or Burr would become  president as the Federalists continued to have a majority in the house the Republicans were afraid  that they might cancel the election altogether this was far-fetched but at the very least it  gave them enough opportunity to cause mischief and split the Republicans by voting for Burr and  denying the presidency to Jefferson their most prominent opponent and Jeffer

son himself began  to suspect the Ambitions of his running mate the house met on the 11th of February 1801 to  break the tie between Jefferson and Burr for six days the house was unable to make a decision  while political negotiations between Jefferson and the Federalists took place behind closed  doors the Federalists were prepared to make Jefferson president if he promised not to dismiss  all the Federalist office holders and replace them with his own men and if he would maintain the  public d

ebt and the department of the Navy both Federalist institutions established during the  Washington and Adams years but Jefferson refused to be tied down to any conditions nevertheless  on the 17th of February Jefferson was eventually elected president on the 36th ballot after several  Federalists switched their vote in his favor it appears that Jefferson owed the presidency to  an unexpected Source in the form of Alexander Hamilton who had opposed both Adams and Jefferson  in the election he was

able to persuade several Federalists to switch their vote he believed that  Jefferson's pragmatism and his existing record in office was preferable to Burr whom he knew through  New York politics and regarded as an unprincipled and self-serving individual the clash between  Hamilton and Burr would eventually lead to the two men fighting a duel in 1804 in which Hamilton  was killed at noon on the 4th of March 1801 Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as president of the United  States in his inaugural

address he appealed for Unity among the warring factions every difference  of opinion is not a difference of principle we have been called by different names Brethren  of the same principle we are all Republicans we are all Federalists the appeal to moderation was  well received those Federalists who feared that Jefferson might dismantle the federal institutions  created by his predecessors were mistaken though Jefferson did appoint key Republican allies to his  cabinet as Secretary of State the

new president appointed James Madison his Virginia Protege who  had been a source of political advice for almost 30 years while the Pennsylvanian Republican Albert  Gallatin a prominent leader of the opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts in the House of  Representatives was named Secretary of the Treasury during his eight years in the presidency  Jefferson would scale down Federal obligations reducing the national debt from 83 million  dollars to 57 million dollars and cutting military spen

ding to pre-war levels he did not believe  it was worthwhile to participate in an arms race with the European great powers and preferred  to remain neutral in their Wars with each other Jefferson's presidency is mostly associated  with America's Westward Expansion although he had never ventured West to Virginia as a child  he had been drawn to his father's experiences at the Western frontier the leaders of the early  American Republic shared the anxiety that the European powers in North America

primarily Britain  and Spain as well as the Indian tribes would try to prevent America's Westwood expansion beyond the  Mississippi River indeed these worries increased with the third Treaty of San ildefonso of October  1800 a secret franco-spanish agreement whereby Spain agreed to give France the sizeable Louisiana  Territory west of the Mississippi in exchange for some Italian lands under French control France's  leader at the time was first Consul Napoleon Bonaparte the Revolutionary General

who had seized  power in November 1799 and put an end to ten years of political instability in Paris while Napoleon  seemed Keen to create a new North American Empire the prospect of Paul Jefferson as the important  port of New Orleans the economic Lifeline of the southern states would fall under French control  to prevent this from happening and to secure the national interest the Francophile Jefferson was  even prepared to Ally with Britain before that however he would offer to buy New Orleans

from  Napoleon the president entrusted James Monroe with the delicate task of handling these negotiations  alongside the American ambassador in Paris Robert Livingston Monroe had recently been governor of  Virginia and had been a close friend of Jefferson and Madison's since the 1780s developments in  early 1803 made the sale of New Orleans attractive to Napoleon as the uneasy peace between France  and Britain signed at Amiel in March 1802 seemed destined to collapse with both sides blaming  th

e other for failing to comply with its terms furthermore Napoleon's Ambitions in the Americas  have been thwarted in the former French colony of sand or mag modern-day Haiti where a military  force he sent to crush the slave Uprising had been decimated by yellow fever unable to retake the  richest colony in the Caribbean and with Louisiana vulnerable to potential British attack Napoleon  decided to cash in and proposed selling the entire Louisiana territory to the United States for 15  million d

ollars Monroe and Livingston signed the treaty at the end of April even though they had  only been authorized to buy New Orleans for 10 million dollars news of the treaty was announced  on the 4th of July 1803 the 27th anniversary of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase was  ratified by Congress in October Jefferson was widely acclaimed for his deal-making but opponents  claimed that he had acted unconstitutionally since Congress had only allocated 10 million dollars  for the purchase indeed

Jefferson himself may have had reservations about the expansion of executive  power had he not been the president overnight the United States of America had more than doubled in  size in fact neither the French nor the American negotiators of the purchase had any precise idea  where its borders were early in 1803 President Jefferson had already received Congressional  approval for an expedition to the Pacific to survey and document the western territories and  appointed as its leader his secreta

ry Captain Merryweather Lewis a Virginian veteran of the  Revolutionary War in the summer Lewis invited fellow Virginia native Lieutenant William Clark  to be co-leader of the Expedition and as both men made their preparations and recruited  men into their core of Discovery Jefferson gave instructions to explore the newly acquired  Louisiana Territory departing from Saint Louis on the Mississippi in the spring of 1804 Lewis  and Clark reached the Pacific coast in November 1805 completing the rou

nd trip by September 1806  Jefferson and The Wider American public followed news of the Expedition with great interest reading  accounts of their encounters with Indian tribes and the natural landscapes that confronted them on  their Journey prompting the president to set aside a room in the presidential Mansion to display  a collection of natural artifacts sent to him by Lewis and Clark for Jefferson these western  territories represented new opportunities for the American people to cultivate t

he lands  reflecting his ideal of an agrarian Republic Jefferson had one widespread popularity  during his first term by lowering taxes and signing the Louisiana Purchase and while his  Federalist opponents remained vocal in the Press he handsomely won re-election in 1804 with 162  electoral votes to 14. the Federalists position was so weak the Jefferson was more concerned  about opposition from his own side including those Republicans who claimed that Jefferson had  compromised too much with th

e Federalist cause a further concern came in the form of Vice President  Aaron Burr who had killed Alexander Hamilton in an Infamous duel on the 11th of July 1804 the killing  of Hamilton who was widely mourned and celebrated as one of the chief architects of the United  States government ended Burr's political career and Jefferson picked George Clinton of New York  as his running mate for vice president in the 1804 election Jefferson was happy to be rid of Burr but  in 1806 rumors reached him t

hat his former vice president was planning on leading a military force  either to take control of Louisiana or Spanish Mexico or even to overthrow the government in  Washington Jefferson had his Congressional allies introduce measures to allow the president to use  federal troops to quell internal insurrections another measure he would surely have opposed had  he not been President Jefferson accused Burr of treason and gave orders for his arrest the former  vice president was detained in March 1

807 and put on trial for which he was eventually acquitted as  Jefferson was busy dealing with domestic security the prospect of war with Britain once again reared  its head in June 1807 after the British ship HMS leopard opened fire on the USS Chesapeake when  the latter refused a British request to search the ship for deserters the acts outraged  American public opinion and Jefferson was prepared to declare war however he knew that  the United States was in no position to fight a naval war wit

h Britain instead on the 22nd of  December 1807 he signed the Embargo Act into law forbidding American Trade not only with Britain  but all foreign countries although the Embargo prevented war and stimulated the development of  American industry to replace imported goods the policy led to higher prices for food and other  basic necessities and proved highly unpopular in a turning of the tables the Federalists were now  protesting about President Jefferson's executive power though Jefferson's pre

ferred successor James  Madison easily won the 1808 presidential election after leaving the presidency Thomas Jefferson  returned to Monticello on the 15th of March 1809 where he would spend the remaining 17 years of  his life the 65 year old former president enjoyed playing with his grandchildren and attended to  their every need as for his children with Sally Hemmings who was similar in age Jefferson treated  them the same as all his other slaves and while visitors to Monticello would remark p

rivately on  how some of the slaves bore a striking resemblance to the Master of the House Jefferson would never  pay attention to such talk he basked in the glow of a respectable Elder Statesman in his Hilltop  Retreat full of reminders of yesteryear including busts and portraits of his fallow founding fathers  Washington Adams Even Hamilton a surprise to many visitors who had witnessed their bitter rivalry  at the encouragement of some friends and far removed from the political fights of the 1

790s  Jefferson was happy to resume his correspondence and friendship with John Adams as the two men  reminisced about the past and shared their hopes and anxieties for the future of the nation  in 1812 the same year the two men resumed their correspondence the war between Great Britain and  the United States which Jefferson had tried to avoid had finally broken out although British  troops burned Washington DC in August 1814 the final peace settlement restored the pre-war status  quo and the Un

ited States was safe for the time being secure from external enemies by the end of  the decade disagreements over whether Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a free state  or a slave state threatened to tear the nation apart once again writing to Adams Jefferson could  see that the question of slavery was a far greater threat to Unity than any of their political  battles but while Jefferson continued writing and thinking about slavery in the Twilight of his  life this was a political bat

tle to be fought by Future generations of politicians for this very  purpose he founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1819 hoping that it would  nurture political leaders in the values of Liberty and freedom which he held dear after 1820  Jefferson's Health was in steady decline although in 1824 the 81 year old was still able to meet his  old friend Lafayette who was visiting the United States on a farewell tour receiving great acclaim  everywhere he went and catching up with

his old revolutionary comrades including the 80 80 year  old John Adams in 1826 the 50th anniversary of Independence neither Adams nor Jefferson were  in a condition to join in the celebrations in Washington by the end of June both were Gravely  ill on the 4th of July John Adams died at six o'clock in the evening at his Massachusetts  home at 90 years old the dying man's final words to those gathered around his bedside recalled  his friend and rival Thomas Jefferson survives unbeknownst to him t

he 83 year old Jefferson had  died at one in the afternoon fifty years to the day after his death duration of Independence  was adopted by the Continental Congress Thomas Jefferson is routinely considered one  of the greatest Statesmen in the history of the United States born a subject of the British  Empire his political views radicalized over time and by his early thirties he had written one of  the most consequential documents in world history a powerful statement of Universal human rights  a

nd Liberties which continues to inspire The Defenders of Freedom against dictators and despots  around the world to this day he dominated American politics for half a century serving as Secretary  of State and vice president before climbing to the highest office in the land as president he  doubled the size of the United States of America not through Conquest but through diplomacy opening  up new lands and economic opportunities for the American people throughout his life he defended  the rights

of the individual against the threat of a tyrannical State his house at Monticello  is a site of pilgrimage for many America and attracts half a million visitors a year yet  the universal human rights so eloquently preached by Jefferson did not apply within the walls of  his Monticello estate since DNA testing has given strong evidence that Jefferson was the father  of Sally heming's children he has been labeled a hypocrite especially among African Americans he  may have opposed slavery in prin

ciple but he was happy enough to keep his children as slaves and  only set them free as part of the agreement he made with their mother in France unlike Washington  who freed all his slaves in his will nearly all of Jefferson's slaves remained in bondage at his  death historical figures should be judged by the standards of their time but in Jefferson's time  there were plenty of Americans who opposed slavery both in private and in public he had the foresight  to recognize that slavery could tear

apart the union but while he was prepared to fight political  battles against his former friends in defense of the individual rights of white Americans he was  happy to keep slaves at Monticello and while in national office made no effort to encourage his  political base in the slave holding South to give up their slaves indeed Jefferson's famous words  in the Declaration of Independence stating that it was self-evident that all men were created equal  would prove to be problematic due to the f

act that slavery perpetuated across numerous States for  nearly a century after the Declaration this is the contradiction at the heart of the Declaration  of Independence that the implicit message conveyed by it was that only white men were created equal  what do you think of Thomas Jefferson was he the great Statesman who championed individual liberty  against tyrannical regimes and charted America's path to Greatness or was he a hypocrite whose talk  of Rights and Liberties was merely intended

to protect the wealth and prosperity of the Virginia  Slave holding class to which he belonged please let us know in the comment section and in the  meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] [Music] The Man known to history as James Madison was  born on the 16th of March 1751 at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway Virginia his  father was James Madison Senior a tobacco planter and the largest landowner in Piedmont  where his first Plantation Mount Pleasant was located his mother was

Nelly Conway both  parents came from families of Rich local Planters and Madison was very conscious  of this privileged status James Madison Jr known to the world simply as James Madison  through his birth was deeply connected with Virginian Colonial politics by a large  and very close family that intersected with most of the elite families of Virginia  Madison's ancestors were relative latecomers to Virginia arriving in 1653 however within a few  short years the Madisons had become prosperous

Planters in the Piedmont Region located in  the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at age nine Madison's family moved to a new home  called Montpellier known as Junior to those close to him Madison had 11 siblings who he was close  to throughout his life despite occasional familial fights he also grew close with the family of  Donald Robertson his school master and future Princeton college professor John Witherspoon these  two Scottish Educators helped Madison develop a deep passion for read

ing and learning something  that would be a Hallmark of Madison's life he behaved well around these teachers however Madison  was equally as mischievous as the other local boys this was who Madison was Regal and dignified  but mischievous around those who knew him well he returned home from Princeton in 1772 but a  new interest would soon capture his attention in 1774 Madison noticed the religious persecution  of the Baptists of Virginia by the local anglicans Madison had no tolerance for it cal

ling it  that diabolical hell-conceived principle of persecution he fought and argued tirelessly on  behalf of the marginalized Baptists to no avail from this experience religious freedom became a  core principle Madison enthusiastically protected though not actively engaged in religion Madison  retained a belief in God throughout his life soon after these local religious persecutions  Madison was swept up in larger political issues affecting all the North American British colonies  for the past

decade tensions had simmered between the colonists in America and the British Empire  many American colonists were perfectly content being a part of the British Empire however they  believed that they deserved to receive the same rights as their fellow citizens in Great Britain  as British government officials attempted to exert control over the colonies and enforce the status  as subjects tensions grew more heated Boston that hot pot of Yankee and rest led the charge  against the increased pre

ssure from British leaders however unrest and discontent had spread  across the North American Seaboard from Canada to Georgia in every Colony people were questioning  and debating their place in the Empire at this point the thought of leaving the empire was still  out of the question however soon two parties began to develop lap that paralleled the major parties  in Great Britain fittingly named the Whigs and the Tories the Whigs emphasized that the rights  of Englishmen must be applied to thos

e in the colonies these rights included representation in  Parliament by physical Representatives who could vote for or against taxation Americans were not  against taxation but resisted British taxes on matter of principle they believed that they were  also equal members of the Empire and deserved the same Rights passed down through generations  of Englishmen some Tories on the other hand disagreed that it was necessary that they have  physical representation arguing for the idea that by being

part of the Empire they were virtually  represented by Parliament other Tories agreed with their wig friends to a degree they concurred  that the British Parliament was wrong to try to govern without American Representatives however  they urged more caution and more patience from their fellow Americans James Madison was very  much a wig though a sickly small man measuring only five feet four inches he was fervent in his  desire to protect his beloved Virginia and the other colonists from tyranny

many Americans had  long worried about the possibility that either Parliament or the king could become too powerful  and take away the rights of the people Whigs in Boston determined to dramatically resist British  Imperial tyranny in 1773 revolutionary bostonians dumped a massive shipment of tea into the harbor  in protest this Boston Tea Party was lauded by Patriots but infuriated British ministers seeing  danger in Boston and wanting to make an example out of those Rebels parliament passed t

he  Intolerable Acts a series of laws aimed at forcing Boston and all colonists to shape up and  submit to the British crown rather than subduing the colonists the laws instead promoted anger and  panic across the colonies for many the harshness of the acts confirmed their fears that the British  government did not care at all about their rights Madison became much more engaged with the Whigs  now known as the Patriots and began to protest the actions of the British Parliament 1775 brought  the

first battles of the American Revolution when Patriot forces around Boston confronted British  soldiers as they were attempting to take Patriot ammunition stores these now historic battles  of Lexington and Concord ignited unrest across the entire British North American colonies James  Madison quickly voiced his support and became more deeply anti-british as he read about numerous  attacks on the Americans by 1776 Madison and other Virginians had had enough of the Empire they  organized themselv

es to work towards independence then on the 15th of May the Virginia convention  a shadow government operating in Williamsburg voted to ask the Continental Congress to vote for  Independence Madison a member of the convention was appointed to draft Virginia's Declaration  of Rights Madison partnered with George Mason a 50-year-old delegate renowned for his gruffness  to draft the document Madison helped craft an amendment that stated all men were entitled to  worship as they wished only a few ye

ars removed from the persecution of the Baptists Madison did  not want his new state to be able to persecute and harm religious minorities after several revisions  the amendment was added a huge success in the previously Anglican dominated Colony however  Madison lost the election of 1777. locals wanted a leader who was more friendly and personable  particularly one who would Supply free alcohol at rallies Madison believed in a more dignified  approach to elections and felt that resorting to bri

bery was immoral he refused to buy rounds of  beer for the local men which cost him his seat but Madison's writing and negotiating skills had made  him popular among Virginian Elites and soon he was back in Virginia's capital on the governor's  Council then two years after that in 177 29 he was elected to the Continental Congress in  Congress Madison came into contact with the best and brightest from across all 13 new States these  friendships and connections that he formed during the years of t

he American Revolution would be  critical to his development as a politician and as a negotiator one of the friends he gained during  these years was the fiery young Thomas Jefferson the author of the Declaration of Independence  and one of Virginia's leading Statesmen politics and nation building were not the only  things on Madison's mind during his tenure as a congressman while in Philadelphia in 1783  Madison fell in love with Catherine Kitty Floyd the daughter of a New York Congressman she 

was nearly 16 years old but such a courtship was not a rarity in those days Madison saw things  progressing wonderfully until in July Floyd broke off their courtship to marry a medical  student Madison was devastated and wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson mourning the loss of his  love Jefferson recently having lost his own wife was sympathetic and sought to comfort his friend  with his love life in turmoil Madison continued to devote himself to his country while Madison  threw himself into s

upporting the new government he quickly learned of many of its shortcomings  governance during the war had been problematic the new nation constantly plagued by lack of  funds and an inability to tax America won its independence in 1783 but there was still a lot  of work to do the Articles of Confederation a document joining together the 13 independent  states into a confederation of States attempted to govern the new nation however Madison and  others couldn't help but see how ineffective it wa

s the document made the central government  exceptionally weak in an effort to prevent tyranny or rather a repetition of the events prior to  the colonies leaving Great Britain the largest problem was that Congress had very little power  to do anything especially to raise taxes for a Young Nation entering the world stage in a world  full of powerful Empires a weak decentralized government did not seem to be the way to maintain  the liberty of the new nation this is perhaps why Madison formed a w

orking friendship with a bright  young lawyer named Alexander Hamilton Hamilton now famous because of lin-manuel Miranda's Broadway  musical Hamilton a young man like Madison and one of the sharpest mines in U.S congressional  circles teamed up with Madison to solve various problems plaguing Congress however even as they  work together the two young men butted heads as they looked to solve problems differently Hamilton  favored a strong central government while Madison looked to make incremental

changes over time  Madison was a deal maker Hamilton a brilliant Firebrand these early experiences between the two  men would cement Decades of occasional cooperation and rivalry between the little Virginian and the  Immigrant New Yorker Congress struggled to survive under the Articles of Confederation from 1783  to 1787. the government's control of the country was tenuous and never certain inflation crippled  the once thriving economy leaving many families struggling and resentful former soldi

ers demanded  their payment for their services in the Army and Congress broke as usual was forced to issue ious  which only infuriated the soldiers more for many it seemed as if the nation was on the brink of  collapse James Madison worried about the future of the nation and how he could help it survive  as he wondered he sought to make the best of an increasingly dreary predicament by serving again  and again in public office James Madison's first term as a congressman ended in 1784 following 

which Madison went to work in the lower House of Virginia's legislature while there he maintained  contacts with friends in Congress and abroad and continued to fight for religious liberty in the  state of Virginia by removing taxes designed to support religious institutions he worked alongside  George Washington to develop a canal across the Appalachian Mountains along the Potomac River  and served as a Ghostwriter for Washington for drafting specific proposals during the process as  well as th

is Madison also continued to work with Hamilton in an effort to strengthen the weak  United States for these young Statesmen the United States was ungovernable and risked being  broken apart and reabsorbed by larger European Empires while many modern viewers may think  that the United States growth was inevitable nothing could be further from the truth with each  small crisis the young United States seemed ready to implode Madison wanted to change that the  question in his and other leaders Mind

s was how Madison took great effort to study and prepare  himself for future debates he studied history books sent to him by Thomas Jefferson who was then  residing in Paris Madison pondered on the example of past confederacies or loose unions he became  increasingly convinced that in order to survive the nation needed a stronger central government  that could manage the quarrelsome States but by 1786 tensions in the United States were reaching  Breaking Point Talk of the Union splitting apart w

as rampant throughout the nation mob violence  such as Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts put everyone on edge Madison was one of the key  organizers for the Constitutional Convention and put much of his energy into recruiting the  national hero General George Washington to come Madison arrived in Philadelphia on the 14th of  May but the convention was delayed until the 25th when the rest of the delegates arrived Madison  came thoroughly prepared for the Constitutional Convention with a plan for

government structure  that became known as the Virginia Plan Madison argued that the Confederation should be scrapped  and be replaced by a government that included A two-house legislature an executive and a  Judiciary the plan also highlighted the problems with too much state power transferring it  instead to the national government some delegates began to fear that the new government  would even abolish state governments and the Virginia Plan was hotly contested  especially by delegates from s

mall states for six weeks delegates argued with each other  in what is now known as Independence Hall they were well aware of the gravity of their situation  knowing that they were seeking to recreate the government of the United States as different  plans were proposed and debated the delegates worked slowly towards a consensus Madison wanted  to create a nation Not Just A Confederacy of states he continued to argue that the people  were the source of government not the state governments themse

lves but concessions had to be  made Madison was deflated that his plan had been mangled and melded with plans still favoring  small states but his Virginia Plan was still very influential in the final result by September  the convention adjourned and sent the new United States Constitution to the states to be ratified  while none of the delegates were perfectly happy with the final result they believed that it was  far better than the Articles of Confederation after the convention Madison was t

asked with  a new objective to defend the Constitution so that it would be accepted by the people  of the 13 states after four months five states Delaware Pennsylvania New Jersey  Georgia and Connecticut accepted the new document however the larger States like Virginia  Massachusetts and New York were not on board yet Fierce debates erupted across the country as a  loose Coalition of anti-constitutionalists known as the Anti-Federalists went to work attacking  the document and trying to prevent

ratification Madison soon joined a literary debate happening in  America's newspapers between Hamilton and Robert Yates a New York Anti-Federalist these debates  which soon expanded Beyond Hamilton and Yates came to be known as The Federalist Papers these  documents clearly and persuasively outlined the logic of the new constitutional government  written mostly by Hamilton and Madison The Federalist Papers have become a standard  document in the study of the formation of the United States Consti

tution for Madison this new  occupation as a journal writer was difficult week after week of intense writing stressed the young  Statesman the writings may have helped the debates shaping New York but soon Madison was on his way  to Virginia to help keep the Constitution alive in Virginia the opposition was led by the  legendary Patrick Henry and other leaders of the American Revolution Madison noted that many  people desired a Bill of Rights something that they saw is essential to the liberty o

f Americans  in 1788 Madison went to Virginia's ratification convention where he debated relentlessly for the  national Constitution although he was not a great orator he went toe-to-toe with Patrick Henry and  won over many by promising to bring up a Bill of Rights as amendments on the 25th of June the  U.S Constitution was ratified in Virginia with a vote of 89 to 79. after all the stress of the  convention Madison had yet another task winning a seat in the new Congress so he could deliver  on

his promises and help guide the new government Patrick Henry made sure that Madison was unable to  be appointed as a senator as Madison ran for the House of Representatives Henry again attempted  to keep Madison out of the new government running against a former friend James Monroe  Madison emphasized his support for amendments to make a Bill of Rights he won by several  hundred votes thus guaranteeing him a spot in the new United States government George Washington  took the oath of office in

New York City on the 30th of April 1789 using an address that he had  crafted with Madison's help the new government appeared to be working as he served in Congress  Madison was not flamboyant or impressive when it came to delivering speeches he preferred to work  behind the scenes accomplishing the Dirty Work of forming a new nation Madison was a member  of the Continental Congress from 1789 to 1792 the most influential formative years of the new  Republic Madison learned much about how to crea

te compromises during this period one instance  involved preserving Benjamin Franklin's job as America's Chief Diplomat and binding America  closer to France he did however make enemies he didn't get along well with John Adams the man who  had helped spur America towards independence and served as president from 1797 to 1801 the  two became bitter enemies and avoided one another during the early months of working as a  congressional delegate Madison worked hard to get a Bill of Rights into the C

onstitution Madison  believed that these rights were natural rights or stemmed from nature and God these natural  rights were enshrined in English tradition and he felt they ought to be protected by  the American government some of Madison's proposed amendments failed to Garner sufficient  support however the following ten did first he proposed the right to freedom of religion speech  press assembly and petition second the right to keep and bear arms third the right to prevent the  government fr

om using citizens homes as Barracks for soldiers fourth a ban on unreasonable search  and seizure fifth protections for people accused of crimes forbidding Double Jeopardy or being  charged twice for the same offense and seizing property without just compensation the right to  refuse to self-incriminate the right to jury and the right to due process or Fe procedure sixth  the right of the accused to have a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury seventh the  right to a jury trial in federal

civil cases eighth a ban on excessive bail and fines and cruel  and unusual punishment ninth an acknowledgment of unenumerated Rights or additional rights  that haven't been explicitly listed and 10th a statement that rights not listed in  the Constitution are under the direction of the states and the people these rights have since  become an indispensable Hallmark of U.S law and a model for free governments around the world  without medicine the Bill of Rights and the freedoms that it protects

may never have existed  one author has since stated if Madison was not quite the father of the Constitution success  has a thousand fathers he was its midwife following these successes Madison was  considered one of the leaders of the U.S House of Representatives his friends like Washington  Hamilton and Jefferson were leading figures in the fledgling government and the transition  away from the Articles of Confederation was working however not everything ran smoothly among  leading Statesmen a

s Hamilton unveiled his plans to fix the national debt Madison shifted from  Ally to enemy he proposed legislation different to Hamilton's and argued against accepting  Hamilton's ideas at the same time a crisis was brewing in Congress of a where to place the  nation's capital according to Thomas Jefferson he arranged a meeting between Madison and Hamilton  where a bargain was struck that allowed the nation's capital to be moved to its present site  at Washington DC while Hamilton's plan was all

owed to pass through Congress without attacks from  Madison this solved the immediate issue at hand but did not end Madison's Feud with his former  collaborator Alexander Hamilton button the next major fight between these two political leaders  was over the National Bank Hamilton sought to transform the American Republic to be more stable  and be a place where International creditors could invest their Surplus Resources Hamilton wanted  the United States to be a republic he was not interested in

transforming the nation into a  monarchy neither was he a Democrat he believed that most people were not educated enough or  selfless enough to be in charge of government Hamilton wanted to mimic what leaders in the  British Empire had done decades earlier by tying the prosperity of the wealthiest men to the  prosperity of the government thereby theoretically benefiting the masses Madison disagreed believing  like Jefferson that the power of the Republic could be spread to the Yeoman farmer the

  independent man and not just the elites he believed that the idea for the First National  Bank of the United States was unconstitutional his pair protests were in vain however because  in February of 1791 Congress passed the bank Bill and Washington after listening to both Madison  and Hamilton signed the bill much to Jefferson's and Madison's consternation Madison became  increasingly disenchanted with the Washington administration especially Washington's handling of  the French Revolution Ma

dison and Jefferson were francophiles or people who loved France though  not as Extreme as Jefferson in his hatred for the British Madison was upset by Washington's  seeming support for the British in the wars of the French Revolution Madison supported the  radicalness of the Revolution and Jefferson's attacks on John Adams who had begun writing in  support of hereditary government soon Madison's and Jefferson's attacks on leading government men  such as Hamilton Adams and even Washington drove

National politics towards a bitter divide Across  the Nation camps began to form nominally known as Federalists and Republicans today known  as Democratic Republicans or Jeffersonian Republicans Madison refused to believe that he  was introducing parties into the American system he claimed his opponents had done it already  however Madison's attacks did more to Spur the creation of the party system than anything  John Adams had done his decisions to focus on the creation of a party focused on th

e lower  and middle class granted him and Thomas Jefferson success over the next two decades Washington  attempted to stop the fights between the people in his cabinet and was a losing battle Madison  and Jefferson attempted to oust Vice President John Adams during the election of 1792 further  angering the Federalists meanwhile in France the events of the French Revolution had deteriorated  to mob control and mass executions the guillotine killed thousands of people while thousands more  died i

n battles with the British and prussians many Americans had initially supported the French  Revolution until it turned sadistic and violent and while some Americans reversed their stance  on the French Revolution others hardened in their conviction that the citizens of France were  right Madison was one of these men he accepted honorary French citizenship and became a staunch  defender of the French Revolution when Washington declared American neutrality Madison went to work  seeking to undermin

e the president's position when Madison's supporters began directing attacks  at George Washington the tides began to turn against him already many Americans were nervous  as French revolutionaries abandoned Christianity and continued the purges of France's enemies  attacking the father of the country was once step too far Madison and Jefferson feeling the wrath  of Americans beat a hasty Retreat again supporting Washington publicly however the damage had  already been done over the next few yea

rs Madison continued to work with Thomas Jefferson to help  their party regain support however in 1794 Madison had more pressing matters than National Politics  on his mind in Philadelphia the nation's capital James Madison at age 43 met Dolly Payne Todd dolly  was a widow her husband having died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Madison was introduced  to Todd by one of his political allies Aaron Burr Madison was quickly smitten with the beautiful  woman many of Madison's friends including

George Washington showed excitement over the possible  match by August of 1794 Madison had won the heart of Dolly and the two were married on the 15th of  September 1794. dolly was happy and affectionate an outgoing and flirty woman Dolly loved the  world into which James Madison brought her prior to her marriage she had been a Quaker but quickly  adapted to the gaiety of Philadelphia and later Virginian highlife the two would add a wing onto  Madison's Plantation Montpellier which some today su

ggest looks like the combination of a Virginia  Plantation Manor and a Philadelphia town home she would remain a devoted and faithful companion to  the shy and quiet Statesman throughout his life as Madison adapted to his role as a husband and  father Dolly had one child from her previous marriage he also began to clash with his former  Idol George Washington more frequently his first Clash was over Jay's Treaty a secret treaty signed  by American Diplomat John Jay with the British in November o

f 1794. the treaty was quickly  signed by both the Senate and Washington in part because they knew the treaty would be extremely  unpopular the treaty secured some victories for the Americans and helped ease tensions with Great  Britain but for many the treaty did little but embarrass the nation initial resentment from the  public began to shift however as Hamilton launched a brilliant PR campaign supporting Jay's Treaty  Madison and Jefferson were Furious when Madison's allies in the house atte

mpted to confront  Washington about the Treaty Washington dismissed their efforts now Madison felt he had to fight  his friend the results were not pretty Washington ceased all interactions with his former friend  at 64 years old Washington was unwilling to deal with those he viewed as backstabbers Madison  unhappy at the results was further saddened when his efforts to defund the treaty or keep  funds from making the treaty possible failed Madison's seven years in Congress had worn  out The Vir

ginian and he was ready for a break in 1796 Madison retired from Congress and headed  back to his Plantation in Virginia his former friend George Washington also retired in his  farewell address Washington took some parting shots at Madison and his colleagues reminding  Americans to avoid Party politics and not become attached too much to foreign Nations however  the country was engulfed in its first contested presidential election Adams and Jefferson faced  off with John Adams coming out the Vi

ctor James Madison had tried to help Jefferson obtain the  victory now Jefferson was to be Adam's vice president the two old friends now enemies were  once again together Madison encouraged the enmity stoking the Party politics as much as he could  he also refused to act as a minister to France seeing an opportunity to allow the Federalist  Party to sink itself he wanted to watch their party collapse as much as any other Jeffersonian  Republican he would be content himself to stay in Virginia an

d take care of personal matters over  the next few years Madison continued to worry about the Federalists Madison believed that  his political enemies would Doom the country and Destroy Everything the American Revolution  had stood for he saw evidence in the hostilities between France and the United States as well  as the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act a law that targeted radical Democratic elements  in the United States Madison and Jefferson both began to plan to combat the Federalist at

tempts  to control the press and suppress their party's more radical supporters and so they launched  an offensive called the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions penned secretly by Madison written  for Virginia and Jefferson who wrote for the legislature in Kentucky these resolutions were to  act as a rallying cry for the nation the call of these resolutions was for the States to declare  the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional Madison was far more succinct and less fiery than  Jefferson in h

is writing but the point was made the nation was on the edge of collapse  the nation's response was overwhelmingly negative condemning the resolutions and their  authors for threatening the American Republic however Federalist infighting left an opening  for Madison and Jefferson and they took it Madison re-entered politics in 1799 by running  and winning a seat in the Virginia assembly from his seat in the Virginia legislature Madison  continued to defend the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions w

hile helping situate Jefferson for  victory in the upcoming presidential election of 1800. the election was close but Jefferson  narrowly won in 1801 Madison traveled to the nation's new capital in Washington D.C and began  his Service as Secretary of State Madison enjoyed a close relationship with Jefferson and was  his primary advisor during his presidency with the Jeffersonian Republicans in power much of  the opposition to Madison Came From Within his own party particularly those who felt wr

onged by  Jefferson's right-hand man some were men who had sought patronage appointments only to be turned  away others were radicals who felt Madison was too conservative for the party Madison did  little to fight back against their verbal attacks he was too focused on outside matters to  be terribly concerned with intra-party fighting France and Britain were still at War but with the  jeffersonians in power American policy flipped to now favor the French under Napoleon however  France had emer

ged as a military superpower and had rested control of Louisiana Territory from  the Spanish Madison went to work to convince the French the best option for them was to help the  United States gain control of Florida and sell the Americans New Orleans Napoleon was uninterested  in listening however the disaster of Napoleon's invasion of Santa mag now known as Haiti ended  French efforts to reassert control in the new world this led to a remarkable change of Fortunes  when the French sold the Ame

ricans the Louisiana Territory a massive expanse of territory doubling  the United States size for Madison this was a perfect outcome and one which he believed  would greatly impact future Generations at the start of Jefferson's second term Madison  focused much of his efforts on securing the Louisiana Purchase and acquiring Florida from  Spain Spain proved to be resistant to American threats and offers and was determined to hold on  to their colony however far more threatening to the Jeffersoni

an Administration was the British  Empire which was engaged in a war with France in 1805 British officials began attacking American  Merchant men to stop trade with France Madison was frustrated by the British policy and attacked  it with pamphlets and threats but the situation took a drastic turn for the worse when Napoleon  and the British began a trade war and forbade the United States from Trading with each other by  1807. America was powerless in the face of the great Powers because it had

only a small Navy  and both Madison and Jefferson refused to get involved in a war instead they decided to impose  an embargo of a Americans trading with France or Britain Madison defended the policy which crippled  the American economy with little repercussions for either Britain or France while Jefferson retreated  from the drop in popularity following the passage of the Embargo Madison doubled down on his  position he was determined to give no ground however the Embargo sowed deep and bitter

seeds  throughout the nation particularly in New England in 1808 Madison began working to secure the  nomination for the Democratic Republican ticket to contest the up-and-coming presidential  election and replace Jefferson as president of the United States Madison's successes and  his closeness with Jefferson proved to be a significant Boon to his prospects his chief party  opponent fellow Virginian James Monroe was unable to secure enough major political allies to mount  a successful campaign

against his former friend and after the Federalists nominees performed  terribly Madison swept to Victory and became the fourth President of the United States of  America after taking the oath of office on the 4th of March 1809 with George Clinton becoming his  vice president however despite his victory Madison found a strong opposition within his own party and  among the Federalists these two groups helped vote down the hated embargo ending one of Jefferson  and Madison's key attacks on the Bri

tish with the Embargo of failure Madison was now facing  a world with two hostile and belligerent world powers France and Great Britain and as well as  this Madison's life in Washington was far from peaceful while his wife Dolly set out to create a  vibrant and glamorous environment in the nation's eight-year-old capital in Washington DC Madison's  enemies made his life Difficult by constantly opposing him and fighting his decisions while  Madison faced enemies in Congress he did achieve a signi

ficant Victory when his administration  annexed the Western half of Spanish Florida had long been a prize Madison wanted to seize  and after American settlers moved there Madison ordered an army to enter the territory proving to  his critics that he could act decisively in favor of the United States this victory was tempered  by the increasing hostility of Great Britain and their refusal to cooperate with the United States  decision to remain neutral British officials sent to the United States f

urther antagonized  relations between the two states leading many Americans to become more hostile to the British  Madison continued to hope that an embargo would produce the correct effects however most Americans  were tied with fruitless economic sanctions that achieved little of the desired effect in 1811  Madison reorganized his cabinet and brought in his former friend once enemy but now friend  again James Monroe Monroe was seen as the perfect Virginian to succeed Madison and Madison knew i

t  he also relieved various officials that he had come to dislike Madison wanted a stronger cabinet  one that would help him fulfill his plans for the American Republic this was desperately needed  as Madison's party was beginning to fracture as new younger Jeffersonian Republicans entered  the National stage men like Henry Clay and John C Calhoun made their mark on the new Congress  in the fall of 1811. these young senators and representatives saw in themselves the future of  the new nation whi

le they respected the founders such as Madison they also saw them as holding  back the nation from its true potential and Glory meanwhile in New England Federalists were becoming  increasingly disaffected with the administration while still supportive of the United States they  were frustrated by the Madison administration's policies towards Great Britain who they  saw as a bulwark against Napoleonic France another challenge Madison faced was reigning  in his own party who had become increasingl

y hawkish on Great Britain Britain long antagonistic  towards the Jeffersonian Republicans had ignored all calls for negotiations furthermore Native  American wars on the frontiers of the American Republic were spurred on by British agents Who  provided encouragement to the tribes resisting the conquest of their homelands by American  forces on the 1st of June 1812 Madison sent a war message to Congress after two and a half weeks of  debate both houses of Congress voted to go to war every Federa

list voted no but the Jeffersonian  Republicans had the upper hand Madison however presided over a dilapidated and pathetic Army  and Navy the Jeffersonian Republicans over the past decade had reduced the Army and Navy to  Mere Shadows of their former selves declaring war on the strongest nation in Europe was bold  and ambitious if not a bit foolhardy however the Americans were committed at least the Jeffersonian  Republicans and no power on Earth was going to stop them perhaps medicine believed

that Britain  would not commit many resources to the conflict France had recently invaded Russia and Britain's  Army was bogged down in Spain and Portugal Madison even offered peace terms soon after the  declaration of war American forces soon were marching on Canada which resulted in an absolute  disaster unfortunate timing inept commanders and logistical challenges not to mention the poor  quality of the soldiers led to stinging defeats for the Americans the only positives came from the  succ

esses of the U.S Navy which continued to defy the odds and win battles against British ships  and as the war dragged on Madison was re-elected but only through the support of the Pennsylvania  Jeffersonian Republicans if not for their support Madison would have lost the race however with  his election secured Madison continued to try to solve the problems of the U.S military while  he had some success the war was quickly breaking the fragile Unity of the Young Nation new  englanders hated the wa

r and Federalists were beginning to contemplate a complete separation  from the south then in late 1812 the war took a decidedly worse turn for the Americans when  Napoleon's invasion of Russia completely failed with France now weakened the British turned  more of their attention to the war in America then in 1813 Madison was hit by a bilious fever  the fever threatened his life and Madison was left bedridden for weeks critics and Friends alike  wondered if it was the end of the small Virginian

however in August of 1813 Madison gradually  began to recover 1813 also brought some small victories on the Great Lakes for the Americans  the most famous being the Victory on Lake Erie by Captain Oliver Perry several victories were  also achieved by American generals against Native American forces these victories would pave the  way for settler expansion into Native American lands following the war while Madison celebrated  these victories he was also Desperately Seeking to end the war in part

because Madison understood  that Britain was stronger and better equipped than his American Army in 1814 Madison sent  five men including John Quincy Adams and Henry LA to negotiate a treaty between  Great Britain and the United States when Napoleon abdicated in the spring of 1814  the British officials sent more troops to North America to crush the Americans however two  years of war had hardened up the American troops and along the Canadian Frontier a stalemate kept  either side from achieving

a significant Victory and any successes were offset by a devastating  attack launched by the British on the Chesapeake Bay Area Madison had attempted to prepare  for an assault however his poor choice in commanders specifically William Winder led to  disastrous results when on the 19th of August 1814 British troops landed at Benedict Maryland  only 35 miles south of Washington DC and Madison's cabinet collapsed some felt Baltimore would be the  logical next Target James Monroe began acting as a

scout and Madison rode out to the Troops eight  miles south of the capital and encouraged them on unlike in previous years where the American  militia had stalled British advances the British marched leisurely towards Washington DC after  a short battle later entitled The Bladensburg races due to the Flight of the American forces  the British marched into the capital retaliating for the American burning of York in Canada now  known as Toronto the British burned the capital building and the Whit

e House Madison and his  family had safely evacuated but now the capital was in Ruins and the British triumphant seemingly  poised to destroy the much larger and economically more important city of Baltimore in September  the British moved against Baltimore only to be repelled at Fort McHenry it was a victory but it  rang Hollow as the smolders of Washington burned Madison found in the fall a very deflated and  frustrated Congress the war was going poorly and Madison's allies were doing little t

o make  it any more popular James Monroe advocated for a draft something that was deeply unpopular in  all regions of the country in December 1814 New England Federalists gathered in Hartford  Connecticut and discussed seceding from the United States though not taking that drastic  step the Federalists threatened to secede if their demands were not met they petitioned for several  Constitutional Amendments seeking to curtail the power of the Jeffersonian Republicans Madison  who had advocated si

milar ideas in the 1790s when protesting Federalist power was Furious  however Madison was saved by the fortuitous success of General Andrew Jackson Who decidedly  outwitted the British in the small town of New Orleans the battle swung American public opinion  in favor of Madison who learned of it around the same time that he received the Treaty of Ghent  a truce between the British and the Americans with the wall at an end Madison was able to ignore  the Federalists and rejoice with the rest of

the nation observers stated that Madison was giddy and  the life of the party following the end of the war the rest of his two years in office were spent  fortifying his legacy and preparing the nation for the next Virginian President James Monroe  he saw his term as a success and was pleased with the turn of events following the war for  Madison he believed that National Honor had been saved and that the peace was a victory  for the Young Nation Madison looked to the future with optimism and h

ope believing that the  United States was on the brink of great success following his retirement from Party politics  Madison returned to his Plantation Montpellier Madison as one of the last of the founding  generation was an American icon visitors flocked to his home to see the former President Madison  was the last of the framers of the Constitution and America drifting towards the sectional  conflicts of the Civil War looked to him though not involved in National politics he continued to  gi

ve advice he argued continually for the idea of American Union something he saw as essential  in order to preserve American Liberty he was terrified that soon the nation would devolve  into war and break asunder never to achieve its destined greatness but while he remained an  icon he did experience troubles in perpetuating his farm as prices dived and Virginian Land Lost  value family problems also ate away at Madison's fortunes leaving the man barely staving off  bankruptcy these financial tro

ubles did not deter Madison from working on various projects  including writing opinions on Supreme Court rulings and supporting the establishment of the  University of Virginia he also supported the American Colonization Society a group established  to emigrate free and enslaved African Americans back to Africa Madison himself never mustered the  courage to free his enslaved people he hid from what he knew to be wrong Madison's last hours were  recorded by Paul Jennings one of the men enslaved

by James Madison Jennings recalled the death of  his enslaver several decades later his recounting is surprisingly not angry or full of malice just  a simple recollection of what he saw the day that the father of the United States Constitution died  it was the 26th of June 1838 only 23 years before the start of the American Civil War Madison had  been in his bed for nearly six months unable to walk on the morning of his death he had trouble  eating and his niece asked what is the matter Uncle Ja

mes Madison simply said nothing more than  a change of mind my dear Jenning stated his head instantly dropped and he ceased breathing as  quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out in the days following Madison was taken to the Grave  followed by an immense procession of both white and black Americans to bury the small man from  Montpellier Virginia in the graveyard Madison was an American founding father and one of the  primary authors of the United States Constitution he was a man whose life wa

s tied closely to the  formation and growth of a new United States and helped shape the United States on its course to  become a global superpower his death occasioned much sorrow in the United States the last of the  founders Madison had truly made his mark on the United States his decision-making had been key  in state and National constitutional conventions his dedication to Liberty and the freedom of white  Americans laid a precedent for future Generations while he struggled to Envision a fu

ture where  whites and blacks could live together in peace his greatest work the U.S Constitution was used by  some abolitionists to justify the end of slavery Madison the short Virginian lived a life immersed  in politics and the creation of a new nation his friends and enemies numbered amongst some  of the most famous of America's founding generation and his meticulous record-keeping  allows historians today a glimpse into the past world of the founding fathers Madison made his  Mark and his M

ark has lasted until the present the United States Constitution being a model  for many other nations Often overshadowed by other figures such as George Washington Thomas  Jefferson or his old adversary John Adams Madison has remained one of the most prominent founders  of the United States of America what do you think of James Madison does he deserve his reputation  as a hero of the early American republic or was he a political operator bent on preserving his  own class and status as a slavehol

der please let us know in the comment section and in the  meantime thank you very much for watching [Music]