John Adams and the Problem of Virtue

Abstract

Shortly after starting his diary, John Adams reflected on his new role as schoolmaster. He thought that he sat at head of world in miniature: I sometimes, in my sprightly moments, consider my self, in my great Chair at School, as some Dictator at head of a commonwealth... my little school like great World, is made up of Kings, Politicians, Divines, LD., Fops, Buffoons, Fidlers, Sychophants, Fools Coxcombs, and every other Character drawn in History or seen in World. Adams saw himself as judicious spectator. Is it not then highest Pleasure my Friend to preside in this little World, to bestow proper applause upon virtuous and generous Actions, to blame and punish every vicious and contracted Trick, he wrote. He admitted that his comments were odd talk for J. Adams. By way of explanation, he offered a story that revealed attraction of working with undisguised characters of school children: About 4 months since a poor Girl in this neighbourhood walking by meeting H[ouse] upon some Occasion, in evening, met a Gentleman with laced hat and wast coat, and a sword who sollicited her to turn aside with him into horse Stable. Girl relucted a little, upon which he gave her 3 Guineas, and wished he might be damned if he did not have her in 3 months. Into horse Stable they went. 3 Guineas proved 3 farthings-and Girl proves with Child, without a Friend upon Earth that will own her, or knowing father of her 3 farthing Bastard.1 task of judging characters of his pupils was a relatively simple one. real world presented a much more complicated picture, though, even to' most observant of spectators. girl was accosted by a fine Gentleman with laced hat and wast coat, and a sword. Such accouterments were supposed to denote not simply polished manners but an inner refinement.2 Instead, they proved mere stage props, as false as three guineas he promised. early diary entry presented lessons about judging character to which Adams would cling throughout his life. He engaged in a never-ending attempt to see beneath laced hats and waistcoats of society, to strip away false trappings of men in his often vexing search for virtue. Adams recognized elusive nature of his quest. In his reading, he noted a passage from Bolingbroke: True moral virtue is something very real. It is cause of our happiness. Beside it Adams scribbled: This is divine and eternal truth. But alas! how shall we define true moral virtue? And where shall we find it? To discover virtue, he believed that he had to pierce veil of appearances in order to see underlying truth, a Sisyphean effort considering how often appearances misled. He admired Bonaparte's expression The Scenery of Business: The scenery has often if not commonly in all business of human life, at least of public life, more effect than characters of dramatis personae or ingenuity of plot. Nor could one even trust one's self. In an essay printed in Boston Gazette in 1763, Adams claimed that self-deceit was the source of far greatest and worst part of vices and calamities among mankind. In a world where appearances deceived and one's motives were cloudy, he plaintively asked, Who shall judge?3 Adams's worries about virtue mirror scholars' problems today in judging place of virtue in his own thought. Some have seen him as a backward-looking republican, out of touch with emerging democratic polity. Others have cast him as a liberal political thinker who envisioned an emerging nation that did not rely on virtue. essay considers Adams's personal efforts to lead a virtuous life, his larger national vision as coherent parts of same whole, and his struggles with his own unruly passions in forming his larger political vision. In end, Adams's obsessive search served not so much to identify and protect few sources of real virtue as to call into question any possible source of virtue. …