{"id":16,"date":"2012-10-09T11:32:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T15:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/?p=16"},"modified":"2012-11-23T14:38:52","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T19:38:52","slug":"john-adams-a-patriotic-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/1796\/john-adams-a-patriotic-american\/","title":{"rendered":"John Adams: A Patriotic American?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Adams: A Patriotic American?\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RZWLHOpA9Bg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Carl Szanton<\/p>\n<h1 align=\"center\">Explanation Paper for \u201cJohn Adams: A Patriotic American?\u201d<\/h1>\n<h1>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This campaign ad is an attack on John Adams for the election of 1796.\u00a0 \u00a0In an election in which Adams was accused of being excessively pro-British, I condemn him for, in essence, being an Anglophile.\u00a0 <!--more-->I exploit Adams\u2019 defense of Captain Thomas Preston and the British soldiers of the Boston Massacre in court in 1770 as evidence that his true loyalties lie with Great Britain.\u00a0 I also use Adams\u2019 desire to model the United States after Great Britain as further reason to accuse him of being irrationally pro-British.\u00a0 The ad may be unfair in its portrait of Adams, however it does attack a weakness for which he was vulnerable.<\/h1>\n<h1>Tying John Adams to Great Britain would have been especially damaging to Adams\u2019 political prospects in this period because the level of American animosity towards Great Britain was as great as ever.\u00a0 The period of grossly unfair taxation without representation was still a recent memory.\u00a0 The Revolutionary War in which of thousands of colonists were killed at the hands of the more powerful British army was certainly not lost on the Americans.\u00a0 At the time that the attack ad would have aired, the British Navy\u2019s merciless tactic of impressment was in full swing, further angering the Americans. Demonstrating such a close relationship between Adams and Great Britain would have given many voters second thoughts about throwing their support behind him.<\/h1>\n<h1>The ad starts with a quote from Thomas Jefferson in which he paints Adams as aloof and an overconfident leader.\u00a0 I put this quote at the beginning of the ad to make clear that I am attacking Adams for being out of touch with the American people.\u00a0 Next, I use a newspaper clipping from Greenleaf&#8217;s New Daily Advertiser that associates John Adams with Great Britain.\u00a0 Using Photoshop, I highlight the part of the article that emphasizes his deep admiration and respect for the British government.<\/h1>\n<h1>Following that newspaper clipping, I get more specific in my attack on Adams, drawing attention to a particular time that Adams sided with the British over the Americans.\u00a0 Showing the former British flag (used from 1606-1801), I introduce a quote from Adams expressing satisfaction for his 1770 defense of the British in court following the Boston Massacre.\u00a0 The quote emphasizes Adams\u2019 ties to the British government and his lack of connection to the common man.\u00a0 After the quote, I display an image of British troops firing on unarmed citizens in Boston.\u00a0 This portrayal serves as a reminder of the brutality of the British soldiers and the loss of American life that Adams enthusiastically defended.<\/h1>\n<h1>My next line of attack calls into question Adams\u2019 desire to model the United States government after the British government.\u00a0 I use a newspaper clipping from The New Hampshire Gazette that compares and contrasts Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in anticipation of the 1796 presidential election.\u00a0 After commending Jefferson for nine of his greatest successes, the paper reminds us that Adams proposed an American government featuring a King.\u00a0 With so much American resentment remaining towards King George III, this attack on Adams would have cost him a tremendous amount of political points.\u00a0 The ad concludes with Adams\u2019 face changing to a British flag, cementing the connection between the two.<\/h1>\n<h1>My music choice is the de facto British national anthem, \u201cGod Save the King,\u201d which was composed in 1745 and given its current lyrics in 1790.\u00a0 The song shares its melody with the American patriotic song \u201cMy Country tis of Thee.\u201d\u00a0 For my ad, I select a rendition of \u201cGod Save the King\u201d with lyrics so that I am clearly coupling Adams with loyalty to Great Britain.<\/h1>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<h1 align=\"center\">Sources (in order of appearance)<\/h1>\n<p><tt>The opening quote comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monticello.org\/site\/jefferson\/john-adams\">http:\/\/www.monticello.org\/site\/jefferson\/john-adams<\/a><tt><\/tt><br \/>\n<tt>The opening image of Adams comes from: <\/tt><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/adam\/john-adams-biography.htm\">http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/adam\/john-adams-biography.htm<\/a><tt><\/tt><br \/>\n<tt>The first newspaper clipping comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/HistArchive\/?p_product=EANX&amp;p_theme=ahnp&amp;p_nbid=K60Y4FNFMTM0ODcxMTY1OC45MjIzMzg6MToxMzoxMzcuMTY1LjI3Ljg4&amp;p_action=doc&amp;s_lastnonissuequeryname=5&amp;d_viewref=search&amp;p_queryname=5&amp;p_docnum=1&amp;p_docref=v2:10D3F95EF7746170@EANX-10D3083033668DD8@2377337-10D3083071A3DED8@1-10D30831545E0510@From+the+Aurora\">http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/HistArchive\/?p_product=EANX&amp;p_theme=ahnp&amp;p_nbid=K60Y4FNFMTM0ODcxMTY1OC45MjIzMzg6MToxMzoxMzcuMTY1LjI3Ljg4&amp;p_action=doc&amp;s_lastnonissuequeryname=5&amp;d_viewref=search&amp;p_queryname=5&amp;p_docnum=1&amp;p_docref=v2:10D3F95EF7746170@EANX-10D3083033668DD8@2377337-10D3083071A3DED8@1-10D30831545E0510@From+the+Aurora<\/a><tt><\/tt><br \/>\n<tt>The image of the former British flag (used from 1606-1801) comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crwflags.com\/fotw\/flags\/gb-hist.html\">http:\/\/www.crwflags.com\/fotw\/flags\/gb-hist.html<\/a><tt><\/tt><\/p>\n<p><tt>\u00a0<\/tt><\/p>\n<p><tt>The John Adams quote about defending the British following the Boston Massacre comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmassacre.net\/trial\/trial-summary4.htm\">http:\/\/www.bostonmassacre.net\/trial\/trial-summary4.htm<\/a><tt><\/tt><br \/>\n<tt>The image of the Boston Massacre comes from: <\/tt><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2004670035\/\">http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2004670035\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><tt>The second newspaper clipping comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/HistArchive\/?p_product=EANX&amp;p_theme=ahnp&amp;p_nbid=X5CD4BABMTM0ODcxMjIxNC45ODQ3MjI6MToxMzoxMzcuMTY1LjI3Ljg4&amp;p_action=doc&amp;s_lastnonissuequeryname=15&amp;d_viewref=search&amp;p_queryname=15&amp;p_docnum=7&amp;p_docref=v2:103709D225B248A8@EANX-104202A5911A0E6D@2377380-104202A5D9FCEA77@1-104202A6C8090BC8@Easton%2C+%28Penn.%29+Nov.+8\">http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/HistArchive\/?p_product=EANX&amp;p_theme=ahnp&amp;p_nbid=X5CD4BABMTM0ODcxMjIxNC45ODQ3MjI6MToxMzoxMzcuMTY1LjI3Ljg4&amp;p_action=doc&amp;s_lastnonissuequeryname=15&amp;d_viewref=search&amp;p_queryname=15&amp;p_docnum=7&amp;p_docref=v2:103709D225B248A8@EANX-104202A5911A0E6D@2377380-104202A5D9FCEA77@1-104202A6C8090BC8@Easton%2C+%28Penn.%29+Nov.+8<\/a><tt><\/tt><br \/>\n<tt>The second image of Adams comes from: <\/tt><a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2001696977\/\">http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2001696977\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><tt>The second British Flag image (used originally in a political cartoon) comes from:<\/tt><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/92510333\/\">http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/92510333\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carl Szanton Explanation Paper for \u201cJohn Adams: A Patriotic American?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This campaign ad is an attack on John Adams for the election of 1796.\u00a0 \u00a0In an election in which Adams was accused of being excessively pro-British, I condemn him &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/1796\/john-adams-a-patriotic-american\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26625],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26625"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist359f2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}