America's Most Overlooked Founder

     
     
          To be a farmer is to be virtuous. A virtue is a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. America's Founding Fathers understood what it meant to be virtuous and the importance of farming, gardening and the environmental impact it would have in developing the new republic of America. John Adams as one of the Founding Fathers understood the importance of this and his actions shaped the American nation and efforts today towards parks, farming, composition, and water conversation that echo his ideals. Adams regarded himself as a farmer first and always preferred being in his fields or in his garden to other pursuits. It was the “zeal in my Heart, for my country,” Adams said, that kept him in politics, not a particular love for it (Wulf 43). Adams impact on America is not through one action, but many actions represented through different themes from politics to agriculture. His virtuous passion for farming, gardening and nature was woven into the foundation of America into what has become an agrarian republic (Wulf, Gardening as Politics: Digging the Founding Gardeners).

  John Adams impact and legacy on America is unfortunately overlooked by many. Adams is viewed as the “odd-man-out” when compared to the rest of the Founding Fathers. His appearance did not exemplify the actions that one might envision after learning about his accomplishments in life. Adams was short, overweight, and verbose to a point of annoyance to some men. He did not fit the stature one would perceive as the second president of the United States. The rest of the Founding Father were all from Virginia, owned slaves, and were all financially much wealthier than Adams. But what they all did share was a passion for agriculture and it being the future foundation for America. Adams was fervent about his land and ever trying to improve it. He like the rest of the Founding Fathers claimed to be a farmer first, politician second. Adams was always looking for new ways to make his farmland more fertile, experimenting many a times with different compost and manure mixtures that no one else had conceived yet. He was not afraid to get dirty to say the least but where Adams lacked in appearance and social grace, he made up for in virtuous manner (Engle 10).

  Adams political life correlated with his passion for the outdoors and hands on technique. He believed Americans should lead a simpler life away from the hedonistic excesses of Europe and follow a path of civic duty, not individual gratification.The indulgence in luxury made people weak and effeminate, thereby corrupting a society, while public virtue was “the only Foundation of Republics” (Wulf 49). Adams admired the virtuous exemplifiers who served the public good and always found himself happiest when he was outdoors either farming or gardening and away from others where he felt he could be himself. “Never happier then when planting or pruning and overall getting my hands dirty” quoted Adams (Wulf 44). As a farmer Adams was naturally interested in getting dirty while as a politician he found himself estranged from his real passion. As Adams political career superseded his agricultural one, he turned to gardens as a way of escaping the every day head-aches and frustration of politics. Adams quoted, “Such excursions are very necessary to preserve our Health, amidst the suffocating Heats of the City, and the wasting, exhausting Debates of the Congress” (Wulf 44). It was these actions by Adams that lead to one his greatest impacts on America today.

  John Adams impact would result in the national parks found around the country. These national parks serve as a setting to investigate the role Adams played in establishing and perpetuating the American democratic tradition. Adams utilized nature as a resource to better himself. The National Park System is a national resource, a historical resource and a cultural resource. Like many other resources, it has value to man only when it is made useful to man. Adams saw this resource differ from other resources, chiefly in the nature of its products. Nature yields the products of knowledge, refreshment, and esthetic enjoyment Adams enjoyed throughout his lifetime. Adams would view todays National Parks as an encouraging effort to better society, a result mirroring Adams ambitions of America’s virtuous citizens.

  Adams impact on America and its foundation of success is only rivaled by the other Founding Fathers. The impact resulted from Adams love of nature and the resources they offered him to be a better individual, a virtuous individual with the only intent that it be the ultimate goal of every other American citizen to seize the same prosperity of heart and mind.

Works Cited

Engle, Corliss. "John Adams: Farmer and Gardner." Harvard University, n.d. n.p.: 9-14. PDF file.

Wulf, Andrea. “Gardening as politics: Digging the Founding Gardeners.” Los Angeles Times. n.p., 24 May 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2013

Wulf, Andrea. Founding Gardeners. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. Print