The Diplomatic Thoughts Of John Adams

John Adams is the famous statesman, diplomat and thinker, second president of the United States. During the American Revolution, he is the vanguard of the cause of the American Revolution and have made outstanding contributions to the victory of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts in continental congress, he actively participated in and promoted struggles of the British Thirteen Colonies in North America for independence from British, and so is known as the "the giant of independence". He threw himself into the military struggle with the British, although not at the front, But has made outstanding contributions to ensure the victory of military struggles. Thoughtful and more in-depth thinking about the early American foreign policy, he is one of the founders of American diplomacy. As a diplomat, he has twice traveled far away for missions to Europe to participate in the peace negotiations with Britain, successfully obtain diplomatic recognition in the Netherlands and secure a loan urgently needed for the United States. After becoming president, he properly handled the crisis in US-French relations, successfully bring the alliance between the United States and France to a conclusion, made a significant contribution to the isolationism diplomacy. It is because of John Adams undergoing almost all the major events in early America, especially in the diplomatic field, that to research John Adams’ diplomatic thinking, help us to deepen understanding for the early history of the United States and early diplomatic history of the United States.The diplomatic thoughts of John Adams is deeply influenced by political thoughts and economic theories prevalent in the 18 th century in Europe. John Adams not only very widely read, but also good at thinking, so that he deeply understood the British political thought in the 18 th century and political thought and economic theories of French Enlightenment thinkers. when he thought the diplomatic issues facing the United States, John Adams was deeply influenced by the Power politics, physiocrats and classical economics. John Adams’ s diplomatic thought can be divided into three stages, namely the phases of the initiation, the formation and the maturity. Because John Adams left a wealth of literature, we can clearly see the context of the formation of his foreign ideas from the three literature. These three documents includes the a letter to Nathan Weber in September 1755, 1776 the Plan of Treaties and A Memorial, Most Humbly Addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the old and New World.At the beginning of the founding, the United States was contrary to diplomatic practices to break Britain’s diplomatic isolation and access to foreign recognition, on its own initiative sent some diplomats to foreign, which is by some American diplomatic historian known as the "militia diplomacy." Although John Adams before Independence wrote a letter to his friend in which are mentioned the ideas with "militia diplomacy", while the word "militia diplomacy" derives from a letter written by John Adams, however, John Adams wasn’t directly related to the decisions that Continental Congress accredited diplomats to a number of European countries, and, during his mission to Europe, John Adams is a more straight and narrow diplomat. For the "militia diplomacy" issue, although John Adams is the initiator that the Continental Congress decided to accredited an envoy to the Netherlands, he are different with those who advocated "militia diplomacy" in Continental Congress. The recommendations of John Adams was on the basis of information from the Netherlands. After being appointed as Minister to the Netherlands, although John Adams found that the information above is not accurate and awkward in the Netherlands, he tried with a spirit of fearless to promote America diplomatically recognized by Netherlands and eventually made a diplomatic victory, but only a victory of "militia diplomacy,"For most of his life, John Adams has been in favor of free trade. These propositions are based on his understanding of the nature of the American economy and urgent needs of the American Revolution. During the American Revolution, for lacks of the necessary military supplies and industrial products, he advocated American ports open to encourage imports of these goods abroad, and even free customs duties. At the same time, he believed that the United States is an agricultural country, that the implementation of free trade be in favor of the United States to export its surplus agricultural products and import manufactured goods abroad, and that access to the American market is exchanged for open foreign markets. At the end of the American Revolution and in the Confederation period, because the Confederate government has no controlled over foreign trade, leading to financial difficulties, therefore, John Adams advocated the establishment of a strong central government to strengthen the management of foreign trade, thereby increasing and protecting revenue of the central government and payment of bonds. In his later years, with the rise of the US national industry, John Adams instead began supporting protectionism with mercantilism.During its missions to Europe, Russia and the Nordic countries set up the first league of armed neutrality to safeguard its maritime rights of neutral. For the first league of armed neutrality, John Adams had consistently given great attention, and formed his understanding of armed neutrality. After his presidency, the crisis of the US-French relations appeared, the core issue of which is the maritime neutral rights. John Adams adopted armed neutrality measures to successfully safeguard the interests of the United States.Because of ruptures of his relationship with Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, those undermined John Adams’ s fame, and especially had not been properly evaluated his diplomatic achievements. Throughout his diplomatic career, John Adams is a distinguished diplomat, and has made outstanding contributions to early American diplomacy.