Poker News

John Adams

No Founding Father was more responsible for America’s independence and the democratic government that followed than John Adams. His contribution was at least equal to that of Washington or Jefferson.

The second President of the United States descended fromAmerica’s original risk-takers, the Puritans. John Adams’ family arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638, nearly a century before he was born. He always considered himself an American.

As a boy, his favorite past times were making sailboats, playing marbles, quoits (a ring toss game) and hunting. He started smoking at age eight. Adams was certain that without religion, his family “would have been rakes, fops, sots, gamblers…” and died of hunger, froze to death or “been scalped by Indians”.

When Adams graduated from Harvard in 1755, the university consisted of four buildings and seven faculty. A typical college student, he wrote that he enjoyed the company of the “Pleasure hunting young fellows of Town” whose interests were “Songs and Girls… Concerts and Card Tables.”

An outspoken young attorney, John Adams predicted “the fires of patriotism” would “soon begin to burn” more than a decade before the Revolution ignited. At 29, in 1764, he married Abigail Smith. As patriotic as he, she became his life-long partner and political ally.

A year later, Britain slapped the colonies with the Stamp Act. It was a tax requiring a revenue stamp on most printed materials, including playing cards. Everyone was angry, newspapers, businessmen, and especially the common folk who played faro, whist, sledge, brag, loo, and poker in the taverns. Adams understood the significance. Years later he wrote, “The Revolution began long before any shots were fired.”

The Revolutionary spirit grew intense and in 1774 John Adams was chosen to be a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress. He knew the stakes, it’s “Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,” then, he moved all-in, declaring [I am] with my country!”

The rogue Revolutionary Government was headquartered in Philadelphia. Like most cities, it had a great many taverns. They were gathering places where men exchanged news and views over beer and cards. It was at the City Tavern that John Adams first met George Washington, a modest poker player. Impressed, Adams would later lead the fight to put Washington in charge of the Continental Army.

It was determined that John Adams, 43, could best serve the Revolution as a diplomat. While General Washington fought the British, Adams sailed to France to join Benjamin Franklin in the effort to gain support for the American cause. Without the loans he was able to secure from Amsterdam bankers, the troops and ships contributed by France, it is unlikely the Americans would have won.

Dedicated to his mission, Adams grew frustrated with Franklin’s casualness. He complained that it was Dr. Franklin’s custom to sleep late, attend a play in the afternoon and spend the evening listening to music “and in various Games as Cards, Chess and Backgammon.” But Franklin didn’t let Adams bother him. He told a friend that when he was in the mood, “I just shuffle the cards again, and begin another game.”

Ironically, the French Court feared the British more than they did freedom and democracy. After helping the Americans win independence, the French had their own revolution and ended their Monarchy at the guillotine.

With the war over, John and Abigail became the toast of London. During the 1785- 1786 social season, Abigail wrote to her sister about the card parties held almost every evening. “At these parties, it is usual for each lady to play a rubber… when you must lose or win a few guineas.” The card games commonly were whist or cribbage. However, at one party Abigail noticed “a large faro table… a new kind of game which is much practiced here.”

Upon returning to Massachusetts, Adams became the principal architect of the state constitution. It separated the power of government into the executive, legislature and judiciary. The legislature was divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives. The world’s first such document, it became a model for the government of the new United States.

After the war, Americans focused on growing the economy. Free enterprise would power the new nation. It was a perfect system for a country of self-reliant gamblers.

With money and leisure time, gambling of all kinds, including horse racing, cards, dice, and cockfights swept the country. New York boasted one tavern to every 90 citizens. In an effort to slow down the action, the state legislature passed a law that only cash could be wagered, IOUs, mortgages and markers were prohibited.

Under President Washington, Adams became the nation’s first Vice President. For him, politics was like poker. Although it brought him grief and frustration at times, he couldn’t give it up. He confessed to Abigail, “I am weary of the game. Yet, I don’t know how I would live without it.”

After two terms, President Washington announced his retirement. In the following election of 1796, Adams won a narrow victory,beating out his life-long rival Thomas Jefferson by just three electoral votes. Jefferson became Vice President. John Adams served one term. Jefferson won the election in 1800.

In 1826, on the day he died, Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” But unknown to Adams, Jefferson had passed away just hours earlier. In almost mythical, mystical fashion, both great players checked out of the game on the same day - the Fourth of July.

Filed under: Poker News