By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
PITTSFIELD – As time goes by and decades pass, American elections get more and more contentious. Politics can be brutal, a real blood sport. With no biting campaign buttons or attack television ads, just how intense was the rivalry between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson during the 1800 presidential election? Very intense, and their friendship made it even more complicated.
A stunning find
In the summer of 1958, two brothers, 14-year-old Craig and 11-year-old Richard Wade were walking along a Pittsfield railroad ditch and found something that caught their eye. It was a linen banner bearing a portrait of the United State’s third president, Thomas Jefferson which was carried by an eagle. Streaming from the eagle’s mouth is a ribbon proclaiming: “T. Jefferson President of the United States. John Adams is No More.” Indeed taunting.
Craig Wade simply tacked the banner up on his bedroom wall and the family did not realize how important this relic was until the brothers took turns bringing it to school for show-and tell, prompting teachers to recommend it be brought to the attention of a local museum. In 1959, the boys’ mother, Mrs. James “Shirley C.” Wade sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institute offering to sell the banner, knowing that such a find would be difficult to put a price tag on.
That same year, Mrs. Wade told the Mansfield News and Times, “I don’t know whether I should sell it to the museum or keep it. And if I should sell it, should I get $100 for it, or $500, or $1000? What’s it worth?” Other institutions allegedly offered to purchase it but after much back and forth, a deal was finally made with the Smithsonian and the Wades received $2,000 (over $17,000 in today’s dollars) in 1961.
Complicated relationship
Several institutions, including the Massachusetts Historical Society, agreed the banner was authentic. Bethanee Bemis, a museum specialist with the Division of Political History at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., said it was “one of most important political banners in the country.”
The relationship between the two former presidents was a complicated one. Federalist John Adams favored a strong central government while his Republican opponent Thomas Jefferson believed that the Federalists had betrayed the Revolution of 1776 and were slipping back into a monarchy.
Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans relentlessly pressured Adams during this period, particularly over the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1799. The campaign itself was every bit as ruthless as any contest seen in recent years with mudslinging rhetoric. Historians often referred to the Adams and Jefferson as an example of how low campaign contests could get. Even Alexander Hamilton printed a devastating attack on Adams, the head of his own party, in “fifty-four pages of unremitting vilification.”
Republicans threatened civil war if the Federalists denied Jefferson the presidency. Finally, a secret deal that changed one vote gave Jefferson the White House. In an act that really angered Jefferson, Adams appointed several of Jefferson’s political opponents to high office just before leaving the office. Devastated, Adams left Washington before dawn on Inauguration Day, too embittered to even shake Jefferson’s hand.
The two men were at their lowest point during Jefferson’s two term presidency. In 1812, Dr. Benjamin Rush convinced them to begin writing to each other again and this led to a rekindling of their friendship. They wrote about the death of loves, their advancing years and the Revolution they fought for. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would die only five hours apart on July 4, 1826.
As for how such an important part of history ended up near some railroad tracks in Pittsfield, no one seems to know.
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