FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, HARRY TRUMAN & GEORGE MARSHALL

The Leaders - FDR and Harry Truman
The Advisor - George Marshall

George Marshall was an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as the Chief of Staff for the United States Army during World War II. When Roosevelt asked Marshall what he thought of such an appointment, he said, “Nothing, Mr. President, except to remind you that I have the habit of saying exactly what I think. And that, as you know, can often be unpleasing. Is that all right?” When Roosevelt said yes to him, Marshall replied, “I will give you the best I have.”

Marshall protected his independence as an advisor to the President. He avoided socializing with Roosevelt in order to remain insulated and independent from Roosevelt’s magnetic and beguiling personality. Since he never campaigned for positions or for advancement, he always took a position with no strings attached, on the strength of his character and competency alone.

FDR insisted that no one admired Marshall more than he did. President Harry Truman felt similarly about Marshall, who served as his Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of State… “I’d say he performed more important jobs for this country than any man I can think of, and I don’t know where we’d be if we hadn’t had him.”

In 1951 Truman recalled General Douglas Macarthur and removed him from command, and Marshall stood strong in support of Truman’s action, in large part because Macarthur had challenged the authority of the President as Commander-in-Chief. “He was a man who never turned down a job that needed to be done.”

Winston Churchill described Europe after World War II as a “rubble-heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.” Marshall devised a plan for the economic rebuilding of Europe, one that President Truman called the Marshall Plan. It proved essential to the recovery of the continent and the stability of the world. In 1953, Marshall became the first career soldier to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his plan.

Truman was effusive in his praise of Marshall’s work. “He was one of the men you could count on to be truthful in every way, and when you find someone like that, you have to hang onto them. You have to hang on to them.”

George Marshall was an adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as the Chief of Staff for the United States Army during World War II. When Roosevelt asked Marshall what he thought of such an appointment he said, “Nothing, Mr. President, except to remind you that I have the habit of saying exactly what I think. And that, as you know, can often be unpleasing. Is that all right?” When Roosevelt said yes to him, Marshall said “I will give you the best I have.”

Marshall protected his independence as an adviser to the President. He avoided socializing with Roosevelt in order to remain insulated and independent from Roosevelt’s magnetic and beguiling personality. Since he never campaigned for positions or for advancement, he always took a position with no strings attached, on the strength of his character and competency alone.

FDR insisted that no one admired Marshall more than he did. President Harry Truman felt similarly about Marshall, who served as his Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of State… “I’d say he performed more important jobs for this country than any man I can think of, and I don’t know where we’d be if we hadn’t had him.”

In 1951 Truman recalled General Douglas Macarthur and removed him from command, and Marshall stood strong in support of Truman’s action, in large part because Macarthur had challenged the authority of the president as Commander-in-Chief. “He was a man who never turned down a job that needed to be done.”

Winston Churchill described Europe after World War II as a “rubble-heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.” Marshall devised a plan for the economic rebuilding of Europe, one that President Truman called the Marshall Plan. It proved essential to the recovery of the Continent and the stability of the world. In 1953, Marshall became the first career soldier to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.

JOHN ADAMS & ABIGAIL SMITH

The Leader - John Adams
The Advisor - Abigail Smith

John Adams, born in Massachusetts in 1735, was a teacher and lawyer before he devoted himself to a life of patriotism and politics. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, a diplomat who served as a commissioner to France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, and minister to the Court of St. James.

John Adams was a passionate advocate of independence for the British colonies. He helped secure funding for the war and he was chosen to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain after the war.

He served as the first Vice-President and the second President of the United States. His presidency was significant, first because it demonstrated a successful transfer of power in Washington and also because he kept the United States out of war with France when it was infringing on American neutrality during the Napoleonic wars with Great Britain.

His steadfastness came at a political price. While keeping the young democracy from war was ultimately good for the country, he antagonized his own party which was anti-French because of the radicalism of the French Revolution. His opponents in the other party, led by his Vice President Thomas Jefferson, were angered by restrictions such as the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to criticize the government or its policies.

In a sense John Adams, a man of principle, made no one politically happy. But he did as he felt was best for the nation. Recalling his administration years later, he noted, “No man who ever held the office of President would ever congratulate a friend on obtaining it.”

He married Abigail Smith, whose father was a Congregationalist minister and whose mother was a member of a notable family in Massachusetts. Throughout their 54 years of marriage she was his closest confidant, his most loyal supporter, his political advisor, and the love of his life.

He died in 1826 and the fourth of July just hours after Thomas Jefferson who had been a friend and colleague for many years, though they were estranged for about twenty years over conflicts begun while Adams was president.

His marriage to Abigail Smith was the most important decision of John Adams’ life. She was in all respects his equal and the part she was to play would be greater than he ever could have imagined. Though they were apart for much of their married life, they conducted a lively correspondence in which he shared his concerns, doubts, and opinions of the people and the events of the time.

She gave him advice, expressed her political opinion, kept him abreast of current events and the political feelings at home and developed her own ideas about how the new nation should evolve. While Abigail maintained the appearance of “the loyal little lady managing the farm and the children” John relied heavily on her political judgment. She was his closest confidant in both political and personal matters.

While her own politics could be quite conservative, and like John she felt the American Revolution was a political and not a social revolution as was the case in France, she did advocate education for women. “If you complain of neglect of education of our sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it…I most sincerely wish that our new Constitution may be distinguished for encouraging learning and virtue. If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women….”

In addition to famously requesting of him “not to forget the women” in writing the Constitution, she also wrote that “I most sincerely wish that there were not a slave in this province. It has always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me--to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”

She encouraged John in his career though his absences were difficult for her. He was often prey to self doubt about his leadership abilities. At his lowest point, when he was faced with a contemptuous cabinet and a thankless country she joined him, at his request to “assist me with your councils and console me” and became his “chief domestic minister without portfolio.”

A historian says, “Abigail Adams was one of the most remarkable, admirable, wise Americans of all times. She was a better judge of people than he was. She was a much more insightful politician.” Her impact continued long after her death in the life of their son John Quincy Adams, who would also become President and who would become a tireless warrior against slavery.