John Adams

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Who2 Biography: John Adams, U.S. President / Revolutionary War Figure

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Born: 30 October 1735
Birthplace: Braintree, Massachusetts
Died: 4 July 1826
Best Known As: President of the United States, 1797-1801

John Adams followed George Washington as president of the United States, becoming the country's second chief executive. An early colonist agitator against the Stamp Act of 1765, John Adams helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He served as an all-purpose diplomat for the new republic during the Revolutionary War, and after the war, in 1785, he became the first American Minister to London. He served two terms as vice-president under Washington (1789-97), and beat Thomas Jefferson in 1796 to become president himself. He was respected but not popular, and served one term before losing to Jefferson in the elections of 1800. His son, John Quincy Adams, was president from 1825-29.

Adams was the first president to attend Harvard University and the first to have a son become president; his wife, Abigail Adams, is one of history's best-known First Ladies... By great coincidence, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in separate states on the same day, 4 July 1826 -- the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... Historian David McCullough's biography, John Adams, was a bestseller in 2001.

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Word Overheard: curmudgeon

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An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.

Curmudgeon is back, and it's not Andy Rooney! John Adams is the "crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas" referred to in the headline of the New York Times book review.

Link: Books of The Times | 'John Adams': Founding Curmudgeon Who Spared the Nation a War

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

US Military History Companion: John Adams

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(1735–1826), member of the Continental Congress, diplomat, vice president, and second president of the United States

John Adams never soldiered, but throughout his public life he repeatedly faced issues of war and peace.

In June 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Adams nominated George Washington to command the Continental army, and in October and November 1775, as a member of the Continental Congress's Naval Committee, he was instrumental in creating the U.S. Navy and Marines. From June 1776 until November 1777, Adams chaired the Board of War and Ordnance, Congress's committee to oversee the Continental army and the conduct of the war. As a U.S. diplomat in Europe after 1778, Adams repeatedly implored France to make a greater military commitment. He emphasized the need for concerted action by Washington's army and the French Navy, a formula that eventually led to victory at the Battle of Yorktown.

Later, faced by the Undeclared Naval War with France (1798–1800) during his presidency, Adams sought to avoid hostilities, fearful that the fragile new nation might not endure another war. He took steps to strengthen the Union's defenses, but also dispatched to Paris the envoys who ultimately negotiated the accord that prevented war. His action split the Federalist Party and contributed to his defeat in the 1800 election. Reflecting on his public career in 1815, Adams said that his greatest achievement had been the preservation of peace during his presidency.

Bibliography

Page Smith, John Adams, 1962.
John Ferling, John Adams: A Life, 1988

US Military Dictionary: John Adams

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Adams, John (1735-1826) 2nd president of the United States, diplomat, and member of the Continental Congress, born in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts; father of 6th president John Quincy Adams. In the Continental Congress Adams nominated George Washington for commander in chief (1775), was instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. Navy and Marines, chaired the Congress's Board of War and Ordnance (1776-77), and negotiated the peace with Britain (1782). Under Washington he was the nation's first vice president (1789-97) and was elected president in 1796 as a Federalist (1797-1801). He built up the navy, but his refusal to declare war on France and his signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) turned the Federalist party against “His Rotundity.”

The first president to live in the White House, Adams was defeated in the election of 1800 by Thomas Jefferson; both men died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence that Adams recommended and Jefferson wrote.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: John Adams

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The second president of the United States, John Adams (1735-1826) played a major role in the colonial movement toward independence. He wrote the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and served as a diplomatic representative of Congress in the 1780s.

John Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy), Mass. His father was a modest but successful farmer and local officeholder. After some initial reluctance, Adams entered Harvard and received his bachelor's degree in 1755. For about a year he taught school in Worcester. Though he gave some thought to entering the ministry, Adams was repelled by the theological acrimony resulting from the period of the Great Awakening and turned to the law. After studying under James Putnam, Adams was admitted to the Boston bar in 1758. While developing his legal practice, he participated in town affairs and contributed his first essays to the Boston newspapers. In 1764 he married Abigail Smith of Weymouth, who brought him wide social connections and was to share with sensitivity and enthusiasm in the full life that lay ahead.

Early Political Career

By 1765 Adams had achieved considerable distinction at the Boston bar. With the Stamp Act crisis he moved into the center of Massachusetts political life. He contributed an important series of essays, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, to the Boston Gazette and prepared a series of anti-Stamp Act resolutions for the Braintree town meeting, which were widely copied throughout the province.

In April 1768 Adams moved to Boston. He defended John Hancock against smuggling charges brought by British customs officials and acted as counsel for Capt. Thomas Preston, the officer in charge of British troops at the Boston Massacre. Adams undertook the Preston defense somewhat reluctantly, fearing its consequences for his own local popularity, but the need to provide Preston with a fair trial persuaded him to act - with no damage, in the end, to his own reputation or practice. Indeed, a few weeks later Adams was elected representative from Boston to the Massachusetts Legislature.

In the spring of 1771, largely for reasons of health, Adams returned to Braintree, where he divided his attention between farming and the law. Within a year, however, professional and political considerations drew him back to Boston. In 1773 he celebrated the Boston Tea Party as a dramatic challenge to British notions of parliamentary supremacy. The next year he was one of the representatives from Massachusetts to the First Continental Congress, where he took a leading role in developing the colonists' constitutional defense against the Coercive Acts and other British measures. Although Adams favored the various petitions Congress made to the King, Parliament, and the English people, as well as the scheme of nonimportation agreements, he nonetheless hoped for more vigorous measures. All the while, however, he had to guard against the suspicion held by many other delegates that the New Englanders were plotting independence. Upon his return to Massachusetts, Adams was chosen for the governor's council but was negatived. During the winter of 1774-1775 he carried on, under the pseudonym Novanglus, an extended debate with Daniel Leonard over the proper constitutional relations between the Colonies and Parliament. Adams's recommended solution at this point was a commonwealth system of empire, with a series of coequal parliaments joined by common allegiance to the Crown.

After the battles of Lexington and Concord, Adams returned to Congress, carrying the welcome instructions from the General Court for measures to establish American liberties on a permanent basis, secure from attack by Britain. He now believed that independence would probably be necessary. Congress, however, was not yet willing to agree, and Adams fumed while still more petitions were sent off to England. The best chance of promoting independence, he concluded, was through the device of instructing the various colonies to adopt new forms of government following the breakdown of their provincial regimes. Replying to petitions from several provinces seeking advice on their governments (petitions which Adams and others had solicited), he recommended that they adopt new governments modeled on their colonial regimes and framed by special conventions.

By February 1776 Adams was back in Congress. There he presented, first privately in response to the requests of several delegates and then publicly in a pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Government," his specific proposals for the reconstruction of the provincial governments. Adams was at last fully committed to American independence. In May, Congress finally passed a resolution that, where no adequate governments existed, measures should be taken to provide for the "happiness and safety" of the people. For this resolution Adams wrote a preamble which in effect asserted the principle of independence. A month later he seconded Richard Henry Lee's resolution for the formal declaration of independence, the contracting of foreign treaties, and the construction of a continental confederation. A member of the committee appointed to bring in the formal statement, Adams contributed little to the content of the Declaration of Independence but served, as Thomas Jefferson later reported, as "the pillar of its support on the floor of the Congress." On another committee Adams drew up a model treaty that encouraged Congress to enter into commercial but not political alliances with European nations. Exhausted by his duties, he temporarily left Philadelphia in mid-October for Massachusetts. For the next year or so he continued to serve in Congress.

Diplomatic Career

On Nov. 28, 1777, Congress elected Adams commissioner to France, replacing Silas Deane, and in February Adams embarked from Boston for what was to prove an extended stay. Upon arrival, Adams found that France had already granted diplomatic recognition to the United States and contracted treaties of commerce and amity. With nothing specific to do, Adams spent the next year and a half trying to keep busy: attempting to secure badly needed loans for Congress, transmitting lengthy letters on European affairs, and learning with mixed fascination and repugnance about the ways of French court and national life.

When he learned that Benjamin Franklin, one of his fellow commissioners, had been appointed sole American plenipotentiary in France, Adams returned to Boston, where in the fall of 1779 he was elected from Braintree to the state constitutional convention. For the next few months he devoted his time to the convention, preparing what became the basic draft of the new Massachusetts constitution.

In the meantime Adams had been tapped by Congress for another diplomatic post, this time as commissioner to contract peace and then a commercial treaty with Great Britain. He embarked in mid-November and arrived in Paris on Feb. 9, 1780. Again he found his situation frustrating, largely because he had been instructed to make no significant moves without the prior approval of the Comte de Vergennes, the French foreign minister. Between Adams and Vergennes there quickly developed a mutual dislike - duplicated in Adams's relations with Franklin, a man more flexible and less demanding in his relations with the French foreign minister. In the face of all this, Adams spent considerable time writing his friends in Congress to complain of his difficult position. Having been further commissioned minister plenipotentiary to the United Provinces, Adams finally secured recognition by The Hague in the spring of 1782, and in October he signed the first of several desperately needed loans with a group of Dutch bankers.

He returned to Paris to negotiate the terms of peace with the British representatives. Adams and the other two American commissioners, Franklin and John Jay, ignored their instructions to make no agreement without first consulting Vergennes; they feared (correctly) that France wished to pressure the United States into peace arrangements inconsistent with national interest (for example, leaving certain coastal areas in British hands). The American commissioners concluded provisional articles of peace and sent the results home to Congress. These were duly signed as the definitive treaty of peace on Sept. 3, 1783.

The Dutch loans and the treaty of peace were the major products of the diplomatic phase of Adams's public career. Before returning permanently to the United States, however, he spent 3 frustrating years as American envoy to the Court of St. James in London, attempting without success to negotiate a commercial treaty and to clear up various diplomatic issues carried over from the Revolution. Rebuffed by British officials and unsupported by a weak Congress, Adams finally asked to resign. Formal letters of recall were sent in February 1788. During the last year and a half of his stay, he composed his three-volume Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, an extended attempt to defend the American concept of balanced government against the criticisms of the French statesman A.R.J. Turgot.

The Presidency

With his return to Boston, Adams began the final stage of his public career. He was chosen vice president in 1789 under the new Federal constitution, a position he was to fill, again with considerable frustration because of its powerlessness, during both of Washington's administrations.

As the election of 1796 approached, the Jeffersonian Republicans began forming an opposition to the Federalists' financial program and seemingly pro-British foreign policy. The Republicans presented Jefferson as their presidential candidate. The Federalists split into two factions, with Adams as one candidate and Thomas Pinckney (backed by Alexander Hamilton) as the other. In spite of Hamilton's efforts, Adams ran well ahead of Pinckney and became the second president of the United States. Jefferson, a scant three electoral votes behind, became vice president.

Adams took office on March 4, 1797. From the first his presidency was a stormy one. His Cabinet, inherited from Washington and dominated by Hamilton's followers, proved increasingly difficult to control. Foreign policy problems, generated by the outbreak of war between revolutionary France and a counterrevolutionary coalition of European nations, created internal political crises of magnitude. The outbreak of revolution in France had tended to polarize political discussion in the United States as well as in Europe between "aristocratic" and "democratic" positions. More particularly, the war between England and France raised questions of whether the United States would maintain a strict neutrality - in fact impossible because of efforts by both England and France to control American trade - or align itself, at least sympathetically, with one of the countries. While most Americans professed the desire to remain neutral in the contest, the Jeffersonians were sympathetic with France and the Federalists with England. Adams found himself caught in the middle.

In 1797 French diplomats attempted to bribe the three-man commission sent by the United States to negotiate various points in dispute between the two nations. The immediate result was an outburst of anti-French sentiment, which the Hamiltonians worked hard to inflame. Adams became caught up in the furor as well, making numerous statements during the spring and summer of 1798 that fanned emotions even higher. Taking advantage of the situation, the Federalists in Congress, with Adams's tacit approval, developed a war program consisting of substantial increases in the American navy, a large provisional army, the Alien and Sedition Acts (aimed at controlling potential subversives within), and a system of tax measures to finance the entire program. The Federalist goals were two: to prepare for an expected war with France and to attack the Jeffersonian opposition.

For a while it seemed that the Federalist measures would carry the day. But during the late summer and fall of 1798 the prospect of peaceful accommodation with France increased, and public discontent with the Federalist war program (helped along by the cries of the Jeffersonians) broke through the surface. President Adams, at home in Massachusetts during much of this time, became convinced that war with France was not necessary and that the Federalist policies, if continued, were likely to result in serious internal disorder. Early in 1799 he committed himself to a plan of peaceful accommodation with France - a decision that enraged most of the Hamiltonians and left them sitting far out on a political limb, with a military establishment and no foreign invader to fight.

By 1800 the split between Adams and the Hamiltonian wing of the Federalist party was complete. Adams dismissed the main Hamiltonians from his Cabinet, and Hamilton openly opposed Adams for reelection. But the President's peace initiatives were both enlightened statesmanship and good politics. The young nation was unprepared for any major external war, and the possibility of serious internal conflict if the war program was continued seems to have been real. Moreover, as various individuals reported, by late 1799 France was prepared for an honorable accommodation with the United States, so there was no longer reason for conflict. Politically, Adams's peace decision made comparable sense. The Federalist split no doubt weakened his chances in 1800, but the Jeffersonians were already scoring heavily in their attacks on Federalist policies. Continued defense of such policies would almost certainly have led to political disaster. In the end Adams lost the election to Jefferson by a narrow margin.

Adams later described his peace decision as "the most splendid diamond in my crown," more important than his leadership in the revolutionary crisis, his constitutional writings, or his diplomatic service. He left the capital, however, bitterly disappointed over his rejection by the American people, so distressed that he even refused to remain for Jefferson's inaugural in 1801.

Adams spent the remainder of his life in political seclusion, though he retained a lively interest in public affairs, particularly when they involved the rising career of his son, John Quincy Adams. John Adams divided his time between overseeing his farm and carrying on an extended correspondence concerning both his personal experiences and issues of more general political and philosophical significance. He died at the age of 91, just a few hours after Jefferson's death, on July 4, 1826.

Further Reading

The most complete modern biography is Page Smith, John Adams (2 vols., 1962), although Smith does not differentiate clearly enough the central themes of Adams's career. Still useful is Gilbert Chinard, Honest John Adams (1933). For the early career of John Adams see Catherin Drinker Bowen, John Adams and the American Revolution (1950). Adams's election to the presidency is fully detailed in Arthur M. Schlesinger, ed., History of American Presidential Elections (4 vols., 1971). Manning J. Dauer, The Adams Federalists (1953), and Stephen G. Kurtz, The Presidency of John Adams: The Collapse of Federalism, 1795-1800 (1957), examine Adams's feud with Hamilton and the split within the Federalist party. For the political thought of Adams three studies are relevant: Correa M. Walsh, The Political Science of John Adams (1915); Edward Handler, America and Europe in the Political Thought of John Adams (1964); and John Howe, The Changing Political Thought of John Adams (1966).

Political Dictionary: John Adams

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(1735-1826) American revolutionary politician and political theorist. Trained as a lawyer in Massachusetts, he helped formulate the argument that the US colonies had never legitimately been subject to the jurisdiction of the British parliament. After independence he was the intellectual leader of the conservative wing of the revolution, arguing in his Defence of the Constitutions… of the USA (1787) that the Senate ought to be chosen from among the rich and the intelligent. Until 1796 he nevertheless retained a friendship with the much more radical Jefferson, perhaps because of their common exposure to the French Enlightenment when they had been diplomats in the 1780s. The friendship was broken by Adams's partisan Presidency (1797-1801), although Adams was less extreme in his partisanship of urban, commercial policies than the fiery Hamilton. It was resumed 1812 and led to a warm and wise exchange of letters which ended with the death of both men on the same day—4 July 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: John Adams

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(click to enlarge)
John Adams, oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1826; in the National Collection of Fine Arts, (credit: Courtesy of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.)

(born Oct. 30, 1735, Braintree, Mass. — died July 4, 1826, Quincy, Mass., U.S.) U.S. politician, first vice president (1789 – 97) and second president (1797 – 1801) of the U.S. After graduating from Harvard College in 1755, he practiced law in Boston. In 1764 he married Abigail Smith (see Abigail Adams). Active in the American independence movement, he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774 – 78), where he was appointed to a committee with Thomas Jefferson and others to draft the Declaration of Independence. In 1776 – 78 he was appointed to many congressional committees, including one to create a navy and another to review foreign affairs. He served as a diplomat in France, the Netherlands, and England (1778 – 88). In the first U.S. presidential election, he received the second largest number of votes and became vice president under George Washington. Adams's term as president was marked by controversy over his signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 and by his alliance with the conservative Federalist Party. In 1800 he was defeated for reelection by Jefferson and retired to live a secluded life in Massachusetts. In 1812 he overcame his bitterness toward Jefferson, with whom he began an illuminating correspondence. Both men died on July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary. John Quincy Adams was his son.

For more information on John Adams, visit Britannica.com.

US Government Guide: John Adams, 2nd President

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• Born: Oct. 19, 1735, Braintree, Mass.
• Political party: Federalist
• Education: Harvard College, A.B., 1755
• Military service: none
• Previous government service: Continental Congress, 1774-1778; committee that drafted Declaration of Independence, 1776; wrote first draft of Massachusetts Constitution, 1779; minister to the Netherlands, 1780–84; minister to Great Britain, 1785–87; Vice President, 1789–97
• Elected President, 1796; served, 1797-1801
• Died: July 4, 1826, Quincy, Mass.

John Adams was the first President to occupy the White House and the first to be defeated for reelection and turn over his office to a member of an opposition party. Adams was one of the most experienced men ever to become President. As a young man, he taught school in Worcester, Massachusetts, and studied law, becoming a lawyer in Boston in 1758. He played a major role in the struggle for independence. On the principle that there should be “no taxation without representation,” Adams led the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, which required the purchase of a stamp (effectively a tax) for all public documents. He showed his fierce independence, however, when he defended several British soldiers accused of killing four people in the Boston Massacre in 1770; most were acquitted.

As a member of the Second Continental Congress in 1775, Adams seconded the nomination of George Washington as commander of the Continental Army. The following year he seconded the motion for independence, introduced by Richard Henry Lee, that “these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states.” He then convinced Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was, as Jefferson said, “the pillar of support” in the debate leading to its adoption.

Adams helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. In 1781 and 1782 he helped negotiate the treaty with the British ending the war and then a commercial treaty with the Netherlands and a large loan to the United States.

In 1785 Adams was named minister to Great Britain. Two years later, while still in London, he published his book A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, which called for a balanced Constitution. The people would be represented in the lower house of the legislature, “the rich, well born and able” would serve in the upper house, and a chief executive would act as a monarch to balance the interests of the upper and lower classes.

Adams received the second highest total of electoral college votes (behind George Washington) in the Presidential election of 1789, and so he assumed the post of Vice President. “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived,” Adams observed. But he was instrumental in devising procedures for the new Senate, and he cast several important tie votes to pass Washington's legislative measures. He was one of the organizers of the Federalist party during his second term and was the choice of President Washington and most party leaders to run for President in 1796. He defeated Thomas Jefferson, 71 electoral votes to 68. Under the rules then in effect, Jefferson, as the runner-up, became Vice President, although he was the leader of the opposition party, the Democratic-Republicans.

During his Presidency, Adams faced intrigues within his own party as Alexander Hamilton moved to influence his cabinet and his policies. The Jay Treaty, which he had helped negotiate with Great Britain in 1795, allowed British ships to seize American cargoes bound for France. The French, in retaliation, decreed that French warships would follow the same policy against American ships bound for Britain, and they then seized 317 American merchant vessels in 1796. A diplomatic mission sent by Adams was refused a hearing by the French unless bribes were paid to French agents (who were referred to as X, Y, and Z) and the United States agreed to lend France $10 million. Adams refused and made the affair public. “Millions for War but not one cent for Tribute” became the slogan of Federalists calling for war.

Adams ignored pressure from Alexander Hamilton and his followers in the Federalist party and instead sought a diplomatic solution, while Congress passed laws enlarging the navy and preparing war measures. Bowing to party pressure, Adams appointed George Washington commander in chief of the army, in effect ceding his constitutional powers. Congress created the Navy Department, organized the Marine Corps, and canceled all treaties with France. Three new frigates, the United States, the Constitution, and the Constellation, were launched in 1797 and 1798 and soon put to service in a naval war with France. They were responsible for a number of American victories in the Caribbean. Although Congress had not declared this war, it did vote funds for it, and the Supreme Court held that the war was constitutional. With French emperor Napoleon's navy bottled up by the British fleet, and many French ships sunk by Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of the Nile in 1798, France could not easily retaliate. Finally a diplomatic solution in 1799 averted further war. The decision to talk rather than continue fighting led to a final split between Adams and the Hamilton wing of the Federalist party. In 1800 Napoleon and Adams agreed to the Treaty of Montfortaine, which released the United States from its revolutionary war treaties with France.

During the conflict Adams assented to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), which made it a crime to publish anything “with the intent to defame” the President or the government. The sedition law was invoked in 25 cases and used by his party to arrest editors from the opposition ranks. Ten editors were convicted by Federalist judges and juries. But public opinion opposed the prosecutions. Madison and Jefferson worked to get the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures to pass resolutions that the laws were unconstitutional and would not be enforced.

Although Adams retained enough support from moderate Federalists to win his party's nomination for a second term, the split in his party led to his defeat by Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800. Adams's final act in office, on the morning of March 4, 1801, was to send to the Senate his nomination of John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States.

Sources

James Truslow Adams, The Adams Family (Boston: Little, Brown, 1930).
Ralph Adams Brown, The Presidency of John Adams (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1975).
Joseph J. Ellis, Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (New York: Norton, 1993)

US History Companion: Adams, John

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(1735-1826), lawyer, revolutionary theorist and leader, diplomat, first vice president and second president of the United States. Adams, raised on a farm in Braintree (later Quincy), Massachusetts, was the first in his family to attend college--Harvard--and its first professional man--a lawyer. Beginning in 1765 Adams, living part of the time in Boston with his wife, Abigail, and their children, opposed British revenue measures and their enforcement by the military. He did so as a moderate, never joining in demonstrations or publishing inflammatory rhetoric in the manner of his cousin Samuel Adams or fellow lawyer James Otis.

In 1765 Adams drew up the Braintree Instructions, a widely disseminated argument against the Stamp Act, which he also opposed in his "Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law." In 1770, following the Boston Massacre, Adams, on the principle that the accused always has the right to a vigorous defense, was willing to defend the British troops who had fired on the Boston crowd. But in 1774, after the Boston Tea Party and the British Coercive Acts, he came out for independence.

Adams had already been a Massachusetts legislator and one of the colony's delegates to the First Continental Congress when at the Second Congress he emerged as the leading advocate of independence. His Thoughts on Government (1776) set forth a design whereby the colonies could govern themselves as independent states. Typically, this blueprint was moderate in tone, but its publication was a radical step toward independence.

Adams's best-known contribution to independence was his indefatigable support in favor of the issuance of a formal declaration of independence. Neither an orator nor an adept forger of political alliances, Adams moved men and events with his earnestness and lawyerly thoroughness of argument. Thomas Jefferson described him as a "colossus"; other delegates called him "the Atlas of Independence." By 1778 he had served on more committees than any other member, simultaneously acting as a virtual one-man war department.

From 1778 to 1788 Adams served as a diplomat in France, the Netherlands, and England. He secured Dutch loans, chaired the commission that concluded a peace treaty with England, and ended as ambassador to the English court, where he was received by George III, the king against whom he had helped lead a revolution.

Returning to America after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, he stood out as a public figure well respected for his Defence of the Constitutions (1787-1788), a three-volume commentary on political systems favoring the bicameral legislature just adopted for the new United States, partly on the model of the Massachusetts State Constitution he had drafted in 1779. His political conservatism linked him to the Federalist party, but Adams consistently held himself aloof from its counsels.

Adams was elected vice president under George Washington and then served as president from 1797 to 1801. His presidency was marred by the threat of war with France and by the Alien and Sedition Acts, not proposed by Adams but signed by him. After a single term, Adams was defeated by Thomas Jefferson. Adams was deeply hurt by the voters' rejection, which reflected the view that he had grown increasingly conservative, especially as evidenced by his low opinion of human nature in his Discourses on Davila (1790-1791). Resentfully, he retired to Quincy and refused all public involvements.

Beginning in 1812 he was reconciled with Jefferson, who had been a friend in Europe, and began with him a correspondence that is now regarded as a monument of the American enlightenment. Adams's philosophical spirit, sometimes submerged by politics, reasserted itself as he argued the limitations of human nature in a more balanced and memorable way than in any of his published works. Adams died on the same day as Jefferson: July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of independence, a coincidence taken by contemporaries as a sign of divine approval of the American experiment.

Bibliography:

L. H. Butterfield et al., eds., The Adams Papers (1961-); Peter Shaw, The Character of John Adams (1976).

Author:

Peter Shaw

See also Adams, Abigail; Boston Massacre; Conservatism; Continental Congresses; Elections: 1789 , 1792 , 1796 , 1800; Federalist Party; Paris, Treaty of (1783); Revolution; Stamp Act. For events during Adams's administration, see Alien and Sedition Acts; XYZ Affair.

Columbia Encyclopedia: John Adams

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Adams, John, 1735–1826, 2d President of the United States (1797–1801), b. Quincy (then in Braintree), Mass., grad. Harvard, 1755. John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams, founded one of the most distinguished families of the United States; their son, John Quincy Adams, was also President.

Early Career

A plain-spoken, tough-minded lawyer, scrupulously honest and dauntingly erudite, but also sometimes quarrelsome and stubborn, Adams emerged into politics as an opponent of the Stamp Act and, after moving to Boston, was a central figure in the Revolutionary group opposing the British measures that were to lead to the American Revolution. Sent (1774) to the First Continental Congress, he distinguished himself, and in the Second Continental Congress he was a moderate but forceful revolutionary. He proposed George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental troops to bind Virginia more tightly to the cause for independence. He favored the Declaration of Independence, was a member of its drafting committee, and argued eloquently for the document.

Diplomatic Career

As a diplomat seeking foreign aid for the newly established nation, he had a thorny career. Appointed (1777) to succeed Silas Deane as a commissioner to France, he accomplished little before going home (1779) to become a major figure in the Massachusetts constitutional convention. He then returned (1779) to France, where he quarreled with Vergennes and was able to lend little assistance to Benjamin Franklin in his peace efforts. His attempts to negotiate a loan from the Netherlands were fruitless until 1782.

Adams was one of the negotiators who drew up the momentous Treaty of Paris (1783; see Paris, Treaty of) to end the American Revolution. After this service he obtained another Dutch loan and then was envoy (1785–88) to Great Britain, where he met with British coldness and unwillingness to discuss the problems growing out of the treaty. He asked for his own recall and ended a significant but generally discouraging diplomatic career.

Presidency

In the United States once more, he was chosen Vice President and served throughout George Washington's administration (1789–97). Although he inclined to conservative policies, he functioned somewhat as a balance wheel in the partisan contest between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In the 1796 election Adams was chosen to succeed Washington as President despite the surreptitious opposition of Hamilton.

The Adams administration was one of crisis and conflict, in which the President showed an honest and stubborn integrity, and though allied with Hamilton and the conservative property-respecting Federalists, he was not dominated by them in their struggle against the vigorously rising, more broadly democratic forces led by Jefferson. Though the Federalists were pro-British and strongly opposed to post-Revolutionary France, Adams by conciliation prevented the near war of 1798 (see XYZ Affair) from developing into a real war between France and the United States. Nor did the President wholeheartedly endorse the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), aimed at the Anti-Federalists. He was, however, detested by his Jeffersonian enemies, and in the election of 1800 he and Hamilton were both overwhelmed by the tide of Jeffersonian democracy. By the end of his term, Adams had proved to be a generally unpopular president, deeply respected but not beloved.

Retirement

After 1801 Adams lived in retirement at Quincy, issuing sober and highly respected political statements and writing and receiving many letters, notably those to and from Jefferson. Their famous correspondence was edited by Lester J. Cappon in The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959). By remarkable coincidence he and Jefferson died on the same day, Independence Day, July 4, 1826.

Bibliography

A definitive edition of the voluminous writings of the Adams family (The Adams Papers) was begun with four volumes (1961) containing the diary and autobiography of John Adams. Until completion of the definitive edition, see Adams's Works (10 vol., ed. by J. Q. Adams and C. F. Adams, 1850–56, repr. 1969; Vol. I is a biography by C. F. Adams); The Selected Writings of John Adams and John Quincy Adams (ed. by A. Koch and W. Peden, 1946); abridged ed. of John and Abigail Adams' letters (ed. by M. A. Hogan and C. J. Taylor, 2007).

See also biographies by J. T. Morse (1884, repr. 1970), G. Chinard (1933, repr. 1964), P. Smith (2 vol., 1962), J. Ferling (1992), J. J. Ellis (1993), D. McCullough (2001), and J. Grant (2005); J. T. Adams, The Adams Family (1930); Z. Haraszti, John Adams and the Prophets of Progress (1952); M. J. Dauer, The Adams Federalists (1953, repr. 1968); S. G. Kurtz, The Presidency of John Adams (1957, repr. 1961); J. R. Howe, Jr., The Changing Political Thought of John Adams (1966); R. A. Brown, The Presidency of John Adams (1975); R. Brookhiser, America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735–1918 (2002); G. Vidal, Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson (2003).

Works: Works by President John Adams

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(1735-1826)

1755	Diary of John Adams. On November 18, the patriot and future president makes the first entry into his new diary. Over the next forty years Adams's diary grows from brief notes about the weather to more detailed and highly personal commentaries on numerous subjects and individuals. Adams's diary is one of the most important firsthand records of life and politics during the late colonial and Revolutionary eras. It would not be widely available until 1961 when published as part of the first volume of the Adams's family papers.
1765	A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Laws. An essay arguing that the experiences of ancient Greece and Rome should be the models for understanding democracy and tyranny.
1768	"An Essay on Canon and Federal Law." Among Adams's earliest publications, this essay uses the New England Puritans' rejection of the "unlimited submission to a monolithic church" to attack British claims to establish total control over the colonies.
1776	Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies. Adams attempts to find the balance between New England republicanism and southern democratic skepticism. He presents the advantages of a bicameral legislature that would provide checks and balances on the power of any group.
1784	History of the Dispute with America. A collection of newspaper essays originally published in 1774 and 1775 in response to essays by "Massachusettensis" (identified as Daniel Leonard). Adams holds that the legal standing of the colonies--including semi-autonomy from Parliament--is established by precedents within the colonial charters.
1787	A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America Against the Attack of Mr. Turgot. Adams begins his three-volume response to the British critics who questioned the political and economic promise of the United States (to be completed in 1788).
1789	Twenty-six Letters; upon Interesting Subjects Respecting the Revolution of America. This collection of letters from 1780 displays Adams's fervor for the American Revolution while discussing the opportunities and problems of independence.
1790	Discourses on Davila. A political manifesto controversial for Adams's support of a monarchy and aristocracy in countries such as France and his denunciation of equality based on his belief that humans naturally have "a passion for distinction."

History Dictionary: Adams, John

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A political leader of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; one of the Founding Fathers. Adams was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the second president, from 1797 to 1801, after George Washington. Washington and Adams were the only presidents from the Federalist party. Adams's presidency was marked by diplomatic challenges, in which he avoided war with France. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed while he was president.

Legal Encyclopedia: Adams, John

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John Adams achieved prominence as a jurist, a statesman, and as the second president of the United States.

Adams was born on October 30, 1735. A graduate of Harvard College, class of 1755, Adams was admitted to the Boston bar in 1758 and established a prestigious legal practice.

During the pre-Revolutionary War years, Adams spoke against many acts enforced by the British government, such as the Townshend Acts, which unjustly taxed items such as glass and tea. He joined the Sons of Liberty—a group of lawyers, merchants, and businessmen who, in 1765, banded together to oppose the Stamp Act.

From 1774 to 1778 Adams served as the Massachusetts representative to the Continental Congress. He entered the judiciary during this period and rendered decisions as chief justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts from 1775 to 1777. In 1776 he signed the newly created Declaration of Independence.

After the war, Adams entered the field of foreign service, acting as commissioner to France in 1777. In 1783 Adams went to Paris with John Jay and Thomas Jefferson to successfully negotiate the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and established the United States as an independent nation. In 1785 Adams became the first U.S. minister to Great Britain.

Adams returned to the United States in 1788 and began service to the new government with his election to the office of vice president of the United States. He was the first person to serve in this office and was reelected for a second term in 1792.

In 1796 Adams was elected president of the United States. He was the second man to hold this position, following the retirement of the first president, George Washington. During his term of office, Adams advocated naval strength; approved the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (1 Stat. 566, 570, 577, 596), which increased the restrictions concerning aliens and imposed harsh penalties on any person who attempted to obstruct the government system; averted war with France; and selected the eminent John Marshall as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1800 Adams ran for the presidency for a second term but was defeated by Thomas Jefferson.

John Adams wrote several publications, including Thoughts on Government (1776) and Defense of the Constitutions of the United States of America Against the Attacks of Mr. Turgot (1787).

Adams was the father of four children, and his son, John Quincy, served as the sixth president of the United States. He died on July 4, 1826, in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts.

CROSS-REFERENCES: Marshall, John.

Quotes By: John Adams

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Quotes:

"A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man."

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

"There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live."

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

"Thomas Jefferson -- still surv"

"Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power."

See more famous quotes by John Adams

Wikipedia: John Adams

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This article is about the politician and second president of the United States. For other uses, see John Adams (disambiguation).

2nd President of the United States
John Adams

In office March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
Vice President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	George Washington
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson
1st Vice President of the United States
In office April 21, 1789 – March 4, 1797
President	George Washington
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson
United States Ambassador to Great Britain
In office 1785 – 1788
Appointed by	Congress of the Confederation
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Thomas Pinckney
United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
In office 1782 – 1788
Appointed by	Congress of the Confederation
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Charles W. F. Dumas
Delegate from Massachusetts to the Second Continental Congress
In office May 10, 1775 – 1778
Delegate from Province of Massachusetts Bay to the First Continental Congress
In office September 5, 1774 – October 26, 1774

Born	October 30, 1735(1735-10-30) Quincy, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died	July 4, 1826 (aged 90) Quincy, Massachusetts, USA
Resting place	United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts 42°15′04″N 71°00′13″W / 42.25111°N 71.00361°W / 42.25111; -71.00361
Political party	Federalist
Spouse	Abigail Smith Adams
Children	Abigail ("Nabby"), John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas and Elizabeth (stillborn)
Alma mater	Harvard College
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Unitarian
Signature

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American politician and the second President of the United States (1797–1801), after being the first Vice President (1789–1797) for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.

Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to adopt the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a representative of Congress in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam.

Adams's revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election as the second president of the United States. During his one term as president, he was frustrated by battles inside his own Federalist party against a faction led by Alexander Hamilton, and he signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts. The major accomplishment of his presidency was his peaceful resolution of the Quasi-War crisis with France in 1798.

After Adams was defeated for reelection by Thomas Jefferson, he retired to Massachusetts. He and his wife Abigail Adams founded an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family. His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as other Founders'.

Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the United States.

Early life

John Adams, Jr., the eldest of three sons,^[1] was born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735 Old Style, Julian calendar), in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts (then called the "north precinct" of Braintree, Massachusetts), to John Adams, Sr. and Susanna Boylston Adams.^[2] The location of Adams's birth is now part of Adams National Historical Park. His father, also named John (1691–1761), was a fifth-generation descendant of Henry Adams, who emigrated from Braintree, England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1638. He is descended from a Welsh male line called Ap Adam.^[3] His father was a farmer, a Congregationalist (that is, Puritan) deacon, a lieutenant in the militia and a selectman, or town councilman, who supervised schools and roads. His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams,^[4] was a descendant of the Boylstons of Brookline.

Adams was born to a modest family, but he felt acutely the responsibility of living up to his family heritage: the founding generation of Puritans, who came to the American wilderness in the 1630s and established colonial presence in America. The Puritans of the great migration “believed they lived in the Bible. England under the Stuarts was Egypt; they were Israel fleeing …to establish a refuge for godliness, a city upon a hill.”^[5] By the time of John Adams's birth in 1735, Puritan tenets such as predestination were no longer as widely accepted, and many of their stricter practices had mellowed with time, but John Adams “considered them bearers of freedom, a cause that still had a holy urgency.” It was a value system he believed in, and a heroic model he wished to live up to.^[6]

Young Adams went to Harvard College at age sixteen (in 1751).^[7] His father expected him to become a minister, but Adams had doubts. After graduating in 1755, he taught school for a few years in Worcester, allowing himself time to think about his career choice. After much reflection, he decided to become a lawyer and studied law in the office of James Putnam, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. In 1758, Adams was admitted to the bar. From an early age, he developed the habit of writing descriptions of events and impressions of men which are scattered through his diary. He put the skill to good use as a lawyer, often recording cases he observed so that he could study and reflect upon them. His report of the 1761 argument of James Otis in the superior court of Massachusetts as to the legality of Writs of Assistance is a good example. Otis’s argument inspired Adams with zeal for the cause of the American colonies.^[8]

On October 25, 1764, five days before his 29th birthday, Adams married Abigail Smith (1744–1818), the daughter of a Congregational minister, Rev. William Smith, at Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their children were Abigail (1765–1813), future president John Quincy (1767–1848), Susanna (1768–1770); Charles (1770–1800), Thomas Boylston (1772–1832), and the stillborn Elizabeth (1775).

Adams was not a popular leader like his second cousin, Samuel Adams. Instead, his influence emerged through his work as a constitutional lawyer and his intense analysis of historical examples,^[9] together with his thorough knowledge of the law and his dedication to the principles of republicanism. Adams often found his inborn contentiousness to be a constraint in his political career.

Career before the Revolution

Opponent of Stamp Act 1765

Adams first rose to prominence as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765, which was imposed by the British Parliament to assuage British war debts as well as the expense of keeping a standing army in the American colonies. Popular resistance, he later observed, was sparked by an oft-reprinted sermon of the Boston minister, Jonathan Mayhew, interpreting Romans 13 so as to elucidate the principle of just insurrection.^[10]

In 1765, Adams drafted the instructions which were sent by the inhabitants of Braintree to its representatives in the Massachusetts legislature, and which served as a model for other towns to draw up instructions to their representatives. In August 1765, he anonymously contributed four notable articles to the Boston Gazette (republished in The London Chronicle in 1768 as True Sentiments of America and also known as A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law). In the letter he suggested that there was a connection between the Protestant ideas that Adams's Puritan ancestors brought to New England and the ideas behind their resistance to the Stamp Act. In the former he explained that the opposition of the colonies to the Stamp Act was because the Stamp Act deprived the American colonists of two basic rights guaranteed to all Englishmen, and which all free men deserved: rights to be taxed only by consent and to be tried only by a jury of one's peers.

The "Braintree Instructions" were a succinct and forthright defense of colonial rights and liberties, while the Dissertation was an essay in political education.

In December 1765, he delivered a speech before the governor and council in which he pronounced the Stamp Act invalid on the ground that Massachusetts, being without representation in Parliament, had not assented to it.^[11]

Boston Massacre

In 1770, a street confrontation resulted in British soldiers killing five civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre.^[12] The soldiers involved, who were arrested on criminal charges, had trouble finding legal counsel. Finally, they asked Adams to defend them. Although he feared it would hurt his reputation, he agreed. Six of the soldiers were acquitted. Two who had fired directly into the crowd were charged with murder but were convicted only of manslaughter.

As for Adams's payment, Chinard alleges^[13] that one of the soldiers, Captain Thomas Preston, gave Adams a symbolic "single guinea" as a retaining fee, the only fee he received in the case. However, David McCullough states in his biography of Adams that he received nothing more than a retainer of eighteen guineas.^[14] Adams's own diary confirms that Preston paid an initial ten guineas and a subsequent payment of eight, "all the pecuniary Reward I ever had for fourteen or fifteen days labour, in the most exhausting and fatiguing Causes I ever tried."^[15]

Despite his previous misgivings, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (the colonial legislature) in June 1770, while still in preparation for the trial.^[16]

Dispute concerning Parliament's authority

In 1772, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson announced that he and his judges would no longer need their salaries paid by the Massachusetts legislature, because the Crown would henceforth assume payment drawn from customs revenues. Boston radicals protested and asked Adams to explain their objections. In "Two Replies of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to Governor Hutchinson" Adams argued that the colonists had never been under the sovereignty of Parliament. Their original charter was with the person of the king and their allegiance was only to him. If a workable line could not be drawn between parliamentary sovereignty and the total independence of the colonies, he continued, the colonies would have no other choice but to choose independence.

In Novanglus; or, A History of the Dispute with America, From Its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time Adams attacked some essays by Daniel Leonard that defended Hutchinson's arguments for the absolute authority of Parliament over the colonies. In Novanglus Adams gave a point-by-point refutation of Leonard's essays, and then provided one of the most extensive and learned arguments made by the colonists against British imperial policy.

It was a systematic attempt by Adams to describe the origins, nature, and jurisdiction of the unwritten British constitution. Adams used his wide knowledge of English and colonial legal history to show the provincial legislatures were fully sovereign over their own internal affairs, and that the colonies were connected to Great Britain only through the King.

Continental Congress

Massachusetts sent Adams to the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and from 1775 to 1778.^[17] In June 1775, with a view of promoting the union of the colonies, he nominated George Washington of Virginia as commander-in-chief of the army then assembled around Boston. His influence in Congress was great, and almost from the beginning, he sought permanent separation from Britain.

John Adams, as depicted on a two-cent American president postage stamp

On May 15, 1776 the Continental Congress, in response to escalating hostilities which had commenced thirteen months earlier at the battles of Lexington and Concord, urged that the colonies begin constructing their own constitutions, a precursor to becoming independent states. The resolution to draft independent constitutions was, as Adams put it, "independence itself."^[18]

Over the next decade, Americans from every state gathered and deliberated on new governing documents. As radical as it was to actually write constitutions (prior convention suggested that a society's form of government needn't be codified, nor should its organic law be written down in a single document), what was equally radical was the nature of American political thought as the summer of 1776 dawned.^[19]

Thoughts on Government

At that time several Congressmen turned to Adams for advice about framing new governments. Adams got tired of repeating the same thing, and published the pamphlet Thoughts on Government (1776), which was subsequently influential in the writing of many state constitutions. Many historians argue that Thoughts on Government should be read as an articulation of the classical republican theory of mixed government. Adams contended that social classes exist in every political society, and that a good government must accept that reality. For centuries, dating back to Aristotle, a mixed regime balancing monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, or the monarch, nobles, and people was required to preserve order and liberty.^[20]

Using the tools of Republicanism in the United States, the patriots believed it was corrupt and nefarious aristocrats, in the British Parliament and stationed in America, who were guilty of the British assault on American liberty. Unlike others, Adams thought that the definition of a republic had to do with its ends, rather than its means. He wrote in Thoughts on Government, "there is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'" Thoughts on Government defended bicameralism, for "a single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual."^[21] He also suggested that the executive should be independent, as should the judiciary. Thoughts on Government was enormously influential and was referenced as an authority in every state-constitution writing hall.

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence depicts the five-man committee presenting the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. Adams is standing in the center with his hand on his hip.

Declaration of Independence

On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution of independence introduced by Richard Henry Lee that "these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states," and championed the resolution until it was adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776.^[22]

He was appointed to a committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, to draft a Declaration of Independence. Although that document was written primarily by Jefferson, Adams occupied the foremost place in the debate on its adoption. Many years later, Jefferson hailed Adams as "the pillar of [the Declaration's] support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered."^[23]

In 1777, Adams resigned his seat on the Massachusetts Superior Court to serve as the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, as well as many other important committees.^[24]

In Europe

Congress twice dispatched Adams to represent the fledgling union in Europe, first in 1777, and again in 1779. Accompanied by his ten-year-old eldest son, John Quincy, Adams sailed for France aboard the Continental Navy frigate Boston on February 15, 1778. Although chased several times by British warships, the only action seen during the voyage was the bloodless capture of a British privateer.^[25] Adams was in some regards an unlikely choice in as much as he did not speak French, the international language of diplomacy at the time.^[26]

His first stay in Europe, between April 1, 1778, and June 17, 1779, was largely unproductive, and he returned to his home in Braintree in early August 1779.

Between September 1 and October 30, 1779, he drafted the Massachusetts Constitution together with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin. He was selected in September 1779 to return to France and, following the conclusion of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, left on November 15 aboard the French frigate Sensible.

On the second trip, Adams was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary charged with the mission of negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with Britain. The French government, however, did not approve of Adams's appointment and subsequently, on the insistence of the French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay and Henry Laurens were appointed to cooperate with Adams, although Jefferson did not go to Europe and Laurens was posted to the Dutch Republic. In the event Jay, Adams, and Franklin played the major part in the negotiations. Overruling Franklin and distrustful of Vergennes, Jay and Adams decided not to consult with France. Instead, they dealt directly with the British commissioners.^[27]

Throughout the negotiations, Adams was especially determined that the right of the United States to the fisheries along the Atlantic coast should be recognized. The American negotiators were able to secure a favorable treaty, which gave Americans ownership of all lands east of the Mississippi, except Florida, which was transferred to Spain as its reward. The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782.

After these negotiations began, Adams had spent some time as the ambassador in the Dutch Republic, then one of the few other Republics in the world (the Republic of Venice and the Old Swiss Confederacy being the other notable ones). In July 1780, he had been authorized to execute the duties previously assigned to Laurens. With the aid of the Dutch Patriot leader Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, Adams secured the recognition of the United States as an independent government at The Hague on April 19, 1782.^[28] During this visit, he also negotiated a loan of five million guilders financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink.^[29] In October 1782, he negotiated with the Dutch a treaty of amity and commerce, the first such treaty between the United States and a foreign power following the 1778 treaty with France. The house that Adams purchased during this stay in The Netherlands became the first American-owned embassy on foreign soil anywhere in the world.^[30] For two months during 1783, Adams lodged in London with radical publisher John Stockdale.^[31]

In 1784 and 1785, he was one of the architects of far-going trade relations between the US and Prussia. The Prussian ambassador in The Hague, Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer, was involved, as were Jefferson and Franklin, who were in Paris.^[32]

In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James's (ambassador to Great Britain). When he was presented to his former sovereign, George III, the King intimated that he was aware of Adams's lack of confidence in the French government. Adams admitted this, stating: "I must avow to your Majesty that I have no attachment but to my own country.”

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom referred to this episode on July 7, 1976 at the White House. She said:

John Adams, America's first Ambassador, said to my ancestor, King George III, that it was his desire to help with the restoration of 'the old good nature and the old good humor between our peoples.' That restoration has long been made, and the links of language, tradition, and personal contact have maintained it.^[33]

While in London, John and Abigail had to suffer the stares and hostility of the Court, and chose to escape it when they could by seeking out Richard Price, minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church and instigator of the Revolution Controversy. Both the Adams admired Price very much, and Abigail took to heart the teachings of the man and his protegee Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.^[34]

Adams's British residence, a house off London's Grosvenor Square, still stands and is commemorated by a plaque. He returned to the United States in 1788 to continue his domestic political life.

Constitutional ideas

Massachusetts's new constitution, ratified in 1780 and written largely by Adams himself, structured its government most closely on his views of politics and society.^[35] It was the first constitution written by a special committee and ratified by the people. It was also the first to feature a bicameral legislature, a clear and distinct executive with a partial (2/3) veto (although he was restrained by an executive council), and a distinct judicial branch.

While in London, Adams published a work entitled A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (1787)^[36]. In it he repudiated the views of Turgot and other European writers as to the viciousness of the framework of state governments. Turgot argued that countries that lacked aristocracies needn't have bicameral legislatures. He thought that republican governments feature “all authorities into one center, that of the nation.”^[37] In the book, Adams suggested that "the rich, the well-born and the able" should be set apart from other men in a senate—that would prevent them from dominating the lower house. Wood (2006) has maintained that Adams had become intellectually irrelevant by the time the Federal Constitution was ratified. By then, American political thought, transformed by more than a decade of vigorous and searching debate as well as shaping experiential pressures, had abandoned the classical conception of politics which understood government as a mirror of social estates. Americans' new conception of popular sovereignty now saw the people-at-large as the sole possessors of power in the realm. All agents of the government enjoyed mere portions of the people's power and only for a limited period of time. Adams had completely missed this concept and revealed his continued attachment to the older version of politics.^[38] Yet Wood overlooks Adams's peculiar definition of the term "republic," and his support for a constitution ratified by the people.^[39] He also underplays Adams's belief in checks and balances. "Power must be opposed to power, and interest to interest,” Adams wrote; this sentiment would later be echoed by James Madison's famous statement that "[a]mbition must be made to counteract ambition" in The Federalist No. 51, in explaining the powers of the branches of the United States federal government under the new Constitution.^[40]^[41] Adams did as much as anyone to put the idea of "checks and balances" on the intellectual map.

Adams never bought a slave and declined on principle to employ slave labor.^[42] Abigail Adams opposed slavery and employed free blacks in preference to her father's two domestic slaves. However he spoke out against a bill to emancipate slaves in Massachusetts, opposed use of black soldiers in the Revolution, and tried to keep the issue out of national politics.^[43]

Vice Presidency

While Washington won unanimously in the popular vote and won 69 votes in the electoral college, Adams came in second in the electoral college with 34 votes and became Vice President in the presidential election of 1789. He played a minor role in the politics of the early 1790s and was re-elected in 1792. Washington seldom asked Adams for input on policy and legal issues during his tenure as vice president.^[44]

Adams's main task while in office was presiding over the Senate. Subsequent Vice Presidents were also generally not powerful or significant members of their President's administrations until after the Second World War.

In the first year of Washington's administration, Adams became deeply involved in a month-long Senate controversy over what the official title of the President would be. Adams favored grandiose titles such as "His Majesty the President" or "His High Mightiness" over the simple "President of the United States" that eventually won the debate. The pomposity of his stance, along with his being overweight, led to Adams earning the nickname "His Rotundity."

As president of the Senate, Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes—a record that only John C. Calhoun came close to tying, with 28.^[45] His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees and influenced the location of the national capital. On at least one occasion, he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint. When the two political parties formed, he joined the Federalist Party, but never got on well with its dominant leader Alexander Hamilton. Because of Adams's seniority and the need for a northern president, he was elected as the Federalist nominee for president in 1796, over Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party. His success was due to peace and prosperity; Washington and Hamilton had averted war with Britain with the Jay Treaty of 1795.^[46]

Adams's two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He complained to his wife Abigail, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."^[47]

Election of 1796

Main article: United States presidential election, 1796

During the presidential campaign of 1796 Adams was the presidential candidate of the Federalist Party and Thomas Pinckney, the Governor of South Carolina, was also running as a Federalist (at this point, the vice president was whoever came in second, so no running mates existed in the modern sense). The Federalists wanted Adams as their presidential candidate to crush Thomas Jefferson's bid. Most Federalists would have preferred Hamilton to be a candidate. Although Hamilton and his followers supported Adams, they also held a grudge against him. They did consider him to be the lesser of the two evils. However, they thought Adams lacked the seriousness and popularity that had caused Washington to be successful, and also feared that Adams was too vain, opinionated, unpredictable, and stubborn to follow their directions.

Adams's opponents were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who was joined by Senator Aaron Burr of New York on the Democratic-Republican ticket.

As was customary, Adams stayed in his home town of Quincy rather than actively campaign for the Presidency. He wanted to stay out of what he called the silly and wicked game. His party, however, campaigned for him, while the Democratic-Republicans campaigned for Jefferson.

It was expected that Adams would dominate the votes in New England, while Jefferson was expected to win in the Southern states. In the end, Adams won the election by a narrow margin of 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson (who became the vice president).

Presidency: 1797–1801

Foreign policy

When Adams entered office, he realized that he needed to protect Washington’s policy of staying out of the French and British war. Because the French helped secure American independence from Britain, they had greater popularity with America. After the Jay Treaty, the French became angry and began seizing American merchant ships that were trading with the British in what became known as the "Quasi-War." Adams sent a commission to negotiate an understanding with France. However, Adams urged the Congress to augment the navy and army in case of diplomatic failure.

Domestic policies

Presidential Dollar of John Adams

As President Adams followed Washington's lead in making the presidency the example of republican values, and stressing civic virtue, he was never implicated in any scandal. Some historians consider his worst mistake to be keeping the old cabinet, which was controlled by Hamilton, instead of installing his own people, confirming Adams' own admission he was a poor politician because he "was unpractised in intrigues for power."^[48] Yet, there are those historians who feel that Adams' retention of Washington's cabinet was a statesman-like step to soothe worries about an orderly succession. As Adams himself explained, "I had then no particular object of any of them."^[49] That would soon change. Adams' combative spirit did not always lend itself to presidential decorum, as Adams himself admitted in his old age: "[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."^[50]

Adams' four years as president (1797–1801) were marked by intense disputes over foreign policy. Britain and France were at war; Hamilton and the Federalists favored Britain, while Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored France. An undeclared naval war between the U.S. and France, called the Quasi-War, broke out in 1798. The humiliation of the XYZ Affair, in which the French demanded huge bribes before any discussions could begin, led to serious threats of full-scale war with France and embarrassed the Jeffersonians, who were friends to France. The Federalists built up the army under George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, built warships, such as USS Constitution, and raised taxes. They cracked down on political immigrants and domestic opponents with the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were signed by Adams in 1798.

These Acts were composed of four separate and distinct units:

The Naturalization Act, passed on June 18
The Alien Act, passed on June 24
The Alien Enemies Act, passed on July 6
The Sedition Act, passed on July 14

These four acts were brought about to suppress Republican opposition. The Naturalization Act changed the period required to naturalize the foreign born to American citizenship to 14 years. Since most immigrants voted republican they thought by initiating this act it would decrease the proportion of people who voted republican. The Alien Friends Act and the Alien Enemies Act allowed the president to deport any foreigner that he thought was dangerous to the country.

The Sedition Act criminalized anyone who publicly criticized the federal government. Some of the punishments included 2–5 years in prison and fines of $2,000 to $5,000. Adams had not designed or promoted any of these acts but he did sign them into law.

Those acts, and the high-profile prosecution of a number of newspaper editors and one Congressman by the Federalists, became highly controversial. Some historians have noted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were relatively rarely enforced, as only 10 convictions under the Sedition Act have been identified and as Adams never signed a deportation order, and that the furor over the Alien and Sedition Acts was mainly stirred up by the Democratic-Republicans. However, other historians emphasize that the Acts were highly controversial from the outset, resulted in many aliens leaving the country voluntarily, and created an atmosphere where opposing the Federalists, even on the floor of Congress, could and did result in prosecution. The election of 1800 became a bitter and volatile battle, with each side expressing extraordinary fear of the other party and its policies.^[51]

The deep division in the Federalist party came on the army issue. Adams was forced to name Washington as commander of the new army, and Washington demanded that Hamilton be given the second position. Adams reluctantly gave in. Major General Hamilton virtually took control of the War department. The rift between Adams and the High Federalists (as Adams' opponents were called) grew wider. The High Federalists refused to consult Adams over the key legislation of 1798; they changed the defense measures which he had called for, demanded that Hamilton control the army, and refused to recognize the necessity of giving key Democratic-Republicans (like Aaron Burr) senior positions in the army (which Adams wanted to do in order to gain some Democratic-Republican support). By building a large standing army the High Federalists raised popular alarms and played into the hands of the Democratic-Republicans. They also alienated Adams and his large personal following. They shortsightedly viewed the Federalist party as their own tool and ignored the need to pull together the entire nation in the face of war with France.^[52]

For long stretches, Adams withdrew to his home in Massachusetts. In February 1799, Adams stunned the country by sending diplomat William Vans Murray on a peace mission to France. Napoleon, realizing the animosity of the United States was doing no good, signaled his readiness for friendly relations. The Treaty of Alliance of 1778 was superseded and the United States could now be free of foreign entanglements, as Washington advised in his own Farewell Letter. Adams avoided war, but deeply split his own party in the process. He brought in John Marshall as Secretary of State and demobilized the emergency army.^[53]

Re-election campaign 1800

Main article: United States presidential election, 1800

The death of Washington, in 1799, weakened the Federalists, as they lost the one man who symbolized and united the party. In the presidential election of 1800, Adams and his fellow Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, went against the Republican duo of Jefferson and Burr. Hamilton tried his hardest to sabotage Adams's campaign in hopes of boosting Pinckney's chances of winning the presidency. In the end, Adams lost narrowly to Jefferson by 65 to 73 electoral votes. Just before his loss, he became the first President to occupy the new, but unfinished President's Mansion on November 1, 1800.^[54]

Among the causes of his defeat were distrust of him by "High Federalists" led by Hamilton, the popular disapproval of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the popularity of his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, and the effective politicking of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the electoral college) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican on the basis of a few wards in New York City controlled by Burr's machine.^[55]

Midnight Judges

As his term was expiring, Adams appointed a series of judges, called the "Midnight Judges" because most of them were formally appointed days before the presidential term expired. Most of the judges were eventually unseated when the Jeffersonians abolished their offices. But John Marshall remained, and his long tenure as Chief Justice of the United States represents the most lasting influence of the Federalists, as Marshall refashioned the Constitution into a nationalizing force and established the Judicial Branch as the equal of the Executive and Legislative branches.^[56]

Major presidential actions

Built up the U.S. Navy
Fought the Quasi War with France
Signed Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
Ended war with France through diplomacy

Speeches

Inaugural Addresses

Inaugural Address (March 4, 1797)

State of the Union Address

First State of the Union Address (November 22, 1797)
Second State of the Union Address, (December 8, 1798)
Third State of the Union Address, (December 3, 1799)
Fourth State of the Union Address, (November 22, 1800)

Administration, Cabinet and Supreme Court Appointments 1797-1801

The Adams Cabinet
Office	Name	Term

President	John Adams	1797–1801
Vice President	Thomas Jefferson	1797–1801

Secretary of State	Timothy Pickering	1797–1800
Secretary of State	John Marshall	1800–1801

Secretary of Treasury	Oliver Wolcott, Jr.	1797–1801
Secretary of Treasury	Samuel Dexter	1801

Secretary of War	James McHenry	1796–1800
Secretary of War	Samuel Dexter	1800–1801

Attorney General	Charles Lee	1797–1801

Secretary of the Navy	Benjamin Stoddert	1798–1801

Chief Justice

John Jay - 1800; declined
John Marshall - 1801

Associate Justice

Bushrod Washington - 1799
Alfred Moore - 1800

States admitted to the Union

None

Portrait of John Adams by John Trumbull.

Post presidency

John Adams was nearly 89 when, at the request of John Quincy, he posed a final time for Gilbert Stuart (1823).

Following his 1800 defeat, Adams retired into private life. Depressed when he left office, he did not attend Jefferson's inauguration, making him one of only three surviving presidents (i.e., those who did not die in office) not to attend his successor's inauguration. He went back to farming at his home, Peacefield, in the Quincy area.

In 1812, Adams reconciled with Jefferson. Their mutual friend Benjamin Rush, who had been corresponding with both, encouraged Adams to reach out to Jefferson. Adams sent a brief note to Jefferson, which resulted in a resumption of their friendship, and initiated a correspondence that lasted the rest of their lives.

Their letters are rich in insight into both the period and the minds of the two Presidents and revolutionary leaders. Their correspondence lasted fourteen years, and consisted of 158 letters.^[57] It was in these years that the two men discussed "natural aristocracy." Jefferson said that "The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of society. May we not even say that the form of government is best which provides most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?"^[58] Adams wondered if it ever would be so clear who these people were, "Your distinction between natural and artificial aristocracy does not appear to me well founded. Birth and wealth are conferred on some men as imperiously by nature, as genius, strength, or beauty. . . . When aristocracies are established by human laws and honour, wealth, and power are made hereditary by municipal laws and political institutions, then I acknowledge artificial aristocracy to commence."^[59] It would always be true, Adams argued, that fate would bestow influence on some men for reasons other than true wisdom and virtue. That being the way of nature, he thought such "talents" were natural. A good government, therefore, had to account for that reality.

Sixteen months before his death, his son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the United States (1825–1829), the only son of a former President to hold the office until George W. Bush in 2001.

His daughter Abigail ("Nabby") was married to Congressman William Stephens Smith. She died of cancer in 1813. His son Charles died as an alcoholic in 1800. Abigail, his wife, died of typhoid on October 28, 1818. His son Thomas and his family lived with Adams and Louisa Smith (Abigail's niece by her brother William) to the end of Adams's life.^[60]

Death

Tombs of Presidents John Adams (distance) and John Quincy Adams (foreground) and their wives, in a family crypt beneath the United First Parish Church.

Less than a month before his death, John Adams issued a statement about the destiny of the United States, which historians such as Joy Hakim have characterized as a "warning" for his fellow citizens. Adams said:

My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.^[61]

On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. Told that it was the Fourth, he answered clearly, "It is a great day. It is a good day." His last words have been reported as "Thomas Jefferson survives" since the month of his death. Only the first two words "Thomas Jefferson" were clearly intelligible, however.^[62] Adams was unaware that Jefferson, his compatriot in their quest for independence, then great political rival, then later friend and correspondent, had died a few hours earlier on the very same day. Somewhat later, struggling for breath, he whispered to his granddaughter Susanna, "Help me, child! Help me!" then lapsed into a final silence. At about 6:20, John Adams was dead.

His crypt lies at United First Parish Church (also known as the Church of the Presidents) in Quincy. Until his record was broken by Ronald Reagan in 2001, he was the nation's longest-living President (90 years, 247 days) maintaining that record for 175 years. The record is currently held by former President Gerald Ford, who served less than one term, and who died December 26, 2006 at 93 years, 165 days.

John Adams remains the longest-lived person ever elected to both of the highest offices in the executive branch of the United States.

Religious views

Adams was raised a Congregationalist, becoming a Unitarian at a time when most of the Congregational churches around Boston were turning to Unitarianism. Adams was educated at Harvard when the influence of deism was growing there, and used deistic terms in his speeches and writing. He believed in the essential goodness of the creation, but did not believe in the divinity of Christ or that God intervened in the affairs of individuals. He also believed that regular church service was beneficial to man's moral sense. Everett (1966) concludes that "Adams strove for a religion based on a common sense sort of reasonableness" and maintained that religion must change and evolve toward perfection.^[63]

United First Parish Church

In common with many of his contemporaries, Adams criticized the claims to universal authority made by the Roman Catholic Church.^[64]

In 1796, Adams denounced political opponent Thomas Paine's criticisms of Christianity, saying, "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will."^[65]

The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society sheds some light on Adams’s religious beliefs.^[66] They quote from his letter to Benjamin Rush, an early promoter of Universalist thought, “I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard.” The Society also relates how Rush reconciled Adams to his former friend Thomas Jefferson in 1812, after many bitter political battles. This resulted in correspondence between Adams and Jefferson about many topics, including philosophy and religion. In one of these communications, Adams told Jefferson, "The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion." In another letter, Adams reveals his sincere devotion to God, “My Adoration of the Author of the Universe is too profound and too sincere. The Love of God and his Creation; delight, Joy, Tryumph, Exaltation in my own existence, tho' but an Atom, a molecule Organique, in the Universe, are my religion.” He continues by revealing his Universalist sympathies, rejection of orthodox Christian dogma, and his personal belief that he was a true Christian for not accepting such dogma, “Howl, Snarl, bite, Ye Calvinistick! Ye Athanasian Divines, if You will. Ye will say, I am no Christian: I say Ye are no Christians: and there the Account is ballanced. Yet I believe all the honest men among you, are Christians in my Sense of the Word." The Society also demonstrates that Adams rejected orthodox Christian doctrines of the trinity, predestination, yet equated human understanding and the human conscience to “celestial communication” or personal revelation from God. It is also shown that Adams held a strong conviction in life after death or otherwise, as he explained, “you might be ashamed of your Maker.”^[66]

John Adams in Popular Culture

In 2008 HBO released John Adams, a 7 part miniseries spanning most of Adams' adult life, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book John Adams by David McCullough. Paul Giamatti portrayed Adams in the series.

Notes

^ From David McCullough, John Adams, the middle brother was Peter and the youngest Elihu, who died of illness during the siege of Boston in 1775.
^ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 8
^ Ancestors of John ADAMS
^ Ferling (1992) ch 1
^ Brookhiser, Richard. America’s First Dynasty. The Adamses, 1735-1918. The Free Press, 2002, p.13
^ ibid, p. 13
^ Timeline:Education and the Law - The John Adams Library
^ Ferling (1992) ch 2
^ Ferling (1992) p 117
^ Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, "Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers," January 30, 1750. On Adams's attribution to Rev. Mayhew refer to the TeachingAmericanHistory.org
^ Ferling (1992) pp 53–63
^ Zobel, The Boston Massacre, W.W. Norton and Co.(1970), 199–200.
^ Chinard, John Adams, 58–60
^ McCullough, John Adams, pg. 66
^ Adams, John, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams,L.H. Butterfield, Editor.(Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961.)
^ "John Adams, 1st Vice President (1789–1797)". United States Senate. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_John_Adams.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ In 1775 he was also appointed the chief judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court.
^ Ferling (1992) ch 8 p 146
^ Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1993)
^ Ferling (1992) pp 155–7, 213–5
^ Thoughts on Government, Works of John Adams, IV:195
^ Ferling (1992) ch 8.
^ TO WILLIAM P. GARDNER, Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 11.
^ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963.
^ Adams Autobiography, entry March 10, 1778.
^ McCullough, David. John Adams. pg 179[1]
^ Ferling (1992) ch 11–12
^ In February 1782 the Frisian states had been the first Dutch province to recognize the United States, while France had been the first European country to grant diplomatic recognition, in 1778).
^ Up till 1794 a total of eleven loans were granted in Amsterdam to the United States with a value of 29 million guilders.
^ Dutch American Friendship Day / Heritage Day - U.S. Embassy The Hague, Netherlands
^ Stockdale, E. (2005). 'Tis Treason, My Good Man! Four Revolutionary Presidents and a Piccadilly Bookshop. London: The British Library. pp. p.148. ISBN 0712306994.
^ The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America
^ See http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6193.
^ Gordon, Lyndall (2005). "Chapter 3: New Life at Newington". Vindication : a life of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060198022.
^ Ronald M. Peters. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780: A Social Compact (1978) p 13 says Adams was its "principal architect."
^ John Adams: Defence of the Constitutions, 1787
^ Turgot to Richard Price, March 22, 1778, in Works of John Adams, IV:279
^ Wood, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different (2006) pp 173–202; see also Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1993).
^ Thompson,1999
^ Works of John Adams, IV:557
^ Madison, James, The Federalist No. 51, http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=The_Federalist_Papers/No._51&oldid=504230
^ Littlefield, Daniel C. "John Jay, the Revolutionary Generation, and Slavery." New York History 2000 81(1): p 91–132. ISSN 0146-437X
^ Ferling (1992) pp 172–3
^ Ferling (1992) ch 15
^ Ferling (1992) p 311
^ Ferling (1992) pp 316–32
^ Biography of John Adams
^ Ferling (1992) ch 16, p 333.
^ McCullough p 471
^ Ellis (1998) p 57
^ Ferling (1992) ch 17
^ Kurtz (1967) p 331
^ Ferling (1992) ch 18
^ "Overview of the White House". White House Museum. http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/overview.htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
^ Ferling (1992) ch 19; Ferling (2004)
^ Ferling (1992) p 409
^ Cappon (1988)
^ Cappon, ed., 387
^ Cappon, ed. 400
^ Ferling (1992) ch 20
^ Hakim. Joy. The New Nation, page 97 (Oxford University Press 2003).
^ Jefferson Still Survives. Retrieved on 2006-12-26.
^ Robert B. Everett, "The Mature Religious Thought of John Adams," Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association (1966), p 49–57; [ISSN 0361-6207].
^ See TeachingAmericanHistory.org: " A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law", John Adams, 1765
^ The Works of John Adams (1854), vol III, p 421, diary entry for July 26, 1796.
^ ^a ^b "Unitarian Universalist Historical Society Biography". http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/johnadams.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.

References

Brown, Ralph A. The Presidency of John Adams. (1988). Political narrative.
Chinard, Gilbert. Honest John Adams. (1933). short life
Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism. (1993), highly detailed political interpretation of 1790s
Ellis, Joseph J. Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (1993), interpretative essay by Pulitzer Prize winning scholar.
Ferling, John. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. (2004), narrative history of the election .
Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. (1992), full scale biography
Gordon, Lyndall. Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Little, Brown: 2005.
Grant, James. John Adams: Party of One.(2005), short biography
Haraszti, Zoltan. John Adams and the Prophets of Progress. (1952). Adams's political comments on numerous authors
Knollenberg, Bernard. Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775,(2003). Online edition.
Kurtz, Stephen G. The Presidency of John Adams: The Collapse of Federalism, 1795–1800 (1957). Detailed political narrative.
McCullough, David. John Adams. (2002). Best-selling popular biography, stressing Adams's character and his marriage with Abigail over his ideas and constitutional thoughts. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
Miller, John C. The Federalist Era: 1789–1801. (1960). Thorough survey of politics in decade.
Ryerson, Richard Alan, ed. John Adams and the Founding of the Republic (2001). Essays by scholars: "John Adams and the Massachusetts Provincial Elite," by William Pencak; "Before Fame: Young John Adams and Thomas Jefferson," by John Ferling; "John Adams and the 'Bolder Plan,'" by Gregg L. Lint; "In the Shadow of Washington: John Adams as Vice President," by Jack D. Warren; "The Presidential Election of 1796," by Joanne B. Freeman; "The Disenchantment of a Radical Whig: John Adams Reckons with Free Speech," by Richard D. Brown; "'Splendid Misery': Abigail Adams as First Lady," by Edith B. Gelles; "John Adams and the Science of Politics," by C. Bradley Thompson; and "Presidents as Historians: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson," by Herbert Sloan.
Sharp, James. American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis. (1995), detailed political narrative of 1790s.
Smith, Page. John Adams. (1962) 2 volume; full-scale biography, winner of the Bancroft Prize
Thompson, C. Bradley. John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. (1998). Analysis of Adams's political thought; insists Adams was the greatest political thinker among the Founding Generation and anticipated many of the ideas in The Federalist.
White, Leonard D. The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History (1956), thorough analysis of the mechanics of government in 1790s
Gordon S. Wood. ‘’ Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different’’ (2006)

Primary sources

Adams, C.F. The Works of John Adams, with Life (10 vols., Boston, 1850–1856)
Butterfield, L. H. et al., eds., The Adams Papers (1961– ). Multivolume letterpress edition of all letters to and from major members of the Adams family, plus their diaries; still incomplete [2].
Cappon, Lester J. ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams (1988).
Carey, George W., ed. The Political Writings of John Adams. (2001). Compilation of extracts from Adams's major political writings.
Diggins, John P., ed. The Portable John Adams. (2004)
John A. Schutz and Douglass Adair, eds. Spur of Fame, The Dialogues of John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805–1813 (1966) ISBN 978-0-86597-287-2
C. Bradley Thompson, ed. Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, (2001) ISBN 978-0-86597-285-8
John Adams, Novanglus; or, A History of the Dispute with America (1774) online version
Brinkley, Alan, and Davis Dyer. The American Presidency. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company, 2004.
Hogan, Margaret and C. James Taylor, eds. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Taylor, Robert J. et al., eds. Papers of John Adams. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Wroth, L. Kinvin and Hiller B. Zobel, eds. The Legal Papers of John Adams. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Butterfield, L. H., ed. Adams Family Correspondence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

External links

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White House biography
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John Adams quotes

Political offices
New title	Vice President of the United States April 21, 1789¹ – March 4, 1797	Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by George Washington	President of the United States March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801	Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson
Party political offices
New political party	Federalist Party vice presidential candidate 1792² ³	Succeeded by Thomas Pinckney³
New political party	Federalist Party presidential candidate 1796, 1800	Succeeded by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Diplomatic posts
New title	United States Minister to the Netherlands 1782 – 1788	Succeeded by Charles W.F. Dumas
New title	United States Minister to Great Britain 1785 – 1788	Succeeded by Thomas Pinckney
Honorary titles
Preceded by George Washington	Oldest U.S. President still living December 14, 1799 – July 4, 1826	Succeeded by James Madison
Notes and references
1. Adams' term as Vice President is sometimes listed as starting on either March 4 or April 6. March 4 is the official start of the first vice presidential term. April 6 is the date on which Congress counted the electoral votes and certified a Vice President. April 21 is the date on which Adams took the oath of office. 2. While Adams won the Vice Presidency in 1789 as well, he was not the candidate of the Federalist Party, which had not yet formed. 3. Technically, Adams was a presidential candidate in 1792 and Pinckney was a presidential candidate in 1796. Prior to the passage of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each presidential elector could cast two ballots; the highest vote-getter would become President and the runner-up would become Vice President. Thus, in 1792, with George Washington as the prohibitive favorite for President, the Federalist party fielded Adams as a presidential candidate, with the intention that he be elected to the Vice Presidency. Similarly, in 1796 and 1800, the Federalist party fielded two candidates, Adams and Thomas Pinckney in 1796 and Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney in 1800, with the intention that Adams be elected President and Pinckney be elected Vice President.

v • d • e Signers of the Declaration of Independence

J. Adams • S. Adams • Bartlett • Braxton • Carroll • Chase • Clark • Clymer • Ellery • Floyd • Franklin • Gerry • Gwinnett • Hall • Hancock • Harrison • Hart • Hewes • Heyward • Hooper • Hopkins • Hopkinson • Huntington • Jefferson • F. Lee • R. Lee • Lewis • Livingston • Lynch • McKean • Middleton • L. Morris • R. Morris • Morton • Nelson • Paca • Paine • Penn • Read • Rodney • Ross • Rush • Rutledge • Sherman • Smith • Stockton • Stone • Taylor • Thornton • Walton • Whipple • Williams • Wilson • Witherspoon • Wolcott • Wythe

v • d • e Presidents of the United States

George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Quincy Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin Van Buren · William Henry Harrison · John Tyler · James K. Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses S. Grant · Rutherford B. Hayes · James A. Garfield · Chester A. Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Howard Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren G. Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harry S. Truman · Dwight D. Eisenhower · John F. Kennedy · Lyndon B. Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · Jimmy Carter · Ronald Reagan · George H. W. Bush · Bill Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama

v • d • e Vice Presidents of the United States

John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · Aaron Burr · George Clinton · Elbridge Gerry · Daniel D. Tompkins · John C. Calhoun · Martin Van Buren · Richard Mentor Johnson · John Tyler · George M. Dallas · Millard Fillmore · William R. King · John C. Breckinridge · Hannibal Hamlin · Andrew Johnson · Schuyler Colfax · Henry Wilson · William A. Wheeler · Chester A. Arthur · Thomas A. Hendricks · Levi P. Morton · Adlai E. Stevenson I · Garret Hobart · Theodore Roosevelt · Charles W. Fairbanks · James S. Sherman · Thomas R. Marshall · Calvin Coolidge · Charles G. Dawes · Charles Curtis · John Nance Garner · Henry A. Wallace · Harry S. Truman · Alben W. Barkley · Richard Nixon · Lyndon B. Johnson · Hubert Humphrey · Spiro Agnew · Gerald Ford · Nelson Rockefeller · Walter Mondale · George H. W. Bush · Dan Quayle · Al Gore · Dick Cheney · Joe Biden

Figures in the Age of Enlightenment by country

Notable Figures

British Colonies	Benjamin Franklin · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · Thomas Paine

Prussia and Saxe-Weimar	Immanuel Kant · Gotthold Ephraim Lessing · Johann Gottfried von Herder · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · J.C.F. von Schiller · Moses Mendelssohn

England	Edward Gibbon · Samuel Johnson · Mary Wollstonecraft · John Locke · Isaac Newton · Thomas Hobbes

Scotland	Joseph Black · James Boswell · Adam Ferguson · David Hume · Thomas Reid · Adam Smith

France	Montesquieu · François Quesnay · Voltaire · Buffon · Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Denis Diderot · Helvétius · Jean le Rond d'Alembert · Baron d'Holbach · Marquis de Sade · Condorcet · Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

Italy	Cesare Beccaria · Giuseppe Averani · Giambattista Vico

Russia	Peter I · Vasily Trediakovsky · Antiochus Kantemir · Mikhail Lomonosov · Catherine II · Ivan Shuvalov · Catherine Dashkova

Persondata
NAME	Adams, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	2nd U.S. President
DATE OF BIRTH	October 30, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH	John Adams birthplace (Quincy, Massachusetts), Quincy, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	July 4, 1826
PLACE OF DEATH	Quincy, Massachusetts

Stacy Adams	stacy adams
adams golf	yolanda adams

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