John Adams

I

Introduction

John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States (1797-1801) and one of the great figures in American history. In the years before the American Revolution (1775-1783) he joined with other patriots in resisting British rule. When the revolution began, Adams was among the first to propose American independence. He served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and then helped persuade the Second Continental Congress to adopt the declaration.

Adams served the patriot cause in Congress and in diplomatic missions abroad. Together with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, Adams helped negotiate the treaty that ended the American Revolution. When George Washington became the new nation's first president in 1789, Adams became the first vice president.

Adams ranks as one of the greatest of American political philosophers. His A Defense of the Constitutions of Governments of the United States of America (3 volumes, 1787-1788) and Discourses on Davila (1805) contributed profoundly to American political thought. In addition to his formal works, Adams wrote letters and papers that provide a vivid account of his life and the events that led to the founding of the United States.

II

Early Life

John Adams was the eldest son of John Adams, a farmer, and Susanna Boylston Adams, whose Boston family included several noted physicians. Young Adams was born on October 30, 1735, and raised in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, on the farmland his great-grandfather had cleared 100 years earlier. Throughout his life, Adams felt a deep attachment for the Adams farm and for the town of Braintree.

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A

Education

Adams attended school in Braintree, and at the age of 16 he entered Harvard College. After graduating in 1755, he took a teaching position in Worcester, Massachusetts, and continued to study. Latin, history, and law were the subjects that particularly interested him, and he soon abandoned his early plans to become a clergyman. He turned instead to the law. A disciplined scholar, he gained a knowledge of government and law that was probably unexcelled in colonial America.

In 1758 Adams began to practice law in Braintree. He slowly gained recognition as an able lawyer, first in Braintree, then in Boston. During this period, Adams also met many influential men who would later join with him as leaders of the Massachusetts colony.

B

Marriage

In 1764 after a courtship of three years, Adams married Abigail Smith, daughter of a Weymouth, Massachusetts, minister. The couple had five children. One of them, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president of the United States.

The marriage lasted 54 years, until the death of Abigail Adams in 1818. Between 1774 and 1784 the Adamses saw very little of each other, because John Adams was continuously serving the young nation, first in the Continental Congress and later abroad. But in 1784 Abigail joined her husband in Europe and thereafter remained at his side, serving him as a confidante and offering him sound political advice.

III

Early Career