John Adams began his political career with the First Continental Congress in 1774 as a delegate of Massachusetts. As a successful lawyer who had previously been very vocal in the growing revolution against Parliament and British control over the American colonies, Adams quickly rose in early American politics as a strong supporter of independence, responsible for the nomination of George Washington as commander of the Continental Army (the eventual hero of the revolution) and the selection of Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence (one of the most significant documents in U.S. history).
With a strong affinity for politics and an almost stubborn determination to develop an American nation, it is no surprise that Adams would leave a permanent mark on American history. From revolution to the U.S. Constitution, and everything between and after, Adams is there, helping shape the American government into a prosperous democracy that still holds in modern society.
John Adams died on July 4, 1826, at the age of 90 in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is remembered for many incredible political feats, most notably as one of the Founding Fathers and as the first vice president and second president of the United States of America. As an early advocate of American independence, paired with his role in the early Continental Congress and creation of the Massachusetts constitution, Adams’ influence was essential to the development and growth of the U.S. While his presidency was rocky, John Adams still proved to be one of the most significant historical American figures of all time, cementing his legacy as an essential founder of one of the biggest nations in the world.
DID YOU KNOW?
Adams was the first vice president and second president of the United States.
Interesting Facts About John Adams
John Adams’s first son, John Quincy Adams, would become the sixth president of the United States. John Quincy helped write the Monroe Doctrine, an important document regarding U.S. foreign policy, and was an early abolitionist serving in both chambers of Congress.
Adams’s 1780 Massachusetts constitution is the longest-running state constitution in the nation.
Due to recent studies, it is now thought that John Adams suffered from a hyperthyroid condition known as Graves’ disease, which may have fueled the emotional explosions and quick temperament he was known for in Revolutionary times.
Adams was the first president to reside in the presidential mansion, now known as the White House, in Washington, D.C.
John Adams’ last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives”. Unbeknownst to him, his fellow president and lifelong friend had died hours before.
Early Life of John Adams
John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in Braintree, Massachusetts, as the eldest of three sons to parents Deacon John Adams and Susanna Boylston. With ancestry dating back to the first generation of Puritan settlers in New England, the Adams family already had deep roots in American history. Adams’ father, Deacon Adams, was a great leader in their community who encouraged a young Adams to pursue a career in ministry. After graduating from Harvard College (now Harvard University) in 1755, he was unsure what he wanted to do, spending three years teaching grammar school in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1758, he finally made up his mind, choosing to practice law over ministry in Boston.
In 1764, Adams married Abigail Smith, a minister’s daughter from Weymouth, Massachusetts. A highly independent woman, she would become a great confidante and political partner to her husband throughout his career. Over the next few years, they would have five children, daughters Abigail Amelia and Susanna (who unfortunately didn’t survive past infancy) and sons John Quincy, Thomas Boylston, and Charles.
Around this time, John Adams’ legal career was on the rise, becoming an essential member of the resistance movement against Parliament’s right to tax the American colonies. After the Stamp Act was enacted in 1765, which required all publications and legal documents to be stamped to raise revenue, Adams wrote “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law” in direct opposition to the new act. This paper claimed that by intruding in colonial affairs, Parliament exposed English politics’ inherent corruption.
This opposition of the British government grew with the Townshend Acts of 1767, a series of four acts that imposed revenue duties on imported commodities like tea, lead, glass, paint, and paper. However, despite being against Parliament and British rule, he still agreed to represent the British soldiers who openly fired on a crowd during the Boston Massacre. This decision made him widely unpopular for a bit, but proved him to be one of the most principled radicals in the growing movement towards American independence.
DID YOU KNOW?
Adams was an essential member of the resistance movement against Parliament’s right to tax the American colonies.
John Adams During the American Revolution
In the summer of 1774, John Adams joined the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia as a delegate of Massachusetts. With his cousin, Samuel Adams, the pair became quick leaders of the radical faction, despite rejecting Adams’ notion to reconcile with Britain. In 1775, he published the “Novanglus” essays, arguing that Parliament didn’t have the authority to tax or legislate for the colonies. That same year, when the Second Continental Congress convened, Adams, now considered “the Atlas of independence”, nominated George Washington to serve as commander of the Continental Army and selected Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence.
In 1776, between July 2 and 4, Adams strongly defended Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence, demanding unanimous support from the delegates of the Continental Congress to break away from Great Britain. During this time, he also wrote the Plan of Treaties, a document that built the framework for a treaty with France, which would eventually see him sent to France for wartime negotiations.
This came about when John Adams was unanimously selected to head the Board of War and Ordinance, solely responsible for creating and building an American army and navy in preparation for war. In late 1777, when prospects of a wartime alliance with France grew more hopeful, Adams was chosen alongside Benjamin Franklin to conduct negotiations in Paris. The pair left for Europe in February 1778, accompanied by Adams’ then 10-year-old son, John Quincy. However, by the time they arrived, a treaty with France was already secured, and they turned right back around to reach America in the summer of 1779.
This timing allowed Adams to join the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention right after his return. Given his expertise, he was tasked with drafting the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. His constitution quickly became the model for other states, highlighting the importance of a bicameral legislature and a separation of powers, which would majorly influence the future U.S. Constitution.
Despite having only been returned from his European travels for only a few months, John Adams was sent right back to France alongside Franklin to lead the delegation of Americans tasked with the responsibility of negotiating peace with Britain in hopes of ending the Revolutionary War. Again, his son John Quincy joined him, as well as his youngest son Charles, leaving his wife Abigail and the other two children behind on their Massachusetts farm. The family wouldn’t be reunited until almost five years later, in 1784, in Paris.
During his time in France, Adams helped negotiate favorable terms in the 1783 Peace of Paris, which was a collection of treaties signed between Great Britain, the United States, France, and Spain, essentially ending the American Revolution. In 1784, Jefferson arrived in France to replace Franklin as American minister to the court, sparking a lifelong friendship and rivalry with Adams. After Adams assumed a new post in London in 1785 as the first United States Minister to Great Britain, Jefferson visited the family, joining forces with Adams to secure a $400,000 loan from Dutch bankers that allowed the American government to pay off its European debts. Adams continued working in London for three years.
John Adams’ Vice Presidency
and Presidency
Quickly after his return to the United States, John Adams found himself on the ballot of the first presidential election in 1789 against George Washington, John Jay, John Hancock, and John Rutledge. The unanimous choice for president was George Washington; however, Adams finished in second, which, according to electoral rules laid out in the recently ratified U.S. Constitution, made him America’s first vice president.
Adams described the vice presidency as insignificant, with his main responsibility being the president of the Senate, only casting a vote to break a tie. In the eight years he served as vice president, he cast anywhere between 31 and 38 votes, which is more than any other vice president has done in American history. Serving under George Washington, he supported all of the major initiatives taken by the administration, making him the logical choice to succeed Washington when he made the decision to step down after two terms.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the eight years Adams served as vice president, he cast between 31 and 38 votes, which is more than any other vice president has done in American history.
However, John Adams’ presidential win wasn’t a landslide by any means – it was a narrow success (71-68) over his friend Thomas Jefferson, who ran against him in the 1796 presidential election. It was such a close vote that it actually became the first contested presidential election in American history. With a Federalist president, Adams, and a Republican vice president, Jefferson, Adams’ presidency was heavily burdened from the start. This, paired with a growing naval conflict against the French in the Caribbean (the “quasi-war”) and a cabinet inherited from Washington with deep loyalties to Hamilton, weighed heavily on Adams.
It was nearly impossible to succeed George Washington, the great hero of the Revolutionary War, no matter how significant John Adams was to the declaration of American independence or to the political development of the subsequent U.S. government. The country wanted Washington to remain their president for years to come, but the former president simply didn’t want to for the sake of democracy. It was a tough cross to bear, being the second president of the United States, but Adams rose to the challenge.
Despite Washington calling for bipartisan foreign policy in his 1796 farewell address, Adams had to walk a fine line between the strong divide between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans regarding the French “quasi-war”. On one hand, the Federalists feared alienating Great Britain, wanting to go to war with France instead as the preferred enemy. On the other hand, the Democratic-Republicans saw France as America’s only European ally, not wanting to burn that bridge over war.
Trying to balance the two parties, President John Adams was subjected to political attacks from both sides. In 1797, he sent a peace delegation to Paris in hopes of negotiating an end to the ongoing hostilities, but when the French Directory began demanding bribes, he pulled his delegation back to America and began hesitantly preparing for a naval war against France. Congress, then dominated by the Federalist party, called for the establishment of an army of 30,000 men, which Adams reluctantly agreed to. It seemed as if the United States was going to war with France, but Adams made a decision that went against the advice of his cabinet and Federalist supporters.
He sent another peace delegation to France. This time, in 1798, negotiations were successful, with Adams narrowly avoiding a war that the new nation simply wasn’t fully prepared to handle. Despite this being a great move for the survival and safety of the United States, the decision not to go to war was ultimately his downfall in what was supposed to be his reelection.
While avoiding war was John Adams’ big foreign policy triumph, his biggest failure was certainly the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts gave power to the government to deport foreign-born residents and indict any members of the media who published what was deemed “false, scandalous, and malicious” writings against the U.S. government. While he was pressured into passing these acts by his Federalist Congress, Adams was the target of immense backlash and historical blame when they were received poorly by the public and in the courts.
The presidential election of 1800, which saw Adams and Jefferson on the ballot again, was unfortunately a loss for Adams when Aaron Burr managed to secure all twelve of New York’s electoral votes for the Jefferson-Burr duo (73-65). Jefferson was eventually chosen over Burr by the House of Representatives to become the third president of the United States. This loss didn’t stop Adams from making a few final political moves before stepping down from office, appointing several Federalist judges to the judiciary in his last few weeks. These “midnight judges” heavily offended Thomas Jefferson, who felt it was a move against his own prerogatives as the next president, and John Adams became the first U.S. president to not attend the inauguration of his successor.
Late In Life
John Adams retired at the age of 65 after serving two terms as the first vice president and one term as the second president of the United States. While he didn’t expect to live too much longer in retirement, he would go on to see another twenty-five years, in which he was able to witness his son, John Quincy Adams, become the sixth president of the United States in 1824.
After a mutual friend, Benjamin Rush, pushed the bitter Adams to mend his relationship with Thomas Jefferson in 1812, he initiated correspondence between his former friend and rival that would eventually total 158 letters. These letters, which are widely regarded as the most intellectual correspondence between political rivals in American history, touched on topics ranging from the French Revolution, the aging process, the historical importance of religion, the development of an American language, and the party battles they engaged in during the 1790s. Before death, the two simply wanted to understand each other, their friendship finding its way back to the surface after years of turmoil.
DID YOU KNOW?
Adams was able to witness his son, John Quincy Adams, become the sixth president of the United States in 1824.
Poetically, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, only hours between each other. Adams died surrounded by family in Quincy, Massachusetts at 90 of natural causes. He joined his wife, Abigail, who had died eight years earlier, in death, leaving behind his children and a rich legacy as one of the Founding Fathers and great leaders of the United States of America.
FAQs
How did John Adams Die?
John Adams died of natural causes at the age of 90 on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, at his family home in Quincy, Massachusetts, surrounded by family. He lived long enough to see his son, John Quincy Adams, become the sixth president of the United States.
Where is John Adams Buried?
John Adams is buried at the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts alongside his son, John Quincy Adams, and their two wives in a basement crypt. The Church was designated a registered national historic landmark in 1935, as it is the final resting place of two U.S. presidents.
What is John Adams known for?
John Adams is known for being one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, as well as for being the first vice president and the second president. Heavily involved in politics since the revolutionary days, Adams was determined to see an independent nation free from Great Britain’s rule, and helped build the new U.S. government.
Where was John Adams born?
John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, which is now a part of Quincy, where he lived in the later years of his life and eventually died. Adams started his political career as a member of Massachusetts’ delegation at the First Continental Congress and would later write the Massachusetts constitution in 1780, which is the longest-standing state constitution in American history.
How many terms did John Adams serve?
John Adams served two terms as vice president under President George Washington, but only one term as president. During his presidential term, Adams lost popularity with the American people after being pressured by Congress to enact the Alien and Sedition Acts, which weren’t received well. Despite preventing a naval war against France during his time in office, he still lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson.
