Presidents: John Adams

 

John Adams was the 2^nd President of the United States, having served as Vice President under George Washington.

Adams is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and due to his correspondence we can take a deeper look into the founding of a new nation.

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 to John and Susanna Boylston Adams, Sr. in Massachusetts.    Adams had a good education and entered Harvard College at the age of sixteen.

John Adams worked hard and eventually became a lawyer.  He had already developed the habit of describing events and impressions of men in the diary he kept.  Soon he was published in the local Boston newspapers, often under the pen name Humphrey Ploughjogger.

On October 25, 1764, he married Abigail Smith.  They would go on to have six children, including the future president, John Quincy Adams.

He rose to prominence when he opposed the Stamp Act of 1765, encouraging his fellow countrymen to also oppose this new law.  His reputation continued to spread when he defeated and won an acquittal for some of the soldiers that were part of the Boston Massacre.  After this victory, his law practice greatly increased.

Adams was sent to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775-1777 by his home state of Massachusetts.  In June 1775, he nominated George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.  During his time in Philadelphia, he and Abigail exchanged numerous letters.

At the urging of his colleagues, Adams set his thoughts and ideas on forming a new government to paper, in the form of letters to these men.  In 1776, Adams seconded the resolution for Independence and championed the cause until it passed.

In 1778, Adams and his ten year old son, John Quincy, sailed for France as a Commissioner to France.  The following year, he was responsible for negotiating a peace treaty with the British.   Over the following decade, he would serve as Ambassador to Holland and Ambassador to Great Britain.

Adams came in second in the presidential election of 1789, making him the Vice President to George Washington.  President Washington seldom consulted with John Adams on issues of policy and legal issues.  Adams’ two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for him. 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.”

Adams won the election of 1796, against Thomas Jefferson, who would become his Vice President.  John Adams became the 2^nd President of the United States, a title he hoped would be more loftier sounding when searching for the title under President Washington.

During Adams presidency, the British and French were at war, leading to belligerence from the French towards the United States, whom they saw as a mini-Britain. This led to the XYZ Affair, in which the French demanded huge bribes.  Eventually tensions rose and the Quasi-War broke out with France in 1798.

Adams did see success in other parts of his Presidency, such as rebuilding the Navy.

Adams resolve to advance peace with France, led to hostilities, and eventually his defeat for reelection.

On November 1, 1800, Adams moved into the still unfinished President’s Mansion {today we call this the White House}, becoming the first President to occupy the new home.  Adams said of the home, “I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it,” Adams wrote on his second night in the mansion. “May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.

Before the end of the month, his son Charles died as a result of alcoholism. Adams was depressed in his final months in office and eager to return to his beloved Abigail.

He left the Presidential Mansion at 4am, becoming one of only four surviving Presidents not to attend his successors swearing in.

Adams returned to his home Peacefield, in Quincy, Massachusetts where he resumed farming and began work on his unfinished autobiography.

In 1812, Adams and Thomas Jefferson made peace and resumed a correspondence that would last the rest of their lives.

On October 28, 1818, Abigail Adams died of typhoid fever.

In 1825, Adams witnessed is son, John Quincy Adams, become President of the United States.

On July 4, 1826, the 50^th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams died.  His last words, “Thomas Jefferson survives”, proved he was unaware of the death earlier that day of his former rival and friend.

He was buried at United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.