Adams was born in the village of Braintree (Quincy), Massachusetts, on Oct. 30, 1735. His father, also named John Adams, was a farmer, a deacon of the First Parish of Braintree, and a militia officer. His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams, came from a family of Brookline and Boston merchants and physicians. Adams attended dame and Latin school. Besides wanting to become a farmer, his school prepared him for college and a career in the ministry. With some tutoring in Latin from Joseph Marsh, John passed his entrance examinations for Harvard College in 1751 and began four years of study that excited his imagination. He was a metaphysician, a scientist, debater, and orator. Adams soon graduated from Harvard College in 1755, ranking 14th in a class of 24
Adams was still undecided in his career, so he accepted a teaching position in Worcester while he thought of the future. After teaching for a while Adams decided that the career of a schoolmaster was unsatisfying. His pupils barely knew their ABC’s, and his students noted that he was preoccupied with other matters. His position, however, enabled him to meet the intellectuals of Worcester, including James Putnam, its most distinguished lawyer. Adams finally decided to make a career of the law and apprenticed himself to Putnam.
After teaching school for a short time, Adams studied law in the office of James Putnam in Worcester, Massachusetts. Adams continued to teach school during the day and study law at night. When it came time for Adams to present himself to the bar at Braintree, Putnam failed to accompany Adams. Fortunately, Jeremiah Gridley, another lawyer, recommended Adams. Adams was admitted to the bar in 1758. Adams then soon began to practice law in Braintree in 1758.
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Later that year, John Adams met Hannah Quincy who was a year younger than John. They met on a Sunday evening. Hannah left Adams and married another man in 1760. Ten years later, Adams moved to Boston, where he became a leading attorney of the Massachusetts colony.
In 1764, Adams married Abigail Smith on October 25. At the time John was 28. Abigail became John’s best friend and quite possibly his wisest political advisor. Abigail was the first First Lady to live in the White House and is regarded as one of the early advocates of the women’s liberation movement. Abigail and John had four children. She was the only First Lady to have a son become President, John Quincy Adams. Abigail died of typhoid fever on October 28, 1818, just after the Adams’ fifty-fourth anniversary.
In New England. Adams took a leading part in opposing British colonial policies in America. The year 1765, when the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, was a turning point in his life. This law taxed newspapers, legal papers, and other items. It hit Adams hard as a lawyer. He wrote: “This tax was set on foot for my ruin as well as that of Americans in general.”
Adams wrote resolutions against the tax, which were adopted by the Braintree town meeting. More than 40 other Massachusetts towns adopted these resolutions. The Boston town meeting appointed a committee to present a petition against the tax to the British governor, and Adams served as one of the three members. He argued that the tax was illegal because the people had not consented to it. This amounted to saying that Parliament could not tax the colonies at all. The United Kingdom took back the Stamp Act in 1766.
In 1770, the people of Boston chose him as one of their representatives in the colonial legislature. There, with the help of his cousin, Samuel Adams, he led the fight against British colonial policies. The British tax on tea enraged Adams and most of his fellow colonists. When a band of patriots dumped large quantities of tea into Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773, Adams called this act “the most magnificent movement of all.” Britain’s retaliation drew him into full partnership with the radicals, and he became a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774. During the next three years in Philadelphia, Adams pushed Congress into decisive action that was to separate the colonies from Britain. He urged successfully the appointment of George Washington as commander in chief of colonial forces and the creation of a naval force to challenge Britain’s supremacy of the seas. In committee and on the floor of Congress, he laid down principles of foreign policy, helped write the resolutions of May 10, 1776, that declared America independent, and defended the Declaration of Independence during debate in Congress.
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Adams’s influence had grown by the time the Second Continental Congress met in 1775. He began to insist that the colonies should be independent, and opposed all halfway measures. He persuaded Congress to organize the 16,000 militiamen of New England as the Continental Army. He also helped bring about the appointment of George Washington as commander in chief.
Early in 1778, Congress sent Adams to Paris to help Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee strengthen American ties with France and other European nations. Adams arrived in Paris to find that treaties had already been signed with France. He noted that friction had developed among the American ministers, and wrote to Congress proposing that one person take charge of affairs in France. Congress chose Franklin, and Adams sailed home in 1779.
When he returned to Massachusetts, the people of Braintree elected Adams to the convention that framed a state constitution. Adams wrote almost all the constitution, which won acclaim for its detailed bill of rights. Many other states adopted features of this Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. During the Massachusetts constitutional convention, Congress appointed Adams to negotiate treaties of peace and trade with the United Kingdom.
October 1782, Adams joined John Jay and Franklin in the peace discussions. In these proceedings Adams particularly, and successfully, insisted on the rights of the United States to fish off the Canadian coast, and he also was interested in extending American territory as far west as possible. The Treaty of Paris, ending the War of Independence, was concluded on Sept. 3, 1783.
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In 1788 he welcomed the proposed Constitution as “admirably calculated to preserve the Union.” As his thoughts turned homeward, he resigned his unproductive London post and returned to Braintree to study, write, and garden. Within the year, in the first Election held under the Constitution, he was chosen vice president of the United States. As in all of his positions, Adams, who was reelected in 1792, accepted the responsibilities of the vice presidency with energy and seriousness. During his first term as vice president, Adams wrote and published Discourses on Davila, a series of newspaper articles. Many readers thought these articles indicated that he had become much more conservative in his political views. Two political groups began to form during Washington’s second term. Adams and Alexander Hamilton led a group that favored a strong federal government. This group, known as the Federalists, supported Washington’s policies. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson led the Democratic-Republicans in fighting for strong states’ rights. Jefferson resigned as secretary of state in 1793 because he disapproved of the growing dominance of Hamilton in the Cabinet. When Washington refused in 1796 to serve a third term, the two parties had become well defined. The Federalists supported Adams for the presidency, and the Democratic-Republicans nominated Jefferson. Adams received only three more votes than Jefferson did, and political opponents thus became president and vice president.
Adams entered office on March 4, 1797. Fully aware of his slender victory, he sought political harmony. As the first president to succeed another, Adams had no guidelines to follow on cabinet appointments, patronage, and policy enunciations. He decided to keep Washington’s mediocre cabinet. One of Adams’s first acts as president was to call a special session of Congress to consider ways of keeping peace. He sent ministers to France to work out a treaty. Three French diplomats offered to negotiate a pact if the United States would bribe Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the French foreign minister. This episode became known as the XYZ Affair, because the French diplomats were referred to by these initials instead of their names. The Americans ended the negotiations late in 1797. The XYZ Affair caused great anger in the United States. People rallied to the cry of “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!” Congress began preparing for war with France. It established the Department of the Navy, ordered the construction of more warships, and summoned George Washington to command the Army, but neither nation declared war.
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Adams left the presidency in 1801 for the private life of Quincy. Though he remained bitter toward Hamilton and the Federalists, he regained his sense of humor and served his country in a different way. He became president of the Massachusetts Society of Arts and Sciences, of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, and of other societies.
Adams renewed his friendship with Thomas Jefferson. These two great Americans from North and South had met in Congress in 1775. Their friendship cooled steadily after about 1790, because they differed on the meaning of the French Revolution. But they forgot their political quarrels after retiring from public life. By a coincidence, both died on July 4, 1826. Adams lived longer than any other United States president. He died less than four months before his 91st birthday. Adams was buried in Quincy, Massachusetts.
