John_Adams_bio

=**John Adams**=


 * Early life:** Adams grew up in Massachusetts and was a Congregationalist (religion). He went to Harvard at age 16 and his father expected him to become a minister, but Adams had doubts. He was a teacher for a short time until he became a lawyer. He would marry his third cousin Abigail Smith, the daughter of a minister. John Adams became a supporter of independence but wasn't as outspoken as his second cousin Samuel Adams. He opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 stating that it was against two basic rights - that of only being taxed by the people's consent and the right to a a trial by a jury of one's peers. His Braintree Instructions told the representative of Massachusetts not to enforce the Stamp Act. It was one of the earliest examples of rejecting British authority. In the Boston Massacre of 1770, John Adams served as a lawyer for several of the British soldiers, even though he feared it would hurt his reputation. He gave a famous quote about making decisions based on evidence when he said "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."


 * Revolution:** Adams was part of the First Continental Congress (1774) and the Second Continental Congress (1775), which declared independence in 1776. He supported George Washington as commander of the Continental Army and stated that when the colonies were instructed to develop their own constitutions, that was in itself independence. Several representatives asked Adams his thoughts on proper government. He was tired of constantly repeating himself, he wrote //Thoughts on Government// in which he suggested a republic form of government as well as separation of powers. Adams was part of the committee in charge of writing the Declaration of Independence and even though most of it was written by Jefferson, Adams was referred to as "the pillar of [the Declaration's] support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered" by Jefferson. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Adams and Benjamin Franklin met with British General William Howe (after the colonists were defeated in the Battle of Long Island) in which Howe demanded that the Declaration of Independence be rescinded before any other negotiations. Adams and Franklin refused. Adams would serve on several committees in the Continental Congress including the Board of War and Ordinance. He was sent on trips to Europe to represent the colonies. He tried to negotiate agreements with the British and Europe to recognize American fisheries in the Atlantic. He also spent time as the ambassador to the Dutch. In the United States he (along with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin) wrote the Massachusetts Constitution of 1779. After the war, Adams would help gain trade relations with Prussia and would serve as an ambassador in Britain.

//"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties, and obligations...This radical change in principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revoluion." -// John Adams, letter to H. Niles, February 13, 1818 - Adams was saying the war wasn't the Revolution...it was the change in the minds and behaviors of the colonists' ideas of natural rights, limited government, and representative government that was the Revolution.
 * U.S. Constitution:** Adams was in Europe as ambassador to Britain during the Constitutional Convention. Adams received the second most Electoral votes in 1788 and again 1792 making him the first Vice President. He most likely wanted a position such as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. On his position as Vice President, he wrote to his wife that "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." When political parties developed in Washington's cabinet, Adams associated with Hamilton's Federalist Party.


 * Presidency:** Adams would win the Election of 1796 making him the second U.S. President under the Constitution. This election was the first in the U.S. that was contested between parties. Adams stayed in his hometown of Quincy rather than campaigning, which was customary at the time. He didn't want to take part in what he called the silly and wicked game. Adams kept Washington's cabinet and continued the policies of Washington. Foreign policy under Adams was dominated by a small undeclared war with France. The French and British were at war. Hamilton and the Federalists favored Britain while Jefferson and the Democrat-Republicans favored France. The French were seizing American merchant ships and demaned bribes (in what would be called the X,Y,Z Affair). The Quasi naval war between the U.S. and France had dangers of exploding into an invasion of the U.S. by the French but would eventually peace would be settled. Adams had also signed the Alien and Sedition Acts to keep enemies of the U.S. from infiltrating the government. Adams would be defeated by Jefferson in 1800 in his bid for re-election.


 * Later years:** Adams was depressed when leaving office but was happy to go back home and retire from private life with his wife Abigail. Some scholars suggest that Adams had a lot of animosity towards Jefferson, while some of the correspondances suggest that it wasn't too much hatred. The two did reconcile any differences later in life and corresponded with one another. Adams and Jefferson were fellow patriots, political rivals, and died as friends.

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