John Adams, a remarkable political philosopher, served as the second President of the United States (1797-1801), after serving as the first Vice President under President George Washington.
Born in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Adams received his education from Harvard and became a leading lawyer in Massachusetts during the colonial era. In his most famous case, he defended British soldiers who stood trial after the Boston Massacre in 1770.
On November 6, 1758, Adams was sworn-in as a lawyer. Returning to Braintree, he opened his own practice. Stemming from a poor performance in his very first case, the practice, in its first year (1759-1760), suffered. However, with training and time, John was able to refine his skills.
John Quincy Adams (/ ˈ k w ɪ n z i / (); July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the 6th president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829.He previously served as the 8th United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825. During his long diplomatic and political career, Adams also served as an ambassador, …
John Adams Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain, and he served as ...
Adams's birthplace now in Quincy, Massachusetts. John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735, Old Style, Julian calendar ), to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two younger brothers: Peter (1738–1823) and Elihu (1741–1775). Adams was born on the family farm in Braintree, Massachusetts.
The "Hamiltonians who surround him," Jefferson soon remarked, "are only a little less hostile to him than to me." Although aware of Hamilton's influence, Adams was convinced that their retention ensured a smoother succession. Adams maintained the economic programs of Hamilton, who regularly consulted with key cabinet members, especially the powerful Treasury Secretary, Oliver Wolcott Jr. Adams was in other respects quite independent of his cabinet, often making decisions despite opposition from it. Hamilton had grown accustomed to being regularly consulted by Washington. Shortly after Adams was inaugurated, Hamilton sent him a detailed letter filled with policy suggestions for the new administration. Adams dismissively ignored it.
Though his father expected him to be a minister, after his 1755 graduation with an A.B. degree, he taught school temporarily in Worcester, while pondering his permanent vocation. In the next four years, he began to seek prestige, craving "Honour or Reputation" and "more defference from [his] fellows", and was determined to be "a great Man". He decided to become a lawyer to further those ends, writing his father that he found among lawyers "noble and gallant achievements" but, among the clergy, the "pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces". His aspirations conflicted with his Puritanism, though, prompting reservations about his self-described "trumpery" and failure to share the "happiness of [his] fellow men".
When he returned in 1795 with a peace treaty on terms unfavorable to the United States, Adams urged Washington to sign it to prevent war. Washington chose to do so, igniting protests and riots. He was accused of surrendering American honor to a tyrannical monarchy and of turning his back on the French Republic.
After his father's death in 1761, Adams had inherited a 9. +. 1⁄2 -acre (3.8 ha) farm and a house where they lived until 1783. John and Abigail had six children: Abigail "Nabby" in 1765, future president John Quincy Adams in 1767, Susanna in 1768, Charles in 1770, Thomas in 1772, and Elizabeth in 1777.
His mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a deacon in the Congregational Church, a farmer, a cordwainer, and a lieutenant in the militia. John Sr. served as a selectman (town councilman) and supervised the building of schools and roads.
Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he early became identified with the patriot cause; a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, he led in the movement for independence.
Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. Learn more about John Adams’s spouse, Abigail Smith Adams.
It also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, intended to frighten foreign agents out of the country and to stifle the attacks of Republican editors. President Adams did not call for a declaration of war, but hostilities began at sea.
May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”. Adams retired to his farm in Quincy. Here he penned his elaborate letters to Thomas Jefferson. Here on July 4, 1826, he whispered his last words: “Thomas Jefferson survives.”. But Jefferson had died at Monticello a few hours earlier.
From 1785 to 1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James’s, returning to be elected Vice President under George Washington. Adams’ two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity.
On November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams arrived in the new Capital City to take up his residence in the White House. On his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote his wife, “Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”
Learned and thoughtful, John Adams was more remarkable as a political philosopher than as a politician. “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity,” he said, doubtless thinking of his own as well as the American experience. Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he early became identified ...
In 1796, he decided to run yet again for the presidency. He won the election and assumed the presidency at the age of 61.
John Adams signed the unpopular Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798. These four pieces of legislation (Naturalization Act, Alien Friends Act of 1798, Alien Enemy Act of 1798, and Sedition Act of 1798) made it harder for immigrants to become citizens as they increased residency from 5 to 14 years, and allowed those considered ‘dangerous’ to be imprisoned or deported from the US.
Because Adams believed in the elite idea of Republicanism and didn’t trust public opinion, he was probably one of the most disliked presidents.
Nevertheless, he managed to avoid a retaliatory war with France through diplomacy.
Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735. He proposed to Abigail Smith in 1762 and they married two years later. The couple had six children.
Adams at odds with his own Federalist Party and was often undermined by his own cabinet member, Alexander Hamilton. Adams’ characteristic aloofness and refusal to enter directly into political conflict probably cost him his reelection in 1800.
During the election of 1796, the Federalists quickly labeled Adams as a Francophile, giving him the perhaps unearned reputation of being more concerned with the international interests than with domestic affairs.
The leading advocate for independence at the Second Continental Congress and a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, Adams served the United States during the Revolutionary War as an ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI in Paris and as ambassador to the Netherlands. Because John Adams was serving as an ambassador in ...
During his presidency, John Adams and the Federalist majority in Congress sponsored four laws that came to be known as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
Because John Adams was serving as an ambassador in London during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 , he did not have a direct impact on the drafting of the Constitution. Adams, however, had become a prominent advocate of separation of powers and of checks and balances to protect against the power of absolute government.
Adams, however, had become a prominent advocate of separation of powers and of checks and balances to protect against the power of absolute government.
The leading advocate for independence at the Second Continental Congress and a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, Adams served the United States during the Revolutionary War as an ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI in Paris and as ambassador to the Netherlands.
These statutes — the Naturalization Act, Alien Act, Alien Enemies Act, and Sedition Act — represent the first instance of an American president placing national security issues and personal reputation before the principles of freedom of speech and of the press.
They also ridiculed him as being effeminate or a hermaphrodite because of his height and high-pitched voice.
Signature. John Quincy Adams ( / ˈkwɪnzi / ( listen); July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825.
On his return to the United States, Adams re-established a legal practice in Boston, and in April 1802 he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. In November of that year, he ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives. In February 1803, the Massachusetts legislature elected Adams to the United States Senate. Though somewhat reluctant to affiliate with any political party, Adams joined the Federalist minority in Congress. Like his Federalist colleagues, he opposed the impeachment of Associate Justice Samuel Chase, an outspoken supporter of the Federalist Party.
Adams initially avoided becoming involved in politics, instead focusing on building his legal career. In 1791, he wrote a series of pseudonymously published essays arguing that Britain provided a better governmental model than France.
Adams served as Secretary of State through Monroe's eight-year presidency, from 1817 to 1825. Many of his successes as secretary, such as the convention of 1818 with Great Britain, the Transcontinental Treaty with Spain, and the Monroe Doctrine, were not preplanned strategy but responses to unexpected events. Adams wanted to delay American recognition of the newly independent republics of Latin America to avoid the risk of war with Spain and its European allies. However, Andrew Jackson's military campaign in Florida, and Henry Clay's threats in Congress, forced Spain to cut a deal, which Adams negotiated successfully. Biographer James Lewis says, "He managed to play the cards that he had been dealt – cards that he very clearly had not wanted – in ways that forced the Spanish cabinet to recognize the weakness of its own hand". Apart from the Monroe doctrine, his last four years as Secretary of State were less successful, since he was absorbed in his presidential campaign and refused to make compromises with other nations that might have weakened his candidacy; the result was a small-scale trade war, but a successful election to the White House.
In 1778, Adams and his father departed for Europe, where John Adams would serve as part of American diplomatic missions in France and the Netherlands.
During the first half of his administration, Adams avoided taking a strong stand on tariffs, partly because he wanted to avoid alienating his allies in the South and New England. After Jacksonians took power in 1827, they devised a tariff bill designed to appeal to Western states while instituting high rates on imported materials important to the economy of New England. It is unclear whether Van Buren, who shepherded the bill through Congress, meant for the bill to pass, or if he had deliberately designed it to force Adams and his allies to oppose it. Regardless, Adams signed the Tariff of 1828, which became known as the "Tariff of Abominations" by opponents. Adams was denounced in the South, and he received little credit for the tariff in the North.
On his return to the United States, Adams re-established a legal practice in Boston, and in April 1802 he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. In November of that same year he ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives. In February 1803, the Massachusetts legislature elected Adams to the United States Senate. Though somewhat reluctant to affiliate with any political party, Adams joined the Federalist minority in Congress. Like his Federalist colleagues, he opposed the impeachment of Associate Justice Samuel Chase, an outspoken supporter of the Federalist Party.
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who was the second president of the United States, serving from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain and during the war, served as a diplomat in Europe. He was twice elected vice …