John Adams
2nd President of the United States
1735 CE to 1826 CE
John Adams (October 30, 1735 (O.S.
October 19, 1735) – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father, and the second President of the United States (1797–1801).
He is also a lawyer, statesman, diplomat, political theorist, and a leading champion of independence in 1776.
Hailing from New England, Adams, a prominent lawyer and public figure in Boston, is highly educated and represents Enlightenment values promoting republicanism.
A Federalist, he is highly influential and one of the key Founding Fathers of the United States.
Adams comes to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution.
As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he plays a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence and assists Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence.
As a diplomat in Europe, he is a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam bankers.
A political theorist and historian, Adams largely writes the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which soon after ends slavery in Massachusetts, but is in Europe when the federal Constitution is drafted on similar principles later in the decade.
One of his greatest roles is as a judge of character: in 1775, he nominates George Washington to be commander-in-chief, and 25 years later nominates John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the United States.
Adams' revolutionary credentials secure him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election in 1796 as the second president.
During his one term, he encounters ferocious attacks by the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party led by his bitter enemy Alexander Hamilton.
Adams signs the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and builds up the army and navy especially in the face of an undeclared naval war (called the "Quasi-War") with France, 1798–1800.
The major accomplishment of his presidency is his peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamilton's opposition.
In 1800, Adams is defeated for reelection by Thomas Jefferson and retires to Massachusetts.
He later resumes his friendship with Jefferson.
He and his wife, Abigail Adams, found an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now refer to as the Adams political family.
Adams is the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States.
His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as those of other Founders.
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A tense situation because of the heavy British military presence in Boston has boiled over to incite brawls between soldiers and civilians.
The friction between the troops and the colonists has grown from the landing of British troops in October 1768 with several events most notably including the death of Christopher Seider on February 22, 1770.
British troops on March 5, 1770, fire on an attacking mob protesting the enforced quartering of British soldiers in Boston households, killing five (three civilians are killed at the scene of the shooting, and two die after the incident) and wounding six in the so-called Boston Massacre.
The first to die is Crispus Attucks, who may have been of African-American and Native American ancestry.
The Patriot Party, organized by Samuel Adams, calms those adherents calling for rebellion.
His cousin, John Adams, successfully defends the soldiers’ actions in court.
The leaders of the independence movement want to base their argument on legal, rather than emotional, grounds.
The legal aftermath will help spark the rebellion in some of the British colonies in America, which is to culminate in the American Revolution.
The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 had angered colonists regarding British decisions on taxing the colonies despite a lack of representation in the Westminster Parliament.
One of the protesters is John Hancock, a wealthy Bostonian.
Hancock's ship Liberty had been seized in 1768 by customs officials, and he had been charged with smuggling.
He had been defended by John Adams, and the charges were eventually dropped.
However, Hancock has subsequently faced several hundred more indictments.
Hancock has organized a boycott of tea from China sold by the British East India Company, whose sales in the colonies had then fallen from three hundred and twenty thousand pounds (one hundred and forty-five thousand kilograms) to five hundred and twenty pounds (two hundred and forty kilograms).
By 1773, the company has large debts, huge stocks of tea in its warehouses and no prospect of selling it because smugglers, such as Hancock, are importing tea from the Netherlands without paying import taxes.
In response to this, the British government on May 10 passes the Tea Act, which allows the East India Company to sell tea to the colonies directly and without "payment of any customs or duties whatsoever" in Britain, instead paying the much lower American duty.
During secret debates, conservative Joseph Galloway proposes the creation of a colonial Parliament that would be able to approve or disapprove of acts of the British Parliament, but his idea is not accepted.
The Congress instead endorses the proposal of John Adams that Americans will obey Parliament voluntarily but will resist all taxes in disguise.
Congress calls for a boycott beginning on December 1, 1774 of all British goods; it is enforced by new committees authorized by the Congress.
However, a rather small group of delegates led by John Adams believes that war is inevitable.
During the course of the Second Continental Congress, Adams and his group of colleagues have decided that the wisest course of action is to remain quiet and wait for the opportune time to rally the people.
This decision has allowed Dickinson and his followers to pursue whatever means they choose for reconciliation.
It is during this time that the idea of the Olive Branch Petition is approved by the delegates.
Dickinson is the primary author of the petition, though Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Rutledge and Thomas Johnson also serve on the drafting committee.
Dickinson claims that the colonies do not want independence but that they merely want to negotiate trade and tax regulations with Great Britain.
Dickinson suggests that the King draw up a final plan or agreement to settle trade disputes.
To help the King with his plan, Dickinson suggests that the colonists be given either free trade and taxes equal to those levied on the people in Great Britain, or no taxes and strict trade regulations.
The introductory paragraph of the letter named twelve of the thirteen colonies, all except Georgia. The letter is approved on July 5 and signed by John Hancock, President of the Second Congress, and by representatives of the named twelve colonies.
On July 6, 1775 Congress issues a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves...".
Penn, the second son of Richard Penn, Sr. (1706–1771) and the grandson of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had been educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge before joining the Inner Temple.
In 1763 he and his brother John had visited Pennsylvania, of which his family were still sole proprietors.
Qualified as a councilor on January 12, 1764, he had returned to Pennsylvania in 1771 and had been appointed lieutenant governor, soon becoming acting governor when his brother returned to England to attend to the colony's legal interests.
He had proved popular with the provincials, taking much care over their commercial interests, but less so with his uncle, the proprietor.
After two years he had been supplanted by the re-appointment of his brother as governor.
On May 21, 1772, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, he had married Mary "Polly" Masters, daughter of the late William Masters of Philadelphia.
The bride's mother had given them as a wedding present a splendid Philadelphia city house, where Penn entertains members of the Continental Congress, Virginia delegate Colonel George Washington, being among his guests.
Penn had been elected a trustee of the College and Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) in 1772, serving as president of the board in 1773 and 1774.
With the coming of the Revolution, he retires and returned to England in the summer of 1775, when the Continental Congress entrusts him with the Olive Branch Petition to the King.
Dickinson hopes that word of the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord combined with the "humble petition" will inspire the King to at least negotiate with the colonists.
However, the petition will be received too late to do any good.
George III will refuse to accept the petition, but Penn will give evidence to the House of Lords on the colonies' attitudes toward independence.
The Olive Branch Petition had still served an important purpose in American independence.
The King’s rejection has given Adams and others the opportunity to push for independence.
The rejection of the “olive branch” has polarized the issue in the minds of many colonists, who realize that, from this point forward, the choice is between complete independence or complete submission to British rule, a realization that will be crystallized a few months later in Thomas Paine's widely read pamphlet Common Sense.
The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the Continental Marines to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines will be disbanded at end of the war in April 1783 but will be reformed on July 11, 1798, as the United States Marine Corps).
News of the burning of Falmouth causes uproar in the colonies.
Propagandists emphasize its cruelty.
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress authorizes the issue of letters of marque, licensing privateer actions against the British navy.
The Second Continental Congress hears of the event just as word arrives of King George's Proclamation of Rebellion.
Outraged by the news, Congress recommends that some provinces adopt self-rule and that Royal Navy ships in South Carolina be seized.
The attack on Falmouth stimulates Congress to advance its plans for establishment of a Continental Navy.
On October 13, Congress had authorized the purchase of two vessels to be armed for a cruise against British merchant ships; these ships become Andrew Doria and Cabot.
The first ship in commission is the USS Alfred which is purchased on November 4 and commissioned on December 3 by Captain Dudley Saltonstall.
On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passes a resolution calling for two battalions of Marines to be raised for service with the fleet (the Marines will be disbanded at end of the war in April 1783 but will be reformed on July 11, 1798 as the United States Marine Corps).
John Adams drafts its first governing regulations, which are adopted by Congress on November 28, 1775 and will remain in effect throughout the Revolutionary War.
The Falmouth incident is again mentioned on November 25, when Congress passes legislation described by Adams as "the true origin of the American Navy".
When news of the event first reaches England, it is dismissed as rebel propaganda.
When the reports are confirmed, Graves' superior, Lord George Germain, expresses surprise rather than offense, noting that "I am to suppose that Admiral Graves had good reason for the step he took", in spite of orders (not received by Graves until after Mowat had sailed for Falmouth) to not take such acts unless the town clearly refused to do business with the British.
Graves will be relieved of his command in December 1775, in part due to his failure to suppress the rebel naval forces.
Germain had issued the orders before Falmouth burned.
News of the event also reaches the French government, who are carefully monitoring political developments in North America.
The French foreign secretary writes: "I can hardly believe this absurd as well as barbaric procedure on the part of an enlightened and civilized nation."
Mowat's career suffers as a result of his actions.
He will be repeatedly passed over for promotion, and will achieve it only when he downplays his role in the event, or omits it entirely from his record.
Howe demands a retraction of the Declaration of Independence, which is refused, and negotiations end.
The British now quickly seize New York City and nearly capture Washington's army.
They make New York their main political and military base of operations in North America, holding it until November 1783.
The city becomes the destination for Loyalist refugees and a focal point of Washington's intelligence network.
On June 11, Congress appoints a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence.
They are John Adams, representative of Massachusetts; Thomas Jefferson, representative of Virginia; Benjamin Franklin, representative of Pennsylvania; Robert Livingston, representative of New York; and Roger Sherman, representative of Connecticut, who will become the only person to sign all four of the US state papers: the Continental Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
Adams and Jefferson will become the second and third President of the United States, respectively; Franklin, known as one of the most famous of the Founding Fathers, will become the first United States Minister to France.
That same day, Congress decides to establish two other committees to develop the resolution's last two parts.