Born in 1735, John Adams was a Founding Father of the United States of America and served as President of the United States from 1797 to 1801. He was also the nation’s first Vice President serving for two terms under the Presidency of George Washington. He was a prominent leader during the American Revolution and an influential politician and political philosopher during the earliest years of the nation.
John Adams was born in present-day Quincy, Massachusetts (during his day it was simply known as “north precinct”) and was the first born of three sons to John Adams, Sr. and his wife Susanna. His father was a farmer as well as a town councilman and a Puritan deacon. Adams hailed from an early Puritan family who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. In 1751 Adams attended Harvard and decided in favor of a career in law and was admitted to the bar in 1758. In 1764 Adams married Abigail Smith. The couple had six children—though the last was stillborn. Adams’s first son, John Quincy, became the sixth President of the United States.
During his career Adams became a strong supporter of Republicanism and the causes of the Colonies. He began to achieve fame initially for speaking out against the Stamp Act and then for providing legal council to the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. In 1770 he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court and Massachusetts sent Adams to both the First and Second Continental Congresses where he famously nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. His influence at these Congressional sessions was great and he supported a separation with Britain from the very beginning of his tenure there.
Along with other Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, John Adams helped draft The Declaration of Independence. After the war Adams traveled abroad to represent the new nation and also drafted the constitution for the state of Massachusetts. He then served two terms as Vice-President before being elected President of the country. During his time in office he retained George Washington’s cabinet—largely led by Alexander Hamilton. Much of Adams’s presidency was characterized by his desire to remain out of the war between Britain and France. Adams lost his bid for reelection to Thomas Jefferson who served as the third U.S. President. The friendship between Adams and Jefferson famously persisted until both men’s deaths. Adams returned to private life in Massachusetts. He died during his son’s presidency on July 4, 1826—the same exact day that Thomas Jefferson also died.