John Adams
John Adams: Signed the Declaration of Independence.
He was born: October 30, 1735, in Braintree, Massachussetts,
to John and Susannah Boylston Adams
He was raised as a Congregationalist (Puritan) and was later a
Unitarian.
At age 16, he went to Harvard (1751-1755), then taught school in
Worcester, Massachussetts, then studied law there, becoming a lawyer
in 1758.
In 1764, he married Abigail Smith, daughter of a Congregational minister. Together
they had five children.
He opposed the Stamp Act of 1765.
In 1770, he defended the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. Six were
acquitted, but two were convicted of manslaughter. At the same time, he was elected
to the colonial legislature.
In 1772, he argued for independence as an alternative to being subject to England's
parliament.
Massachussetts sent him to the first and second Continental Congress (1774-1778).
In 1775, he nominated George Washington to be the Commander in Chief of the
Continental Army.
On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution of independence introduced by
Richard Henry Lee that "these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and
independent states," and championed the resolution until it was adopted by Congress
on July 2, 1776. He was appointed to a committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, to draft a Declaration of
Independence.
For more than a decade, Adams was sent by Congress to be an ambassador in Europe.
In 1780, the Massachussetts Constitution was ratified, Adams having written most of
it himself.
Coming in second in the election of 1780, John Adams became Vice President of the
United States. When two Parties formed, he joined with the Federalists.
Narrowly beating Jefferson in the election of 1796, John Adams became President of the
United States.
After he lost the election in 1800, Adams went back to farming.
He died: July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence, at his home in Quincy, Massachussetts.
|
