John Adams | Presidency, Facts & Death

John Adams Summary

John Adams was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, author, and founding father who lived from October 30, 1735, to July 4, 1826. From 1797 to 1801, he served as the nation’s second president. He worked as a diplomat in Europe during the War and led the American Revolution, which led to the country’s independence from Great Britain, before becoming king.

He was twice chosen vice president and occupied the prestigious but ineffective post from 1789 until 1797. Adams kept detailed diaries and regularly wrote with several significant colleagues, notably his wife Abigail Adams, who served as his adviser, and Thomas Jefferson, who functioned as a friend and a rival.

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Fast Facts

Born	October 30, 1735, Braintree, Massachusetts Bay, British America (now Quincy)
Death	July 4, 1826, (age 90), Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.
Wife	Abigail Adams
Parents	Henry Adams > Susanna

Early Life of John Adams

John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston delivered him on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735, Old Style, Julian calendar). Elihu (1738-1823) and Peter (1738-1823), his two younger siblings (1741–1775). Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on the family farm. His mom came from one of Brookline, Massachusetts’s most reputed medical houses.

His father was a farmer, a cordwainer, a deacon in the Congregational Church, and a lieutenant in the militia. Adams often spoke positively of his father and recalled how close they were. Around 1638, Henry Adams, Adams’ great-great-grandfather, moved to Massachusetts from Braintree, Essex, Uk.

John Adams Education

John Adams’ formal education began when he was six years old at a made-by-mixing day school held in a teacher’s home and focused on The New England Primer. Later, he studied Latin, poetry, philosophy, and mathematics at Braintree Latin School under Joseph Cleverly.

Adams had a difficult early life that included episodes of truancy, a dislike of his master, and a desire to become a farmer. The discussion ended when his father told Daniel to stay in school, adding, “You fully conform with my desires.”

Adams reflected, “As a boy, I enjoyed perhaps the greatest of blessings that can be bestowed upon men – that of a mother who was anxious and capable of molding the character of her children. Deacon Adams hired a new schoolmaster named Joseph Marsh, and his son responded positively.

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Adams went to Harvard College in 1751 at 16 to study under Joseph Mayhew. Adams was an avid scholar as an adult, studying the writings of great authors like Thucydides, Plato, Cicero, and Tacitus in their original languages. Even though his father had expected him to become a minister, after trying to earn his A.B.

In 1755, he briefly worked as a teacher in Worcester while considering his lengthy tenure. Over the four years, he acquired a yearning for status, longing for “Honour or Reputation” and “greater respect from [his] peers,” and was driven to become “a great Man.

To achieve the organization’s goals, he became a lawyer, writing to his father that he recognized “noble and gallant accomplishments” among lawyers but only “the pseudo sanctity of some absolute dunces” among the clergy. His self-described “trumpery” and failure to share in the “pleasure of [his] fellow men” raised some concerns in his mind.

Adams, nineteen years old when the French and Indian War began in 1754, felt bad because he was the first member of his family who wasn’t a military officer. While he chose not to fight, he said, “I wanted to be a Soldier more fiercely than I ever wanted to be a Lawyer.”

John Adams Presidency

Adams was greeted with a triumphant welcome upon his return to Massachusetts on June 17, 1788. In the months that followed, he went back to farming. The first presidential campaign in the nation was just about to take place. Many believed that a northerner should win the vice presidency because George Washington was largely expected to win the presidency. Adams was the leading candidate, although he kept silent on the issue. On February 4, 1789, the two presidential electors from each state gathered to cast their votes. 

The election’s winner would take the position of president, and the runner-up would take office as vice president. Adams came in the second position with 34 electoral college votes, trailing only Washington, who garnered 69 votes and was the clear winner of the presidential election. Washington was subsequently chosen as the nation’s first president, and Adams was selected as the first vice president.

Religious View

John Adams passed the traditional Unitarian creed to his grandson Charles Francis. They trusted Grace to lead them. They believed that having free will gave them the ability to accept or reject God’s grace. To open men’s thinking and discourage them from consuming dogma blindly, they turned away from miracles and revelation in support of biblical critique and lay inquiry. They remained confused about Jesus’ divinity as they recognized him as a “master workman” and a competent moral teacher.

John Adams Death

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