John Adams

**John Adams** was the Second President of the United States, the 8th Governor of Massachusetts, the First Vice President of the United States, and a Founding Father. Adams was also a delegate to the early Continental Congress, as well as serving as an envoy and minister to several countries during the American Revolution. Adams was also a prominent lawyer before the Revolution, infamously serving as the lawyer for the perpetrators of the Boston Massacre.

## Early Life

Born in Braintree, Massachusetts on October 30, 1735, Adams was the eldest son of John Adams Sr. and Susana Boylston. Adams had two younger brothers, Peter and Elihu, and he and his father had a close relationship, Adams often looked back on it with fondness.

Adams especially made a name for himself in law, where Adams became a local leading figure against the Stamp Act. Regardless of those beliefs though, in 1770 following the Boston Massacre, Adams would provide them counsel, winning the case and angering many revolutionaries. Adams' cousin, Samuel Adams, had been a leader of the Boston Tea Party, and with his influence John turned into more of a revolutionary, even being appointed to the Continental Congress.

## Continental Congress (1774-1777)

Adams had been radicalized by the time he entered the Congress, openly calling for independence with his cousin, but nevertheless it was slow to come. And even before it was agreed on, impatient Adams called together a Committee of Five, which consisted of himself, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The Committee had originally wanted Adams to write the Declaration of Independence, but Adams convinced them to choose Jefferson, because in his own words Adams said, "I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular." Jefferson would end up writing the Declaration, one of the most important documents in the history of the nation.

Adams held the record for biggest workload of the Congress, sitting in 90 committees of which he chaired 25 over his stay in office. And when he became Chair of the Board of War and Ordinance, his workload skyrocketed, with him doing 18 hour days regularly, and corresponding with tons of high ranking officers, even laying out the groundworks for a treaty with France. Adams would also meet with General Howe of the British to discuss terms with him, but was so unimpressed that the talks went no where.

## Vice Presidency

Adams reportedly though the Vice Presidential position was incredibly boring, being incredible irritated with the lack of abilities the position came with. Adams, a very opiniated man, unable to voice his opinion felt incredibly constricted.

In the Presidential Election of 1792, George Clinton won 5 more electors then **John Adams**, which caused Federalist Chairman Alexander Hamilton to sell out John Adams in order to try and stop Clinton. Hamilton tried to rally the votes to George Benckendorf who had gotten 4th place, but would fall 1 short meaning Clinton won anyways. The whole ordeal was known as the Hamilton-Benckendorf Controversy, which would lead to John Adams leaving the party and adopting an anti-elitist ideology.

## Governorship

John would beat out his cousin and incumbent Governor Samuel Adams in the 1794 Massachusetts Governor Race, John had formed the Grand Republic Party by now, and was it's leader moving into the midterms, eventually merging with the Democratic-Republicans and an independent faction to form the Democratic Party. Adams really enjoyed his time as Governor, but would leave it to run for the Presidency in 1796, of which he would win.

## Presidency

After his victory John would appoint James Madison to Secretary of State, Scott Benckendorf as Secretary of the Treasury, and Aaron Burr as Attorney General, keeping Henry Knox as Secretary of War.

John would see the rise in piracy and battle with England and sign the Naval Act of 1797 midway into his first year, but another event soon came to upset his Presidency, the New England Plague of 1797, which saw massive swaths of Vermont and Massachusetts engulfed in Tuberculosis in 1797-1799. John would release Executive Order No4, which would enclose most of Vermont with the National Guard shutting it down, but it would still spread south into western Massachusetts, which John would once again enclose with Executive Order No5. The plague would no longer spread, but it infuriated Governor Thomas Chittenden of Vermont to the point where he refused to cooperate.

Meanwhile the rest of the Country was doing economically horrible while still at war with Britain, protests broke out across country and John's popularity was crumbling. James Wilkinson did break through into Montreal in late 1798 after the several month long Siege of Montreal, which briefly rebounded John's approval, it soon fell again as conditions kept falling.

## Family

John Adams married Abigail Smith in 1764, with them having 6 total children together: Abigail in 1765; John Quincy in 1767; Susanna in 1768, who died at age 1; Charles in 1770; Thomas in 1772; and Elizabeth in 1777, who was stillborn. Two of his sons, John Quincy and Charles, have become lawyers and graduated for Harvard, while Thomas is still attending Harvard. Abigail went on to marry here fathers Secretary, William Stephens Smith.

* Abigail Adams Smith (Born: July 14, 1765)
* John Quincy Adams (Born: July 11, 1767)
* Susanna Adams (1768-1769)
* Charles Adams (Born: May 29, 1770)
* Thomas Boylston Adams (Born: September 15, 1772)
* Elizabeth Adams (1777)