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- By 1770, Adams was a highly successful lawyer with perhaps the largest caseload of any attorney in Boston, and he was chosen to defend the British soldiers who were charged in the Boston Massacre in March 1770. Through his able defense, none of the accused soldiers were sent to jail.
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Who was John Adams and what did he do?
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Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influenced the United States Constitution, as did his essay Thoughts on Government. Adams was elected to two terms as vice president under President George Washington and was elected as the United States' second president in 1796.
- Defended British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trial. In 1770, Adams defended British soldiers accused of killing five colonists on Boston Green in what became known as the Boston Massacre.
- John Adams Nominated George Washington. John Adams realized the importance of unifying the North and South in the Revolutionary War. He selected George Washington as a leader of the Continental Army that both regions of the country would support.
- Part of Committee to Draft the Declaration of Independence. Adams was an important figure in both the First and Second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775.
- Wife Abigail Adams. John Adams wife, Abigail Adams, was an important figure throughout the foundation of the American republic. She was a devoted correspondent with her husband and also in later years with Thomas Jefferson.
- Overview
- Early life
John Adams was an advocate of American independence from Britain, a major figure in the Continental Congress (1774–77), the author of the Massachusetts constitution (1780), a signer of the Treaty of Paris (1783), ambassador to the Court of St. James (1785–88), and the first vice president (1789–97) and second president (1797–1801) of the United States.
When did John Adams become president?
Having finished second to George Washington in the first U.S. presidential election in 1789 and serving as Washington’s vice president (1789–97), Adams won a narrow victory over Thomas Jefferson to be elected as the second president of the United States in 1796. He then lost to Jefferson in the 1800 presidential election.
What was John Adams’s family like?
John Adams’s family could trace its lineage to the first generation of Puritan settlers in New England and made major contributions to U.S. political and intellectual life for more than 150 years. His cousin Samuel Adams was, like John Adams, a lynchpin of the American Revolution. John Quincy Adams, like his father, John Adams, served as U.S. president.
What was John Adams’s early life like?
Adams was the eldest of the three sons of Deacon John Adams and Susanna Boylston of Braintree, Massachusetts. His father was only a farmer and shoemaker, but the Adams family could trace its lineage back to the first generation of Puritan settlers in New England. A local selectman and a leader in the community, Deacon Adams encouraged his eldest son to aspire toward a career in the ministry. In keeping with that goal, Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755. For the next three years, he taught grammar school in Worcester, Massachusetts, while contemplating his future. He eventually chose law rather than the ministry and in 1758 moved back to Braintree, then soon began practicing law in nearby Boston.
In 1764 Adams married Abigail Smith, a minister’s daughter from neighbouring Weymouth. Intelligent, well-read, vivacious, and just as fiercely independent as her new husband, Abigail Adams became a confidante and political partner who helped to stabilize and sustain the ever-irascible and highly volatile Adams throughout his long career. The letters between them afford an extended glimpse into their deepest thoughts and emotions and provide modern readers with the most revealing record of personal intimacy between husband and wife in the revolutionary era. Typical of their epistolary exchange was Abigail’s lament regarding John’s prolonged absence in her letter to him of November 27, 1775:
Colonel Warren returned last week to Plymouth, so that I shall not hear anything from you until he goes back again, which will not be till the last of this month. He damped my spirits greatly by telling me that the court had prolonged your stay another month. I was pleasing myself with the thought that you would soon be upon your return. It is in vain to repine. I hope the public will reap what I sacrifice.
Their first child, Abigail Amelia, was born in 1765. Their first son, John Quincy, arrived two years later. Two other sons, Thomas Boylston and Charles, followed shortly thereafter. (Another child, Susanna, did not survive infancy.)
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- Randal Rust
- Early Years and Family Life of John Adams. John Adams, Jr. was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735 in the town of Braintree (today known as Quincy).
- The Boston Massacre Trials. In 1770, Adams was hired by the British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre to defend them in court. The trial was to be held in Suffolk County court, but there were no lawyers in the Boston area that would take their case.
- The First and Second Continental Congress. Adams represented Massachusetts in both the First Continental Congress (1774) and the Second Continental Congress (1775).
- First Trip to Europe. In 1777, Adams was asked to go to Europe to represent American interests. 10-year-old John Quincy accompanied him on the journey. They sailed on the frigate Boston on February 15, 1778.
John Adams dedicated his life to the public service of his country throughout the American Revolution and later served as the first vice president of the United States under George Washington, and one term as the second president of the United States.
She was living in London, where her father served as the American consul, and Adams had been sent to London from The Hague to exchange the ratifications of the Jay Treaty. The Johnson family provided the social center for Americans in London, and Adams regularly visited.
When Congress created the Continental army in June 1775, Adams nominated George Washington of Virginia to be its commander. Adams soon emerged as the leader of the faction in Congress that pushed to declare independence.
