John Adams

John Adams, 1793

Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1793

OTHER IMAGES

John Adams, 1791—94
John Adams, 1826
John Adams, c. 1821
John Adams, 1783
John Adams, c. 1766
John Adams, 1796

QUICK FACTS
BORN:
30 October 1735 in the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy)
  DIED:
4 July 1826 at his home, Peacefield, in Quincy, Massachusetts
Buried at Quincy, in a crypt at United First Parish Church.
AUTHOR OF
  • Novanglus; or, A History of the Dispute with America, From Its Origin, in 1754, to the Present, 1775
  • Thoughts on Government, 1776
  • A Defence of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America, 1787
PLACES TO VISIT
LINKS

He is vain, irritable and a bad calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which govern men. This is all the ill which can possibly be said of him. He is as disinterested as the being which made him: he is profound in his views: and accurate in his judgment except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment. He is so amiable, that I pronounce you will love him if ever you become acquainted with him. He would be, as he was, a great man in Congress.

— Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison, 1788.

Portrait to come. See entry in Wikipedia.

CONNECTED TO:
Adams, Abigail | Adams, John Quincy | Jefferson, Thomas | Rush, Benjamin | Warren, Joseph

Categories
American Philosophical Society
Boston Revolutionary
Continental Congress
Declaration of Independence
Diplomat
Federalist
France
Lawyer
Massachusetts
President
Sons of Liberty
Vice President
Writer

In 1789 the South and especially Virginia had been the impelling force in creating the nation. By 1815 the South and slaveholders still seemed to be in control of the national government. President Madison was a slaveholder. So too were Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, James Monroe, the secretary of state, and George W. Campbell, the secretary of the treasury. All Republican leaders of the House were slaveholders. In 1815 the United States had four missions in Europe: two of them were held by slaveholders. The chief justice of the United States was a slaveholder, as were a majority of the other members of the Court. Since 1789 three of the four presidents, two of the five vice-presidents, fourteen of the twenty-six presidents pro tempore the Senate, and five of the ten Speakers of the House had been slaveholders.

— Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)