John Adams

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Examine the life of the United States' first vice president and second president, John Adams

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John Adams

Q: What were John Adams’s accomplishments?

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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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 .

Q: What was John Adams’s early life like?

John Adams was born in 1735 and raised in Braintree (now in Quincy ), Massachusetts . The eldest of the three sons of farmer and shoemaker Deacon John Adams, he was encouraged to aspire to the ministry and graduated from Harvard College (1755). He taught grammar school for three years before choosing law rather than the ministry as his career.

president of United States

Also known as: Novanglus

Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 13, 2024 • Article History

John Adams

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Category: History & Society

Born:: October 30 [October 19, Old Style], 1735, Braintree [now in Quincy], Massachusetts [U.S.]

Died:: July 4, 1826, Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S. (aged 90)

Title / Office:: presidency of the United States of America (1797-1801), United States; vice president of the United States of America (1789-1797), United States

Political Affiliation:: Federalist Party

Awards And Honors:: Hall of Fame (1900)

On the Web:: PBS - American Experience - John Adams (Mar. 28, 2024)

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What were John Adams’s accomplishments?

When did John Adams become president?

What was John Adams’s family like?

What was John Adams’s early life like?

John Adams (born October 30 [October 19, Old Style], 1735, Braintree [now in Quincy], Massachusetts [U.S.]—died July 4, 1826, Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.) was an early advocate of American independence from Great 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), the first American 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. Although Adams was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most significant statesmen of the revolutionary era, his reputation ...(100 of 3164 words)

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