1. Background
    1. Eldest of three sons
    2. Direct descendant of the founding generation of Puritans
      1. Considered Puritans "bearers of freedom, a cause that still had a holy urgency"
  2. Dates
    1. 1735
      1. Born in Quincy, Massachusetts
    2. 1751
      1. Went to Harvard College
        1. Expected to become a minister by his father
    3. 1755
      1. Graduated from Harvard College with an A.B.
        1. Taught school for a few years in Worcester
        2. Decided to become a lawyer, finding among them "noble and gallant achievements"
        3. Later became a Unitarian, and dropped most Calvinist beliefs of his Puritan ancestors.
    4. 1758
      1. Earned his A.M. from Harvard and was admitted to the bar
    5. 1764
      1. Five days before his 29th birthday - married Abigail Smith, his third cousin
        1. The had six children - including future 6th POTUS John Quincy Adams
    6. 1765
      1. Opponent of Stamp Act
        1. Explained the opposition was because the Stamp Act deprived American colonists two basic rights guaranteed to all Englishmen
          1. 1. Rights to be taxed only by consent
          2. 2. To be tried only by a jury of one's peers
        2. Delivered a speech pronouncing the Stamp Act invalid on the ground that Massachusetts had not assented to it
    7. 1770
      1. Boston Massacre
        1. Was asked, and accepted, to defend the soldiers involved in the street confrontation
        2. "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
        3. June - Elected to the Massachusetts General Court
    8. 1774, 1775, 1777
      1. Continental Congress
        1. Massachusetts sent Adams to the first and second Continental Congresses
        2. His influence on Congress was great, and almost from the beginning, he sought permanent separation from Britain
        3. June, 1775 - nominated George Washington of Virginia as commander-in-chief of the army then assembled around Boston
    9. 1776
      1. Declaration of Independence
        1. May 10 - seconded Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling on the colonies to adopt new governments
        2. May 15 - Congress approved a preamble drafted by Adams
        3. June 7 - Adams seconded the resolution of independence introduced by Richard Henry Lee
          1. Stated, "These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
        4. July 2 - adopted by Congress
        5. Persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson to write the document
        6. July 4 - approved by Congress
    10. 1777
      1. Began serving as the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, as well as many other important committees
        1. Became a "one man war department"
    11. 1778
      1. Sailed for France aboard the Continental Navy frigate Boston - many injured, trip largely unproductive
    12. 1779
      1. Drafted the Massachusetts Constitution together with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin
    13. 1780
      1. Massachusetts's new constitution ratified - structuring its government most closely on his views of politics and society.
        1. Slavery forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights
    14. 1782
      1. Sailed to Paris, France again to negotiate a treaty of peace
      2. October - negotiated with the Dutch a treaty of amity and commerce
      3. November 30 - The treaty was signed, which gave Americans ownership of all lands east of the Mississippi, except East & West Florida (transferred to Spain)
    15. 1784 - 1785
      1. One of the architects of far-going trade relations between the US and Prussia
    16. 1785
      1. Appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James's
    17. 1787
      1. While in London - wrote "A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States"
        1. Suggested that, "the rich, the well-born and the able" should be set apart from other men in the senate
    18. 1788
      1. Returned to the United States to continue his domestic political life
    19. 1789 - 1795
      1. Vice Presidency
        1. Washington won with 69 electoral votes - Adams came in second with 34 votes
        2. Re-elected as Vice President in 1792 - Washington seldom asked for input on policy and legal issues from Adams
        3. Frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity.
        4. Complained to his wife Abigail, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
    20. 1796
      1. Presidential Election
        1. Elected as the Federalist nominee over Thomas Jefferson because of his seniority and the need for a northern president
        2. Ran against Federalist Thomas Pinckney, the Governor of South Carolina
        3. Most Federalists would have preferred Alexander Hamilton to be a candidate.
        4. He did not campaign, but his party campaigned for him, while the Democratic-Republicans campaigned for Jefferson
        5. Adams won the election by a narrow margin of 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson (who became the vice president).
          1. Whoever came in second claimed vice presidency
    21. 1797 - 1801
      1. Presidency
        1. Followed Washington's lead in making the presidency the example of republicanism values, and stressing civic virtue
        2. Remained quite independent of his cabinent - often made decisions despite strong opposition
          1. Avoided war with France, despite strong desire for war from cabinet secretaries
        3. Disagreed with the Federalists almost as much as the Democratic-Republican opposition
        4. Spent much of his term at his home in Massachusetts
        5. Hamilton and the Federalists favored Britain, while Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored France
        6. 1798 - Quasi-War - undeclared naval war between the U.S. and France
          1. Much conflict between Adams and Hamilton
        7. February 1799 - stunned the country by sending diplomat William Vans Murray on a peace mission to France.
        8. 1799 - Death of Washington weakened the Federalists
        9. 1800 - Convention of 1800 led to the Treaty of Alliance of 1778 being superseded
        10. 1800 - Adams lost the election to Thomas Jefferson 65 to 73 electoral votes
        11. November 1, 1800 - became first president to occupy the new, but unfinished President's Mansion (White House)
        12. one of only four surviving presidents not to attend his successor's inauguration - said to be depressed when he left office, and his son had died
        13. Retired to private life
    22. 1809
      1. After Jefferson's retirement from public life - Adams became more vocal
      2. Published letters in the Boston Patriot newspaper for three years
      3. Presented a refutation of an 1800 pamphlet by Hamilton attacking his conduction and character
        1. Hamilton had died in 1804 from a moral wound
    23. 1812
      1. Reconciled with Jefferson on New Year's Day - building a friendship for the rest of their lives
    24. 1815
      1. "I desire no other inscription over my gravestone than: Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800."
    25. 1826
      1. July 4 - Died at his home in Quincy on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
        1. "It is a great day. It is a good day."
      2. His last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives"
        1. Jefferson had actually died hours before he did
  3. General Notes
    1. One of seven listed Founding Fathers
    2. Played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence
    3. Assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence
    4. Helped negotiate the eventual Treaty of Paris with Great Britain
    5. 1780: largely wrote the Massachusetts Constitution
    6. Great judge of character: nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief
    7. He was not a popular leader like his second cousin, Samuel Adams
    8. Home in England, a house off London's Grosvenor Square, still stands and is commemorated by a plaque
    9. Peace against the French in 1800 hurt his popularity
    10. Oldest living President (90 years, 247 days) until his record was broken by Ronald Reagan in 2001
  4. Personal Notes
    1. Well educated - he was an Enlightenment political theorist
    2. A lawyer and public figure in Boston
    3. Commonly praised his father - indicated that they were close when he was a child
    4. Felt he had to live up to his family heritage
    5. Adams never bought a slave and declined on principle to employ slave labor
    6. Sixteen months before his death, John Quincy Adams became the sixth POTUS
      1. The only son of a former President to hold the office until George W. Bush in 2001