John Adams

He married Abigail Smith, his third cousin and the daughter of a Congregational minister, Rev. William Smith on October 25, 1764. The couple had six children, including son John Quincy Adams who later became the sixth President of the United States.

He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in Quincy, Massachusetts to John Adams, Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two younger brothers. His father worked as a farmer and cobbler and also served as a Congregationalist deacon; Adams was very close to his father and was full of praise for him.

He went to Harvard College at age 16 in 1751 and graduated in 1755 with a Bachelor of Arts. He worked as a teacher for some time and decided to become a lawyer.

He went on to study law in the office of John Putnam, the leading lawyer in Worcester, and earned a master's degree from Harvard in 1758. He was admitted to the bar in 1761.

John Adams was a patriot and soon became a leading figure in the American independence movement. He strongly opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 and denounced the act as invalid in front of the Massachusetts governor and his council. He rose to prominence following this incidence.

He was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly in 1770 and represented the colony at the first Continental Congresses in 1774.

He always advocated independence for America from the colonial rule and offered a resolution that amounted to a declaration of independence from Great Britain in May 1776. The Congress approved his resolution and appointed him, along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, to draft the declaration.

John Adams assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence and America finally adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from Great Britain.

He was soon serving on as many as 90 committees in the newly independent government and in addition was chosen to serve as the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, in 1777. In this position he worked hard for up to 18 hours a day mastering the details of raising, equipping, and fielding an army under civilian control.

John Adams played a major role in the American Revolution and the country’s independence movement. He was among the influential men who persuaded Congress to declare independence and assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

He is credited to have largely written the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. The constitution which was organized into a structure of chapters, sections, and articles served as a model for the Constitution of the United States of America, drafted seven years later.