John Adams

About John Adams

John Adams, Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the second President of the United States (1797–1801). He also served as America's first Vice President (1789–1797). He was defeated for re-election in the "Revolution of 1800" by Thomas Jefferson. Adams was also the first President to reside in the newly-built White House in Washington, D.C., which was completed in 1800. He is the first president to be defeated for re-election.

Adams, a sponsor of the American Revolution in Massachusetts, was a driving force for independence in 1776. He represented the Continental Congress in Europe. He was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining the loans from the Amsterdam money market necessary for the conduct of the Revolution. His prestige secured his two elections as Washington's Vice President and his election to succeed him. As President, he was frustrated by battles inside his own Federalist party against a faction led by Alexander Hamilton, but he broke with them to avert a major conflict with France in 1798, during the Quasi-War crisis. He became the founder of an important family of politicians, diplomats and historians, and in recent years his achievements have received greater recognition.

John Adams was the eldest of three brothers, born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735 by the Old Style, Julian calendar), in Braintree, Massachusetts, to John and Susanna Boylston Adams. The location of Adams' birth became part of Quincy, Massachusetts in 1792 and is now part of Adams National Historical Park. His father, a farmer and a deacon, also named John (1690–1761), was a fourth-generation descendant of Henry Adams, who immigrated from Barton St David, Somerset, England, to Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1636, from a Welsh male line called Ap Adam. His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams, was a descendant of the Boylstons of Brookline.