How John Adams Became President
John Adams was selected to represent Massachusetts at the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and from 1775 to 1777. In June 1775, he nominated George Washington of Virginia as commander-in-chief of the army. Adams was one of the leading voices in Congress and one that advocated for separation from Britain.
Several representatives turned to Adams for advice about forming a new government. Adams wrote "Thoughts on Government", which set out his views on what the new American government should look like. He wrote "There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men." Adams argued in favor of bicameralism, i.e. for two houses of government. He wrote: "A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual." He also advocated for a separation of powers between the executive, the judicial, and the legislative branches, and for the continental government to have powers which were expressly stated.
On May 10, 1776, Adams, seconded the resolution his colleague from Virginia, Richard Henry Lee, which called on the colonies to form an independent form of government. Adams drafted a preamble to this resolution which Congress approved on May 15. The full document set the stage for the formal passage of the Declaration of Independence. On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution of independence, introduced again by Lee, which stated, "These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The resolution was adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776.
Adams was appointed to a Committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman to draft the Declaration of Independence. The committee did not keep minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded. Accounts written years later by Jefferson and Adams are contradictory. What is clear is that Jefferson wrote the first draft. After editing the document further, Congress approved it on July 4.
After the defeat of the Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, British Admiral Lord Howe requested the Continental Congress to send representatives in an attempt to negotiate peace. A delegation that included Adams and Benjamin Franklin met with Howe on Staten Island on September 11, 1776, but they were reach agreement.
In 1777, Adams became the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, working eighteen-hour days and mastering the details of raising, equipping, and fielding an army under civilian control. Congress twice sent Adams to represent the new nation in Europe, first in 1777, and again in 1779. He was accompanied, on both occasions, by his eldest son, John Quincy Adams (who was ten years old at the time of the first voyage). His first stay in Europe, between April 1, 1778, and June 17, 1779, was largely unproductive, and he returned home in early August 1779.
Between September 1 and October 30, 1779, Adams drafted the Massachusetts Constitution together with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin. He was selected to return to France and, following the conclusion of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, left on November 14, 1779. Adams was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary (the equivalent of an Ambassador today). He was tasked with negotiating a peace treaty with Britain. The French government did not approve of Adams' appointment and on the insistence of the French foreign minister, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay and Henry Laurens were appointed to work with Adams. Jay, Adams, and Franklin played the major part in the negotiations. Jay and Adams decided not to consult with France and instead, they dealt directly with the British commissioners.
The American negotiators were able to secure a favorable treaty, which gave Americans ownership of all lands east of the Mississippi, except East and West Florida, which were transferred to Spain. The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782.
Adams secured the recognition of the United States as an independent government at The Hague on April 19, 1782. He also negotiated a loan of five million guilders and in October 1782, he negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce with the Dutch, the first such treaty between the United States and a foreign power following the 1778 treaty with France. The house that Adams bought during this stay in The Netherlands became the first American-owned embassy on foreign soil anywhere in the world.
In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James's (ambassador to Great Britain). When he was presented to King George III, the King told Adams that he was aware of Adams' lack of confidence in the French government.
Adams never owned a slave and chose never to employ slave labor. Abigail Adams vocally opposed slavery, but her husband tried to keep the issue out of national politics, because unity was his priority and he knew that insistence on abolition would alienate southern support. Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts about 1780, when it was forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights that John Adams wrote into the Massachusetts Constitution.
Despite his stature as a statesman, Adams could not match the admiration for George Washington, who won the presidential election of 1789 with 69 votes in the electoral college. Adams came in second with 34 votes and became Vice President. He presided over the Senate but otherwise played a minor role in the administration. He was reelected Vice President in 1792. Washington seldom asked Adams for input on policy during his tenure as vice president. Adams did not attend cabinet meetings.
At the start of Washington's administration, Adams became involved in the issue of the official title of the President. Adams favored titles such as "His Majesty the President" or "His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties." The plain "President of the United States" eventually won the debate. Adams' opponents nicknamed him "His Rotundity", mocking Adams for his pomposity and his girth. Adams' two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He 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."
As president of the Senate, Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes—a record that survives today. When the two political parties formed, he joined the Federalist Party, but he never got on well with its leader Alexander Hamilton. The party chose Adams as the Federalist nominee for president in 1796, because of his seniority and service to the nation.
The 1796 election was the first contested election under the First Party System. Adams was the presidential candidate of the Federalist Party and Thomas Pinckney, the Governor of South Carolina, was also running as a Federalist. At this point in time, the vice president was the person who came in second in the election. Although Hamilton and his followers supported Adams, they were not entirely supportive f him, but saw him as the lesser of the two evils. Adams' opponents were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Senator Aaron Burr of New York on the Democratic-Republican ticket.
It was expected that Adams would dominate the votes in New England, while Jefferson was expected to win in the Southern states. In the end, Adams won the election by a narrow margin of 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson, who became the vice president.
Adams was probably the most independent-minded of the founders. While he aligned with the Federalists, he disagreed with them almost as much as he did the Democratic-Republican opposition. Often described as "prickly", his independence helped him to make difficult decisions in the face of hostility. It was Adams' decision to push for peace with France, rather than to continue hostilities, that hurt his popularity. Though this decision played a huge part in his defeat in the 1800 election, he always stood by that decision. Adams later wrote of his presidency, in his old age, "I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."
Several representatives turned to Adams for advice about forming a new government. Adams wrote "Thoughts on Government", which set out his views on what the new American government should look like. He wrote "There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men." Adams argued in favor of bicameralism, i.e. for two houses of government. He wrote: "A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual." He also advocated for a separation of powers between the executive, the judicial, and the legislative branches, and for the continental government to have powers which were expressly stated.
On May 10, 1776, Adams, seconded the resolution his colleague from Virginia, Richard Henry Lee, which called on the colonies to form an independent form of government. Adams drafted a preamble to this resolution which Congress approved on May 15. The full document set the stage for the formal passage of the Declaration of Independence. On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution of independence, introduced again by Lee, which stated, "These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The resolution was adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776.
Adams was appointed to a Committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman to draft the Declaration of Independence. The committee did not keep minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded. Accounts written years later by Jefferson and Adams are contradictory. What is clear is that Jefferson wrote the first draft. After editing the document further, Congress approved it on July 4.
After the defeat of the Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, British Admiral Lord Howe requested the Continental Congress to send representatives in an attempt to negotiate peace. A delegation that included Adams and Benjamin Franklin met with Howe on Staten Island on September 11, 1776, but they were reach agreement.
In 1777, Adams became the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, working eighteen-hour days and mastering the details of raising, equipping, and fielding an army under civilian control. Congress twice sent Adams to represent the new nation in Europe, first in 1777, and again in 1779. He was accompanied, on both occasions, by his eldest son, John Quincy Adams (who was ten years old at the time of the first voyage). His first stay in Europe, between April 1, 1778, and June 17, 1779, was largely unproductive, and he returned home in early August 1779.
Between September 1 and October 30, 1779, Adams drafted the Massachusetts Constitution together with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin. He was selected to return to France and, following the conclusion of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, left on November 14, 1779. Adams was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary (the equivalent of an Ambassador today). He was tasked with negotiating a peace treaty with Britain. The French government did not approve of Adams' appointment and on the insistence of the French foreign minister, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay and Henry Laurens were appointed to work with Adams. Jay, Adams, and Franklin played the major part in the negotiations. Jay and Adams decided not to consult with France and instead, they dealt directly with the British commissioners.
The American negotiators were able to secure a favorable treaty, which gave Americans ownership of all lands east of the Mississippi, except East and West Florida, which were transferred to Spain. The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782.
Adams secured the recognition of the United States as an independent government at The Hague on April 19, 1782. He also negotiated a loan of five million guilders and in October 1782, he negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce with the Dutch, the first such treaty between the United States and a foreign power following the 1778 treaty with France. The house that Adams bought during this stay in The Netherlands became the first American-owned embassy on foreign soil anywhere in the world.
In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James's (ambassador to Great Britain). When he was presented to King George III, the King told Adams that he was aware of Adams' lack of confidence in the French government.
Adams never owned a slave and chose never to employ slave labor. Abigail Adams vocally opposed slavery, but her husband tried to keep the issue out of national politics, because unity was his priority and he knew that insistence on abolition would alienate southern support. Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts about 1780, when it was forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights that John Adams wrote into the Massachusetts Constitution.
Despite his stature as a statesman, Adams could not match the admiration for George Washington, who won the presidential election of 1789 with 69 votes in the electoral college. Adams came in second with 34 votes and became Vice President. He presided over the Senate but otherwise played a minor role in the administration. He was reelected Vice President in 1792. Washington seldom asked Adams for input on policy during his tenure as vice president. Adams did not attend cabinet meetings.
At the start of Washington's administration, Adams became involved in the issue of the official title of the President. Adams favored titles such as "His Majesty the President" or "His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties." The plain "President of the United States" eventually won the debate. Adams' opponents nicknamed him "His Rotundity", mocking Adams for his pomposity and his girth. Adams' two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He 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."
As president of the Senate, Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes—a record that survives today. When the two political parties formed, he joined the Federalist Party, but he never got on well with its leader Alexander Hamilton. The party chose Adams as the Federalist nominee for president in 1796, because of his seniority and service to the nation.
The 1796 election was the first contested election under the First Party System. Adams was the presidential candidate of the Federalist Party and Thomas Pinckney, the Governor of South Carolina, was also running as a Federalist. At this point in time, the vice president was the person who came in second in the election. Although Hamilton and his followers supported Adams, they were not entirely supportive f him, but saw him as the lesser of the two evils. Adams' opponents were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Senator Aaron Burr of New York on the Democratic-Republican ticket.
It was expected that Adams would dominate the votes in New England, while Jefferson was expected to win in the Southern states. In the end, Adams won the election by a narrow margin of 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson, who became the vice president.
Adams was probably the most independent-minded of the founders. While he aligned with the Federalists, he disagreed with them almost as much as he did the Democratic-Republican opposition. Often described as "prickly", his independence helped him to make difficult decisions in the face of hostility. It was Adams' decision to push for peace with France, rather than to continue hostilities, that hurt his popularity. Though this decision played a huge part in his defeat in the 1800 election, he always stood by that decision. Adams later wrote of his presidency, in his old age, "I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."