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John Adams

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   John Adams
   John Adams
     __________________________________________________________________

   2nd President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1797 –  March 4, 1801
   Vice President(s)   Thomas Jefferson
   Preceded by George Washington
   Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson
     __________________________________________________________________

   1st Vice President of the United States
   In office
   April 21, 1789 –  March 4, 1797
   President George Washington
   Preceded by None
   Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born October 30, 1735
   Braintree, Massachusetts
   Died July 4, 1826
   Quincy, Massachusetts
   Political party Federalist
   Spouse Abigail Smith Adams
   Religion Unitarian
   Signature

   John Adams ( October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a politician and
   Founding Father of the United States of America who served both as that
   nation's first Vice President (1789–1797), and as its second President
   (1797–1801). He was defeated for re-election in the "Revolution of
   1800" by Thomas Jefferson. Adams was a sponsor of the American
   Revolution in Massachusetts, and a diplomat in the 1770s. He was a
   driving force for independence in 1776; in fact, the "Colossus of
   Independence," in Jefferson's understanding. As a statesman and author
   Adams helped define a set of republican ideals that became the core of
   America's political value system: the rejection of hereditary monarchy
   in favour of rule by the people, hatred of corruption, and devotion to
   civic duty. 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
   reputation has been rising. Historian Robert Rutland concluded, "
   Madison was the great intellectual ... Jefferson the ... unquenchable
   idealist, and Franklin the most charming and versatile genius... but
   Adams is the most captivating founding father on most counts."

Early life

   John Adams was born the eldest of three brothers on October 30, 1735
   (October 19 by the Old Style, Julian calendar), in Braintree,
   Massachusetts, though in an area which became part of Quincy,
   Massachusetts in 1792. His birthplace is now part of Adams National
   Historical Park. His father, a farmer, 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. His mother was Susanna Boylston Adams.

   Young Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755 and, for a time,
   taught school in Worcester and studied law in the office of James
   Putnam. In 1761, he was admitted to the bar. From an early age, he
   developed the habit of writing descriptions of events and impressions
   of men. The earliest known example of these is his report of the 1761
   argument of James Otis in the superior court of Massachusetts as to the
   legality of Writs of Assistance. Otis’s argument inspired Adams with
   zeal for the cause of the American colonies. Years later, when he was
   older, Adams undertook to write out, at length, his recollections of
   this scene.

   In 1764, Adams married Miss Abigail Smith (1744–1818), the daughter of
   a Congregational minister, at Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their children
   were Abigail Amelia (1765-1813); future president John Quincy
   (1767-1848); Charles (1770-1800);and Thomas Boylston (1772-1832);

   Adams lacked the genius for popular leadership shown by his second
   cousin, Samuel Adams; instead, his influence emerged through his work
   as a constitutional lawyer and his intense analysis of historical
   examples, together with his thorough knowledge of the law and his
   dedication to the principles of Republicanism. Adams is credited with
   drafting the Massachusetts Constitution. Impetuous, intense and often
   vehement, Adams often found his inborn contentiousness to be a handicap
   in his political career. These qualities were particularly manifested
   at a later period, for example, during his term as president when he
   lost control of his own cabinet and his Federalist party..

Politics

   Adams first rose to prominence as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765.
   In that year, he drafted the instructions which were sent by the
   inhabitants of Braintree to its representatives in the Massachusetts
   legislature, and which served as a model for other towns to draw up
   instructions to their representatives. In August 1765, he anonymously
   contributed four notable articles to the Boston Gazette (republished
   separately in London in 1768 as A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal
   Law), in which he argued that the opposition of the colonies to the
   Stamp Act was a part of the never-ending struggle between individualism
   and corporate authority. In December 1765, he delivered a speech before
   the governor and council in which he pronounced the Stamp Act invalid
   on the ground that Massachusetts, being without representation in
   Parliament, had not assented to it.

   In 1768, Adams moved to Boston. After the Boston Massacre in 1770,
   several British soldiers were arrested and charged with the murder of
   four colonists, and Adams joined Josiah Quincy II in defending them.
   The trial resulted in an acquittal of the officer who commanded the
   detachment and most of the soldiers; but two soldiers were found guilty
   of manslaughter. These men claimed benefit of clergy and were branded
   in the hand and released. Adams' conduct in taking the unpopular side
   in this case resulted in his subsequent election to the Massachusetts
   House of Representatives by a vote of 418 to 118 in 1770. At about this
   same time, he joined the Sons of Liberty.

Continental Congress

   Adams was a member of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1778. In
   1775, he was appointed the chief judge of the Massachusetts Superior
   Court. In June 1775, with a view to promoting the union of the
   colonies, he nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the
   army. His influence in Congress was great, and almost from the
   beginning, he sought permanent separation from Great Britain. On
   October 5, 1775, Congress created the first of a series of committees
   to study naval matters. From that time onward, Adams championed the
   establishment and strengthening of an American Navy and is often
   referred to as the father of the United States Navy.

   On May 15, 1776 the Continental Congress, in response to escalating
   hostilities which had climaxed a year prior at Lexington and Concord,
   urged that the states begin constructing their own constitutions.
   John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a
   depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually
   depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the
   Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S.
   $2 bill. John Adams is standing in the center of the painting.
   Enlarge
   John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a
   depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually
   depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the
   Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S.
   $2 bill. John Adams is standing in the centre of the painting.

   Today, the Declaration of Independence is remembered as the great
   revolutionary act, but Adams and most of his contemporaries saw the
   Declaration as a mere formality. The resolution to draft independent
   constitutions was, as Adams put it, "independence itself."

   Over the next decade Americans from every state gathered and
   deliberated on new governing documents. As radical as it was to
   actually write constitutions (prior convention suggested that a
   society's guiding principles should remain uncodified), what was
   equally radical was the nature of American political thought as the
   summer of 1776 dawned.

Thoughts on Government

   At that time, Adams penned his Thoughts on Government (1776), the most
   influential of all political pamphlets written during the
   constitution-writing period. Thoughts on Government stood as the
   clearest articulation of the classical theory of mixed government and,
   in particular, how it related to the emerging American situation. Adams
   contended, with remarkable force and persuasion, the necessary
   existence of social estates in any political society, and the need to
   precisely mirror those social estates in the political structures of
   the society. For centuries, dating back to Aristotle, a mixed regime
   balancing monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, or the monarch, nobles,
   and people was required to preserve order and liberty.

   Adams, viewing the world through a thoroughly classical lens, thought
   all American state constitutions needed to exhibit a wise balance much
   like the ancient English Constitution had for so long. What was
   problematic with the English version, and indeed what plagued the
   entire ancien regime, was its understanding of the aristocracy. Adams
   and his fellow American political thinkers resented little as much as a
   hereditary nobility distinguished by wealth and land. Such people
   lacked the necessary virtue to balance the people in the legislature,
   Adams thought, and were prone to corruption.

   Indeed, it was corrupt and nefarious elites, in the English Parliament
   and stationed in America, who were blamed most for the assault on
   liberty perceived by so many Americans and responsible for the move
   towards independence. Adams, unlike some Americans, was not keen on
   eliminating all vestiges of aristocracy. Thoughts on Government
   defended bicameralism, but in place of a landed aristocracy based on
   birth, a natural aristocracy based on merit and talent would suffice. A
   distinguished group of independent, virtuous gentlemen, as Adams put
   it, could adequately balance the passions of the people represented in
   the lower house of the legislature. Thoughts on Government's new
   rendition of the classical theory of mixed government was enormously
   influential and was referenced as an authority in every
   state-constitution writing hall.

   Massachusetts' eventual constitution, ratified in 1780 and written
   largely by Adams himself, structured its government most closely on
   this view of politics and society. As the decade unfolded, and
   political debate reached a fiery pitch across the newly independent
   states, the ideas expressed so forcefully by Adams, whether agreed with
   or despised, could be found at the centre of most pressing discussions
   about politics and society in newspapers, pamphlets, and convention
   halls.

Declaration of Independence

   On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution introduced by Richard
   Henry Lee that "these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free
   and independent states," acting as champion of these resolutions before
   the Congress until their adoption on July 2, 1776.

   He was appointed on a committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
   Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, to draft a
   Declaration of Independence. Although that document was largely drafted
   by Jefferson, John Adams occupied the foremost place in the debate on
   its adoption. Many years later, Jefferson hailed Adams as, "The
   Colossus of that Congress—the great pillar of support to the
   Declaration of Independence, and its ablest advocate and champion on
   the floor of the House." In 1777, he resigned his seat on the
   Massachusetts Superior Court to serve as the head of the Board of War
   and Ordinance, as well as many other important committees.
   John Adams, as depicted on a two-cent American president postage stamp.
   Enlarge
   John Adams, as depicted on a two-cent American president postage stamp.

In Europe

   Before this work had been completed, he was chosen as minister
   plenipotentiary for negotiating a treaty of peace and a treaty of
   commerce with Great Britain, and again he was sent to Europe in
   September 1779. The French government, however, did not approve of
   Adams’ appointment and subsequently, on Charles Gravier, Comte de
   Vergennes’ insistence, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay
   and Henry Laurens were appointed to cooperate with Adams. Since
   Jefferson did not leave the United States for the task and Laurens
   played a minor role, Jay, Adams and Franklin played the major part in
   the negotiations. Overruling Franklin, Jay and Adams decided not to
   consult with France; instead, they dealt directly with the British
   commissioners.

   Throughout the negotiations, Adams was especially determined that the
   right of the United States to the fisheries along the British-American
   coast should be recognized. Eventually, the American negotiators were
   able to secure a favorable treaty, which was signed on November 30,
   1782. Before these negotiations began, Adams had spent some time in the
   Netherlands (the Netherlands were then the only well functioning
   Republic in the world). In July 1780, he had been authorized to execute
   the duties previously assigned to Laurens. With the aid of the Dutch
   patriot leader Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, Adams secured the
   recognition of the United States as an independent government at The
   Hague on April 19, 1782 (in February 1782 the Frisian states were the
   first that recognized the United States). The Netherlands was the first
   European country to grant diplomatic recognition to the US, who
   appointed Adams – who later became president — as the first ambassador.
   During this trip, he also negotiated a loan and, in October 1782, a
   treaty of amity and commerce, the first of such treaties between the
   United States and foreign powers after that of February 1778 with
   France. Moreover, the house that Adams purchased during this stay in
   The Netherlands became the first American embassy on foreign soil
   anywhere in the world.

   In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American minister to the
   court of St. James (that is, ambassador to Great Britain). When he was
   presented to his former sovereign, George III, the King intimated that
   he was aware of Adams' lack of confidence in the French government.
   Adams admitted this, stating: "I must avow to your Majesty that I have
   no attachment but to my own country.”

   Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain referred to this period of Adams'
   diplomacy in remarks delivered on July 7, 1976 at the White House
   during the U.S. bicentenary. She said, in part:

          "The early British settlers created here a society that owes
          much to its origins across the ocean. For nearly 170 years there
          was a formal constitutional link between us. Your Declaration of
          Independence broke that link, but it did not for long break our
          friendship. John Adams, America's first Ambassador, said to my
          ancestor, King George III, that it was his desire to help with
          the restoration of "the old good nature and the old good humor
          between our peoples." That restoration has long been made, and
          the links of language, tradition, and personal contact have
          maintained it."

Constitutional ideas

   While in London, Adams published a work entitled A Defence of the
   Constitutions of Government of the United States (1787). In it he
   repudiated the views of Turgot and other European writers as to the
   viciousness of the framework of state governments. He made the
   controversial statement that "the rich, the well-born and the able"
   should be set apart from other men in a senate. Such comments were
   common among Federalists. Adams, some have maintained, had become
   intellectually irrelevant by the time the Federal Constitution was
   ratified. By then, American politic thought, transformed by more than a
   decade of vigorous and searching debate as well as shaping experiential
   pressures, had abandoned the classical conception of politics which
   understood government as a mirror of social estates. As James Madison's
   writings above all show, Americans new conception of popular
   sovereignty, now saw the people-at-large as the sole possessors of
   power in the realm. All agents of the government enjoyed mere portions
   of the people's power, and only for a limited period of time. Adams had
   completely missed this concept and revealed his continued attachment to
   the older version of politics.

Vice Presidency

   John Adams portrait by John Trumbull.
   Enlarge
   John Adams portrait by John Trumbull.

   While Washington was the unanimous choice for president, Adams came in
   second in the electoral college and became Vice President in the
   presidential election of 1789. He played a minor role in the politics
   of the 1790s and was reelected in 1792. (To expatiate this fact: the
   reason Adams played, involuntarily, a smaller role in the government,
   and indeed in the decisions of the Executive, was for precisely and
   only the reason that the Senate forbade the Vice President from taking
   part in their debates and Washington never asked Adams for input on
   policy and legal issues. — The view was that the Vice President was to
   be the tie breaker in the Senate and the step-in for any untimely death
   or incapacitation of the President. Taking the backseat was something
   to which Adams, the firebrand of the Revolution, was not accustomed.)

   There had been some debate and anticipation in the new republic as to
   how the President would use Adams as his Vice President—including the
   suggestion that Washington might make Adams his prime minister (who
   would preside at meetings of the Cabinet and represent the President
   there), or his official liaison with the Senate. However, in the first
   year of Washington's administration, Adams became deeply involved in a
   month-long Senate controversy over what the official title of the
   President would be, favoring grandiose titles such as "His Majesty the
   President" or "His High Mightiness" over the simple "President of the
   United States" that won the issue. The pomposity of Adams's stance
   resulted in his being mockingly nicknamed "His Rotundity" by members of
   the Senate, while his inflation of such a trivial matter contributed to
   Washington's distancing himself from Adams for the remainder of his
   term.

   As president of the Senate, Adams cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes—a
   record that only John C. Calhoun came close to tying, with 28. His
   votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of
   appointees and influenced the location of the national capital. On at
   least one occasion, he persuaded senators to vote against legislation
   that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural
   and policy matters. Adams' political views and his active role in the
   Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington
   administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a
   threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for
   procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in
   the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors:
   election in his own right as president of the United States. When the
   two political parties formed, he joined the Federalist Party and was
   its nominee for president in 1796, against Thomas Jefferson, the leader
   of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party.

Presidency: 1797-1801

Policies

   In 1796, after Washington refused to seek another term, Adams was
   elected the second president, defeating Thomas Jefferson, who became
   Vice President. He followed Washington's lead in making the presidency
   the exemplar of republican values and stressing civic virtue. He was
   never implicated in any scandal.

   Adams' four years as president (1797–1801) were marked by intense
   disputes over foreign policy. Britain and France were at war; Adams and
   the Federalists favored Britain, while Jefferson and the
   Democratic-Republicans favored France. An undeclared naval war between
   the U.S. and France, called the Quasi-War, broke out in 1798. The
   humiliation of the XYZ Affair led to serious threat of full-scale war
   with France. Adams and the moderate Federalists were able to avoid a
   war through various measures, some of which proved unpopular. The
   Federalists built up the army under George Washington and Alexander
   Hamilton, built warships, such as the USS Constitution, and raised
   taxes. They cracked down on political immigrants and domestic opponents
   with the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were signed by Adams in 1798.
   Those Acts, and the high-profile prosecution of a number of newspaper
   editors and one Congressman by the Federalists, became highly
   controversial. Some historians have noted that the Alien and Sedition
   Acts were relatively rarely enforced, as only 10 convictions under the
   Sedition Act have been identified and as Adams never signed a
   deportation order, and that the furor over the Alien and Sedition Acts
   was mainly stirred up by the Republicans. However, other historians
   emphasize that the Acts were highly controversial from the outset,
   resulted in many aliens leaving the country voluntarily, and created an
   atmosphere where opposing the Federalists, even on the floor of
   Congress, could and did result in prosecution. Regardless of the
   perspective taken, it is generally acknowledged that the election of
   1800 became a bitter and volatile battle, with each side expressing
   extraordinary fear of the other party and its policies.

   The deep split in the Federalist party came on the army issue. Adams
   was forced to name Washington as commander of the new army (the U.S
   Navy), and Washington demanded that Hamilton be given the #2 position.
   Adams reluctantly gave in. Indeed, Major General Hamilton virtually
   took control of the War department. The rift between Adams and the High
   federalists (as Adams' opponents were called) grew wider. The High
   Federalists refused to consult Adams over the key legislation of 1798;
   they changed the defense measures which he had called for; they
   demanded Hamilton control the army; refused to recognize the necessity
   giving key Republicans (like Aaron Burr) senior positions in the army,
   thereby splitting the Republicans. By relying too heavily on a standing
   army the High Federalists raised popular alarms and played into the
   hands of the Republicans. They also alienated Adams and his large
   personal following. They shortsightedly viewed the Federalist party as
   their own tool and ignored the need to pull together the entire nation
   in the face of war with France.

   For long stretches, Adams withdrew to his home in Massachusetts. In
   February 1799, Adams stunned the country by sending diplomat William
   Vans Murray on a peace mission to France. Napoleon, realizing the
   animosity of the United States was doing no good, signaled his
   readiness for friendly relations. The Treaty of Alliance of 1778 was
   superseded and the United States could now be free of foreign
   entanglements, as Washington advised in his own Farewell Letter. Adams
   avoided war, but deeply split his own party in the process. He brought
   in John Marshall as Secretary of State and demobilized the emergency
   army.

Reelection campaign 1800

   The death of Washington, in 1799, weakened the Federalists, as they
   lost the one man who symbolized and united the party. In the
   presidential election of 1800, Adams ran and lost the electoral vote
   narrowly. Among the causes of his defeat was distrust of him by "High
   Federalists" led by Hamilton, the popular disapproval of the Alien and
   Sedition Acts, the popularity of his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, and
   the effective politicking of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the
   legislature (which selected the electoral college) shifted from
   Federalist to Republican on the basis of a few wards in New York City
   controlled by Burr's machine.

Midnight Judges

   As his term was expiring, Adams appointed a series of judges, called
   the " Midnight Judges" because most of them were formally appointed
   days before the presidential term expired. Most of the judges were
   eventually unseated when the Jeffersonians abolished their offices. But
   John Marshall remained, and his long tenure as Chief Justice of the
   United States represents the most lasting influence of the Federalists,
   as Marshall refashioned the Constitution into a nationalizing force and
   established the Judicial Branch as the equal of the Executive and
   Legislative, although this was not the founders' original intent.

Major presidential actions

     * Built up the US navy
     * Fought the Quasi War with France
     * Signed Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
     * Ended war with France through diplomacy
     * Appointed John Marshall as Chief Justice

Speeches

Inaugural Addresses

     * Inaugural Addresses (4 March 1797)

State of the Union Address

     * First State of the Union Address (22 November 1797)
     * Second State of the Union Address, (8 December 1798)
     * Third State of the Union Address, (3 December 1799)
     * Fourth State of the Union Address, (22 November 1800)

Administration and Cabinet

   OFFICE                    NAME                TERM
   President                 John Adams          1797–1801
   Vice President            Thomas Jefferson    1797–1801
   Secretary of State        Timothy Pickering   1797–1800
                             John Marshall       1800–1801
   Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. 1797–1800
                             Samuel Dexter       1800–1801
   Secretary of War          James McHenry       1797–1800
                             Samuel Dexter       1800–1801
   Attorney General          Charles Lee         1797–1801
   Postmaster General        Joseph Habersham    1797–1801
   Secretary of the Navy     Benjamin Stoddert   1798–1801

Supreme Court appointments

   Adams appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * Bushrod Washington – 1799
     * Alfred Moore – 1800
     * John Marshall ( Chief Justice) – 1801

States admitted to the Union

   None

Post Presidency

   Portrait of an elderly John Adams by Gilbert Stuart (1823).
   Enlarge
   Portrait of an elderly John Adams by Gilbert Stuart (1823).

   Following his 1800 defeat, Adams retired into private life. He went
   back to farming in the Quincy area.

   In 1812, Adams reconciled with Jefferson. Their mutual friend Benjamin
   Rush, who had been corresponding with both, encouraged Adams to reach
   out to Jefferson. Adams sent a brief note to Jefferson, which resulted
   in a resumption of their friendship, and initiated a correspondence
   which lasted the rest of their lives. Their letters are rich in insight
   into both the period and the minds of the two Presidents and
   revolutionary leaders.

   Sixteen months before his death, his son, John Quincy Adams, became the
   sixth President of the United States (1825–1829), the only son of a
   former President to hold the office until George W. Bush in 2001.

   His daughter Abigail was married to Congressman William Stephens Smith
   and died of cancer in 1816. His son Charles died as an alcoholic in
   1800. His son Thomas and his family lived with Adams and Louisa Smith
   (Abigail's niece by her brother William) to the end of Adams' life.

Famous Quotations

   "People and Nations are forged in the fires of adversity."

   "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of
   freedom."

   "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
   mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and
   philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation,
   commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to
   study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and
   porcelain."

   "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and
   murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit
   suicide."

Death

   Tombs of Presidents John Adams (left) and John Quincy Adams (right) and
   their wives, in a family crypt beneath the United First Parish Church.
   Enlarge
   Tombs of Presidents John Adams (left) and John Quincy Adams (right) and
   their wives, in a family crypt beneath the United First Parish Church.

   On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the
   Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. His last
   words were "Jefferson lives." Adams was unaware that Jefferson, his
   great political rival — and later friend and correspondent — had died a
   few hours earlier on that same day.

   His crypt lies at United First Parish Church (also known as the Church
   of the Presidents) in Quincy. Until his record was broken by Ronald
   Reagan on October 10, 2001, he was the nation's longest-living
   President (90 years, 247 days). The record is currently held by former
   President Gerald Ford.

Religious views

   Adams was raised a Congregationalist, becoming a Unitarian at a time
   when most of the Congregational churches around Boston were turning to
   Unitarianism. As a youth, Adams' father had urged him to become a
   minister, but Adams refused, considering the practice of law to be a
   more noble calling. A detailed analysis of Adams' religion by Everett
   (1966) argues that Adams was not a deist, but he used deistic terms. He
   believed in the essential goodness of the creation, but did not believe
   in the divinity of Christ or that God intervened in the affairs of
   individuals. Although not anticlerical, he advocated the separation of
   church and state. He also believed that regular church service was
   beneficial to man's moral sense. Everett concludes that "Adams strove
   for a religion based on a common sense sort of reasonableness" and
   maintained that religion must change and evolve toward perfection.

   He railed against what he saw as overclaiming of authority by the
   Catholic church:

          Since the promulgation of Christianity, the two greatest systems
          of tyranny that have sprung from this original, are the canon
          and the feudal law.... By the former of these, the most refined,
          sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that
          ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish
          clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order. ... All these
          opinions they were enabled to spread and rivet among the people
          by reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and
          staring timidity, and by infusing into them a religious horror
          of letters and knowledge. Thus was human nature chained fast for
          ages in a cruel, shameful, and deplorable servitude to him, and
          his subordinate tyrants, who, it was foretold, would exalt
          himself above all that was called God, and that was worshipped.

   In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, he wrote:

          I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal
          example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has
          preserved — the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of
          grief has produced!

   In 1796, on Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, Adams wrote:

          The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever
          prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of
          wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine
          say what he will."

   In another letter to Thomas Jefferson on December 25, 1813, he wrote:

          I have examined all [religions]...and the result is that the
          Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy
          than all the libraries I have seen.

Trivia

     * Adams was the first President to live in the White House.
     * Adams was one of three presidents who died on the Fourth of July,
       along with Jefferson and Monroe (1831). He and Jefferson both died
       on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the
       Declaration of Independence.
     * The Adams Memorial is proposed in Washington, D.C. for John Adams
       and his family.
     * His inaugural address on March 4, 1797 included a 727-word long
       sentence.
     * Adams spoke with a lisp.
     * Was the longest lived president at 90 years 253 days, until Ronald
       Reagan broke Adams's record on October 13, 2001. Reagan lived until
       June 5, 2004 to 93 years 119 days. President Gerald Ford became the
       longest living president in history on November 11, 2006 at 93
       years, 120 days.

John Adams in popular culture

     * William Daniels played John Adams in the Broadway musical (as well
       as the 1972 movie adaptation) 1776.
     * Brent Spiner played John Adams in the 1997 revival of 1776 on
       Broadway.
     * George Grizzard played John Adams in the highly acclaimed WNET/13
       (PBS New York City) produced mini-series The Adams Chronicles
       (1976). The series has never been released on DVD or on VHS.
     * Hal Holbrook played John Adams in the 1984 U.S. mini-series George
       Washington.
     * Peter Donaldson played John Adams in two PBS miniseries: Liberty!
       The American Revolution in 1996 and Benjamin Franklin in 2002.
     * Pat Hingle played John Adams in the 1976 short film Independence.

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