John Adams
Second American President
1735-1826
"People and nations are forged
in the fires of adversity,"
-John Adams
Fact: John Adams, a shaper of the revolution, saved his Nation from war with France.
John Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he was involved with the patriot cause. Well educated and thoughtful, John Adams was a very good political philosopher. "People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity," he said, probably thinking of his own experiences as well as the experiences of the new American nation.
He was also a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, and he led in the movement for independence. During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. When he returned he was elected Vice President under George Washington. 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."