John Adams

John Adams (1735-1826)

He was a short (5'7"), plump man with an ego as big as his waistline; Intelligent, patriotic, opinionated and blunt; Harvard-educated

Adams was a Federalist, and, as such, he held a more elitist view of government than his Republican rivals.

In “Thoughts of Government” Adams wrote that the British Parliament was an empire constructed of laws and not men. This philosophy ran deep in American society and politics, eventually influencing the creation of the United States Bill of Rights.

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write”.

He was America's first vice- president; and he became the second president of the United States for one term in 1797 until 1801

He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and negotiate the peace agreement with Great Britain to end the Revolutionary War

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He never owned a slave nor believed in the idea of slavery. "Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. "I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro or any other slave [...]"