ADAMS, Jolts, the second president of the U. S. of N. Am., was born at Braintree, in Mass., on the 19th of Oct., 1735. His parents were descended from a Puritan family which had emigrated from England to Mass, in 1640. Before the revolution, A. had dis tinguished himself as a jurist, and wrote in the Boston Journal an essay on Canon Lam and Feudal Law (1765). He was sent by Mass. to the congress which commenced its sittings in Philadelphia in 1774. With Lee and Jefferson, he boldly argued for a separa tion from the mother-country; and Lee's proposition of a declaration of independence was carried on the 4th of July, 1776. A. and Jefferson had been appointed to draw up the Dec, laration of Independence, but it Appears that Jefferson is the sole author of it. In suc ceeding years, A. was employed on many important negotiations with European powers; among others, he assisted Franklin, Jay, Jefferson, and Laurens, in 1782,.iu settling the conditions of peace with England. In 1785 he came to London as the first ambassador from the Union. George III. expressed his pleasure in receiving an ambassador who had no prejudices in favor of France, the natural enemy of the English crown, and A. replied: "I have no prejudices but in favor of my native land." He published in London his
Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (3 vols. 1787). On his return to America, in the same year, he was elected as vice-president of the U. S., and on the retirement of Washington (in 1797) became president. The enmity of the democratic party, which bad already been excited against him, was now increased by the measures which lie judged necessary to uphold the national honor against the pretensions of France, and still more by his decided favor for a hereditary aristocracy. In 1801, when his term of four years of office had expired, his adversary Jefferson was elected by a majority of one vote. A. now retired to his estate of Quincy, near Boston, where he occupied himself with agricultural pursuits. After this retirement, he received many proofs of respect and confidence from his countrymen. When 85 years old, we find him still in his place as member of the convention appointed (1820) to revise the constitution of Mass. He d. on the 4th of July, 1826. on the fifteenth anniversary of the day when he had proclaimed in congress the independence of the U. S.