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Adams Biographical Sketches
Presented by The Adams Papers editorial project.
Select:
FIRST GENERATION
John Adams, Abigail Smith Adams
SECOND GENERATION
Abigail Adams Smith, John Quincy Adams,
Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, Charles Adams,
Thomas Boylston Adams
THIRD GENERATION
Charles Francis Adams
First Generation
John Adams, Abigail Smith Adams
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JOHN ADAMS was born in the North Precinct of Braintree
(now Quincy), Massachusetts, on 19 October 1735, the eldest
son of John and Susanna (Boylston) Adams (after the adoption
of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Adams considered his
birthday to be 30 October). He graduated from
Harvard College in 1755 and for the next two years taught school
and studied law under the direction of James Putnam in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He returned to Braintree to launch his law practice
and married Abigail Smith of Weymouth on 25 October 1764. For
several years the Adamses moved their household between Braintree
and Boston as warranted by John's successful law practice and
the demands of the circuit court system. Adams and Josiah Quincy,
Jr., defended the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre
Trials, successfully winning acquittals for seven of the defendants
and reduced sentences of manslaughter for the remaining two.
From 1774 to 1777 Adams served in the Continental Congress. He
passionately urged independence for the colonies, and in 1776 the "Atlas
of Independence" was appointed to the committee to draft a declaration of
independence. His copy of Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of
Independence is the earliest known draft in existence.
Appointed by Congress a joint commissioner (with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee)
to France, John Adams sailed from Boston with his son John Quincy in February 1778.
In the summer of 1779, father and son returned to Massachusetts where Adams was elected
to represent Braintree at the convention to frame a state constitution. The Constitution
of 1780, drafted by John Adams, is the oldest written constitution in the world still in
effect.
The following year, Congress elected Adams to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with
Great Britain; he consequently returned to Europe in November 1779, accompanied by his two
eldest sons, John Quincy and Charles. Additional commissions soon followed: one to negotiate
a Dutch loan and another to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the Netherlands.
Adams was also elected a joint commissioner (with Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas
Jefferson) to treat for peace with Great Britain.
Seventeen eighty-two was a banner year for John Adams—he secured recognition of the United
States in the Netherlands, contracted the first of four loans from Amsterdam bankers to provide
crucial financial aid for the United States, and signed a treaty of amity and commerce with the
Netherlands. In September 1783, after nearly a year of negotiation, Adams and his fellow commissioners
signed the Definitive Peace Treaty with Great Britain. From 1785 to 1788 John Adams served as the first
American minister to the Court of St. James's in London. After eight years abroad—in France, the
Netherlands, and Great Britain, where Abigail had joined him in 1784—Adams returned to the United
States.
Soon after his return home, Adams began a new stint of service in elective
office—vice-president under George Washington for eight
years and, in 1796, president. The successful transfer of power
from the nation's first president to its second took place on
4 March 1797. Nonetheless, Adams's presidency was fraught with
difficulties: the Quasi War with France, the XYZ Affair, and
the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. American political parties
were just taking shape, but Adams was not a party man. He maintained
the same cabinet officers appointed by his predecessor, and
they continued to look to Washington and Federalist party leader
Alexander Hamilton for direction instead of to Adams, compounding
his problems. Adams defied his cabinet, and much of the Federalist
party, to conclude peace with France. Toward the end of Adams's
presidency the seat of government was transferred from Philadelphia
to Washington, D.C., and he and Abigail became the first presidential
couple to live in the Executive Mansion, later called the White
House.
Adams was not reelected to a second term. In 1801 Thomas Jefferson succeeded
him as president. Party politics and a strong difference of
opinion over national interests divided Adams and Jefferson
and temporarily alienated these two men, despite the close friendship
they had formed in Europe in the 1780s. John Adams retired from
public life to his farm in Quincy. He died on the 50th anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1826.
Children of John Adams
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ABIGAIL SMITH ADAMS was born 11 November 1744 (observed on
22 November after the calendar revision of 1752), in Weymouth,
Massachusetts, to the Reverend William and Elizabeth (Quincy) Smith.
She had no formal schooling, but her education included reading works
by William Shakespeare, John Milton, and Alexander Pope. On 25 October
1764, she married John Adams. John Adams's protracted absences from home
(first while traveling the court circuits and later while at the
Continental Congress and on diplomatic assignments abroad) often left
Abigail with the children to raise, a farm to manage, the household
and tenants to supervise, and extended family and friends to
care for—all while the Revolution in Boston unfolded on
her doorstep. The letters she exchanged with John and other
family members reveal her cares and worries, her frank opinions
and advice, and give an extraordinary view of everyday life
in 18th-century New England.
In 1784, Adams and her daughter Abigail joined John and son John Quincy in
Europe. Abigail's record of her month-long voyage from Boston
to England, along with two shorter journals she kept while in
England and on her return voyage to America in 1788, are printed
in The Adams Papers' Diary and Autobiography of John Adams,
volume 3. During the 12 years of John Adams's vice-presidency
and presidency, Abigail moved between their home in Quincy and
the national capitol in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington,
D.C., successively. Again, the burden of their household and
personal affairs fell on her capable shoulders. She was also
responsible for raising nieces and grandchildren entrusted to
her care. Among her notable correspondents were Thomas Jefferson,
James Lovell, Benjamin Rush, and Mercy Otis Warren. Abigail
Adams died 28 October 1818, at home in Quincy.
Children of Abigail Adams
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Second Generation
Abigail Adams Smith, John Quincy Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, Charles Adams, Thomas Boylston Adams
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ABIGAIL ADAMS SMITH, the oldest child of John and Abigail
(Smith) Adams, was born 14 July 1765. At the age of 18, Abigail
traveled abroad with her mother, where she met and married (12
June 1786) Col. William Stephens Smith of New York, secretary
to the U.S. Legation in London. Smith had served in the Continental
Army during the Revolution and had been an aide to George Washington.
The colonel's poor judgment in business matters, especially
land speculation, placed their household under severe financial
restraints following the couple's return to New York in 1788.
Although she survived a mastectomy in October 1811, Abigail
died of cancer in August 1813 at her parents' home in Quincy.
Children of Abigail Adams Smith
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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the second child and eldest son of
John and Abigail (Smith) Adams, was born 11 July 1767. As a
young boy Adams accompanied his father on his diplomatic missions
to Europe. He attended school at a private academy outside Paris,
the Latin School of Amsterdam, and Leyden University. The years
1781-1782 he spent in St. Petersburg as private secretary and
interpreter to Francis Dana, U.S. minister to Russia. In 1785
Adams returned to the United States to continue his formal education.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1787, studied law for three
years with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts,
and then practiced law in Boston.
Adams's own diplomatic career began in 1794 when President Washington
appointed him minister to the Netherlands. Immediately following
Adams's arrival, French armies occupied the country. On 26 July
1797, in London, John Quincy Adams married Louisa Catherine
Johnson, daughter of the U.S. consul. Appointed minister plenipotentiary
to Berlin in 1797, he was recalled by his father after the elder
Adams's defeat in the presidential election of 1800.
Adams served one year in the Massachusetts State Senate and
in April 1803 was appointed to fill an unexpired seat in the
U.S. Senate. His independent actions in the Senate, namely support
for the Louisiana Purchase and the Embargo of 1807, quickly
alienated him from the Federalist party in Massachusetts. When
the state legislature, dominated by Federalists, prematurely
named Adams's successor in the Senate (six months before his
term was to expire), Adams immediately resigned.
Commissioned minister plenipotentiary to Russia in 1809, Adams,
his wife, and their youngest son Charles Francis spent five
years in St. Petersburg. Adams was in a unique position to report
Napoleon's march across Europe and fatal attempt to conquer
Russia. Within months of the United States' declaration of war
against Great Britain in 1812, John Quincy Adams was involved
in efforts to bring about a peace—first through Russian
mediation and later as a negotiator at Ghent in 1814. The Adamses'
stay in Europe was extended when John Quincy was appointed minister
plenipotentiary to Great Britain in 1815. Their two older sons,
George Washington and John, joined the family in England.
John Quincy Adams made his eighth and final voyage across the
Atlantic in 1817 when he returned home to become secretary of
state in the Monroe administration. Significant among his many
accomplishments in that position are the negotiation of the
Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 with Spain, the completion of
his authoritative Report on Weights and Measures (1821),
and the development of the Monroe Doctrine (1823).
Adams enjoyed less success in his one term as president. Although
he ran second to Andrew Jackson in the 1824 election, the U.S.
House of Representatives chose him president when the electoral
college failed to give any candidate a majority vote. He struggled
as a minority president and received little support for an ambitious
program of national improvements, which included federal support
for the arts and sciences, creation of a Department of the Interior,
and development of a system of roads and canals.
Although defeated for reelection in 1828 by rival Andrew Jackson,
Adams soon returned to national politics as the representative
from Massachusetts' Plymouth district. He served in Congress
from 1831 to 1848. He became an increasingly vocal opponent
of slavery and its expansion—opposing the annexation of
Texas and war with Mexico, championing the freedom of petition
in defiance of the congressional gag rule, and defending the
Amistad captives before the Supreme Court. On 21 February
1848, Adams collapsed at his seat in the House and was carried
to the Speaker's Room in the Capitol, where he died on 23 February.
Adams's voluminous correspondence, both personal and public,
can be found in the Adams Papers, along with the Diary that
he kept for 68 years (from November 1779, when he was 12, to
December 1847, just a few months before he died), and his many
literary endeavors.
Children of John Quincy Adams
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LOUISA CATHERINE JOHNSON ADAMS, the wife of John Quincy
Adams, was born in London on 12 February 1775, the second daughter
of Joshua Johnson of Maryland and Catherine Nuth Johnson. Her
father represented the Maryland firm of Wallace, Davidson, and
Johnson in London. From 1778 to 1783, while England and France
were at war, the Johnson family lived in Nantes, France, and
Louisa and her older sister boarded at a convent school for
several years. Following the peace the Johnson family returned
to London where Joshua Johnson served as the first U.S. consul
(1790-1797). Louisa and John Quincy Adams became engaged in
1796 when the latter, then U.S. minister to the Netherlands,
was in London for the ratification of Jay's Treaty. They married
in that city on 26 July 1797, in the parish church of All Hallows
Barking.
Louisa accompanied her husband on his diplomatic assignments to Berlin
(1797-1801), St. Petersburg (1809-1815), and London (1815-1817). When
John Quincy's career called the couple to Washington the Adamses lived
at first (1803-1808) with Louisa's family, who had settled there following
the collapse of Joshua Johnson's London business in 1797. During their
later residence at the capitol the Adamses' social life was particularly
demanding. Louisa hosted weekly receptions at their home on F Street when
John Quincy Adams was secretary of state and presided as first lady at
dinners and levees in the White House.
Louisa stayed on at the F Street residence following John Quincy's death in
1848. She suffered a stroke the following year and died on 15
May 1852. Of particular note in the Adams Papers are Louisa
Catherine Adams's autobiographical writings ("Adventures of a
Nobody," "Record of a Life, or My Story," "Narrative of a Journey
from Russia to France, 1815") and her journal letters to her
in-laws, John and Abigail Adams.
Children of Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams
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CHARLES ADAMS was born 29 May 1770, the second son of
John and Abigail (Smith) Adams. At the age of nine he traveled
with his father and older brother to Europe, studied briefly
in Passy, Amsterdam, and Leyden, and in December 1781 returned
to America unaccompanied by family members. After graduating
from Harvard in 1789, Adams studied law and established his
practice in New York. On 29 August 1795, he married Sarah Smith,
the sister of his brother-in-law, William Stephens Smith. He
died in New York 1 December 1800.
Children of Charles Adams
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THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS, third son and youngest child of
John and Abigail (Smith) Adams, was born 15 September 1772.
He graduated from Harvard in 1790 and studied law in Philadelphia.
He accompanied his brother John Quincy on his first diplomatic
mission to Europe as secretary in 1794, returned in 1798, and
practiced law and contributed to Joseph Dennie's Port Folio
in Philadelphia for some years thereafter. In 1805 he married
Ann Harrod of Haverhill and settled in Quincy, which he represented
in the Massachusetts legislature, 1805-1806. In 1811 he was
appointed chief justice of the circuit court of common pleas
for the southern circuit of Massachusetts. Thomas Boylston Adams
died on 13 March 1832, in Quincy.
Children of Thomas Boylston Adams
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Third Generation
Charles Francis Adams
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CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, the third son of John Quincy and
Louisa Catherine (Johnson) Adams, was born 18 August 1807, in
Boston. His early childhood was spent, for the most part, abroad—six
years in St. Petersburg (1809-1815) and two in England (1815-1817)—where
his father had diplomatic appointments. He graduated from Harvard
in 1825 and spent two years in Washington during his father's
presidency. Following his engagement in 1827 to Abigail Brown
Brooks of Medford, Massachusetts, Adams returned to Boston to
read law in Daniel Webster's office. He and Abigail were married
3 September 1829.
Adams began to take an active role in politics in the 1830s by contributing pieces on local and national affairs to
Boston newspapers and the North American Review. His next step was election to the Massachusetts legislature,
serving three years in the House (1841-1843) and two in the Senate (1844-1845) and emerging as a recognized antislavery
leader in the state and among the Conscience Whigs. In 1846 he became the editor and a proprietor of the Boston Daily Whig,
the unofficial voice of the Conscience Whigs. Although he was the vice-presidential candidate of the newly formed Free Soil Party in
1848, a decade passed before he held elected office again.
He served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1858 until 1861 when, on the eve of the Civil War, President
Lincoln appointed him minister to the Court of St. James's. He arrived in London on the very day Great Britain recognized the Confederacy
as a belligerent. In 1863 Adams convinced the British government to prevent Confederate ironclad ships, built in Liverpool, from leaving
port, thereby maintaining British neutrality. He resigned his post in 1868.
In 1871 and 1872, Adams was one of five arbitrators appointed to settle outstanding claims of the United States against Great Britain.
The "Alabama claims" concerned damages to American shipping by Confederate raiders, such as the Alabama, built in Britain.
Adams successfully argued the American cause for direct damages and the United States was awarded $15,500,000.
Charles Francis Adams was an accomplished editor and published numerous volumes based on the family papers. These include Letters
of Mrs. Adams (1840), Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author (1850-1856),
and Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848 (1874-1877).
Charles Francis Adams died in Boston on 21 November 1886.
Children of Charles Francis Adams
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Biographical Sketches
