John Adams was born in 1735 at the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Adams was a lawyer who studied at Harvard, was chosen to be a delegate to both the first and second Continental Congress and he was considered to be a leader in the quest for independence.

He was a negotiator to France and Holland in the Revolutionary War. From 1785 to 1788 Mr. Adams was ambassador to the Court of St. James. He returned to the United States to be vice president to George Washington. John Adams became president during a time when the United States was facing great difficulties because of the war between the French and the British.

Adams' administration had focused on France, however, the French refused to negotiate unless the United States would first pay a substantial bribe. The insult was reported to the congress and the people and Adams increased the intensity by his angry comments. The populace always cheered when they saw the president. Federalists had never been so popular. President Adams didn't want war, but hostilities began at sea with French privateers. At first American shipping was practically defenseless, but slowly armed merchantmen and US warships managed to clear the sea-lanes.

Adams sent a peace mission to France angering the Hamiltonians. In the presidential campaign of 1800, partly because of this, the Republicans were strongly united and Adam's party, the federalists, were badly divided. Even so Adams got only a few less electoral votes than Jefferson who became president. John Adams retired to his farm in Quincy where he died on July 4, 1826.