Adams, John, born in 1735, second president of the United States. Graduated at Harvard, and was admitted to the bar, 1758. He was one of the delegates at the Congress at Philadelphia, 1774, and throughout encouraged the movement for independence in which, as chairman of the board of war, he took an active part. He was commissioner to the Court of France, 1778, and was sent on an embassy to England, 1779. He was elected vice-present of the Union in 1789 and succeeded Washington as president in 1797, but in 1801 failed to gain re-election and then retired from public affairs. Died, 1826.

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