John Adams worked as a teacher and lawyer before dedicating himself to a life of patriotism and politics. He was America's second president. Adams was well known for his extreme political independence, brilliant mind and passionate patriotism. He was a leader in the Continental Congress and an important diplomatic figure, before becoming America's first vice president. Adams then served one term as president but lost the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson, his longtime friend and political rival.
 

Also dear to John Adams was his wife and partner of 54 years, Abigail Adams. She was a gifted intellectual who corresponded with her husband during his long absences from home, chronicling many important events of America's founding. John and Abigail Adams were the parents of another U.S. president, John Quincy Adams. Do you know how many other fathers and their sons have both been president? 
 

The Independent Leader
 

John Adams was a short man, but long on opinions and always thinking for himself. This earned him the nickname "Atlas of Independence." His father (a farmer, shoemaker, local government leader, and church deacon) encouraged him intellectually from a young age. After attending Harvard College, John Adams worked as a teacher and then for many years as a lawyer, developing a reputation for being independent, outspoken, and honest.
 

Adams moved into public service just as the movement for an independent America was developing. What kind of leadership role did Adams play in the creation of the United States?

John Adams was an early member of the Continental Congress, which was created to resist British tyranny. It met in Philadelphia, eventually plotting American independence from Britain. While there, in 1775, Adams nominated George Washington, a Virginian, to lead the Continental Army. In 1776, Adams seconded the motion for independence in the Continental Congress and was a leader in the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776.
 

Adams later became a diplomat, representing the new U.S. government in Europe for more than a decade. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the Revolutionary War, and was the first official U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. His reputation as a patriotic leader continued to grow.
 

Returning to the United States after his foreign service, Adams served under George Washington from 1789 to 1797 as the nation's first vice president, a job he didn't really like. He was finally elected president (by three electoral votes) in 1796. There were 16 states in the union at the time of his election.
 

How do you think Adams described the vice presidency to his wife, Abigail?
 

Adams described the position to his wife as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Once he was elected president, Adams was finally able to feel relevant again and flex his brain "muscles," not to mention his ego.
 

President Adams implemented the decision to move the government from Philadelphia to Washington and exercised leadership with such decisions as creating the Library of Congress, both in 1800. Adams was well respected, but faced a series of foreign policy crises, which eventually isolated him politically.
 

His actions ultimately cost him the election to Thomas Jefferson in 1800.