Adams entered Harvard College in 1751. When he graduated in 1755 he accepted a teaching position which he found very unsatisfactory. Thus, he went on to become a lawyer. He began his practice in Braintree, but his business was forcing him to travel. John met Abigail Smith and they were married on October 25, 1764. Eventually, they had five children.
When the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, Adams wrote anonymous articles for the Boston Gazette later reprinted as A Dissertation on Cannon and Feudal Law. "In these he traced the origin and rise of freedom. The rights of Englishmen, he wrote, were derived from God, not from King or parliment, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition"(Schutz 142). "Adams expressed these views in political form when he drew up, for Braintree, a protest against the Stamp Act that became a model for similar remonstrations elsewhere in New England"(Schutz 143). Adams proclaimed that "no man can be separated from his property but by his own act or fault'"(Schutz 143). His legal work moved the Adams family to Boston in 1768.
Adams faced his most dramatic court case in 1770 when he defended the British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre. "John Adams, Boston's most distinguished lawyer, knew that if he represented the British soldiers, he could see that they would get a fair trial. He was also a patriot, however, and knew if he defended the soldiers, his friends and others who respected him in the colony would say he had sold out to the British. In this most important trial in the history of the colony, John Adams would be on the enemy's side"(Nelson 82). "Adams was critized in the patriot newspapers yet he was congradulated privately on winning the case for liberty (Schutz 143).
In addition, Adams went on to help write the resolutions of May 10,1776. These resolutions "declared America independent, and defended the Declaration of Independence during debate in congress"(Schutz 143).
During 1787 and 1788 Adams published The Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. This work presents itself as a "venture in deliberative rhetoric, identifying a particularly crucial problem in American political life and calling Americans to action in response to that problem"(Paynter 532). Adams ststed that his purpose for writing Defense was not "'barely to show the imperfection' of the argument put forward by the French enemies of balanced government. But Adams wanted also to reform American constitutions, and that more ambitious aim required that he give a convincing account of the superiority of properly balanced governmentover all other forms of republican order. And here Adams faced a major rhetorical dilemma, for his two purposes would seem to require two different and even conflicting methods of persuasion...Adam's solution to this rhetorical problem was to offer in his four volumes a rigorous re-examination of the reading and reflectionthat had formed the political understanding of the most of the influential men in the Founding generation" (Paynter 533).
Also, in Defense "Adams seeks to present the correct understanding of the founding principles of American political architecture, in light of which his fellow citizens can now complete the task begun so promisingly by the first generation of American Founders. By this device, Adams hopes to further the cause of constitutional improvement in America without disclosing the full novelty of his own understanding of balanced government"(Paynter 541). Moreover, "Adams praises Americans as the first people in human history to erect governments 'merely by the use of reason and the senses'"(Paynter 547). Therefore, "in Adam's judgement, the hope for republican government in America and even in the world rests on the ability and willingness of the American people to understand this politically decisive truth about human nature and to use the resulting science of politics to perfect their own governments. The rhetorical design of his Defence is governed by that judgment" (Paynter 560).
Later, in 1792, Adams accepted the vice presidency. Adams lectured to the senate on its duties and published a series of essays Discourses on Davila which discussed civil disorders espically the French Revolution.
On March 4, 1797 Adams entered the presidential office. "His inaugural address tracing the progress of the nation declared his faith in republicanism and called upon the people to end partisan politics"(Schutz 144). (You can find this spech on the Internet at: http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/inaugural/pres15.html).
Adams only served one term as president but he made a great many contributions to our country. In the words of Ralph Ketcham, "he personified the best of what the nation could hope for of its citizens and leaders"(Ketcham95).
Works cited
Ketcham, Ralph. "Adams, John." Academic American Encyclopedia: Deluxe Library Edition. 1994.
Nelson, Barbara J., and Robert W. Richburg. "Using a Historical Incident to Focus on Value Formation." The Social Studies 81.2 (1990): 80-83.
Paynter, John E. "The Rhetorical Design of the Constitutions of...America." The Review of Politics 58(1996): 531-560.
Schutz, John A. "Adams, John." Encyclopedia Americana: Deluxe Library Edition. 1992.
Lauren Taylor LMT5193@uncwil.edu