Gilbert Stuart: portrait of John Adams
John Adams, oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1826; in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
John Adams
2nd president of the United States
John Adams (born October 30 [October 19, Old Style], 1735, Braintree [now in Quincy], Massachusetts [U.S.]—died July 4, 1826, Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.) was an early advocate of American independence from Great Britain, a major figure in the Continental Congress (1774–77), the author of the Massachusetts constitution (1780), a signer of the Treaty of Paris (1783), the first American ambassador to the Court of St. James (1785–88), and the first vice president (1789–97) and second president...