, late president of the United States of America, and a political writer
, late president of the United States of
America, and a political writer of considerable reputation,
was descended from one of the families who founded the
colony of Massachusets, and was born at Braintree, in that
colony, Oct. 19,1735. Before the revolution which separated
America from Great Britain, he had acquired much reputation in the profession of the law; and on the eve of that
event, he published “An essay on canon and feudal Law.
”
He afterwards employed his pen in the American papers,
and contributed essentially to widen the breach between
the mother country and her colonies. He was still, however, a friend to loyal measures; and when captain Preston
was tried for his life, for ordering the soldiers to fire upon
a mob, pleaded his cause with spirit and eloquence, and
Preston was acquitted. This in some measure injured Mr.
Adams’s character with the more violent party, but had so
little effect on the more judicious, that he was elected a
member of Congress in 1774, and re-elected in 1775. He
was one of the first to perceive that a cordial reconciliation,
with Great Britain was impossible; and was therefore one
of the chief promoters of the resolution, passed July 4, 1776,
declaring the American States free, sovereign, and independent. When, in the course of the war, the States entertained hopes of assistance from the courts of Europe,
Mr. Adams was sent, with Dr. Franklin, to that of Versailles, to negociate a treaty of alliance and commerce.
On their return, he assisted in forming a constitution for
the state of Massachusets. He was then employed by
America as her plenipotentiary to the States General of
Holland; and contributed not a little to bring on the war
between those States and Great Britain. He afterwards
went to Paris, and assisted in concluding the general peace.
His temperate advice, On this occasion, respecting the loyalists, again alarmed the republican party, who began to
consider him as a partizan of England. He was the first
ambassador America sent to this country, where, with true
republican simplicity, and in a manner suitable to the embarrassed finances of his country, he resided in the first
floor of a bookseller in Piccadilly, and afterwards as a
lodger in the same street.