October 30: John Adams
On this date in 1735, the second President of the United States was born.
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State of the Union Addresses
In his one term as president, Adams delivered four Annual Messages to Congress (as the State of the Union Address was then known). Each address is available both in audiobook and PDF formats from the Lit2Go website.
John Adams
Portrait of John Adams, second President of the United States, from the ClipArt ETC website.
Peacefield
Peacefield in Quincy, Massachusetts, from the ClipArt ETC website. Peacefield was the home of both President John Adams and his son, President John Quincy Adams.
Opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765
Adams was a vocal opponent of the Stamp Act. He believed that the Stamp Act should be opposed since it denied two fundamental rights guaranteed to all Englishmen, and which all free men deserved: rights to be taxed only by consent and to be tried only by a jury of one’s peers.
Counsel for the British
Adams server as legal counsel for the British accused of killing five civilians in the Boston Massacre shown in this illustration from the ClipArt ETC website. Six of the soldiers were acquitted. Adams is remembered for stating the following during the trial, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Continental Congress
Independence Hall from the ClipArt ETC website. Adams was a member of both the First and Second Continental Congresses.
President's House, Philadelphia
The President’s House on Market Street in Philadelphia from the ClipArt ETC website. As George Washington had done before him, Adams lived in this house during the construction of buildings in Washington, DC.
White House
John Adams was the first President to occupy the White House. (Illustration from the ClipArt ETC website.) After beginning his term in the President’s House in Philadelphia, Adams moved into the White House November 1, 1800.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams from the ClipArt ETC website. Abigail was the second First Lady of the United States.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams from the ClipArt ETC website. John Quincy Adams was John Adams’ son and the sixth President of the United States.
