U.S. Presidents
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George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William H. Harrison
John Tyler
James K. Polk
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Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William H. Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

Key Dates

1783: Adams helps negotiate the treaty to end the American Revolution.

John Adams
1797 -1801
Second President

He was one of three Presidents born in Massachusetts. John was born on October 30, 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts.

When he was young, John Adams would often skip school, choosing instead to spend his time hunting and fishing.

Adams' great, great grandfather and grandmother were part of the party that landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

Adam's was born before the US became a country. He was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735.

He started smoking when he was only 8 years old.

John loved to read.

John Adams was 5' 6" tall.

John went to Harvard and graduated in 1755. He earned two degrees from Harvard.

John Adams was the lawyer who defended the British Soldiers involved in the shootings at the Boston Massacre.

John Adams could speak several languages.

He married Abigail in 1764.

John Adams. Copy of painting by or after John Singleton Copley, ca. 1783.
National Archives and Records Administration

John was one of the people who helped draft the Declaration of Independence.

President Adams was the first President to have a Supreme Court Justice administer the oath of office to him. The justice you swore him into office was Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth.

John Adams's Vice President was Thomas Jefferson.

Neither Adams or his opponent Charles Pinckney campaigned for the presidency. The party officials did all the campaigning.

John and Abigail Adams were the first presidential couple to move into the White House (1800). He was the first president to live in Washington D.C. The White House was only partly finished at the time. One source said the paint was still wet when they moved into the White House.

During the move to the White House, they got lost in the woods north of the city.

The Adam's had four children: Abigail "Nabby" Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Adams and Thomas Adams.

John walked all most every day for exercise. He sometimes would walk up to five miles.

John Adams' prayer "I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that hereafter inhabit it...May none but the honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." The prayer was later carved in the State Dining Room.

He had no military experience and there was not a war during his term.

He was a lawyer.

John was about 5'6" tall and was somewhat stocky.

Susanna Adams, John Adams' granddaughter, lived in the White House during the last 4 months of his term.

He served as Vice President to George Washington.

Adams is sometimes called the "Father of the Navy. John Adams was the first Vice President of the United States serving under Washington from 1789 to 1797. Two naval ships were named after him.

His son John Quincy Adams later became President. John Quincy was one of four children.

He defeated Thomas Jefferson in the election. He had 71 electoral votes to Jefferson's 68.

John Adams was a Federalist. His Vice President Thomas Jefferson was a Democratic Republican.

He left Washington DC early on the day of Thomas Jefferson's inauguration which he did not attend.

John Adams and his friend/enemy/friend, Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4th, 1826.

Most of Adam's teeth had fallen out. He refused to wear dentures, and thus, talked with a lisp.

He was defeated when he ran for a second term by his Vice President, Thomas Jefferson. President Adams was therefore the first president to not win reelection.

He did not attend Jefferson's inauguration. He is one of only two Presidents who did not attend the inauguration of their successor. John Quincy Adams didn't attend Jackson's.

He died July 4, 1826, in Braintree, Norfolk, Mass. Thomas Jefferson also died that day, a few hours before Adams. Two signers of the Declaration of Independence that became president died on the 50th anniversary of that great document.

He was over 90 years and 247 days old when he died. He was the longest living President until Reagan. After that Gerald Ford lived longer moving Adams to third longest living president. He is one of four presidents to reach the age of 90.

Jefferson died on the same day. Both Presidents died on the same day on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence which they help write.

Quote:

In referring to the position of Vice President of the United States, he said: "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrivied."

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematices and philosophy"w

Topics

First Ladies

Presidents who died in office

Assassinations and Assassination Attempts

Vice Presidents who became Presidents

Presidential Salaries

Oldest living Presidents

Presidents' Military Service

Books about U.S. President

Pets of the Presidents

The Presidents of the United States. 22 September 2004: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Davis, Gibbs and Ilus. David A. Johnson. Wackiest White House Pets. New York: Scholastic Press, October 2004

James, Barber and Amy Pastan. Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies. New York: DK Publishing, 2002

Kane, Joseph Natan. Facts about the Presidents from Washington to Johnson. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1964.

McCullough, Noah, The Essential Book of Presidential Trivia. Random House, USA, 2006

Pine, Joslyn, Presidential Wit and Wisdom: Memorable Quotes from George Washington to Barack Obama . Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 2009

Huffington Post web site.

Lang, Stephen, The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 2011

O'Reilly, Bill, and Dugard, Martin, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2011

St. George, Judith In the Line of Fire: Presidents' Lives at Stake , Scholastic Inc. New York, 2001

I have set a goal of reading a book about all of the deceased presidents. I share the ones that I have read as well as my current reading. You can view the books on my book page. I am open to suggestions of books to read. (jim@anewadventure.org.)

What I am currently reading:

Gurzman, Kevin R.,James Madison and the Making of America, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2012

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This page was last updated on Thursday, May 10, 2012

For comments or corrections email jim@anewadventure.org.