John Adams was a man of the people. Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, he was a direct descendant of Puritan colonists who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His father John Adams Sr, a farmer, was a Congregationalist deacon and a member of the town council. His mother Susanna Adams, was a descendant of the Boylstons of Brookline, a wealthy family in Massachusetts.
Adams was of high intellect, graduating Harvard at age 20 on a scholarship given to him at just 16 years old. Among many interests John Adams was fascinated with the practice of law, against his fathers wishes he earned a master’s degree from Harvard and was admitted to the bar, studying under James Putnam, a well known lawyer in his area. Adams dove into politics head first in 1765 after the Stamp Act was passed. His great distain for the act pushed him to write a response known as the “Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law” which was eventually published into four articles in the Boston Gazette. In the article, Adams said the Stamp Act deprived colonists of the basic rights to be taxed by consent and to be tried by a jury of their peers. 1 Two months after the article was published,
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After his presidency, Adams lived with Abigail on their family farm in Quincy, where he continued to write and communicate with his friend Thomas Jefferson, and writing columns for the local newspapers and living a quiet life. After serving two presidential terms, Jefferson and Adams expressed their desire to renew their friendship. Adams was the first to reach out; sending Jefferson a letter dated January 1, 1812, wishing Jefferson many happy new years to come. Jefferson responded with a note in which he remembered when they were “fellow laborers in the same cause”2. The revolutionaries went on to continue their friendship over 14 years of correspondence during their older