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JOHN ADAMS (1735–1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 178 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:ADAMS (1735–1826)  , second See also:president of the See also:United States of See also:America, was See also:born on the 3oth of See also:October 1735 in what is now the See also:town of See also:Quincy, See also:Massachusetts . His See also:father, a See also:farmer, also named See also:John, was of the See also:fourth See also:generation in descent from See also:Henry See also:Adams, who emigrated from See also:Devonshire, See also:England, to Massachusetts about 1636; his See also:mother was Susanna Boylston Adams . See also:Young Adams graduated from Harvard See also:College in 1755, and for a See also:time taught school at See also:Worcester and studied See also:law in the See also:office of See also:Rufus See also:Putnam . In 1758 he was admitted to the See also:bar . From an See also:early See also:age he See also:developed the See also:habit of See also:writing descriptions of events and impressions of men . The earliest of these is his See also:report of the See also:argument of See also:James See also:Otis in the See also:superior See also:court of Massachusetts as to the constitutionality of writs of assistance . This was in 1761, and the argument inspired him with zeal for the cause of the See also:American colonies . Years afterwards, when an. old See also:man, Adams undertook to write out at length his recollections of this See also:scene; it is instructive to compare the two accounts . John Adams had none of the qualities of popular leadership which were so marked a characteristic of his second See also:cousin, See also:Samuel Adams; it was rather as a constitutional lawyer that he influenced the course of events . He was impetuous, intense and often vehement, unflinchingly courageous, devoted with his whole soul to the cause he had espoused; but his vanity, his See also:pride of See also:opinion and his inborn contentiousness were serious handicaps to him in his See also:political career . These qualities were particularly manifested at a later See also:period—as, for example, during his See also:term as president . He first made his See also:influence widely See also:felt and became conspicuous as a See also:leader of the Massachusetts Whigs during the discussions with regard to the See also:Stamp See also:Act of 1765 .

In that See also:

year he drafted the instructions which were sent by the town of See also:Braintree to its representatives in the Massachusetts legislature, and which served as a See also:model for other towns in draw- See also:ing up instructions to their representatives; in See also:August 1765 he contributed anonymously four notable articles to the See also:Boston See also:Gazette (republished separately in See also:London in 1768 as A Dissertation on the See also:Canon and Feudal Law), in which he argued that the opposition of the colonies to the Stamp Act was a See also:part of the never-ending struggle between See also:individualism and corporate authority; and in See also:December 1765 he delivered a speech before the See also:governor and See also:council in which he pronounced the Stamp Act invalid on the ground that Massachusetts being without See also:representation in See also:parliament, had not assented to it . In 1768 he removed to Boston . Two years later, with that degree of moral courage which was one of his distinguishing characteristics, as it has been of his descendants, he, aided by See also:Josiah Quincy, Jr., defended the See also:British soldiers who were arrested after the "Boston See also:Massacre," charged with causing the See also:death of four persons, in-habitants of the See also:colony . The trial resulted in an acquittal of the officer who commanded the detachment, and most of the soldiers; but two soldiers were found guilty of See also:manslaughter . These claimed benefit of See also:clergy and were branded in the See also:hand and released . Adams's upright and patriotic conduct in taking the unpopular See also:side in this See also:case met with its just See also:reward in the following year, in the shape of his See also:election to the Massachusetts See also:House of Representatives by a See also:vote of 418 to 118 . John Adams was a member of the See also:Continental See also:Congress from 1774 to 1778 . In See also:June 1775, with a view to promoting the See also:union of the colonies, he seconded the nomination of See also:Washington as See also:commander-in-See also:chief of the See also:army . His influence in congress was See also:great, and almost from the beginning he was impatient for a separation of the colonies from Great See also:Britain . On the 7th of June 1776 he seconded the famous See also:resolution introduced by See also:Richard Henry See also:Lee (q.v.) that " these colonies are, and of a right ought to be, See also:free and See also:independent states," and no man championed these resolutions (adopted on the 2nd of See also:July) so eloquently and effectively before the congress . On the 8th of June he was appointed on a See also:committee with See also:Jefferson, See also:Franklin, See also:Livingston and See also:Sherman to draft a See also:Declaration of See also:Independence; and although that document was by the See also:request of the committee written by See also:Thomas Jefferson, it was John Adams who occupied the foremost See also:place in the debate on its See also:adoption . Before this question had been disposed of, Adams was placed at the See also:head of the See also:Board of See also:War and See also:Ordnance, and he also served on many other important committees .

In 1778 John Adams sailed for See also:

France to supersede See also:Silas See also:Deane in the American See also:commission there . But just as he em-barked that commission concluded the desired treaty of See also:alliance, and soon after his arrival he advised that the number of commissioners be reduced to one . His See also:advice was followed and he returned See also:home in time to be elected a member of the See also:convention which framed the Massachusetts constitution of 178o, still the organic law of that See also:commonwealth . With James See also:Bowdoin and Samuel Adams, he formed a sub-committee which See also:drew up the first draft of that See also:instrument, and most of it probably came from John Adams's See also:pen . Before this See also:work had been completed he was again sent to See also:Europe, having been chosen on the 27th of See also:September 1779 as See also:minister plenipotentiary for negotiating a treaty of See also:peace and a treaty of See also:commerce with Great Britain . Conditions were not then favourable for peace, however; the See also:French See also:government, moreover, did not approve of the choice, inasmuch as Adams was not sufficiently pliant and tractable and was from the first suspicious of See also:Vergennes; and subsequently See also:Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John See also:Jay and Henry See also:Laurens were appointed to co-operate with Adams . Jefferson, however, did not See also:cross the See also:Atlantic, and Laurens took little part in the negotiations . This See also:left the management of the business to the other three . Jay and Adams distrusted the See also:good faith of the French government . Outvoting Franklin, the? decided to break their instructions, which required them to `make the most candid confidential communications on all subjects to the ministers of our generous ally, the See also:king of France; to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce without their knowledge or concurrence; and ultimately to govern yourself by their advice and opinion"; and, instead, they dealt directly with the British commissioners, without consulting the French ministers . Throughout the negotiations Adams was especially determined that the right of the United States to the See also:fisheries along the British-American See also:coast should be recognized . Political conditions in Great Britain, at the moment, made the conclusion of peace almost a See also:necessity with the British See also:ministry, and eventually the American negotiators were able to secure a peculiarly favourable treaty .

This preliminary treaty was signed on the 3oth of See also:

November 1782 . Before these negotiations began, Adams had spent some time in the Nether-lands . In July 178o he had been authorized to execute the . duties previously assigned to Henry Laurens, and at the See also:Hague was eminently successful, securing there recognition of the United States as an independent government (See also:April 19, 1782), and negotiating both a See also:loan and, in October 1782, a treaty of amity and commerce, the first of such See also:treaties between the United States and See also:foreign See also:powers after that of See also:February 1778 with France . In 1785 John Adams was appointed the first of a See also:long See also:line of able and distinguished American ministers to the court of St James's . When he was presented to his former See also:sovereign, See also:George III. intimated that he was aware of Mr Adams's lack of confidence in the French government . Replying, Mr Adams admitted it, closing with the outspoken sentiment: " I must avow to your See also:Majesty that I have no See also:attachment but to my own See also:country "—a phrase which must have jarred upon the monarch's sensibilities . While in London Adams published a work entitled A See also:Defence of the Constitution of Government of the United States (1787) . In this work he ably combated the views of See also:Turgot and other See also:European writers as to the viciousness of the See also:frame-work of the See also:state governments . Unfortunately, in so doing, he used phrases savouring of See also:aristocracy which offended many of his countrymen,—as in the See also:sentence in which he suggested that " the See also:rich, the well-born and the able " should be set apart from other men in a See also:senate . Partly for this See also:reason, while Washing-ton had the vote of every elector in the first presidential election of 1789, Adams received only See also:thirty-four out of sixty-nine . As this was the second largest number he was declared See also:vice-president, but he began his eight years in that office (1789-1797) with a sense of grievance and of suspicion of many of the leading men .

See also:

Differences of opinion with regard to the policies to be pursued by the new government gradually led to the formation of two well-defined political See also:groups—the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans—and Adams became recognized as one of the leaders, second only to See also:Alexander See also:Hamilton, of the former . In 1796, on the refusal of Washington to accept another election, Adams was chosen president, defeating Thomas Jefferson; though Alexander Hamilton and other . Federalists had asked that an equal vote should be See also:cast for Adams and Thomas See also:Pinckney, the other Federalist in the contest, partly in See also:order that Jefferson, who was elected vice-president, might be excluded altogether, and partly, it seems, in the See also:hope that Pinckney should in fact receive more votes than Adams, and thus, in accordance with the See also:system then obtaining, be elected president, though he was intended for the second place on the Federalist See also:ticket . Adams's four years as chief See also:magistrate (1797-1801) were marked by a See also:succession of intrigues which embittered all his later See also:life; they were marked, also, by events, such as the passage of the See also:Alien and See also:Sedition Acts, which brought discredit on the Federalist party . Moreover, factional strife See also:broke out within the party itself; Adams and Hamilton became alienated, and members of Adams's own See also:cabinet virtually looked to Hamilton rather than to the president as their political chief . The United States was, at this time, See also:drawn into the vortex of European complications, and Adams, instead of taking See also:advantage of the militant spirit which was aroused, patriotically devoted himself to securing peace with France, much against the wishes of Hamilton and of Hamilton's adherents in the cabinet . In 'Soo, Adams was again the Federalist See also:candidate for the See also:presidency, but the distrust of him in his own party, the popular disapproval of the Alien and Sedition Acts and the popularity of his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, combined to cause his defeat . He then re-tired into private life . On the 4th of July 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, he died at Quincy . Jefferson died on the same See also:day . In 1764 Adams had married See also:Miss See also:Abigail See also:Smith (1744-1818), the daughter of a Congregational minister at See also:Weymouth, Massachusetts . She was a woman of much ability, and her letters, written in an excellent See also:English See also:style, are of great value to students of the period in which she lived .

President John Quincy Adams was their eldest son . 1898) . (E . CH.) ADAMS, JOHN See also:

COUCH (1819-1892), British astronomer, was born at Lidcot farmhouse, Laneast, See also:Cornwall, on the 5th of June 1819 . His father, Thomas Adams, was a See also:tenant farmer; his mother, Tabitha Knill Grylls, inherited a small See also:estate at Badharlick . From the See also:village school at Laneast he went, at the age of twelve, to See also:Devonport, where his mother's cousin, the Rev . John Couch Grylls, kept a private school . His promise as a mathematician induced his parents to send him to the university of See also:Cambridge, and in October 1839 he entered as a See also:sizar at St John's College . He graduated B.A. in 1843 as the See also:senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman of his year . While still an under-See also:graduate he happened to read of certain unexplained irregularities in the See also:motion of the See also:planet See also:Uranus, and determined to investigate them as soon as possible, with a view to ascertaining whether they might not be due to the See also:action of a remote undiscovered planet . Elected See also:fellow of his college in 1843, he at once proceeded to attack the novel problem . It was this: from' the observed perturbations of a known planet to deduce by calculation, assuming only See also:Newton's law of See also:gravitation, the See also:mass and See also:orbit of an unknown disturbing See also:body .

By September 1845 he obtained his first See also:

solution, and handed to See also:Professor Challis, the director of the Cambridge See also:Observatory, a See also:paper giving the elements of what he described as " the new planet." On the 21st of October 1845 he left at See also:Greenwich Observatory, for the See also:information of See also:Sir George See also:Airy, the astronomer-royal, a similar document, still preserved among the archives . A fort-See also:night afterwards Airy wrote asking for information about a point in the solution . Adams, who thought the query unessential, did not reply, and Airy for some months took no steps to verify by telescopic See also:search the results of the young mathematician's investigation . Meanwhile, See also:Leverrier, on the loth of November 1845, presented to the French See also:Academy a memoir on Uranus, showing that the existing theory failed to See also:account for its motion . Unaware of Adams's work, he attempted a like inquiry, and on the 1st of June 1846, in a second memoir, gave the position, but not the mass or orbit, of the disturbing body whose existence was presumed . The See also:longitude he assigned differed by only '° from that predicted by Adams in the document which Airy possessed . The latter was struck by the coincidence, and mentioned it to the Board of Visitors of the Gbservatory, James Challis and Sir John See also:Herschel being See also:present . Herschel, at the ensuing See also:meeting of the British Association early in September, ventured accordingly to predict that a new planet would shortly be discovered . Meanwhile Airy had in July suggested to Challis that the planet should be sought for with the Cambridge See also:equatorial . The search was begun by a laborious method at the end of the See also:month . On the 4th and 12th of August, as afterwards appeared, the planet was actually observed; but owing to the want of a proper See also:star-See also:map it was not then recognized as planetary . Leverrier, still ignorant of these occurrences, presented on the 31st of August 1846 a third memoir, giving for the first time the mass and orbit of the new body .

Phoenix-squares

He communicated his results by See also:

letter to Dr See also:Galle, of the See also:Berlin Observatory, who at once examined the suggested region of the heavens . On the 23rd of September he detected near the predicted place a small star unrecorded in the map, and next evening found that it had a proper motion . No doubt remained that " Leverrier's planet " had been discovered . On the announcement of the fact, Herschel and Challis made known that Adams had already calculated the planet's elements and position . Airy then at length published an account of the circumstances, and Adams's memoir was printed as an appendix to the Nautical See also:Almanac . A keen controversy arose in France and England as to the merits of the two astronomers . In the latter country much surprise was expressed at the apathy of Airy; in France the claims made for an unknown Englishman were resented as detracting from the See also:credit due to Leverrier's achievement . As the indisputable facts became known, the See also:world recognized that the two astronomers had in-dependently solved the problem of Uranus, and ascribed to each equal See also:glory . The new planet, at first called Leverrier by F . See also:Arago, received by See also:general consent the neutral name of See also:Neptune . Its mathematical prediction was not only an unsurpassed intellectual feat; it showed also that Newton's law of gravitation, which Airy had almost called in question, prevailed even to the utmost See also:bounds of the See also:solar system . The See also:honour of See also:knighthood was offered to Adams when See also:Queen See also:Victoria visited Cambridge in 1847; but then, as on a subsequent occasion, his modesty led him to decline it .

The Royal Society awarded him its See also:

Copley See also:medal in 1848 . In the same year the members of St John's College commemorated his success by See also:founding in the university an Adams See also:prize, to be given biennially for the best See also:treatise on a mathematical subject . In 1851 he became president of the Royal Astronomical Society . His See also:lay fellowship at St John's College came to an end in 1852, and the existing statutes did not permit of his re-election . But See also:Pembroke College, which possessed greater freedom, elected him in the following year to a lay fellowship, and this he held for the See also:rest of his life . In 1858 he became professor of See also:mathematics at St See also:Andrews, but lectured only for a session, when he vacated the See also:chair for the Lowndean professorship of See also:astronomy and See also:geometry at Cambridge . Two years later he succeeded Challis as director of the Observatory, where he resided until his death . Although Adams's researches on Neptune were those which attracted widest See also:notice, the work he subsequently performed in relation to gravitational astronomy and terrestrial See also:magnetism was not less remarkable . Several of his most striking contributions to knowledge originated in the See also:discovery of errors or fallacies in the work of his great predecessors in astronomy . Thus in 1852 he published new and accurate tables of the See also:moon's See also:parallax, which superseded J . K . See also:Burckhardt's, and supplied corrections to the theories of M .

C . T . Damoiseau, G . A . A . Plana and P . G . D. de Pontecoulant . In the following year his memoir on the See also:

secular See also:acceleration of the moon's mean motion partially invalidated See also:Laplace's famous explanation, which had held its place unchallenged for sixty years . At first, Leverrier, Plana and other foreign astronomers controverted Adams's result; but its soundness was ultimately established, and its fundamental importance to this See also:branch of See also:celestial theory has only developed further with time . For these researches the Royal Astronomical Society awarded him its See also:gold medal in 1866 . The great See also:meteor shower of 1866 turned his See also:attention to the Leonids, whose probable path and period had already been discussed by Professor H .

A . Newton . Using a powerful and elaborate See also:

analysis, Adams ascertained that this cluster of meteors, which belongs to the solar system, traverses an elongated See also:ellipse in 33,I-1 years, and is subject to definite perturbations from the larger See also:planets, See also:Jupiter, See also:Saturn and Uranus . These results were published in 1867 . Ten years later, when Mr . G . W . See also: