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John Adams (1735–1826)

Role

President John Adams nominated Bushrod Washington to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1798.

Description

John Adams was born on 30 October 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1755, was admitted to the bar in 1758, and in 1764 married Abigail Smith, the daughter of a prominent congregationalist minister. The Adamses would have four children live to maturity, including John Quincy Adams.

Citations

David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).

"John Adams." Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2310019068/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=5065a893. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.

"John Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 December 1793," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-09-02-0278. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 9, January 1790 – December 1793, ed. C. James Taylor, Margaret A. Hogan, Karen N. Barzilay, Gregg L. Lint, Hobson Woodward, Mary T. Claffey, Robert F. Karachuk, and Sara B. Sikes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 476–477.]

Amy M. Thomas, “Adams, Abigail,” in Cathy N. Davidson et al., eds., The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2005). 

Hiller B. Zobel, “Adams, John,” in Kermit L. Hall, ed., The Oxford Companion to American Law (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Massachusetts Historical Society, “Adams Biographical Sketches”.

John Adams at Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.