The 2nd U.S President "John Adams", President of The United States

John Adams: Polite and thoughtful, John Adams was more notable as political philosopher than as a politician. "People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity," he said, no doubt thinking of itself as well as in the American experience. Adams was born in the colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he identified early with the patriotic cause; He was a delegate to the first and second Continental Congress and led the pro-independence movement. During the Revolutionary War he served in diplomatic roles in France and Holland, and helped negotiate the peace treaty. From 1785-1788, he was Minister of the Court of St. James, returning to be elected Vice President under President George Washington. Adams two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He complained where his wife Abigail saying, "My country has in its wisdom contracted, the most significant charge the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived for me." When Adams became president, the war between the French and the British it was causing great difficulties for the United States in the seas and intense division between warring factions within the nation.

His administration focused on France, where the Board, the predominant group, had refused to receive the American shipping and suspended trade relations. Adams sent three commissioners to France, but in the spring of 1798, had spread the word that the French Minister for Foreign Affairs Talleyrand and the Directory had refused to negotiate with them unless they first pay a substantial bribe. Adams reported the insult to Congress, and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which the French they referred only as "X, Y, and Z". The nation exploded in what Jefferson called "fever X, Y, Z" intensity increased with the exhortations of Adams. The population applauded herself appear wherever the president. It had never been so popular federalists. Congress appropriated money to complete three new frigates and to build additional ships, and authorized lifting a provisional army. He also created the laws of foreign and sedition, intending to frighten foreign agents until they leave the country and to quell the attacks of Republican editors. President Adams did not call for a declaration of war, but hostilities began at sea. At first, the Americans shipments were almost defenseless against French ships, but for 1800 armed merchantmen and warships of E.U cleared the seas.

Despite several brilliant naval victories, war fever collapsed. A comment he came to Adams that France also did not have the guts to war and would receive a shipment with respect. Long negotiations ended with the almost war. Send a peace mission to France completely he infuriated the Hamiltonians against Adams. In the campaign of 1800 the Republicans were united and were effective, the Federalists badly divided. However, Adams got only a few electoral votes less than Jefferson, who became president. On November 1, 1800, just before the election, Adams came to the new capital city to take up residence in the White House. In his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms, he wrote to his wife, "Before I end my letter, I pray to heaven to give the best blessings on this house and all that hereafter it will live. Let no one only honest men and wise men ever rule under this roof. " Adams retired to his farm in Quincy. Here he wrote his elaborate letters to Thomas Jefferson. Here the July 4, 1826, he sighed his last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives." But Jefferson had died at Monticello few hours earlier.