ADAMS, Isaac (1803-83). An American inventor. He was born at Rochester, N. H. He was at first an operative in a cotton factory and afterward a cabinet maker, and in 1824 began work in a Boston machine shop. In 1828 he invented the printing press now known by his name, and in 1834 greatly improved it. The original feature of the press was the elevation of a flat bed against a stationary platen. Mr. Adams was a member of the senate of Massachusetts in 1840.
ADAMS, John (1735-1826). The second
President of the United States. He was born
at Quincy, Mass., October 30, 1735, of a family
descended from Henry Adams, a Puritan
emigrant who settled in Massachusetts about 1640.
He graduated from Harvard in 1755, and, after
an interval of teaching, studied law, and was
admitted to the bar in 1758. In 1764 he married
Abigail Smith, daughter of the minister at
Weymouth, a woman who herself became
conspicuous, and whose influence and assistance
were important factors throughout the entire
career of her husband. (See Adams, Abigail.)
Soon after he went into politics, and, although
not a resident of Boston, was selected to act as
counsel with Gridley and Otis in presenting to
the governor a memorial against the Stamp Act
(q.v.). Adams then took the bold stand that the
act was void because Parliament had no right to
tax the colonists, and that such statutes could
have no possible force over persons who had not
consented to the passage thereof. In 1768 he
moved to Boston, and soon after was offered, and
declined, the position of advocate-general in the
Court of Admiralty, an office which would have
greatly increased his professional opportunities,
though it would have placed him under
embarrassing obligations to the Royalist politicians.
Two years afterward he was able, without
prejudicing himself among the patriot party, to render
the unique service of defending Captain
Preston in the Boston Massacre case and securing
his acquittal. He had already written on
taxation for the Boston Gazette, and he again
published articles at the time of the controversy
over the independence of the Judiciary, collaborated
in the authorship of the reply to Hutchinson
in 1773, and later produced the “Novanglus”
articles in reply to the Tory, Leonard. He was
closely associated with Samuel Adams in the
political leadership of Massachusetts, especially
in the legislative crisis of June, 1774, and then
was chosen by the House of Representatives as
one of their five delegates to the Continental
Congress. In that body his energy was
devoted to the adoption of a comprehensive
programme having three distinct elements — the
organization of commonwealth governments on an
independent basis, the formation of a national
confederate government, and the establishment
of diplomatic relations with foreign powers.
The first victory was gained when the Congress
passed the resolutions of May 10 and 15, 1776,
recommending to all colonies the formation of
State governments on a basis such as to serve
them if permanently independent. This made
natural, if not inevitable, the formal
Declaration of Independence (q.v.), the original motion for
which was seconded by Adams, who now was
placed on the committee which drafted that
document.
For three years he was a most arduous worker in advancing the plans of Congress and in per- fecting the details of the new national government, serving on numberless committees, and being placed at the head of several important ones at a time when the congressional committees were the heads of the undeveloped executive departments. Especially in the War Department, and to a considerable extent in the Navy Department, was his influence great and his work attended with quite permanent results, while his membership of the committee on foreign relations enabled him to become equipped for the service by which later he attained distinction. In 1778 he was sent to France to supersede Silas Deane; but his stay was brief, the treaty between that country and the United States having been concluded just before his departure from Boston. During his attendance upon the Continental Congress he continued to be an active counselor of the leaders in Massachusetts, although he declined the office of chief justice of the State. He was an active member of the committee of three which drafted the first constitution of Massachusetts. To that work he came almost directly from his first mission to France, and from it he proceeded at once to undertake his further duties of securing from Holland support for the national finances, and of negotiating, with the other commissioners, terms of peace with England.
His success in effecting a loan in Holland was preceded by several months of difficult diplomacy, the result of which was that in April, 1782, the Dutch Government formally recognized Adams as the minister of an independent nation. Stimulated by this notable accomplishment and by the realization that upon his exertions depended the New Englanders' rights in the Newfoundland fisheries, Adams entered upon the negotiations at Paris with a spirit of independence and of determination which, although seeming to occasion rather than to allay embarrassments, contributed much to the successful issue.
The post of minister to Great Britain was next occupied by Adams, but the relations between the countries were still such as to make the life irksome to one of Adams's temperament, especially as his desire to be recalled was strengthened by his belief that the service he was rendering was bringing no particular benefit to his country. Accordingly, in the spring of 1788, he returned, having already shown in detail his views on American affairs in his elaborate Defence of the Constitution of the United States (3 volumes, London, 1787). He was elected vice-president at the first election under the new constitution and served for two terms, exercising, in the formative years of political parties and in the time of nearly equal division of the Senate between them, a power seldom possessed by a vice-president. Where matters of foreign policy raised the questions at issue, Adams sympathized with England, and thus was thrown into opposition to the friends of France, led by Jefferson. In matters of internal policy, also, he supported the programme of Hamilton, and where party lines were finally drawn he was recognized as one of the leaders of the Federalists. By them he was advanced to the presidency at the same time that, under the system then prevailing, the leader of the opposing party became vice-president. Jefferson's success in 1800, was made possible, however, largely by the developments of Federalist policy and of factional
