John Adams

John Adams was the second President of the United States. His Vice President was Thomas Jefferson. He generally was a Federalist, but was not an official member.

Before Politics
Before being a delegate to the First Continental Congress, Adams worked as a trial lawyer in Boston, Massachussetts, where he gained notoriety for successfully defending the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. He persuaded the jury that "law should be deaf to the clamors of the populace." Many angry conservatives at the time were very ticked at this, because they thought that law wasn't real. He married Abigail Adams, and had three children.

American Revolution
During the American Revolution, Adams served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and is given credit by such experts such as HBO for "uniting the States of America." He was George Washington's Vice President for eight years.

Presidency
Adams's most notable achievement as President was to successfully avoid a war involving France. Many Republicans at that time, including his friend and successor Thomas Jefferson, favored the French, but he stood by principle. He has taken critique, however, for his signing the Alien and Sedition Acts, which was percieved by some people to be in violation of the First Amendment (and the Due Process clause). It is interesting for Adams's conservative critics to fly at Adams for this when our current President is basically violating the entire Constitution and Bill of Rights.

He died shortly after his son, John Quincy Adams, was elected President. We can all agree that this father-son pair is waaaaaaaaay better than our current one.