Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/46

ADAMS.ADAMS. the Federalist party. In the election of 1800 Adams was refused a re-election. His last official act notable for its influence upon the dignity of the national judiciary was the appointment of John Marshall as chief justice of the United States. He refused to attend the inauguration of his successor. In old age the political differences between himself and Jefferson were adjusted, and they corresponded on friendly terms. Mr. Adams freely expressed his opinions on public affairs in letters and essays written mainly to meet the exigencies of the time. His writings had the merit of being earnest and forceful. His most important publications are: "Canon and Federal Law" (1765); "Rights and Grievances of the American Colonies" (1774); "Plans of Government of the Indepedent State (1776); "The Constitution of Massachusetts" (1779); "Defence of the American Constitution" (1786); Other papers given to the press were published in the journals of the day. He insisted that the main points in the Declaration of Independence belonged to him. Referring to a letter written when he was a young man twenty years of age he says: "Jefferson has acquired such glory by his Declaration of Independence, in 1776, that, I think, I may boast of my declaration of independence in 1755, twenty-one years older than his. . . . He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Union college in 1809, and that of LL.D. from Harvard in 1781; from Dartmouth college in 1783; from Yale in 1788; and from Brown in 1797. He was elected president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a member of the Massachusetts Historical society and also of the American Philosophical society. Mr. Adams lived to see his son president of the United States and to enter upon the fiftieth anniversary of American independence. The day seemed to recall the scenes of fifty years ago, and his last audible words were "Thomas Jefferson still survives." It is a strange coincidence that the "father of the Declaration" had breathed his last that very day, but a few hours before the great man, who inspired the immortal document, died. He died at Quincy, Mass., July 4, 1826. ADAMS, John, educator, was born in Canterbury, Conn., Sept. 18, 1772, son of John Adams, a soldier in the war for independence. He was educated at Yale college, and was graduated in 1795, while teaching his profession, and began his labors in his native town, where he conducted an academy for three years. He then removed to Plainfield, N.J., where he was made rector of the academy. In 1803 he was chosen principal of the Bacon academy, Colchester, Conn., where he remained seven years, when he removed to Andover, Mass., as principal of Phillips academy. Here for twenty years he directed the preparatory training of many of the nation's greatest minds, and as well helped to organize and advance numerous charitable associations, which have since become of national renown. In 1833, in connection with the work of the American Sunday school union, he went to Illinois, where he personally organized over five hundred Sunday schools. Yale conferred upon Mr. Adams the degree of LL.D. in 1854. He died April 24, 1863. ADAMS John, soldier, was born at Pulaski, Tenn., Feb. 8, 1825, and after being graduated from West Point joined the United States army with the rank of second lieutenant. He was in active service during the Mexican war, and was brevetted 1st lieutenant for gallantry. He than served on the western frontier, reaching the rank of captain. At the outbreak of the civil war he resigned from the United States army and joined the Confederate, where he gained the rank of major-general. He was killed at the battle of Franklin, Nov. 30, 1864. ADAMS, John Coleman, clergyman, was born at Malden, Mass., Oct. 25, 1849. He was graduated from Tufts divinity school and Tufts college, from which latter institution he received the degrees of A.M., BL., and DD. In 1880 he was elected trustee of Tufts college. During his pastoral career he had charge of churches at Lynn, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Brooklyn, N.Y. and Hartford, Conn., He became one of the eminent preachers of the Universalist denomination, and was an able writer. He was associate editor of the "Christian Leader" from 1891; and the author of "Fatherhood of God" (1888), "Christian Types of Heroism" ( 1890); "The Leisure of God" (1895), "Nature Studies in Berkshire" (1899) and a biography of William Hamilton Gibson (1901). ADAMS, John F., clergyman, was born at Stratham, N. H., May 23, 1790. At the age of twenty-two he received a preacher's license from the New England Methodist Conference and went to Maine, where he won distinction as an earnest and effective preacher. It is said that "his appointments were sometimes fifty miles apart, and to keep them he often rode through rain and snow all day without food, and all night with no other bed than the back of his horse." He was appointed presiding elder of Boston, Lynn and other Massachusetts districts, and was a prominent abolitionist. He was four times delegate to general conference. He died June 11, 1881. ADAMS, John Gregory Bishop, soldier, was born at Groveland, Mass., Oct. 6, 1841. He was educated in the public schools, and before he was twenty years old enlisted in Major Ben Perley Poore's rifle battalion, which was subsequently merged into the 19th Massachusetts Volunteers. In March, 1862, he was made orderly sergeant. During the seven days' fighting on the