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FOR THE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN ADAMS.

(with a portrait.)

JOHN ADAMS is a descendant of
one of the first families who founded
the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in
1630. He was born at Braintree, in
Massachusetts, October 19th, 1735.

He was by profession a lawyer;
and such were his abilities and in-
tegrity, that he obtained the confi-
dence of his fellow citizens. He
early signalized himself in the de-
fence of the rights of his country,
and of mankind at large, by writing
a Dissertation on the Canon and
Feudal Laws, a work well adapted
to convince the advocates either for
civil or ecclesiastical tyranny.

The zeal and firmness with which
Mr. Adams defended the liberties of
his country, did not prevent his act-
ing in the service of her enemies,
where he thought they were treated
with too much severity. Called upon
by his profession, he stood forth as
the advocate of Capt. Preston, who
had been imprisoned as the murder-
er of some of the citizens of Boston,
on the memorable 5th of March,
1770. His client's cause was most
unpopular. The whole town had
been in a state of irritation, on ac-
count of the conduct of governor
Hutchinson, and the troops which
were stationed in it. Their resent-
ment now burst into a flame. But he
felt the cause to be just; and the

danger of incurring the displeasure
of his countrymen could not deter
him from undertaking it. He con-
ducted the cause with great address,
by keeping off the trial till the pas-
sions of the people had time to sub-
side. The trial at length commenc-
ed, and lasted several days, during
which he displayed the most exten-
sive knowledge of the laws of his
country, and of humanity; and at
the conclusion he had the satisfac-
tion of proving to Great Britain her-
self, that the citizens of Massachu-
setts would be just and humane to
their enemies, amidst the grossest in-
sults and provocations. Capt. Pres-
ton was acquitted.

He was a member of the first
congress in 1774; and was one of
the principal promoters of the fa-
mous resolution of the 4th of July,
1776, which declared the American
colonies free, sovereign, and inde-
pendent states.

Having been for a considerable
length of time one of the commis-
sioners of the war department, and
a principal suggestor of the terms
to be offered to France, for forming
a treaty of alliance and commerce,
he was sent to the court of Ver-
sailles, as one of the ministers ple-
nipotentiary of the United States, to
consummate that important business.

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On his return from France he was
called upon by Massachusetts to as-
sist in forming a plan of govern-
ment; and to him this state is chiefly
indebted for her present constitu-
tion.

After this important business was
accomplished, he returned to Eu-
rope, vested with full powers from
congress to assist at any conference
which might be opened for the es-
tablishment of peace; and he soon
after received other powers to ne-
gociate a loan of money for the use
of the United States, and to repre-
sent them as their minister plenipo-
tentiary to the States General of the
United Provinces.

While in Europe, Mr. Adams
published his work upon the consti-
tutions of America, in which he ad-
vocates, as the fundamental princi-
ples of a free government….equal
representation, of which numbers,
or property, or both, should be the
rule….a total separation of the exe-
cutive from the legislative power,
and of the judicial from both….and
a balance in the legislature, by three
independent, equal branches. His
grand principle is, “That the peo-
ple's rights and liberties, and the
democratical mixture in a constitu-
tion, can never be preserved with-
out a strong executive; or, in other
words, without separating the exe-
cutive power from the legislative?

He was called, in 1789, by the
choice of his country, to the vice-
presidency of the United States, and
in November, 1796, was chosen
president, in the room of general
Washington. At the expiration of
the usual term, he retired to the
walks of private life, in which he
will probably close a career as ac-
tive, important, and diversified, as
has fallen to the lot of almost any in-
dividual of the present age.

We purposely avoid entering
into an exhibition of the public cha-
racter of Mr. Adams, because poli-
tical zeal has long since enlisted all
men in the number of his friends or
enemies, and we are desirous of
avoiding, on this occasion, to offend
any.