Interesting Facts

• Adams was the first lawyer-president.

• He was the only president of the first five U.S. presidents not to be a slaveholder.

• When John Adams became president the United States had a population of 4’900,000.

• He defended British soldiers that killed five Americans in the Boston Massacre. The soldiers were considered innocent.

• During the Continental Congresses he served on more committees than any other congressman—ninety in all, of which he chaired twenty.

• A letter Adams wrote to a friend expressing his discontent with the Olive Branch Petition was intersected before it reached England. King George III refused to read the petition claiming that it was insincere.

• He cast the tie-breaking vote at least thirty one times during his eight years as Vice President and leader of the Senate, a record that has not been matched.

• During the presidential elections, when the final tabulation of votes arrived at the Senate, it was Adams who opened the envelope as President of the Senate. He won 71 votes against Jefferson’s 68.

• He was the first president to live in the White House, he moved in before it was finished.

• Adams was not a popular president, his independent mind led to political isolation, unwilling to compromise he faced opposition from his own cabinet.

• He did not attend Jefferson’s inauguration. He was one of only three presidents not to attend his successor’s inauguration.

• His son John Quincy became the 6^th President. There have been two father-son Presidents in American history:  John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and George Bush and George W Bush.

• Adams died on the same day as his rival Thomas Jefferson on July 4^th, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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