The second president of the United States, Adams was a lawyer who fostered the American Revolution and served in both the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775. At the Second Continental Congress, John Adams seconded the nomination of George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In another bold, historically defining recommendation he supported Thomas Jefferson’s selection as author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

John Adams wrote the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which became the model for the Constitution of the United States.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day: July 4, 1826. Adams’s final resting place is in the crypt of the United First Parish Church (Unitarian), Quincy, Massachusetts.