undergone a change, as the position of affairs was materially altered. The colonial forces, tested at Lexington and Concord, were besieging the British troops in Boston. Mainly through the influence of Adams, it was resolved to form a continental army, and George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief; but even Adams, whose zeal was always combined with prudence and circumspection, deemed a declaration of independence premature. When congress met again, 1776, Adams moved that such a government be established as would best conduce to the safety and happiness of America; and on the 15th of May, after much opposition, the motion was adopted. On the 7th June, Richard Henry Lee moved that all connection between the colonies and Great Britain be declared to have ceased, and that the colonies are henceforth free and independent states. This gave rise to keen and lengthened discussions; but on the 2d of July, Lee's motion passed, and on the 4th a formal declaration of independence, drawn up by Jefferson, and afterwards slightly modified, was unanimously adopted.
After efficiently contributing, by his labours and counsels, to the organization of various departments of the public service, Adams was appointed in November, 1777, one of the commissioners of congress to the court of France, and left Boston for Europe in February, 1778. Returning to America in the autumn, he was again sent to Europe as minister plenipotentiary, and arrived in Paris in February, 1780. He thence repaired to Holland in October, 1782, and negotiated a commercial treaty between that country and the United States. On the 30th November, 1783, he signed at Versailles, with Dr. Franklin and others, the preliminaries of the treaty of peace with Great Britain, which was ratified by congress on the 14th January, 1784. In 1785, Adams went to London as American minister, and returned to Boston in June, 1788. When in London, he published his "Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States." In 1789 he was elected vice-president of the United States, re-elected in 1793, and, on the retirement of Washington in 1797, he was elected president. Through the increasing strength of the democratic party, who regarded Adams' principles as too conservative, he was not re-elected to that office, Jefferson being preferred. The remaining part of Adams' life was devoted chiefly to agriculture and literature. From his retreat he vindicated, in a series of letters to the "Boston Gazette," in 1812, those principles of international law, the maintenance of which on the part of the United States led to the second American war, but which are now recognized by all the states in Christendom as fundamental maxims of the law of nations. The upright and illustrious career of John Adams was closed on the 4th July, 1826. By a remarkable coincidence, Thomas Jefferson expired on the same day, which was the anniversary of the declaration of American independence.—E. M.
* ADAMS, John Couch, an astronomer, and one of the mathematical tutors of St. John's college, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a student, and became senior wrangler. While still a boy, he evinced a special taste and extraordinary aptitude for mathematical studies; and his name has been rendered memorable as an astronomer, in connection with the planet Neptune. Whether he or M. Le Verrier had the priority of discovery, was, at the time, keenly contested among men of science. It would now appear that the question may be fairly decided in favour of our countryman. In October, 1845, Mr. Adams communicated to the astronomer-royal, Greenwich, the result of his investigations, to the effect that the perturbations of Uranus indicated the presence of an unknown planet within a specified range; and M. Le Verrier's announcement, of essentially the same import, was published in Paris on the 10th November following. The council of the Royal Astronomical Society, instead of awarding its gold medal to either of the parties, gave to each a printed testimonial. Mr. Adams possesses that modesty of bearing, and that simplicity of character, which usually accompany true genius.—E. M.
ADAMS, John Quincy, son of John Adams, and sixth president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 11th July, 1767. Owing to his father's frequent and lengthened absence in the public service, his early education was conducted mainly under the care of his accomplished, pious, and patriotic mother. In his eleventh year he accompanied his father to Paris, where he attained a thorough command of the French language—an acquisition of immense importance in his subsequent career—and by his capacity and his ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, gave unmistakable indications of future eminence. He returned to America with his father in 1779, and in 1781 went to Russia as private secretary to Mr. Dana, American envoy to the court of St. Petersburg. In April, 1783, he joined his father at the Hague, and in the following September accompanied him to London. Returning to America in 1785, he took his degree of A.M. at Harvard college, qualified himself for the bar, and began to practise as a barrister and to write for the press. In 1794 he was sent as minister to the Hague by Washington, who considered him the ablest of American diplomatists. He returned on his father's election to the presidency; was minister in Berlin in 1800-1801; and during that period published, in letters to a Philadelphia paper, an interesting and instructive account of his travels in Silesia. He was recalled when Jefferson became president; was elected in 1801 to the State senate, and in 1803 to the senate of the United States. From 1806 till 1809 he was professor of rhetoric in Harvard college. In 1810 he was appointed minister to Russia, and remained at St. Petersburg till 1815, when he was sent in the same capacity to London. In 1817 he was appointed secretary of state, and continued in office eight years. In 1825 he was honoured with the presidency of the United States, but held that dignity only one term of four years. From 1829 he continued a member of the house of representatives till his death, the eloquent and intrepid leader of the antislavery party. The circumstances of the decease of John Quincy Adams resemble the touching close of Chatham's earthly career. Being in his place in the House on the 21st of February, 1848, when a motion was made to present thanks and gold medals to various officers for services in the Mexican war, he expressed his dissent by an emphatic "No!"—the last testimony he ever uttered as a member of the legislature. He expired shortly afterwards in the speaker's apartment; his last words being, "This is the end of earth—I am content."—E. M.
ADAMS, Joseph, an English physician, born in 1756. After residing a year in Madeira, he was, from 1805 till his death, principal physician to the Small-Pox Hospital, London, and wrote "Observations on Morbid Poisons;" "A Guide to the Island of Madeira;" and a "Popular View of Vaccination."
ADAMS, Joseph, father and son, two London opticians of the eighteenth century, authors of various valuable works on microscopes, mathematical instruments, electricity, geography, and astronomy. The father died in 1786, and the son in 1795.
ADAMS, Richard, a non-conforming English Presbyterian divine, born about 1630. He was minister of St. Mildred's church, Bread-street, London, but was obliged to resign his living at the restoration of Charles II. He is the author of several theological works.
ADAMS, Robert, an architect and surveyor of buildings to Queen Elizabeth. Died in 1595.
* ADAMS, Robert, inventor and patentee of "Adams's Revolver,"—the revolver-pistol now exclusively employed in the British service—is a native of Devonshire, and managing director of the London Armoury Company.
ADAMS, Samuel, one of the leaders in the American revolution, born at Boston in 1722. He studied at Harvard college. He held for some time the office of revenue collector, which gave him an opportunity of becoming accurately acquainted with the social and political condition of his native province. From boyhood a theoretical and uncompromising democrat, he fearlessly urged the colonists to assert their independence, while almost every other champion of colonial rights aimed merely at the redress of grievances. His patriotic exertions proved, on the whole, highly beneficial to his country; but, under other circumstances, his temperament and sentiments might, with the best intentions, have done it infinite harm. He was the first, or among the first, to move in organizing political associations throughout the colonies. Though far inferior to his namesakes, John and John Quincy, in literary taste and attainments, as well as in comprehensive views of political science, he possessed, in a rare degree, practical good sense, administrative capacity, moral intrepidity, and a clear, forcible, and persuasive style, both in speaking and writing. In 1766 he became, and continued till 1774, member and clerk of the Massachusets house of representatives; and through his zeal, tact, and indefatigable industry, exerted very great influence during that period over its proceedings. He was one of the five deputies sent from Massachusetts to Philadelphia in September, 1774, and was elected a
