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Questions to ask John Adams

8 min read

John Adams (1735 to 1826) is the easiest founder to interview because he wrote down almost everything: a diary begun in his teens, more than a thousand letters exchanged with his wife Abigail, and fourteen years of letters to his old rival in retirement. Good questions ask about the 1770 Boston Massacre trial, his fight for independence in 1776, Paris and London, the Alien and Sedition Acts and the long reconciliation. Here are 25, with what the record says and his own words.

Adams in brief

Born on 30 October 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, John Adams studied at Harvard, taught school in Worcester and became a lawyer in 1758. He married Abigail Smith in 1764. He served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, as a diplomat in France, the Netherlands and Britain from 1778 to 1788, as the first Vice President and, from 1797 to 1801, as the second President. He died at home on 4 July 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration was adopted.

Five places, five sets of questions

Adams's life falls into five places. Choose one or two for a short interview, or one question from each for a full report. A wax museum Adams works best set in Philadelphia in July 1776.

The Boston courtroom, 1770

  • 1. Why did a patriot lawyer agree to defend the British soldiers who fired on a Boston crowd?
  • 2. Were you afraid of losing clients, or worse?
  • 3. What did you tell the jury about the crowd that night?
  • 4. Looking back, why did you call it one of the best actions of your life?

What the record says: after the shooting of 5 March 1770, Adams defended Captain Thomas Preston, who was acquitted in October, and eight soldiers, tried in December. Six were acquitted and two convicted of manslaughter. His diary entry of 5 March 1773 calls the defence one of the most disinterested actions of his life. His closing argument contains his best-known line (see the sample answers).

Philadelphia, 1776: questions for the 250th anniversary

  • 5. In April 1776 you published Thoughts on Government. What kind of government did you want the states to build?
  • 6. In May you wrote a preamble telling colonies to form new governments. Was that the real declaration of independence?
  • 7. Why did you let a younger delegate write the draft declaration instead of writing it yourself?
  • 8. On 1 July you answered John Dickinson's speech against independence. What did you argue?
  • 9. You wrote that 2 July, not 4 July, would be celebrated. Why?
  • 10. In September 1776 you and Franklin met Lord Howe on Staten Island to talk peace. What happened?

What the record says: Thoughts on Government recommends a two-house legislature, a separate executive and independent judges. Adams wrote the preamble to the resolution Congress adopted on 15 May 1776. He sat on the Committee of Five with Jefferson, Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston, and later said he urged Jefferson to write the draft. Congress voted for independence on 2 July and approved the text on 4 July. The Staten Island conference of 11 September 1776 failed because Howe could not treat with the states as independent. Our America 250 founders guide covers the other delegates.

Paris, Amsterdam and London

  • 11. Why did you and Benjamin Franklin get on each other's nerves in Paris?
  • 12. How did you persuade the Dutch to recognise the United States and lend it money?
  • 13. What was it like to stand before George III in 1785 as the first American minister?
  • 14. You wrote the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. Which part are you proudest of?

What the record says: Adams joined Franklin as a commissioner in 1778 and complained of his habits in his diary. The Dutch Republic recognised the United States in April 1782, and Adams arranged loans from Amsterdam bankers. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris (signed 3 September 1783). His account of meeting the King on 1 June 1785 is in a letter to John Jay. Article XXX of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights sets out a “government of laws and not of men”.

The President's House, 1797 to 1801

  • 15. You called the vice presidency an insignificant office. Why?
  • 16. Why did you send a peace mission to France when your own party wanted war?
  • 17. Why did you sign the Alien and Sedition Acts, and did you regret it?
  • 18. You were the first President to live in the White House. What was it like in November 1800?
  • 19. Why did you leave Washington early on the morning of the next inauguration?

What the record says: after the XYZ Affair (1797 to 1798) the country fought an undeclared naval war with France. Adams's decision to reopen talks in 1799 split the Federalists and enraged Alexander Hamilton (see our Hamilton vs Adams comparison). The Sedition Act of 1798 was used to prosecute opposition editors and a congressman, Matthew Lyon. Adams lost the 1800 election and left before dawn on 4 March 1801; historians still argue whether it was pique or simply the stagecoach timetable.

Peacefield, the long retirement

  • 20. How did Benjamin Rush get you writing to your old friend and rival again in 1812?
  • 21. What did you and he argue about in fourteen years of letters?
  • 22. You wrote that you never owned a slave. What did you think of men in Congress who did?
  • 23. What was it like to see your son John Quincy become President in 1825?
  • 24. What did Abigail's death in 1818 do to you?
  • 25. Do you think history treated you fairly?

What the record says: the Adams and Jefferson letters, 1812 to 1826, are published in one volume edited by Lester J. Cappon (1959). In a letter of 24 January 1801 to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley he wrote that he had never owned a slave and held the practice in abhorrence. His reported last words on 4 July 1826, that Jefferson still survived, were wrong: Jefferson had died a few hours earlier. They come from family memory, so present them as reported.

Sample answers in Adams's own words

For question 3 (the jury):

“Facts are stubborn things”
Argument for the defence, Boston Massacre trials, December 1770

For question 9 (the day to celebrate):

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”
Letter to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776 (Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society)

In the same letter he says the day should be marked with “Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other”. That is a fine closing line for a 1776 wax museum speech.

For question 25, or any question about what he gave up for politics:

“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy.”
Letter to Abigail Adams, May 1780

For question 18:

“May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”
Letter to Abigail Adams, 2 November 1800, his second night in the President's House

A question to ask with care: Abigail's “Remember the Ladies”

When Abigail asked him on 31 March 1776 to remember the ladies in the new laws, he replied on 14 April: “As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh.” Ask him about it, but expect him to tease, as he did then. Then ask the harder follow-up: whether the men of 1776 meant liberty for everyone. Our page on Remember the Ladies has the full exchange, and the questions to ask Abigail Adams give her side.

What Adams could not know

  • If your Adams speaks from 1776, he does not know he will be President, or that his co-author on the committee will become his rival.
  • He knows nothing of political parties as they work today; the Federalist and Republican groups of the 1790s were looser.
  • He lived in the White House for only four months, and it was unfinished.
  • TV dramas and musicals about him came long after. Do not ask him to review them.

Rehearsing with an AI Adams

Adams argued in long, heated sentences and then apologised for his temper. You can practise interviewing him with an AI recreation of John Adams on Yuga, by voice or text, in 24 languages. The recreation is drawn from his diary, letters and the historical record, but it can make mistakes, and a school project should cite the letters themselves.

Where to read Adams in his own hand

  • Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive (Massachusetts Historical Society): every letter between John and Abigail, with page images and transcripts, plus his diary.
  • Founders Online (founders.archives.gov): The Adams Papers, including Thoughts on Government and the presidential correspondence.
  • Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution (1876), free on Project Gutenberg.
  • Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, run by the National Park Service, preserves both birthplaces and Peacefield.

Questions people ask

What are good questions to ask John Adams?
Ask why he defended the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, what he argued in the independence debate of 1 July 1776, why he thought 2 July would be the national holiday, how he felt meeting George III, why he signed the Sedition Act and how he rebuilt his friendship with his old rival after 1812.
What did John Adams do in 1776?
He published Thoughts on Government in April, wrote the preamble to the 15 May resolution urging new state governments, served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration, led the argument for independence on 1 July, chaired the Board of War and met Lord Howe on Staten Island in September.
Did John Adams own slaves?
No. In a letter of 24 January 1801 he wrote that he had never owned a slave and abhorred the practice. He did not, however, make abolition a political cause, and he worked alongside enslavers in Congress and in government. Abigail Adams wrote more sharply against slavery in her letters than he did in public.
Why did John Adams think the Fourth of July would be the Second of July?
Congress voted for independence on 2 July 1776, and Adams wrote to Abigail the next day that the second of July would be remembered as the great anniversary festival. The approved text of the Declaration, dated 4 July, became the date people celebrated instead.

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