July 7, 2026
Introduction: In this article – to help celebrate America 250 – Katie Rebecca Merkley continues her series about our Founding Fathers, today featuring John Adams. Katie specializes in U.S. research for family history, enjoys writing and researching, and is developing curricula for teaching children genealogy. She has a website: krgarnergenealogy.com
Today, news about politicians is posted online. Before the internet, there were newspapers. This was how our ancestors got news of the politicians of their day. During the Revolutionary era, the politicians being reported on were the Founding Fathers. This article examines John Adams (1735-1826) in the newspapers, showing how his name kept popping up in the news during those tumultuous times.
John Adams
John Adams opposed the Stamp Act, one of several tax acts imposed by the King of England, which led to the Revolutionary War. While John Adams wasn’t specifically mentioned in the newspaper article below, the Stamp Act and the courts’ response were, indicating just how complicated this situation had become.
This article reports that the Stamp Act had not been legally transmitted and that the court in Frederick County had ordered that its business be transacted without stamps in defiance of the king. The court clerk at first refused to conduct any business without stamped paper, but when threatened with jail time relented.
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, and Eldridge Gerry were chosen to represent their colony in Congress for the year 1776. This was reported in a Massachusetts newspaper, which was quoting news from Watertown. It did not specify where Watertown was.
There are multiple places in the U.S. called Watertown, including in states that were part of the original 13 colonies. I asked AI to give me a timeline of the establishment of each Watertown, and only Watertown, Massachusetts, existed before the Revolutionary War. This suggests that “this colony” referred to in the newspaper clipping was Massachusetts.
Later that year, Congress appointed John Adams as Chief Justice of Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin also received appointments from Congress.
This article also talks about the Revolutionary War. The king’s army retreated into Boston, and a detachment of the patriot army exploited that. Armies tried taking Cobble Hill. The patriots succeeded in fortifying an important point.
In 1780, John Adams’ name was used in a scam, as evidenced by the 1781 newspaper article below. That paper had printed a letter believed to be from John Adams, but they found it suspicious. The grounds of suspicion were that John Adams could not have known the information contained in the letter supposedly from him. The newspaper editor concluded the letter supposedly from Adams:
“…must be considered as spurious, and was doubtless fabricated by our Enemies to answer some of their evil Designs.”
The Revolutionary War was officially over when the Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783. John Adams had been appointed the American commissioner to negotiate the war-ending treaty.
This article reports:
Whereas these United States, from a sincere desire of putting an end to the hostilities between his Most Christian Majesty and these United States… did heretofore appoint the Honourable John Adams, late a Commissioner of the United States of America at the Court of Versailles, late a Delegate in Congress from the State of Massachusetts, and Chief Justice of the said State, their Minister Plenipotentiary, with full powers, general and special, to act in that quality, to confer, treat, agree, and conclude with the Ambassadors or Plenipotentiaries of his Most Christian Majesty, and of his Britannic Majesty, and those of any other Princes or States whom it might concern, relating to the reestablishment of peace and friendship.
When word of the signing of the Treaty of Paris reached America, it was huge news, published in the nation’s newspapers.
After his success as a revolutionary, state politician, chief justice, and diplomat, Adams went on to become the first vice president of the United States, serving throughout George Washington’s two-term presidency, from 1789 to 1797. He then capped off his political career by becoming the second U.S. president, from 1797-1801.
John Adams was one of the many men who helped form our nation, as seen in the newspaper articles above. As we celebrate the 250th year of our independence, let’s remember him and what he accomplished.
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Note on the header image: America’s 250th Anniversary. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
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