John Adams
1735 – 1826
John Adams (1735-1826) was one of the principal framers of the American republic and the successor to Washington as president. Before the Revolution he wrote some of the most important documents on the nature of the British Constitution and the meaning of rights, sovereignty, representation, and obligation. And it was Adams who, once the colonies had declared independence, wrote equally important works on possible forms of government in a quest to develop a science of politics for the construction of a constitution for the proposed republic.