was in the Amherst schools and in Phillips Exeter academy. He was graduated at Amherst in 1872, and received the degree of Ph. D. at Heidelberg, Germany, in 1876. He was fellow in history in Johns Hopkins university from 1876 to 1878, associate from 1878 to 1883, and was appointed associate professor in 1883. He has been secretary of the American historical association since its foundation in 1884. In 1873 he went to Europe and devoted three years to travel and study. His principal writings are “The Germanic Origin of the New England Towns”; “Saxon Tithing-Men in America”; “Norman Constables in America”: “Village Communities”; “Methods of Historical Study,” and “Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States.” All these papers are published in the “Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science,” edited by Prof. Adams, 4 vols. (Baltimore, 1883-'86).
ADAMS, Isaac, inventor, b. in Rochester, N. H., in 1803; d. in Sandwich, N. H., 19 July, 1883. His education was limited. At an early age he was a factory operative, and afterward learned the trade of cabinet maker, but in 1824 went to Boston and sought work in a machine shop. In 1828 he invented the printing-press that bears his name. It was introduced in 1830, and came into almost universal use, being still so popular as to warrant its manufacture in more than thirty different sizes. He improved it in 1834, making it substantially what it now is. The distinctive feature of his presses is that the impression is given by lifting a flat bed with its form against a stationary platen. The sheets are fed by hand. He engaged with his brother Seth in the manufacture of these and other machines, and acquired a competency. He was a member of the Massachusetts senate in 1840. His last years were spent in retirement.
ADAMS, James Hopkins, statesman, b. in South Carolina about 1811; d. near Columbia, S. C., 27 July, 1861. He was graduated at Yale in 1831. In 1832, during the “nullification” excitement, he strongly opposed the nullifiers in the legislature. After serving in the state senate for several sessions, he was elected governor for the term of 1855-'57. He was one of the state commissioners that were chosen, after the ordinance of secession was passed, to treat with the president concerning the disposition of United States property in South Carolina.
ADAMS, Jasper, educator, b. in Medway, Mass., 27 Aug., 1793; d. in Charleston, S. C, 25 Oct., 1841. He was graduated at Brown university in 1815, and studied theology at Andover. In 1819 he was chosen professor of mathematics at Brown university, and during the same year was ordained in the Protestant Episcopal church. He became president of the college of Charleston in 1824, and of Geneva, N. Y. (now Hobart) college in 1826. Again, from 1828 to 1836, he was in charge of the college of Charleston. He was chaplain and professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point from 1888 to 1840, and subsequently was in charge of a seminary at Pendleton, S. C. He published sermons and addresses, and a "Moral Philosophy" (New York, 1838).
ADAMS, John, clergyman, b. 1704; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 28 Jan., 1740,, He was graduated at Harvard in 1721, became pastor of a church in Newport, R. I., April 11, 1828, and afterward settled in Philadelphia. He was well known as an author and linguist, and is described as "master of nine languages, and conversant with Greek, Latin, French, and Spanish authors." His poems (Boston, 1745) include a metrical version of the Book of Revelation. A satirical poem on the love of money was published separately.
ADAMS, John, second president of the United States, b. in that part of the town of Braintree, Mass., which has since been set off as the town of Quincy, 30 Oct., 1735; d. there, 4 July, 1826. His great-grandfather, Henry Adams, received a grant of about 40 acres of land in Braintree in 1636, and soon afterward emigrated from Devonshire, England, with his eight sons. John Adams, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest son of John Adams and Susanna Boylston, daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline. His father, one of the selectmen of Braintree and a deacon of the church, was a thrifty farmer, and at his death in 1760 his estate was appraised at £1,330 9s. 6d., which in those days might have been regarded as a moderate competence.
It was the custom of the family to send the eldest
son to college, and accordingly John was graduated
at Harvard in 1755. Previous to 1773 the graduates
of Harvard were arranged in lists, not
alphabetically or in order of merit, but according to the
social standing of their parents. In a class of
twenty-four members John thus stood fourteenth.
One of his classmates was John Wentworth, afterward
royal governor of New Hampshire, and then
of Nova Scotia. After taking his degree and while
waiting to make his choice of a profession, Adams
took charge of the grammar school at Worcester.
It was the year of Braddock's defeat, when the
smouldering fires of a century of rivalry between
France and England broke out in a blaze of war
which was forever to settle the question of the
primacy of the English race in the modern world.
Adams took an intense interest in the struggle, and
predicted that if we could only drive out “these
turbulent Gallics,” our numbers would in another
century exceed those of the British, and all
Europe would be unable to subdue us. In sending
him to college his family seem to have hoped that
he would become a clergyman; but he soon found
himself too much of a free thinker to feel at home
in the pulpit of that day. When accused of
Arminianism, he cheerfully admitted the charge.
Later in life he was sometimes called a Unitarian,
but of dogmatic Christianity he seems to have had
as little as Franklin or Jefferson. “Where do we
find,” he asks, “a precept in the gospel requiring
ecclesiastical synods, convocations, councils,
decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and
whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find
religion encumbered with in these days?” In this
mood he turned from the ministry and began the
study of law at Worcester. There was then a
strong prejudice against lawyers in New England,
but the profession throve lustily nevertheless, so
litigious were the people. In 1758 Adams began
the practice of his profession in Suffolk co., having
