Israel’s Ideal; or, Studies in Old Testament Theology

This son of a successful Massachusetts farmer chose law over the ministry, which he considered too contentious; yet Adams himself never scorned a worthy fight. As second president of the United States - antagonized by Anglophile Alexander Hamilton on the one side, and Francophile Thomas Jefferson on the other - Adams successfully worked to keep the fledgling United States out of the war between revolutionary France and counter-revolutionary Europe. He later called his decision for peace "the most splendid diamond in my crown." Adams's constitutional writings are collected in Works (1850-56), while his personal writings have been published in the Adams Papers.