a. John Adams (1735-1826) 2nd president of the
United States, he helped establish the primacy of the voter when he left office upon the election of an opponent of a rival political
party (Jefferson); helped persuade the Continental Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independence; and understood the importance of a strong navy
long before other American leaders. But he was often personally offensive and, further, pushed the Alien & Sedition Acts, making it a crime to criticize the president.
b. John Coolidge Adams (1947- ) a minimalist American composer, won the Pulitzer Prize for his choral
work based on the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center, "On the Transmigration of Souls." A composer of operas, he is most widely known for his minimalist opera "Nixon in
China."
c. John Couch Adams (1819–1892), a British mathematician and astronomer, predicted the existence of the planet Neptune, solely on the basis of mathematics and the laws of Newton and Kepler. The Royal Astronomical Society later awarded him its Gold Medal.
d. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) 6th president of the United States and son of the 2nd, distinguished himself as an early opponent of slavery. But he was a one-term president, having entered office under the cloud of a
shady bargain involving the electoral
college. He died of a stroke while serving in Congress, in the same room as the young Abraham
Lincoln who, unfortunately, had
never the time to know and learn from him.
