John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, and died on July 4, 1826.

Perhaps no Founding Father better embodies American conservative thought than our first Vice President and second President, John Adams. Russell Kirk counted Adams as “the founder of true conservatism in America” in The Conservative Mind and Peter Viereck considered Adams to be America’s first conservative.

Ever the traditionalist, Adams understood the American Revolution to be a restoration of the rights and privileges enjoyed by English subjects of the Crown and not a populous uprising against all authority in favor of an entirely new and innovative system. As such, the American Revolution, with its deference to nature, reason, and tradition, was far more successful than its bloody and chaotic counterpart in the French Revolution. And to a great extent all Americans have John Adams to thank for the ordered liberties we enjoy today.