The Adams Family

“If ever there was a “royal” American family, it was that of John and Abigail Adams: John, Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence and president; his son John Quincy, president; and his grandson Charles Francis, Abraham Lincoln’s ambassador to England, who played a key role in keeping the British from siding with the South during the Civil War. Yet the Adamses were deeply mired in tragedy. Charles Francis Adams described his family as “one of great triumphs in the world but of deep groans within, one of extraordinary brilliancy and deep corroding mortification.”

Of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin said, “Always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, he is absolutely out of his senses.” Certainly historians have indicated this was often true of Adams as a father. John and Abigail Adams had three sons and two daughters, one of whom, Susanna, died in infancy. One son became president of the United States. The other two died alcoholics.”

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