On This Day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Die

The second and third presidents of the United States died just hours apart on July 4, 1826. According to The Claremount Institute, Adams uttered his final words, “Jefferson survives,” unaware of the fact that his longtime friend had passed away just hours before.

Renowned American statesman Daniel Webster was called to deliver a eulogy for Adams and Jefferson at Boston’s Fanueil Hall one month after their deaths. His speech praised both men’s achievements, saying that they would influence society for the rest of time: “No two men now live … who, more than those we now commemorate, have ... given a more lasting direction to the current of human thought. Their work doth not perish with them.” He encouraged the crowd to honor the liberty granted to them by Adams and Jefferson.

Adams, the second U.S. President, and Jefferson, his successor in office, had both helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was 83 years old when he died, Adams was 90.

According to the BBC, it was during the years following the war of 1812 that the United States began to expand; it set up a national bank and purchased more land. When James Monroe was elected president in 1820, he ushered in with him the “Era of Good Feelings.” However, John Quincy Adams’ highly disputed election to the presidency in 1824 caused the already present divide between the regions of the United States to grow.

For more resources to learn about the American Revolution and the early years of the United States, visit the U.S. History Web Guide.

John Adams

Born in Massachusetts, John Adams started his career as a Harvard-educated lawyer. According to the White House Web site, Adams served in the Continental Congress and helped to negotiate treaties with France and Holland during the Revolutionary War. He later served as vice president under George Washington. In 1796, Adams was elected as the country’s second president, with Jefferson as his vice president. During his term, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of four bills written by Federalists which aimed to protect the U.S. from foreign citizens and Republican attacks on the government. When Adams died in 1826, his son John Quincy Adams was president of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson

Before taking over the presidency in 1801, Thomas Jefferson served as the minister to France for President George Washington and as vice president under Adams. In addition to co-authoring the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson served as the third U.S. President from 1801 to 1809, during which time he nearly doubled the size of the U.S. by acquiring 828,000 square miles of land in the Louisiana Purchase.

James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, died exactly five years after Adams and Jefferson, on July 4, 1831. According to the Miller Center of Public Affairs, during his term in office, Monroe approved the Missouri Compromise in 1820, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while banning slavery in northern American territory. He also issued the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which prevented European powers from interfering with newly independent Latin American colonies.