The United Sates has had a short yet complex history in its two hundred and twenty-four years. She has produced millions and millions of great individuals. These great minds have shaped what America is today. Others, however, have personally molded this magnificent nation with their own acts. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson are the most influential builders of the United States of America. John Adams was born loyal to the English Crown but evolved into the second President of the Free World. As a lawyer, Adams emerged into politics as an opponent of the Stamp Act and was a leader in the Revolutionary group opposing the British measures that were to lead to the American Revolution. Sent to the First Continental Congress, he distinguished himself, and in the Second Continental Congress he was a moderate but forceful revolutionary. He proposed George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental troops to bind Virginia more tightly to the cause for independence. He favored the Declaration of Independence, was a member of the drafting committee, and argued eloquently for it. Adams was one of the negotiators who drew up the momentous Treaty of Paris to end the American Revolution. Adams diplomatic skills brought him much political fame.Thomas Jefferson, although never effective as a public speaker, won a reputation as a draftsman of resolutions and addresses. In the colonial House of Burgesses Jefferson was a leader of the patriot faction. He helped form, and became a member of, the Virginia Committee of Correspondence. In his paper A Summary View of the Rights of British America, prepared for the First Virginia Convention, he brilliantly expounded the view that Parliament had no authority in the colonies and that the only bond with England was that of voluntary allegiance to the king. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he served as a member of the committee to draft ...
