John Adams card art from Lost Chapters (Quartz, Character) — Card art: John Adams

John Adams: Quartz Character

John Adams (1735 to 1826) was a Massachusetts lawyer, revolutionary leader and diplomat who became the second president of the United States, serving from 1797 to 1801. He defended the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre trials, pushed Congress toward independence and helped negotiate the peace treaty that ended the war.

Cost: 7 crystals
Type: Character · Founder
Power / Health: 5 / 7
Color: Quartz (Founders & Revolution)
Rarity: Uncommon
Set: Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)

Your Founders get +1/+0.

On play: draw a card.

Brilliant but abrasive patriot who defended British soldiers, defeated British tyranny, then lost to French fashion.

Real history

The real history

Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in Braintree, Massachusetts, where his father farmed and made shoes. He entered Harvard at 15, graduated in 1755, taught school to pay for legal training and opened a law practice in Boston in 1758. In 1764 he married Abigail Smith.

By 1770 he had one of the largest caseloads in Boston, and he was chosen to defend the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre that March. Through his defense, none of the accused soldiers went to jail.

Adams joined the First Continental Congress in 1774 and became a leader of the members pushing for independence. In June 1775 he nominated George Washington to command the new Continental Army, and in 1776 he served on the committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence, one of about 90 committees he worked on.

From 1778 he served as a diplomat in France and the Netherlands, where he secured a crucial loan. With Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris, and in 1785 he became the first U.S. minister to Great Britain.

After eight years as the first vice president, Adams won the presidency in 1796. His term was shaken by a near war with France and by the Alien and Sedition Acts, which targeted immigrants and political opponents. He kept the country out of full war, but he lost the 1800 election to Jefferson. Unlike the Virginians before and after him, he never owned enslaved people.

He retired to Peacefield, his home in Quincy, where he kept up a vigorous correspondence with friends and family. Adams died on July 4, 1826, hours after Jefferson.

Sources

John Adams: Life Before the Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia
John Adams, White House Historical Association
John Adams (1735 to 1826), Adams National Historical Park, National Park Service

Checked against these sources on October 2, 2026. Spot a mistake? Report an error. How we check facts.

Game lore (invented)

In the game's story

In the game's invented story, a Bridgecrew sailor in Marginalia is accused of starting the fire that damaged the Dogear Crossing granary, and the whole town wants him hanged. Adams takes the case, argues it before the Queen for two days and proves an Echo set the fire, so the sailor goes free. He is stubborn and easily irritated by Franklin and Hamilton, and he is drafting a constitution for Marginalia that nobody asked for, but he is never irritated by Abigail, who arrives three weeks after him.

In Lost Chapters' frame story, history's heroes fall into an invented world called Marginalia. That story is fiction; the history on this page is real.

How the card plays

John Adams costs 7 crystals and is a 5/7 Uncommon Quartz Founder. While he is on the field, your Founders get +1/+0, and when he arrives you draw a card. He is a big, late play that makes a whole Founder deck hit harder.

He is legal under the George Washington Leader, whose passive also gives Founders +0/+1.

Several Quartz cards name him directly. Abigail Adams gets +2/+2 while you control John Adams, so with his aura she becomes at least a 5/6 Guard. Thomas Jefferson gets +1/+1 with him around and +1/+0 from his aura. National Convention lowers his cost by 1 and gives every Founder +1/+1, which stacks with his boost. Land him on turn 4 or later, once you have Founders out to power up.

Playable in decks led by George Washington, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Quartz.
In the Washington starter deck (1 copy). Deck code: LC2-BhoCgAKBAYIBgwGEAYUBhgKHAYgBiQGKAYsBjAKNAY4BjwGQAZEBkgGTAZQBlQGWAZcBmAGZAZoCmwGcAZ0BngGfAaABoQFBjA
Works with Thomas Jefferson; Abigail Adams.
A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.

Questions about John Adams

What were John Adams's last words?

His family later recalled them as 'Thomas Jefferson survives.' Adams did not know that Jefferson had died several hours earlier that same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration.

Was John Adams the first president to live in the White House?

Yes. John and Abigail Adams were the first people to live in the Executive Mansion in Washington, D.C.

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