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 Sec...