Short, overweight, and quick-tongued, John Adams hardly fits the model of the typical Founder. But Adams's contributions to American independence and the formation of the United States government were great. Adams penned defenses of American rights in the 1770s and was one of the earliest advocates of colonial independence from Great Britain. The author of the Massachusetts Constitution and Declaration of Rights of 1780, Adams was also a champion of individual liberty. He favored the addition of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. When he was elected president in 1796, he kept America out of a war with France but signed the unpopular (and likely unconstitutional) Alien and Sedition Acts to do so.