Adams attended high school and his first year of college in Fargo, North Dakota before transferring to Princeton University in 1892.

While there Adams played on the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team from 1893 to 1895 as quarterback and halfback.

In 1914 he was elected to his first term in the Minnesota Senate, a position he would hold for the next 22 years.

While a senator he was an advocate for the Babcock Amendment which established the Minnesota trunk highways as well as causes related to transportation, taxation and education.

He became president pro tempore of the Minnesota Senate in 1929 which meant that he became acting lieutenant governor after William Ignatius Nolan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.