They started a farm of 160 acres in what would become Mount Pleasant, Green County, Wisconsin.
Adams was elected from the first district (the Towns of New Glarus, York, Exeter, Brooklyn, Washington and Mount Pleasant) in 1861, and re-elected in 1863.
Upon statehood, he was elected to the Green County seat in the State Assembly for the 1st Wisconsin Legislature as a Democrat, with 469 votes to 398 for John W. Stewart.
In 1853, he ran for Wisconsin's 24th State Senate district, losing to Francis H. West, a Democrat who in the next session would join the newly-organized Republican Party.
He was not a candidate for re-election in 1869 (having moved to Hardin County, Iowa), and was succeeded by "Independent Republican" John C. Hall.