[1] He attended the public schools, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, practiced in Franklin County.

[2] He was a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1833 to 1834, when he removed to Aberdeen, Mississippi[1] and commenced the practice of law.

He again became a judge of the circuit court in 1848, was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1850, and was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1851.

[1] Adams was elected to the U.S. Senate on February 19, 1852, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Jefferson Davis[1] and served from March 17, 1852 to March 3, 1857; while in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Retrenchment (Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses).

At the close of his term he removed to Memphis, Tennessee and resumed the practice of law[1] until he died there of smallpox[3] on May 11, 1857[4] and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery.