Although it is called The War for American Independence, there were actually two disputes, which have been summarized as, first, the fight for home rule and, second, the fight over who ruled at home. Adams was very much in favor of home rule, like much of his family and friends in Massachusetts where the revolt really took root.

But Adams was very much an elitist. He thought of himself as quite a superior man, and his time in England as US ambassador in the several years after the War made him an admirer of British Constructional Monarchy, where a ruling class governed on behalf of a population, didn't let them make decisions. This fit him in pretty well with many Federalists, who also wanted to have a governing class. And also made him quite an appealing target to the Jeffersonian Democratic Republicans, who spread rumors that he was a Monarchist. So, you could say that he was a radical when it came to home rule, a conservative in deciding who was going to rule at home.

But as far as reconciliation with Great Britain, the US really had little choice. It was deeply in debt, needed to trade in order to reduce that debt, and England held many of the major ports it could use, both in England and the Caribbean. The peace treaty signed after Yorktown had not re-opened trade with England, and also had left some matters open, like the status of British forts and their Native allies in the Northwest. Unfortunately for Adams, in the Articles of Confederation period instead of an executive branch and a President behind him he had the entire Continental Congress to satisfy, and that turned out to be impossible. Treaties with Great Britain and with Spain ( who controlled the Mississippi and Gulf coast) didn't happen until there finally was an executive branch, and John Jay's treaty with Britain in 1797. By then, the US had gotten reasonably close to starting another war with Britain over those western territories, and something really had to be worked out.