Explore the many individuals whom John Quincy Adams mentioned in his diary entries.
Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams
(1775-1852), the wife of John Quincy Adams and the first foreign-born first lady. She married Adams in London in 1797 and contributed to his diplomatic and political career through her skillful navigation of European courts and Washington social politics. She gave birth to five children, three of whom reached adulthood.
George Washington Adams
(1801-1829), the eldest son of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams. He graduated from Harvard College in 1821, studied and practiced law in Boston, and served in city and state politics. He fathered one child. He suffered from alcoholism and died from a fall or jump from a ship.
John Adams 2d
(1803-1834), the second child of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams. After being expelled from Harvard College in 1823, he served as his father’s private secretary (1825-1827) and managed his Washington flour mill. He married his cousin Mary Catherine Hellen in 1828 and had two children. He died from alcoholism.
Charles Francis Adams
(1807-1886), the third son of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams. He spent his childhood abroad and graduated from Harvard College in 1825. He was US minister to Great Britain during the Civil War and later served on the Alabama Claims commission. He married Abigail Brown Brooks in 1829 and had seven children.
Henry Clay
(1777-1852), a representative and a senator from Kentucky. He and John Quincy Adams served together as commissioners to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. He ran against Adams in the 1824 presidential election and served as his secretary of state from 1825 to 1829.
Andrew Jackson
(1767-1845), ran against John Quincy Adams in the 1824 and 1828 presidential elections. He was a general in the US Army during the War of 1812. He served as representative and senator for Tennessee and a judge of the state supreme court. He was the seventh US president.