John Quincy Adams’s (JQA) diary, which was inspired by his father John Adams (JA) and started as a travel journal, initiated a lifelong writing obsession. In 1779, twelve-year-old JQA made his second trip abroad to accompany his father’s diplomatic mission. While in Europe, he attended various schools and traveled to St. Petersburg as an interpreter during Francis Dana’s mission to Russia. He subsequently served as JA’s secretary at Paris during the final months before the Anglo-American Definitive Peace Treaty was signed in September 1783. Two years later, JQA returned to the US. After graduating from Harvard College in 1787, he moved to Newburyport to read law under Theophilus Parsons and in 1790 he established a legal practice in Boston. JQA’s skill as a writer brought him public acclaim, and in 1794 President George Washington nominated him as US minister resident to the Netherlands.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) entered diplomatic service in September 1794 as US minister resident to the Netherlands. He married Louisa Catherine Johnson (LCA) in July 1797 after a fourteen-month engagement, and their three sons were born in this period. During his father John Adams’s (JA) presidency they moved to Berlin where, as US minister plenipotentiary, JQA signed a new Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. JQA returned to the US in 1801 and entered politics, elected first to the Massachusetts senate in 1802 and then to the US Senate in 1803. His contentious relationship with fellow Federalist members over his support of some Democratic-Republican policies led to his removal from office. In May 1808 the Federalist-controlled Massachusetts legislature voted to replace him at the end of his term, prompting JQA’s resignation in June. Between 1806 and 1809 he also served as the first Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) returned to diplomatic service in August 1809 as the US’s first minister plenipotentiary to Russia. In St. Petersburg JQA was well-liked by Emperor Alexander I and closely followed the battles of the Napoleonic Wars then raging across Europe. When the US declared war on Great Britain in 1812, Adams watched from afar as the conflict dragged on for two years. In April 1814, he traveled to Ghent, Belgium, as part of the US delegation to negotiate an end to the war with England; the Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve. Subsequently appointed US minister to the Court of St. James’s in May 1815, JQA served in London for the next two years.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) served as the US secretary of state during James Monroe’s presidency. Adams’s duties included organizing and responding to all State Department correspondence and negotiating agreements beneficial to the US. His achievements as secretary of state include the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which established the US border with Canada along the 49th parallel, and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 (Transcontinental Treaty), which resulted in the US acquisition of Florida. JQA also formulated the policy that became known as the Monroe Doctrine, in which the US called for European non-intervention in the western hemisphere, specifically in the affairs of newly independent Latin American nations. As Monroe’s presidency came to an end, JQA was among the top candidates in the 1824 presidential election. When no candidate earned the necessary majority, the House of Representatives decided the election in JQA’s favor in February 1825.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) was inaugurated as the sixth president of the US on 4 March 1825 and began his administration with an ambitious agenda of improvements for American society. His presidency was embattled. Supporters of Andrew Jackson, who believed their candidate had unfairly lost the 1824 election, worked ceaselessly to foil JQA’s plans. Domestically, JQA refused to replace civil servants with partisan supporters, and his administration became involved in disputes between the Creek Nation and the state of Georgia. JQA’s foreign policy also suffered, as partisan bickering in Congress failed to provide timely funding for US delegates to attend the 1826 Congress of Panama. Political mudslinging in advance of the 1828 presidential election was particularly fierce, and by mid-1827 JQA knew he would not be reelected.
In 1831 John Quincy Adams (JQA) became the only former president to subsequently serve in the US House of Representatives. As the chairman of the House Committee on Manufactures, he helped compose the compromise tariff bill of 1832. He traveled to Philadelphia as part of a committee that investigated the Bank of the United States, drafting a minority report in support of rechartering the bank after disagreeing with the committee’s majority report. JQA regularly presented the antislavery petitions he received from across the country, and he vehemently opposed the passage of the Gag Rule in 1836 that prevented House discussion of petitions related to slavery. He opposed the annexation of Texas, and in 1838 he delivered a marathon speech condemning the evils of slavery. JQA also chaired the committee that oversaw the bequest of James Smithson, which was used to establish the Smithsonian Institution.
During his final years of service in the US House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams (JQA) continued to oppose the Gag Rule that prevented House discussion of petitions related to slavery. In 1839 he joined the defense team for the Africans who revolted aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad. The Supreme Court declared the Amistad Africans free on 9 March 1841 after JQA delivered oral arguments in their favor. In 1842 JQA faced a censure hearing and ably defended himself against charges from southern congressmen. He introduced a successful resolution that finally led to the repeal of the Gag Rule in 1844. JQA voted against both the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the US declaration of war with Mexico in 1846. He collapsed on the floor of the House on 21 February 1848 and died two days later.
r: Montréal and Mr Harris—
Mr: Montréal told me of some political
intrigues in agitation; and brought me a couple of pamphlets containing
information concerning the cultivation of hemp. Mr: Harris says that there happened to be one member of the
College of Commerce who understood something of the nature of Havanna
sugars, and who pronounced the samples brought from Archangel to be of
that description— In consequence of which the report of the College has
been suspended, and the appearances begin to be more favourable to the
persons interested— As I was little acquainted with the different sorts
of sugar myself, and the various processes of its refinement I have been
making some enquiries concerning it, and consulted 159Jaubert’s Dictionnaire des
Arts et Métiers— I was thus engaged untill dinner time, and walked
immediately after dinner. The days are already so short, and are so
rapidly growing shorter that after the close of this month I shall be
obliged to take all my exercise in the morning— Spent the Evening in
writing, and in reading the newspapers lent me by the French Ambassador. I have made
it a practice for several years to read the Bible through in the course
of every year— I usually devote to this reading the first hour after I
rise every morning— As including the Apocrypha it contains about 1400
chapters, and as I meet with occasional interruptions, when this reading
is for single days, and sometimes for weeks; or even months suspended,
my rule is to read five chapters each morning, which leaves an allowance
for about one fourth of the time for such interruptions— Extraordinary
pressure of business, seldom interrupts more than one day’s reading at a
time— Sickness has frequently occasioned longer suspensions— And
travelling still more and longer— During the present year, having lost
very few days, I have finished the perusal earlier than usual— I closed
the book yesterday— As I do not wish to suspend the habit of allowing
regularly this time to this purpose, I have this morning commenced it
anew— And for the sake of endeavouring to understand the Book better, as
well as of giving some variety to the study, I have begun this time,
with Ostervald’s french
Translation; which has the advantage of a few short reflections upon
each chapter.— I ought perhaps to be ashamed at having read this Book
through, so many times, and at possessing its contents so little as I
do— The regular and methodical manner of reading is not without defects—
The division, by a given number of chapters is arbitrary and artificial—
The appropriation of a certain hour inevitably devotes times when
occasionally the attention is absorbed by objects, passions, interests,
feelings, which the affairs of life bring up as it runs, and when the
mind cannot command its application— The Bible is in many of its parts,
as Saint Peter says of his brother
Paul’s Epistles, hard to be
understood— It presents difficulties of various kinds— The help of
Commentators I have scarcely ever had at hand, and if I had, could not
use, without devoting several hours of every day, instead of one to this
object— It has long been one of the numerous Resolutions, which I take,
and do not fulfill, to undertake this at some indefinite time; but I am
always making to myself excuses for postponing it to some future time—
Imperfect as my method is, I regret none of the time thus bestowed— At
every perusal, I do add something to my knowledge of the
Scriptures—something to my veneration of them, and I would hope,
something to the improvement, which ought to result from this
occupation, and which is the great motive to it— I received notice from
the Grand-Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, that there would be a Court held to-morrow, on
the anniversary of the Emperor’s
Coronation, and a Te Deum on occasion of the late victory over the
Turks.