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 R. Boyd
at Paris, to send by Coll. Drayton, with the balance
of a Bill for Articles sent to Mrs Adams. Made up a
Packet of despatches for the Secretary of
State, and soon after Nine this Morning left home with
Mrs Adams and went into London. We
stopped at Craven Street— We had expected there would have been a Letter
of notice from Lady Castlereagh,
to Mrs Adams or from Mr
Chester to me, but there was none— Mrs: Adams went to Mrs King’s lodgings 60 Conduit
Street to dress— Mr
Hartshorn an American called for a Passport, which was
given him. He mentioned having once dined with me several years ago, at
Mr T. C.
Amory’s in Boston— While he was at the office I received a
Note from Mr Chester, the assistant Master
of the Ceremonies, by his Servant, enquiring whether I had received a
note which he had written me yesterday, and whether he might expect me
at half past three O’Clock to go to my Audience of the Queen.— I knew not what this could mean.
The Drawing Room was appointed for two O’Clock, and I saw my Audience
was to be after it; but knew not whether it was understood that Mrs: Adams was to be presented at the Drawing
Room, or to wait for Another— I apologized to Mr Hartshorn for leaving him, and walked to Mr Chester’s House 68 South Audley Street. I
had not received his Note written yesterday; but found that although I
was to have my Audience, after the Drawing Room, and could of course not
appear at it, Mrs Adams was still to be
presented at it. Mr Chester had proposed to
me to call upon him and go at half past three, to spare me the trouble
of waiting there until the Drawing Room should be over; but as in that
case Mrs: Adams would have been obliged to
go alone, would be a stranger there, and might miss of meeting Lady
Castlereagh, I concluded to go with her and wait; Mr Chester agreed to go with us— I went to
Mr
King’s at Conduit Street, and informed her of this
arrangement— Mrs
Von-Harten, Mrs Morison, and Miss Carnell were there, to see her dressed. I
then took a Hackney Coach to go to Craven Street, but met my own
Carriage on the way. Went in it— Dressed at Craven Street— Returned to
Mrs King’s and took up Mrs Adams— Called and took up Mr Chester at his house, and at a few minutes
after two were at Buckingham house— Earl and Countess
Bathurst arrived just at the same time that we did. There
is a special entrance into the Park, reserved for certain privileged
persons, among whom are the foreign Ministers, and for which Mr Chester gave us a ticket. The convenience
of it is to avoid the crowd, and waiting. It is the entrance by
Constitution Hill, at Hyde Park Corner— There is also a Hall, adjoining
that where the Drawing Room is held, where only the privileged persons
are admitted, and their presentations are before those of the Crowd of
nobility and gentry of the Country. These are kept in a Hall below— Lady
Castlereagh did not arrive until after the first part of the
presentations was over so that to avoid the Crowd, Countess Bathurst
presented Mrs Adams— When the crowd from
below were shewn up into the Hall, Mr
Chester shewed me in to that which they had left, and I waited there
until the Drawing Room was over. Mrs Adams
after having been presented met Lord and Lady Castlereagh, as they were just going in—
Mr Chester told us that Lady Castlereagh
was noted for always coming too late— Mrs
Adams returned then to Mrs King’s, and sent
back the Carriage for me— I waited in the Hall below until past four
O’Clock— While I was there, the Duke and Duchess of
York, passed through it, going by a private passage, to the
drawing-room, and the Duke of
Sussex, and the Duke, and Princess Sophia of Gloucester, in coming from
it. The Duke of Sussex stopped and spoke to me— He talked of the victory
gained by the fall of the property tax, and remarked to me that he was
in a court dress, not a military uniform, because in time of Peace it
was proper to lay that aside. After changing his Dress in a next Room he
said “You are going to have your Audience, and must wait some time. I am
going to dine with about five hundred Jews.” I laughed and said “I see
your Royal Highness is of all Religions.”— “Yes![”] said he; at least
for tolerating them all— And for supporting the Ministers of the
established Religion, in such a manner, as should not alienate from them
the affection of their flocks— He said he was also going to a Ball at
the Lord Mayor’s— Part of the time
while I was waiting, Count
Beroldingen, the Minister from the king of Wurtemberg was
also there. He had a letter from the king to the Prince Regent, and another to Queen,
announcing the Marriage of the Crown
Prince of Wurtemberg his Son, with the Grand Duchess Catherine of Russia,
Dowager of the Prince of
Oldenburg. These Letters were to be delivered in private
Audiences, but the question of etiquette was, whether the Queen could
receive the one addressed to her, before that to the Prince Regent had
been delivered to him— The Count had asked the question, and was kept
waiting for the answer until I returned from my Audience— He was then
told that the Queen could not receive the Letter in private Audience,
until after the Prince Regent should have received his— But that if he
the Count preferred it, he might send the Letter for the Queen to the
Lord Chamberlain— He
chose to deliver it in private Audience, but was somewhat mortified at
the manner in which he was treated, and told me that they did not
understand here, their own rules of etiquette.— Mr Chester accompanied and conducted me to the Queen’s Cabinet.
The Earl of Morton, her
Majesty’s Lord Chamberlain introduced me— The Queen was standing about
the middle of the Chamber. Just behind her at her right hand stood the
Princess Augusta, at her left
the Princess Mary—further back several Ladies in waiting, and the
Duke of Kent in Military Uniform.
415I had been repeatedly told and particularly
by Mr Chester this Morning, that the Queen
always expected on these occasions to be addressed in a set Speech— I
said thus—“Madam! The President of the
United States having accredited me to His Royal Highness
the Prince Regent, I have been ambitious of the honour of being admitted
to your Majesty’s presence, to assure you of the respect entertained by
the Government of the United States for your Majesty’s person— When upon
a former occasion Your Majesty was pleased to appoint a time for that
purpose, I was confined by illness; a circumstance with which I hope
Your Majesty was made acquainted. I am now happy to be able to avail
myself of your Majesty’s permission; and pray you to accept the
assurance of the veneration uniformly felt by the American Government
for your Majesty’s Character. The political Relations between the two
Countries have been subject to the versatility which attends all human
affairs. Causes of dissension, and even of enmity have sometimes
unfortunately arisen between them— These are now removed— It is hoped
and most earnestly desired r
Adams who had been formerly the Minister to this Country,
and appeared surprized when I answered that I was his Son— She forgot
that I had given her the same answer to the same question twenty years
ago; and had apparently no recollection that I had ever been presented
to her before— She now dismissed me, and I withdrew with Mr Chester— The Carriage had returned— I took
Mr Chester home, and then went to Stable
yard, and wrote my name in the books, at the Residences of the Duke of
York and his Duchess, of the Duke and Duchess of
Cumberland, and of the Duke of
Clarence— Thence I returned to Craven Street, signed the
note to Lord Castlereagh, of which Mr Le Soeuf the young Man,
hired by Mr Smith as a Clerk, had made out a
copy, since the morning; and then went to Mrs King’s for Mrs Adams and
Lucy. Mr Bibby was there— Mr King and Dr Francis soon afterwards came
in— It was near six when we set out to return home— On our way, we
called at the Duke of Gloucester’s where I wrote my name on his book,
and at the Apartments of the Duke of Kent and of the Duke of Sussex, at
Kensington Palace. It was about eight when we reached home, and there I
found the Note from Mr Chester, which he had
written at my Office yesterday, and sent by the Post; but which arrived
here after we were gone, this Morning.