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.
l. Aspinwall made contract to
convey upwards of a hundred American Seamen to the United States. Jacob
makes several extravagant demands, beyond the stipulations in the
contract. The Coll: disputes them, and Jacob
came to convince me that they ought to be allowed— He convinced me only
of his own rapacity— Mr Sanders paid me a visit with
Mr
Lambert, a member of the Royal Society and F. Pursh’s patron— Mr Lambert shewed me a Letter from a
botanical friend of his, now travelling in the United States. He asked
me to forward for him a Letter to Mr Jackson at Savannah, a
chaplain in the U.S. army, and a great botanist; which I promised.
Captain Stuart, Coll Aspinwall’s late Secretary, came to take a
Passport to return to America— There were Letters—from Jonn:
Russell at Stockholm, enclosing a duplicate of L. Harris’s melancholy Letter of 24.
April, from St Petersburg, about his being
interdicted attendance at Court.—from E.
Wyer, Consul at Riga of 5. May—in reply to mine of 13.
April to him—from Coll: Aspinwall,
intoducing Jacob— From. R. W. Fox junr. at
Falmouth, concerning the Seamen of the ship Baltimore— And from R. G. Beasley on board the Margaret,
bound to Boston, 18 miles below Liverpool; dated the 24th. He had received the Letters for America,
that I sent him on the 20th.— My wife went with me into
town, dined with Mr and Mrs
King, and went with them to Drury lane theatre where I was
to meet them— Mr
J. A. Smith and I dined at the Freemason’s Hall
Great-Queen Street, with the Society for the encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce— The Duke of
Sussex, President of the Society was in the Chair— The
Duke of Athol, Lord Dundas, the Marquis of Stafford, Mr J. C.
Curwen a Member of Parliament, and a distinguished
agriculturist were of the company— The only other foreign Minister was
the Chevalier de Freire. The
Duke of Sussex introduced me to Mr John Penn, who told me that
he was in correspondence with my
father— Mr Sanders was also
there. There were about two hundred persons at the dinner, principally
artists— Part of the entertainment was some very fine roast beef, fatted
upon an experimental plan by Mr Curwen— A
printed account of the experiment was also circulated round the table.
After dinner, and non nobis sung, the usual toasts were drank, with the
usual cheering of three times three.— Among them the Duke of Sussex
gave, the Ministers of Portugal and of the United States of America;
which he accompanied with a speech, complimentary to our Country and
personally to us, particularly dwelling upon the pleasure with which he
recollected his former acquaintance with me, upon what he termed neutral
ground, at Berlin— Mr Freire simply returned
thanks— I added that on this as upon all other occasions, I naturally
must cast a reflective look to my own Country— Though not yet competent
to equal the perfection in the Arts for which Great-Britain was so
eminently distinguished, she was competent to admire, and might at a
future day be competent to emulate them— In the mean time she must be
content to follow her Parent, non passibus aequis, and if hereafter she
could rivalize her in the works of art, I prayed that that and the
emulation of good offices might be the only rivalry between the two
Countries— Then apologizing to the Duke, for addressing the company
instead of him, I said that it had been my good fortune, little less
than twenty years ago, to meet his Royal Highness, on what he was
pleased to term neutral ground. I needed not to say that I considered it
as one of the happiest Circumstances of my life; but I could nor forbear
or deny myself the gratification of remarking that from that moment I
had entertained for his Royal Highness, the same Sentiments which the
Company I had now the honour of addressing had so signally manifested by
placing him in that Chair— The Duke of Athol, Marquis of Stafford, Lord
Dundas, Mr Curwen and Dr Taylor
the Secretary of the Society were all successively toasted, and returned
thanks by Speeches— There were songs, serious and jocund; and between
nine and ten O’Clock the Company broke up. I went with J. A. Smith to
Drury-Lane Theatre; but we could not find Mr
and Mrs King and Mrs Adams—they were just gone; having seen Deaf and Dumb, and
Midas. We saw the Magpie and the Maid; from the French Melo-drame of La
Pie Voleuse. It was past Midnight when the Play finished— I went to Mr King’s lodgings where I found my wife. We
took leave of Mr and Mrs King, who go for Paris, the day after to-morrow; and when
we came to our house at Ealing, it was three O’Clock in the Morning, and
broad day-light.