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.
th. and 23d: of
August, and of 1st. and 15th. of December last to him. It is dated the
13th. of June, and encloses a copy of a
Letter from him to James Simpson,
Consul at Tangier disapproving of his drafts upon the Treasury
Department— I left home shortly after breakfast, walked to Hammersmith;
there, near the third Mile-stone, went into a Stage, and rode to 42St Paul’s Church-yard
where it stopp’d—thence I walked to Cattley and Stephenson’s, Brabant Court, Philpot-Lane,
Fenchurch Street, and presented for acceptance the Bill of Exchange,
remitted by L. Harris from St Petersburg, drawn by Cattley and Forrester, in
favour of Meyer &
Brüxner; and endorsed by them; for 1600 Rubles, at ten
pence per Ruble— It was accepted for £66:13:4 payable at Barnard Dimsdale and Co. the
28th. of September— From thence I went
to Mr. S.
Williams’s, Finsbury Square. Left with him a check for
£500 to be passed to my credit; and the first and second of the Bill of
Exchange for 100 dollars drawn, by John
Cook, upon Thomas
Storey of New-York, on the 17th. of June, in my favour; and which I now endorsed— It was
for money which I lent Mr Cook— I then
walked to the Office in Craven Street, where I found J. A. Smith, deeply affected by the
information of his father’s
Death— Received a Packet of Newspapers from the Department of State—the
National Intelligencer, from 1. to 13. June— A card from Mr
Disbrowe, (the Queen’s
Vice-Chamberlain) inviting by her Majesty’s Command the American
Minister and Mrs Adams to the Queen’s House
on Monday 12. August at 9. O’Clock, and requesting an Answer.— A
Circular printed Note from the Duke of
Rutland, Chairman of the Committee of the Association for
the Relief of the Manufacturing and labouring Poor, enclosing the
Resolutions of a Meeting of the Association, in the hope of obtaining my
Attendance and Support, at a General Meeting, to be held at the City of
London Tavern, on Monday the 29th. instant,
at One O’Clock, when His Royal Highness the Duke of York will take the Chair.—
The Resolutions for convening the General Meeting were passed at the
Meeting of the Committee on the 15th.
instant. And one of them was that the Duke of York should be requested
to take the Chair— Between five and six O’Clock Mrs Adams came with the Carriage— We dined with Mr Prince
Sanders, at his lodgings in Everett-Street— The company at
dinner, were the Countess Dowager of
Cork, Lady
Mexborough, Mrs Crewe, General Doyle, Mr Penn, and
the young Mr
Cowell who dined with us last week— In the Evening there
was a large party, among whom were Sir
William Abdy, his two Sisters, and his Mother, Mrs Cowell and her daughter, Mr and Mrs.
Somerville, Mr Leslie, Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, and several others— Miss
Cowell played on the Piano, and sung, several of Moore’s Melodies—
Sanders told me he had not been able to go to Mr
Clarkson’s at Purfleet— He was obliged to stay in town to
correct the Press, for the publication of the Haytian Documents— On our
return from the dinner table to the drawing Room we found a Portrait of
Mr Sanders, in a splendid fancy dress,
or the Court dress of the kingdom of Hayti, hung up over the Sopha. It
had been brought home from the Painters while we were at dinner.— Mrs Cowell invited us to dine at her house
next Monday week— Mr Sanders is to embark
for Hayti the tenth of next Month; but is to return here again next
Winter— We came away between eleven and twelve, and got home at one in
the Morning.