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— I told him the
reasons assigned by the Coll. for refusing
him the customary allowance to distressed American Seamen. He said that
the reason of his not having gone in the Cartel when the Passage was
offered him, was that the notice given him to go was so short, that he
had not time to go for his Clothes; which he had since then been obliged
to sell. But he 97said that those who had gone in
the Cartel, had been sold into bondage in South-Carolina, after they
arrived, in America; until they should have paid for their passages.
This was evidently a tale trumped up, and I told him I could do no more
for him. His name is Melvin
Prince— This was Lord
Mayor’s day. According to the annual custom, he came in
procession by water from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster Hall, where
he was formally presented to the Barons of the Exchequer. He returned
from Westminster-Hall, by land, through the Streets—a measure which
annoyed and alarmed the Ministers so much, that Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary of
State for the home department, wrote him a Letter to dissuade him from
it; but without success. I waited in Craven Street, until the Procession
passed by it in the Strand and then joined in it. The crowd of People
throughout the way was as great as the Streets could hold. The horses
had been taken out of the Lord Mayor’s and the Lady Mayoress’s Coaches, opposite the Horse-Guards, and
they were drawn from thence to Guildhall by the People. The invitation
for the dinner had been for four O’Clock. And the Procession arrived
there just at that hour; but the Company were assembling until six— None
of the Cabinet Ministers were there; nor any of the chief judges of the
king’s Courts— But the Puisné judges of the king’s Bench, Common Pleas
and Exchequer were almost all there. Sir William Scott the judge of the
Admiralty Court was peculiarly polite and attentive to me— No other
foreign Minister was there, which made my situation somewhat auward. At
first the Company were received in the Council chamber, but soon after
passed into the Court of King’s Bench where the Lady Mayoress sat in
State, full dressed and hooped to receive them— About six they all
repaired to the great Hall, where tables were laid for upwards of one
thousand persons, and all, except the Company of the Lord Mayor’s own
table were already seated. My card was in a Plate at the Right hand of
the Lord Mayor, but after the Members of both Houses of Parliament. This
is the rule at the City Feasts, and is the reason why the foreign
Ministers scarcely ever attend at them. Sir
William Scott several times hinted to me before dinner,
that I should have higher precedence, but I was not disposed to dispute
about the place assigned to me. I sat next to Mr Bennett
(Henry Grey) a member of Parliament for Shrewsbury, and second Son of
the Earl of Tancarville His
elder brother Lord Ossulston
was also present— Also the Earl of
Essex, Lord
Montford, Sir Samuel
Romilly, the Attorney General, Garrow, the Master of the Rolls,
Mr William
Smith, member from Norwich, Sir Robert Wilson, Mr Curran, Major Cartwright and Mr Reeves—
The Duke of Sussex would have
attended, but the Queen sent him
yesterday a message positively enjoining him, not to go; on account of
the death of the king of
Wurtemberg, who married the Princess Royal of England. The Lord and Lady Mayoress sat
as usual side by side— The Earl of Essex at the Lord Mayor’s right hand,
and Sir Robert Wilson at the Lady Mayoress’s left— A part of the
procession upon Lord Mayor’s day consists of three persons clad in
complete antient armour; one of which is the armour of Edward the Black Prince; from the
Tower— These persons are called antient knights; after all the Company
were seated they took their places in three Niches in the wall behind
the Lord Mayors table; one at each corner and one in the centre, where
they stood and sat during the whole dinner— They were Soldiers of the
Life guards, and some of the most athletic men that could be selected;
but the armour was so oppressive to them that two of them were obliged
to have their helmets taken off; and they were saved from fainting only
by a succession of glasses of Port wine which were administered to them.
After dinner the usual loving Cup was passed round, and then the
ordinary toasts. After the range of the Royal family was gone through,
the Lord Mayor gave the Earl of Essex and the House of Peers, in return
for which the Earl gave the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress— The Lord
Mayor after making some question who was the oldest member of the house
of Commons (who was said to be Mr W. Smith)
said he must settle himself the question, and gave Mr Grey Bennett and the House of Commons. At
the same time observing that the City of London was grateful to Mr Bennett, for the very great and important
service he had rendered, by the Report to the House of Commons, at the
last Session of Parliament, of the Committee of which he was chairman,
upon the Police of the Metropolis. There was a flourish of Trumpets from
the head of the Hall, answered by one from the bottom (as there had been
at the giving of every toast) for Mr Bennett
to answer; but he declined; pleading the example of the Earl of Essex,
who had answered only by toasting the Lord Mayor, and Lady Mayoress— But
the Lord Mayor himself in returning his thanks had made a speech,
expressing his gratitude to his fellow Citizens for his re-election. He
said he felt a double weight of responsibility arising from this second
election; and a double anxiety, not merely that of discharging 98the duties of his Office, but that of justifying
by extraordinary exertions, the extraordinary Confidence which had been
manifested to him— He promised that nothing on his part should be
wanting to fulfil the expectations of the Public— He retained all his
political opinions; but he should continue to set politics entirely
aside in the performance of his duty; without connecting himself with
any political party, or turning to the right hand or the left. None of
his Majesty’s Ministers had thought fit to honour him with their Company
either at this Entertainment, or on the same occasion last year. He knew
not what the motives of their absence were; but he found a consolation
for it in the high respectability of the Company present. Immediately
after Mr Bennett had declined answering, the
Lord Mayor gave the American Minister—upon which I returned thanks in
very few words; observing that having frequently received the same
honour from him before, I could only repeat the same acknowledgments— I
would add only one remark; that Gratitude was a sentiment addicted to
repetition, as had been most strikingly illustrated by his fellow
citizens of London, in the repetition of his name at the late Election.
In return for the honour of his toast I begged leave to propose that of
“Prosperity to the City of London,” which was drank with three times
three— The company was however so large, and the noise in the hall so
great, that very few could hear a word of what was said— The Attorney
General, Sir William Scott, the Judges, Lord Erskine, the City Members of Parliament (for whom
Alderman Atkins answered) the
Sheriffs and the Board of Aldermen were toasted. Lord Erskine answered;
but though near him I could hear nothing that he said. About nine
O’Clock, the Lady Mayoress and other Ladies retired into the Court of
King’s Bench, And half an hour afterwards the Lord Mayor and his party
followed them— There had been for upwards of an hour, an unceasing
stream of Ladies and gentlemen passing round the tables and looking at
the Company. The hall was lighted with Gaz— Its principal ornaments are
Monuments to the Earl of Chatham;
to his Son William Pitt; opposite
to each other, and one to Lord
Nelson at the bottom of the Hall— Bennett told me that
they came very near throwing down the Monument of Pitt a few days ago;
and he should not be at all surprized if within a year from this time it
should be removed— He said he heartily wished it was thrown down— He
also told me that the inscription upon the Monument to Chatham was
written by Burke, and was
admirable— That of Pitt’s was by Canning, in a very bad taste; and that of Nelson’s by
Sheridan, and the worst of
all.— I followed the Lord Mayor in to the Court of King’s Bench where
there was a very large collection of Ladies. The Ball was opened by a
Minuet danced by Col. Camac and Miss Wood, immediately after which I came away— On
crossing the Hall to come out Alfred
Thorpe stopped me to enquire after my wife. There were yet a
large portion of the Company seated at the tables— Sir Robert Wilson
passed by as I was standing there, and was greeted by a universal shout
of applause— I left the Hall about ten O’Clock, and reached home just at
midnight. I was labouring during the whole of both my rides in and out
of town, to write some Stanza’s upon Prudence, to complete the Cardinal
Virtues; but I effected only one Stanza, and part of a second.