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 Grubb
called and accompanied my
wife in her search for Furniture— Mr Tigere came at Noon the time
appointed, and shewed me his experiments upon paper. His oxy-muriatic
acid, took out immediately the writing from several papers to which it
was applied, some recently written, and some that had been seven years
standing. It had scarcely any perceptible effect upon the paper. Among
the rest I took out the work “Daschkoff” from the despatch I had written
this Morning; at a place where I had written it by mistake; and as soon
as the paper was dry, I wrote the name of “Hopkinson” in its stead; as
it should in the first instance have been written. Tigere observed that
the action of the acid was strongly counteracted by full day-light, and
particularly Sunshine— He had several pieces of paper of various kinds
prepared with his composition, upon which the effect of the acid was,
not to take out the writing, but merely to turn it blue. He had also
other acids, the vitriolic, tartaric, and oxalic, which took out the
writing, but at the same time affected the paper, so that it could not
be written upon again without discolouring and spreading of the ink. I
told him I had no doubt he could obtain a Patent in the United States,
for his Paper, and offered him any facility in my power for obtaining
it. He wished to have some Paper-maker in America recommended to him, to
whom he could propose a partnership with him for making the papers— All
the ingredients for his composition, six in number were to be procured
in the United States, and it would not increase the price of the paper
more than a shilling Sterling a ream. He also wished that the Bank of
the United States would determine to have their paper made with his
preparation; for both which objects I told him I was not now enabled to
assist him but might be hereafter. He is to call upon me again. Mr
Caldecott a Surgeon and Accoucheur who has a project of
going to settle in America, and has already written to me, and visited
me on the subject, came now and told me he had made up his mind to go;
but he should first go alone, and leave his family behind— I rather
dissuaded this Gentleman from going when he called upon me before; and
now again set before him the difficulties, and overstocked competition,
which he must have to encounter in his profession in that Country; and
the necessity he might be under of practising as a physician as well as
a Surgeon, and perhaps of becoming also an Apothecary, as in many parts
of the interior of America, where it would probably be more expedient
for him to go, than to fix himself in any of the large Cities, all these
professions were united in one. He appeared to be somewhat staggered in
his resolution but said he would call upon me again before he should
finally conclude to go. There came then a Man who has formed a scheme
for supplying the City of New-York with Salmon. He wanted some promise
of support or encouragement in the undertaking which I could not give
him, though I thought it very likely to succeed. A woman named Margaret Mackey who came from
America with Mrs Patterson, came and took a Passport to return
home. I had time only for a short walk. Just as we were going out
my wife received a
Note from Miss Louisa Caton
inviting us to her wedding at the Duke
of Wellington’s House next Thursday Evening at 9. O’Clock.
My wife answered the note and accepted the invitation. We went and dined
with Mr and
Mrs Thorpe at Walthamstow,
about five 174miles out of London, and one mile
beyond Hackney. It was principally a family party— Old Mr Thorpe is eighty years of age. He has had
eleven sons, five of whom were this day present— One only is
married—Alfred; and his wife was there— Also a neighbour, a Mr Wright, with his
daughter.— It was Midnight when we got home.