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 M’Cormick’s with
Charles. He read prayers for
the seventh Sunday after Trinity, and his Sermon was from Isaiah
I.VIII:13.14. “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing
thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of
the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways,
nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:—Then shalt
thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD
hath spoken it.” The Sermon was upon the duties of the Sabbath, which he
said were more fully and comprehensively described in this text than in
any other of the Scriptures. The composition was of modern date; perhaps
Sherlock, or Leed. After some general remarks 392upon the character of the institution of the
Sabbath, as a day of religious meditation, and of abstraction from the
labours, the cares, and the pleasures of the world, with a note of
censure upon the Roman Catholic Church for devoting great part of the
day to amusement, and upon a great proportion of other Christians who
give it up to worldly concerns, writing Letters, posting books, making
useless visits or dissipation, which were indicated in the text by the
terms, doing thine own ways, he divided his discourse into three
parts—first considering those things from which it is the Christian’s
duty to abstain on this day; Secondly, those things which he ought to
perform; and thirdly the benefits and advantages of this Institution to
mankind. On the first point his doctrine was that we should abstain in
thoughts, conversation and conduct from every thing not only sinful, but
of a temporal and worldly nature; and he enlarged upon the duty of
subjecting our thoughts to discipline and of bringing ourselves to a
deep and practical conviction that we are answerable to God not only for
our words and actions but even for the conceptions of our hearts—
Passing then to the positive duties of the day, he insisted upon that of
attending the public ordinances of religion—upon family and closet
prayer, upon reading and meditation of the Scriptures upon
self-examination; upon due attention to the morals and religion to the
members and domestics of our families; and a suitable remembrance to
perform acts of brotherly kindness and Charity— The third part of the
Discourse was that in which he rose to the highest flights of eloquence—
The first great advantage which he pointed out as resulting from the
Sabbath was its affording the means of moral and religious
Instruction—of enlightening the mind; of purifying the heart; of
improving in virtue; and preparing us for a better discharge of all our
duties in this world, and for appearance before our judge in the next—
The second was its furnishing us with the means of acquiring our eternal
salvation, by propitiating the favour of our Creator. He observed that
the first Institution of the Sabbath was to commemorate the repose of
the Supreme being after the first Creation of the world—when the morning
Stars sung together, and the Sons of God shouted for joy— That its
observance was enjoined in the Law from Sinai, written with the finger
of God, and proclaimed amidst the trembling of the mountain, the
swelling sound of the trumpet, the flashes of lightening and the voice
of Thunder.— That it was the day of the second Creation, when the
Saviour of mankind rose from the dead, and completed the redemption of
mankind from the thraldom of sin and death— The day when the gift of the
Holy Ghost was poured out upon the apostles with that of tongues, and
the power of prophecy— These striking recollections were followed by a
rapid view of all the blessings of the Sabbath to man in a style of
composition of the highest order, closing in a climax of beauty and
sublimity, to which it seemed to me neither the speaker nor his auditory
were sufficiently sensible.— The house was fuller than usual, but nobody
appeared to be aware that it was other than an ordinary Sermon; and
although while it was delivering I fancied I could almost repeat every
word of it, yet when I came home it had all vanished from my memory,
save what is here noted down— On returning home, I answered a Letter,
which I have had five Months upon file from Governor Jennings of Indiana, and
read the Letters and newspapers that came by the Mail. Adeline Rowe a young girl who lives
with Mr and Mrs
Colvin dined with us. I called this Evening with Mrs
Adams to see Mr and Mrs Calhoun but they were not
at home— Elegant and forcible as the Sermon this day read by Mr M’Cormick was, its doctrine was driven to
extremes— The sanctification of the Sabbath is prescribed in the
Scriptures; but the real doctrine of the New Testament on this subject
is a relaxation from the rigour of the old— Neither works of necessity,
nor of benevolence, nor of good neighbourhood, nor even innocent
recreation are incompatible with the duties of the day. The general
character of its occupations ought to be religious and meditative; but
the Sabbath, said Jesus, was made for man and not man for the Sabbath—
My practice throughout life has been various, and modified by the usages
of the different Countries in which I have resided; it is not upon
reflection, entirely satisfactory to myself. It has not been what it
ought to have been— It has not been so constantly devoted to my own
moral improvement, as it might have been, and has too often been to me a
day of mere relaxation and amusement— For I agree in the Sentiment
expressed by Mr M’Cormick, that the Sunday
is not meant for a day of idleness, but for a day 393of eminent exertion and assiduity. May it hereafter be so to me. The
general tenour of the chapter of Isaiah
of which these are the concluding verses, is an indignant contrast
between the pretended merit of fasting, and the
real virtue of relieving the oppressed, and the poor— These are duties
inculcated with the greatest earnestness throughout the Bible— It may be
termed the great foundation of Bible Morality— These duties are very
slightly touched in the ethics of paganism— The sentiment in Terence—Homo sum, nil humani a me alienum
puto, electrified a Roman auditory; because it was new— It is the
veriest of all commonplaces in the Bible. In the Hebrew system, religion
and morals were grappled indissolubly together— Analyze the Decalogue,
and you find the first Commandment prescribing the unity of God—the second forbidding the idolatry of graven
images—the third, forbidding the light and idle use of God’s name—the
fourth enjoins the observance of the Sabbath— These four embrace the
duties to God. The fifth sanctifies the special relation between Parent
and child— It seems to be a connecting link between the two tables— The
rest are all duties of man to his neighbour that is to his fellow
creature— They are all negative; prohibiting the violation of the rights
of others— The sixth forbids violence to his life—the seventh to his
marriage rights, the eighth to his property; the ninth to his
reputation; and the tenth goes directly to the heart; stops
transgression in its first conception, and spreads a shield over all the
possessions of man in Society, by interdicting all unlawful desires.
“Thou shalt not covet.”— The commandments of the first table were
enjoined with awful solemnity and sanctioned by dreadful penalties; but
the burden of all the prophets, and of all the New Testament is the
scornful rejection of every pretence that the performance of the duties
to God, operates as an exemption from the fulfilment of those to
man.