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
Palfrey, preach from Matthew XXII.29. “Jesus answered and
said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of
God”— The error of misunderstanding, and misinterpreting the Scriptures,
is a fruitful topic for a sectarian preacher, but it is a weapon equally
accessible to the use of all. The errors signalized by Mr Palfrey, were only those in which he
himself has no faith. After Church I called and paid a visit to Mr Forsyth.
Hopkinson dined with us,
and according to his engagement came and sat with me an hour before
dinner— The object of his seeking this conversation with me was the next
Presidential election. He gave me to understand, that he was disposed to
consider me as a Candidate for that occasion— That others were of
similar disposition; but that it was necessary there should be a concert
and understanding between them, as there already was and long had been
between the partizans of Mr Crawford— He said that the
extent and activity of their intrigues was incredible, and unless
systematically counteracted, would infallibly be successful— I told Mr Hopkinson that I was perfectly aware of
the exertions making by Mr Crawford himself
and his friends to secure the Presidency 534at the next election. There were others
making exertions not less ardent and persevering for Mr.
Clinton of New-York— There was a third party less apparent
now, and the struggle of which was eventual; to depend upon the issue of
the conflict now raging in that State between Clinton and Tompkins. The State was now about
equally divided; and as there is no marked difference of principle to
contend for, they are squabbling for men— If either party should obtain
over the other such an ascendancy as would carry a large majority of the
State, its leader would be the Candidate of New-York, for the
Presidency. The only question between them will be; which shall be the
man— New-York, at any rate will have a Candidate of her own, and if both
these rivals should be out of the way, she would sooner take up Mr King, than
resort to any other State— The politics of Pennsylvania, will be greatly
influenced by those of New-York— She too is a divided State, but the
scuffle for her Governor is between men neither of whom has any
prospects in the general Government— She will probably be an accessary
to New-York. Whether any party or any one individual would support or
propose me as a Candidate, I could not tell; but even in my own native
State of Massachusetts, the predominating party, the federalists had a
grudge against me, which they would not lose the opportunity of
indulging— To one thing however I had made up my mind— I would take no
one step to advance or promote pretensions to the Presidency— If that
office was to be the prize of cabal and intrigue, of purchasing
Newspapers, bribing by appointments or bargaining for foreign Missions,
I had no ticket in that Lottery. Whether I had the qualifications
necessary for a President of the United States, was to say the least
very doubtful to myself— But that I had no talent for obtaining the
Office by such means was perfectly clear— I had neither talent nor
inclination for intrigue— I can do nothing, either to canvass for
myself, or to counteract the canvassing of others— I will have no
stipendiary editor of Newspapers to extol my talents and services, and
to criticise or calumniate my rivals— I will devote none of my time to
devising laws, to increase my own patronage, and multiply canvassers in
my favour— My time is now not sufficient to discharge the duties of my
Office; any part of it which I should spend in efforts to make partizans
or to pull down competitors would be an abandonment of public for
personal aims— For this, if I had the talent I have not the will; and if
I had the will I have not the talent. Hopkinson said, that this very
abstraction from all intrigues would be my principal recommendation—
That Crawford having nothing but intrigue to support him, having
manifested utter incompetency to the very Department with which he is
charged, having never rendered one signal service to the Country, and
having a standing manifesto of charges affecting his honour as a
Gentleman, in the pamphlet of Governor
Clarke against him, would make no head, unless by mere
want of management in opposing him— That Clinton had embroiled himself
too much in the turmoil of his own passions, and in his denunciation of
the General Government had completely failed of substantiating his
charges. The prospects of Tompkins he thought were no better— He was
deeply involved in debt, and stood equivocally before the public in
relation to the settlement of his Accounts. Mr King had no chance; and he thought I was mistaken in
believing that the Massachusetts federalists retained their animosity
against me— And he alluded to the manner in which they had recently
conferred distinguished honours upon my
father. He said if I should go to Boston next Summer, he
hoped I should not entertain this opinion of the federalists nor express
it; and he intimated that Walter
and Hale had been last Sunday
dissatisfied with opinions which I had expressed relative to the trial
of the Queen of England;
which he noticed only to mark what seemingly trifling incidents affected
the opinions of men— We pursued this Conversation no further, but this
as well as the Conversations with Allison and some others gives me warning of what I am to
expect. If there has ever been an election of a President of the United
States without canvassing and intrigue, there has been none since that
of my father— There will probably never be another— The materials for
canvassing are and 535for
some time have been plentifully offered to me and pressed upon me— I
cannot be ignorant of the consequences of declining these offers; but I
could not accept them with satisfaction to myself or with that
consciousness of right which I never have forfeited, and which is dearer
to me than any station to which it is in the power of man, or of Fortune
to raise me.