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.
A young man from the Office of the National Intelligencer brought me a
Note from Mr
Seaton, asking for the manuscript of my two speeches at
the special Session, on the Mississippi election, to be published in the
paper to-morrow; which I gave him— I had returned yesterday to Mr Gales
the manuscript of Arphaxed
Loomis’s speech which immediately preceded mine, and which
Gales had lent me— When I reached the Capitol this morning I found the
House in Session, the Clock having been set, a quarter of an hour in
advance of the City Clocks, generally.— The order for the appointment of
the standing Committees was now passed, and Haynes of Georgia moved that the
House should now resolve itself into a Committee of the whole on the
state of the Union, to take into consideration the President’s Message— It was objected
that this had never been done until the appointment of the standing
Committees had been made and announced to the House. Haynes did not
press his motion, but moved that the Resolutions which he gave notice
that he should offer be printed which was agreed to— A message was
received from the President with sundry documents, which were laid on
the Table— W. Cost Johnson
modified his call upon the President for information why the exploring
expedition has not sailed, and it was adopted— At 25 minutes past 12 by
the Clock the House adjourned— I invited the members of the
Massachusetts delegation to meet in the chamber of the Committee of
Manufactures and they all attended excepting Mr
Borden, whom I had not an opportunity to notify—Briggs—Calhoon, Cushing,
Fletcher
Grennell, Hastings, Lincoln, Parmenter, Phillips and Reed were there— I told them I had called
them together to consult them upon the disposal which should be proposed
to be made in the House of the Petitions and Memorials against the
annexation of Texas to the Union, of which I had now about forty to
present; and also of the various petitions relating to Slavery, of which
I had ten or twelve.— The Petitions would be called for next Monday to
which day the House had adjourned, and I thought that would be the time
for calling up all the Petitions and Memorials on the same Subject; and
then by the general order, laid on the table— My own idea and purpose
was, in presenting the first Petition to move that it be referred,
together with all those on the same subject presented at the special
Session, should be referred to a select Committee to consider and report
thereon. I did not expect that the House would agree to this motion, but
I thought it would be advisable to make it— The Petitions relating to
Slavery I thought of moving to refer to the several Committees on the
District of Columbia—on the Territories, and of Commerce— I supposed
however that the House would pass a Resolution, of the same import with
that adopted at both Sessions of the last Congress, that all such
petitions, Memorials and papers be laid on the table, without further
action upon them by the House— With regard to those against the
annexation of Texas to the Union I knew not what course the House would
take
413take but I thought they should be referred to a
select Committee. There was then a discussion of about two hours, in
which very little difference of opinion was expressed, excepting by Mr Parmenter, who is a strong friend and
supporter of the present Administration— He disagreed to almost all the
opinions expressed by the other members and by me, but made no objection
to the motions proposed by me to dispose of the Petitions, and declared
his willingness to agree to them— Most of the members took part in the
discussion, and it was at last unanimously voted that I should make the
motions for reference of the several petitions as I had proposed.— Mr Hastings was inclined to have another
meeting to consider of the Petitions relating to Slavery, but the other
members thought it not necessary— As I was returning home, I passed in
the Avenue, by Mrs Macomb without seeing her, till she called me
back, and asked me to vote for Mr Fowler as Chaplain to the
House, which I promised I would, and told her laughing that she made all
our Chaplains— At home I gave some to assorting Petitions to be
presented next Monday— Answered a Letter of 9. August last from John Thomas of Kingston, and read 30
pages of Burr’s Life.— The narrative
and documents relating to the contested election between Jefferson and Burr for the
Presidency of the United States, in February 1801.— The only thing new
to me that I find in it is a Letter from Saml. Smith to Richard H. Bayard, and James A. Bayard, the two Sons of the
former James A. Bayard, dated in
April 1830. advising them to let well enough alone— In 1806 Bayard and
Smith had given contradictory depositions, concerning their negotiations
with each other at the election of 1801. and each of them had then told
me his Story, conformable to their respective depositions.— My wife and Mary spent the Evening at