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 Huntt and all my friends
think I am now indulging it to excess— I never before this day swam an
hour at once; and I must now limit my fancies for this habit, which is
not without danger— The art of swimming ought in my opinion to be taught
as a regular branch of education. There was a Cabinet Meeting at the
President’s at One O’Clock—
Messrs. Crawford, Calhoun and Thompson present—Mr Wirt
absent— My project of a Convention for the suppression of the
Slave-trade; answer to Mr Canning, and Instruction to
R. Rush were first considered.
Mr Crawford and Mr Calhoun started objections on various grounds— Crawford to
the argument in the Letter to Canning against the right of Search, which
he said was completely given up in the project of Convention, and
therefore the Argument might be represented by the British as a mere
Declamation, against a practice which the project essentially conceded—
This objection had weight, and I had been fully aware of it in drawing
up the papers— But two objects were to be aimed at in the papers— One
fully to justify the repugnance which we have heretofore manifested
against the right of search as practiced by Great-Britain in War; the
other to carry in to effect the Resolution of the House of
Representatives, recommending negotiation to obtain the recognition of
the Slave-trade, to be Piracy by the Law of Nations— To Piracy by the
Law of Nations, Search is incident of course, since wherever there is a
right to capture there must be a right to search.
The end desired by the Resolution of the House of Representatives cannot
be obtained without conceding 85the right so far of
search, and all that is left us is to keep it still inflexibly with in
the Class of belligerent rights, as exercised only against Pirates, the
enemies of all mankind. It was therefore that in my project of
Convention, the first Article assumes as a fact that both parties have
declared the Slave-trade Piracy, and my Instructions to Mr Rush are not to offer it, but after an Act
of Parliament, declaring the Slave-trade to be Piracy. Mr Calhoun’s objection was to the admission
of the right of capture by foreign Officers at-all; as weakening us upon
the general objection to conceding the right of search— Mr Thompson, did not think the right of
search conceded in the project at all— The search for Pirates, had, he
said absolutely nothing in common with the search of neutral vessels—
Much discussion which I cannot record. Mr
Calhoun thought we should at once say we will never concede the right of
Search for Slaves, unless Britain will renounce search for her Seamen in
our vessels in War— I said I was willing to make one the Condition of
the other— It was finally understood by the President that the project
much as drafted should be proposed, provided the British make the
Offence Capital, by act of Parliament; and not be communicated in detail
to the British Government without that. Crawford hinted at an additional
guard, that lists of the vessels authorised to capture the Slave-traders
should be mutually furnished— But it would be very inconvenient to us,
as Instructions of capture are issued to all our Cruizers— The project
is to go, but the Letter to Mr Canning is to
be modified. Upon the subject of the average value of the Slaves carried
away and to be paid for, it was determined that we have not the
necessary information, and that it must be left to be fixed by the
Commissioners or otherwise according to the Convention. After the other
members of the administration had withdrawn, I requested of the
President to mark the passages of the Draft to Mr Canning, which he would have omitted—for which purpose be
kept the papers— George dined at
Mr
Petry’s— Melting heat— Mr Frye here this Evening,
returned from Bladensburg; where he has left Mrs Frye,
with Mrs Adams— Verses.