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.
- Allston. Willis
- Blake— Thomas H
- Freeland
- Barnard Isaac D.
- Marks William
- Anderson Samuel
- Miner— Charles
- Gurley Henry H
- White. Hugh Lawson
- Bell— John
- Desha— Robert
- Clay— Henry.
- Krudener Baron
- Nourse— Charles J
- Jones. Col
l.Roger - Jones Thomas ap Catesby
- Butler Joseph
A light snow was falling, as I took my usual morning walk round the
Capitol Square— The weather cleared off cold in the afternoon— Mr Allston
is an old member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina—
Mr
Blake is a new one from Indiana, who introduced one of his
constituents by the name of Freeland— The
two
Senators from Pennsylvania, and Messrs Anderson and
Miner of the House of
Representatives came together and recommended Major Anderson of the Marine
Corps, a brother of the member for a Brevet Commission of Lieutenant
Coll— Mr Gurley came to make
representations against the re-appointment of George Davis Surveyor of Lands South of
Tennessee, for Mississippi and Louisiana, whose Commission is about to
expire— He is a very troublesome Officer, and has given great
dissatisfaction; and his correspondence with the Commissioner of the General
Land-Office, and with the Secretary of the
Treasury, has been very exceptionable, by its rudeness,
and heavy attempts at wit. I told Mr Gurley,
that I was hesitating whether I should renominate him, as there was one
strong consideration in his favour—that all his harshness and even his
contumacy had the appearance of an overweening zeal for the public
interest, and proceeded apparently from strong suspicions on his part of
frauds practiced by others upon the public— I reserved the subject for
further consideration— Mr White Senator from Tennessee introduced
Messrs Bell and Desha two
new Members from that State— At one O’Clock, Mr Clay presented
Baron Krudener, who delivered
to me his credential Letter, as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary from the Emperor of Russia— In presenting the Letter he
made as usual a short address declarative of the friendly dispositions
of the Emperor Nicholas, to the
United States, and 375of his own personal
disposition to execute with entire devotion his Instructions to
cultivate the friendship of this Government; which I answered by
assuring him of the high gratification with which I received him, as the
Minister of the Emperor— Of the earnestness with which the Government of
the United States would continue to cultivate the good will of his
Sovereign: and of my hope that his own residence in this Country would
be satisfactory to himself— I added that having resided several years as
the Representation of my Country at the Court of the late Emperor Alexander, I had personal
motives of attachment to Russia, from the kindness that I had
experienced there, and that having been at an earlier period at Berlin,
when his father was Minister of Russia at that Court, it was with
recollections of peculiar interest that I now welcomed him in the same
capacity here— He spoke of having r T. B.
Johnson at Paris and of the pleasure with which he had
made his acquaintance— Major
Nourse brought for my signature the petition from the
Indian Thomas Dick, for permission
to sell the land granted to his deceased Son Jacob Dick, and a volume of the Laws of the State of
Indiana containing a Statute giving the inheritance of real Estate to
the father, in default of children— I signed an approbation of the
petition to make the sale. Colonel
Jones introduced his brother Master Commandant Thomas ap Catesby Jones, who has
recently returned from a Cruise to the Islands of the South Sea, as
Commander of the Sloop of War Peacock— He made a very interesting Report
of this Expedition, to the Navy Department which I have read, and he
gave me some further information concerning the Otaheite and Sandwich
Islanders— Mr
Butler came again to enquire the fate of the petition for
the discharge from prison of his
brother—which I declined—having received a report upon the
case, from the District Attorney Mr Swann, very unfavourable to
the prisoner— I received this day a great multitude of papers for
perusal, and upon such a variety of subjects, that I found the utmost
difficulty to preserve any order in the mind.