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.
- Clay. Henry
- Barbour— James
- Southard Samuel L
- Wirt— William
Morning walk round the Capitol Square. Coll. Little introduced two of
his friends, father and Son— One or both of them of his Constituents.
Mr
Knight, a Senator from Rhode-Island, made enquiries in
behalf of Mr
Dimond, concerning the appointment of a Commercial Agent
at Port au Prince— The same person for whom Dr Parker from Rhode-Island had
applied: and I gave Mr Knight the same
answer and information, which on the 19th. I
had given to him. Mr Karthaus was a visitor from Baltimore, who
finding me busy, stopped for a short time— Cabinet Meeting at one— All
present excepting Mr Rush, who sent by Mr
Southard an apology; being confined to his house by
indisposition— The question was again upon the Letter from the Governor of Georgia, denouncing the
Constitution lately adopted by the Cherokee Indians, as a violation of
the Article of the Constitution of the United States, which interdicts
the formation of new States within the old ones— It was the opinion of
every one present that this Article of the Constitution, applied only to
those who were parties to the compact. That it did not bear upon the
Indians at all— But Mr Clay, urged that it was not necessary to take
this ground either in answering the Governor of Georgia, or in the
Message to Congress— Even if it would be proper for this Government to
prevent by force the establishment of the Cherokee Constitution, it
would require the express authority of Congress to enable the Executive
to Act— After further discussion, I came to the conclusion to proceed as
follows—I requested the Secretary of War, Governor Barbour to instruct the Agent of the United
States with the Cherokee Indians, to give them notice, that we had been
informed of the Constitution, which they had made for their own
Government. That they must understand that this cannot in any manner
alter the state of their Relations with the United States; and that if
their intention was that it should, we protested against the whole
proceeding— This will be a sufficient foundation for answering the
Governor of Georgia, and also for a communication to Congress of his
Letters, and of the Resolution of the Legislature of the State— Mr Wilde,
one of the members of the House of Representatives from Georgia, has
offered a Resolution to the House calling for information from the
President; r
Chambers, William and M rs Cranch, Gabriel and Mrs Duvall, Nathanl. Frye
junr. Hortensia Hay, David Hoffman, William Johnson, Walter and M rs
Jones, Francis and M rs Key, Mr M’Culloh, John Marshal, and Mrs Mercer, J. S.
Morsell, David B.
Ogden, Richard Peters junr.Daniel Raymond, Tench Ringgold, John Sergeant, Joseph and Mrs Story, Thomas Swann, Smith
and M rs Thompson,
Augustus and Mrs Thorndike,
Buckner and Mrs Thruston,
Robert Trimble, Bushrod Washington, Daniel Webster, William, Mrs and Miss Wirt— At the Dessert, I observed
to Chief Justice Marshall and the company, that it was not customary at
this House to drink Toasts— That since I had been here, there had been
to this rule only one exception— It was on the 6th. of September 1825. the last day that General La Fayette passed in the United
States; and it was his birth day— We had then drank one toast—which was
the 6th. of September, and the 22d. of February— I now proposed again the
same toast, only with the inverted order;—and we drank in Champaign the
22d. of February and 6. of September.
444I attended in the Evening the Ball at
Carusi’s Hall; with Mrs Adams, Mary Roberdeau, Abigail S. Adams, and my Son John— The Company was small— A
side-board Supper, and we came home shortly after ten O’Clock— I met at
the Ball, besides other Strangers, Mr Reynolds the projector of an
expedition to the South-Pole, and Mr Lieber the teacher of the
swimming school at Boston—