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.
- Graham— George
- Baker Absalom
- Hayne— Robert Y.
- Davis— judge
- Porter— Eliphalet
- Richmond
- Smith— William
- M’Cord— Col
l. - Briggs— Rev
d.Mr - Tayloe— Edward
- Bell— Samuel
- Rush— Richard
The weather deprived me again of my morning walk, as by the same cause I
had lost that of yesterday morning— I walked out with George about a half an hour before
dinner, and this was all the exercise, I could take in the day. The
effect upon my Spirits superadded to that of the catarrhal cough which
tortured me all the last Spring and is now returning upon me, is more
than I can describe— Mr Graham the Commissioner of
the General Land Office came for the Commissions of James P. Turner as Surveyor General
of Lands South of Tennessee— He had applied for it at both the
Department of State and of the Treasury; but it had not been found— It
appeared by my Son John’s Record,
that the Resolution of the Senate conferring the nomination, was sent to
the Treasury Department the 29th. of
February— Mr Graham said he would apply
there again, and if it should not be found, another copy must be
obtained from the Secretary of the
Senate— Absalom
Baker is an old Revolutionary Soldier who comes from the
State of Illinois soliciting a pension from the Government, and
contributions from individuals— While he was here, Mr Hayne
the Senator from South-Carolina, came to introduce judge Davis from Columbia in that State— The old Soldier
was lame from honourable wounds, but he became so loquacious, and so
self-important in his patriotic dogmatism that I was obliged to r Hayne and Mr
Davis 509made a short visit— Dr
Porter of Roxbury was here; to be present at the
Ordination of Mr Burnap at Baltimore next Wednesday— He told me
he was accompanied here by his niece, and by Mrs Harrington— Mr Richmond, was from
Augusta; and had a horse which he wanted me to purchase for 200 dollars.
Mr
Smith, Senator from South Carolina, introduced to me
Coll.
M’Cord from that State, who said he had been introduced to
me before— Mr
Briggs is Minister of Lexington, Massachusetts, and
brought me a Letter of introduction from Mr Edward Everett. He has
been passing the winter in Georgia, for his health, and now on his
return home traveling on horseback, and proceeding this day towards
Baltimore, where he is to attend at the ordination of Mr Burnap— Edward T. Tayloe came to
solicit an appointment as Secretary of Legation abroad— Mr Bell,
Senator from New-Hampshire was here, and conversed with me on various
political topics— The nomination of General Macomb as Major General, and the dissatisfaction
it has given to General
Harrison, and to his friends particularly of the Ohio and
Indiana Delegations— He said he was aware, that no other of the four
Candidates could have been appointed without producing still greater
excitement, and dissatisfaction— He thought the choice upon which I had
fixed was the best; but he believed if the question of abolishing the
Office of Major General should come again before the Senate it would
prevail— A Resolution to that effect had been moved in the House of
Representatives by Lewis
Williams, immediately after the death of General Brown— Since the nomination of
Macomb it had been brought forward again; and may very possibly pass in
the House— It would now have the appearance of a censure both upon
Macomb, and his nomination—but the same disposition would have been
aroused though in other individuals, by the nomination of either of the
other competitors, and to the measure itself, whether adopted or
rejected I attach little importance— Mr Bell
spoke also of the appointment of a Minister to Great-Britain, and was
very anxious that it might be delayed until the next Session of
Congress— He mentioned also the proceedings in the Senate upon my
message relating to the assault of Russell
Jarvis upon my Secretary; and thinks that the opposition
party will for the sake of their own credit, do something to manifest
their disapprobation of his conduct— I have no belief that they well.
They brought him here for the purpose of assassination, and they cannot
punish him for labouring in the vocation to which they called him— My
Son received this day a Letter from Mr M’Duffie Chairman of the
Committee of the House of Representatives upon my Message requesting his
attendance before the Committee next Monday Morning— Mr Rush was
here, and mentioned that General S.
Smith the Chairman of the Committee of the Senate upon
Finance had called on him this morning and with professions of
friendship read him the Report he was about to make for the Committee to
the Senate upon the finances— It sustains altogether the views of Mr Rush’s annual Report, and so far
counteracts the Report of the Committee of Ways and Means to the House
of Representatives, made by Mr M’Duffie, and
which was throughout a violent and uncandid attack upon Mr Rush’s Report. Foot-bath