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.
My Son Charles came out from
Boston, dined with us, and returned this Evening. I heard Mr Whitney
in the forenoon from John 3.20. “For every one that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved”—and in the afternoon from 1. Timothy 1.17. “Now unto the king,
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for
ever and ever. Amen.” These were both old Sermons— Spent the Evening in
writing; and reflecting upon this new incident which has drifted me back
again amidst the Breakers of the Political Ocean— It is also a novelty
in the history of the Country; and as a precedent may have no
unimportant bearing upon future Events— By the Constitution of the
United States, the President is re-eligible as long as he lives—
Washington, Jefferson and Madison, voluntarily retired after one
re-election—and Jefferson no doubt intended to make the example a
practical exposition of Constitutional principle— It was followed by
Mr
Monroe, perhaps with not much cordiality; and will be
continued as long as a Presidential Term of eight years shall wear out
the popularity of the person holding the Office. One of the consequences
of this has been and will be that Ex President’s will survive many years
the termination of their Offices— That as individuals they will take a
part in public affairs, and that they will sometimes solicit, and
sometimes be elected to subordinate Offices— All the preceding
President’s have held Offices of a public nature, after the expiration
of their Presidential Service— None however as a member of either house
of Congress; and there are many who think it now a derogatory descent—
This is a mere prejudice; and had I alledged my former Station as a
Reason for rejecting the suffrages of the People, assigning me a Seat in
the House of Representatives, I should not merely have been chargeable
with Arrogance, but should have exposed myself to ridicule. So far as
concerns myself I consider this new Call to the public Service as a
misfortune: inasmuch as it takes from me the last hope of an old age of
quiet and leisure. I am still to be buffeted with political rancour and
personal malignity; with more than equal chances of losing the favour
even of those who now think they honour themselves by their suffrages
more than me. My return to public life in a subordinate Station is
disagreeable to my family and disapproved by some of my friends; though
no one of them has expressed that disapprobation to me— For the
discharge of the duties of this particular Station I never was eminently
qualified; possessing no talent for extemporaneous public speaking; and
at this time being in the decline of my faculties both of mind and body.
This event therefore gives me deep concern and anxious forebodings. Yet
can I not withhold my grateful acknowledgment to the disposer of human
Events, and to the People of my native region for this unexpected
testimonial of their continued confidence, after all the combinations of
personal rivals, and political competitors to shake it— [“]The heart
knoweth its own bitterness; and a Stranger, intermeddleth not with its
joys”— No one knows, and few conceive the agony of mind that I have
suffered from the time that I was made by circumstances, and not by my
volition a candidate for the Presidency till I was dismissed from that
Station by the failure of my Re-election— They were feelings to be
suppressed, and they were suppressed—no human being has ever heard me
complain— Domestic Calamity far heavier than any political
disappointment or disaster can possibly be, overtook me immediately
after my fall from power, and the moment of my distress was seized, by
an old antagonist, 29to indulge a hatred overflowing
with the concentrated rancour of forty years; and who could not resist
the pleasure of giving me what he thought the finishing blow, at the
moment when he saw me down— It seemed as if I was deserted by all
mankind, and precisely at that time the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, a Literary and Scientific Institution of my native State,
which for a Series of years during my prosperity had annually elected me
their President when it was impossible for me to attend their Meetings,
thought proper to substitute another President in my place— In the
French Opera of Richard Coeur de
Lion, the minstrel Blondel, sings under the walls of his prison a song
beginning
when I first heard this Song, forty-five years ago, at one of the first Representations of that delightful play, it made an indelible impression upon my memory, without imagining that I should ever feel its force so much closer home— In the year 1829. scarce a day passed that did not bring it to my thoughts— In the course of past Winter a vacancy occurred in the Board of Overseers of Harvard University— Absent, I was very unexpectedly elected to fill that vacancy— I attributed this to the personal friendship and influence of President Quincy— But this call upon me by the People of the District in which I reside, to represent them in Congress, has been spontaneous; and although counteracted by a double opposition; federalist and Jacksonite, I have received nearly three votes in four, throughout the district. My Election as President of the United States was not half so gratifying to my inmost Soul— No election or appointment conferred upon me ever gave me so much pleasure— I say this to record my Sentiments—but no Stranger intermeddleth with my Joys, and the dearest of my friends have no sympathy with my Sensations.