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.
- Spear William, Deacon
- Field Harvey.
- Thayer Minott
- Ides
- Loring Thomas
Last Evening, after closing my Lecture, I received a note from Mr Abbott
Lawrence inviting me to come and lodge at his house—
Mr
Foster had given me a similar invitation.— Mrs Felt,
who was at the Lecture, did the same.— Harriet Welsh and Elizabeth De Wint, were also there, and Miss De Wint told
me she wished to go with my
wife and family to New-York— The chapel last Evening was
full; but there were at least four women present, to one man— Except my
own Relations, and Degrand, I saw
there none of my acquaintance, except old Joseph May whom I had not seen for many years— Dr
Bowditch asked if I should be willing to give the
Association a copy of my Lecture, for publication, but I declined, as I
proposed to deliver it at sundry other places—and indeed it is not worth
publication.— As the carriage to bring me home was waiting at the Chapel
door, I could not answer Mr Lawrence’s Note,
but Mr
Barnard promised to send him word, that I had previously
arranged to return to Quincy— One of the Committee offered to come out
with me, but I thought it too severe a tax upon his complaisance, and
came alone. Dr Bowditch’s wife, an English woman said to me
that an ex Subject of the very fine girl thanked me for my Lecture— This
morning Deacon Spear and Harvey Field called together; and had
some conversation with me about my farm, and a house and lot bordering
on the Quincy Canal which Field wishes to sell— He returned last evening
from a trip to Bangor to make a purchase of lumber, and brought back my
Umbrella, which had been left on board the Steamer Bangor, when we
landed in the Night at Portland. The Deacon spoke about making sale of
the wood on the lot which we surveyed on the 8th. of this Month—but I referred him for all my business here
to my Son, who went this morning
to Boston, and returned to dine.— Mr Minott Thayer was here with
a young man by the name of Ides.— My Son
delivered a Lecture last Evening, to the whigs at Braintree, with which
Mr Thayer was highly delighted. He
promised to send me the 50 copies of my address of last year delivered
before the Inhabitants of Braintree at Mr Storrs’s Meeting
house— Mr
Loring invited us to a political whig meeting at Hingham
to-morrow Evening to hear Mr Caleb Cushing, but I have
other engagements, and Charles has promised to deliver a political
address to-morrow evening at Cohasset.— Mr
Loring brought and shewed me a Letter from me to his Aunt Hannah Thaxter dated 16. Jany 1775 now in possession of his Sister
Mrs
Whittemore—and he told me that Mrs Nehemiah
Parsons had a file of Letters from my mother to Mr John Thaxter.— This Evening at 7 O’Clock,
I delivered at the town Hall the introductory Lecture for the Season,
before the Quincy Lyceum. Charles went with me.— The Hall was full, but
not crowded— Home at 9.