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.
- M
rsBrooks of Medford
At 30 minutes past midnight this morning of Palm-Sunday the 4th. of April 1841. died William Henry Harrison, precisely
one calendar month as President of the United States, after his
inauguration— The first impression of this event, here where it occurred
is of the frailty of all human enjoyments, and the awful vicissitudes
woven into the lot of mortal man— He had reached but one short month
since the pinnacle of honour and power in his own country— He lies a
lifeless corpse in the Palace provided by his Country for his abode. He
was amiable and benevolent. Sympathy for his sufferings and his fate, is
the prevailing sentiment of his fellow-citizens— The bereavement and
distress of his family, is felt intensely, albeit they are strangers
here, and known to scarcely any one— His
wife had not yet even left his residence at North-bend,
Ohio, to join him here. An express was sent for her two or three days
since, but the tidings of death must meet her before she can reach this
city. The influence of this event upon the condition and history of the
Country, can scarcely be foreseen— It make the Vice-President of the
United States, John Tyler of
Virginia, acting President of the Union, for four years, less one Month—
Tyler is a political sectarian of the Slave-driving, Virginian
Jeffersonian school— Principled against all improvement— With all the
interests and passions, and vices of Slavery rooted in his moral and
political constitution—with talents not above mediocrity, and a spirit
incapable of expansion to the dimensions of the station upon which he
has been cast by the hand of Providence unseen through the apparent
agency of chance— To that benign and healing hand of Providence I trust
in humble hope of the good, which it always brings forth out of evil— In
upwards of half a century, this is the first instance of a
Vice-President’s being called to act as President of the United-States,
and brings to the test that provision of the Constitution which places
in the Executive Chair a man never thought of for it by any body.— This
day was in every sense gloomy— Rain the whole day. I attended public
worship first at the Presbyterian Church where there were less than 30
persons, and a stranger gave out two hymns, and made a short prayer.
Mr
Wood was to have reached home last Evening but did not—
The Cars from Philadelphia having failed to arrive at Baltimore in time
for the passengers to come on in those from Baltimore to this place last
Evening. The Stranger said that he himself came from Philadelphia the
day before yesterday, and from Baltimore last evening— That he was too
unwell to preach this morning but that he would preach at half past 3
this afternoon. The Congregation was then dismissed and I went to St. John’s Church where Mr Hawley
was reading the morning prayer for the Sunday before Easter. He preached
from Psalm 39.5—“Veryly, every man at his best state is altogether
vanity.” He said he had witnessed the death of the chief magistrate,
after prayers at his bed-side at 9 last Evening.— Mrs Brooks
widow of the late Governor Brooks’s
son dined with us.