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.
- Whittier John G—
- Adams John Quincy. 2
- Elizabeth C. Adams
- Green John Adams
Sun rose 4.23.
I succeeded in reaching the corner of my
Son’s house to see the first beam of the rising Sun—
Mr John A.
Green. Editor of the Quincy Patriot, brought me a small
volume elegantly bound with my name on the outside binding published by
Casserly and Sons 108
Nassau Street New-York: with a flattering, complimentary note from the
publishers— The book is entitled A Memoir of Ireland Native and Saxon,
by Daniel O’Connell M.P. Vol.
1. 1172–1660— These are Roman Catholic publishers; but I know not how to
account for their extraordinary kindness to me— Mr Green had also a slip from a Berkshire Newspaper containing
4 Stanzas of poetry with my name as the author. He asked if they were
mine— They were the Stanza’s 3–6. of Dermot MacMorrogh—Canto 2. Green intimated that he
intended to republish them in the Quincy Patriot— I visited my seedling
trees, and noted the first appearance of one more English Oak— I trimmed
a young button-wood and took off a stake which I planted to ascertain if
it will grow.— I answered at last a Letter, which has been waiting for
an answer for 12 days. After dinner I rode with Mrs
Charles and her boy Arthur to Mount Wollaston, and after we returned I had a
visit from John G. Whittier. He
had agreed to serve as Editor of the Emancipator during the absence of
Mr
Leavitt; but that engagement is cancelled and at the close
of this week he returns to his residence at Amesbury— He spoke of the
teeming projects of our Southern politicians for the annexation of Texas
to this Union; and for the counter projects in Texas for the abolition
of Slavery there— I told him my reasons for distrusting the sincerity of
the British Government with regard to Slavery and Texas; the commercial
interest and policy of Great-Britain, sympathising far more with our
Southern than with the Northern States— Past
Midshipman John Quincy Adams 2d. came in this Evening with his Sister Elizabeth— He has a short furlough
and from the Razee Independence of the home Squadron, has been
transferred to the command of the Sloop of War Decatur—ordered to the
Station, on the Coast of Africa— Collections of the Massachusetts
historical Society Third Series. Vol. 3. Pathway to erect a plantation
by Captain John Smith p 1–53.
Plain dealing. by Thomas
Lechford. p. 59.–128. Instructions to John Winthrop—Governor of
Connecticut. Lion Gardener’s
Relation of the Pequot War. p. 131–160. Relation of the Indian plot, p
161–164. Intrusion of Rhode-Island people on Indian Lands— p. 209.
John Josselyn, two Voyages to
New-England p 211–354. Chronological observations of America p
355–396.