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.
t.Lawrence river. Sunday 16 July 1843. Quebec—
The distance from Montreal to Quebec on the St. Lawrence is 180 miles which we traversed in 11. hours— But
soon after we left Montreal, the night came on and we saw no more of the
Country. The Steamer Queen is a very fine boat, but met with an accident
some time since and was sunk— She has been very lately raised, repaired
and painted, the smell of which was very offensive— The hand or foot
could scarcely touch anything without sticking to it.— There was another
Steamer too, the Lord Sydenham, in competition with the Queen; and the
pressure of Steam, for this race was excessive upon both— That upon the
Queen at one time became alarming and they were obliged to stop the boat
and let off the steam for the space of at least ten minutes.— The
pinewood fire too threw out burning charcoal cinders in showers upon the
upper deck, and made it at once dirty and uncomfortable. I had to myself
however a good State room, with two berths but without a table, so that
I could not write and did not open my trunk.— Before 10. I turned in and
slept sound till day light— I rose at 4. saw the Sun rise from the upper
deck, opposite the village and church of St.
Nicholas, 15 miles from Quebec where we landed precisely at 5. O’Clock—
The Ladies then rode, and the men walked up, like scaling the walls to
Payne’s Hotel on the Square where the
parade of the troops is held; adjoining the place d’Armes.— The first
thing I did was to sally forth in quest of a barber— I found one, named
Tessier, a native of Quebec, whom I
finally prevailed upon with not a little difficulty to shave me.— At
breakfast we met a gentleman named Frazier, a
Scotch Presbyterian, who offered us seats in his pew in the Scotch
church of St. Andrew; which Mr Brooks
and I accepted— The preacher was a Dr Cook— His text was from
Genesis 4.3. [“]And in process of time, it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering to the Lord. 4. And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat there of: And the
Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering— 5. But unto Cain, and
to his offering he had not respect.” We dined at one O’Clock, and at 2.
attended the evening service of the English episcopal church for the
troops of the garrison.— The several regiments were marched in full
uniform accompanied by their Officers but without their firearms into
the church, where the chaplain to one of their regiments the 68th. 81st. and
82d. read the evening prayers for the
5th. Sunday after Trinity, and preached
from Job. 42.3. “Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
therefore have I uttered that I understood not: things too wonderful for
me, which I knew not.”— After Church I took a ride with Mr
and Mrs Grinnell and Mrs
Charles to the plains of Abram and in the Country round
the City of Quebec, which is beautiful, and richly cultivated— Evening
walk on the platform—