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.
- Thom George
I received yesterday morning, in the house a note from the Revd. Obadiah B.
Brown informing me that he was now ready to settle his
debt, and would call on me for that purpose whenever it would suit my
convenience— I answered that I would see him at my house at 7. O’Clock
last evening; at which time he came and paid me 1070 dollars for his
note of 1000. and 70 dollars for interest from 11. March 1843. This
morning I deposited the bills at the Bank of the Metropolis and
immediately after, purchased of Corcoran
and Riggs, brokers a certificate for 1000 dollars of
Washington City Corporation 6 per cents for 3/4 of one per cent advance—
They sent me the certificate in the course of the day. From half past 9
O’Clock I sat to Mr John Cranch and Mr Bingham who occupy
jointly the painting room for my portrait— At the house I found the
clerk reading the journal of
yesterday— Dawson introduced a
Resolution of the Legislature of Louisiana relating to a survey of parts
of the red river. Campbell moved
to cease debate in Committee of the whole on the state of the Union,
upon the Washington City charter Bill at 1/2 past 12 O’Clock this day,
carried without opposition— There was then a sharp struggle by Campbell
to get the District Bank Bill from the Senate into Committee of the
whole in which he finally succeeded, but could not get it taken up
there. Cave Johnson, Weller, and Burke, trip’d him up in his oft repeated motions to take
it up. Burke once moved to lay it on the table—lost by yeas and nays 70
to 94. but in Committee of the whole, where the yeas and nays cannot be
taken, three successive motions to take it up were lost taken by
tellers, with a quorum present, a majority of them voting to take up the
bill, and a portion of the minority purposely not passing through the
tellers; and thereby balking a quorum vote— A call of the house was
moved, but refused— Campbell kept his temper, and carried sundry other
district bills, first through the Committee of the whole on the state of
the Union Joseph R. Ingersoll
in the Chair, and then through the Committee of the whole Samuel F. Vinton in the Chair; the two
Committees successively rose, and about half past 4. the house
adjourned, without acting upon any of the reported bills— The three days
devoted to the consideration of District business have passed away, and
the only bill of much importance to the District or the Country has been
excluded from consideration by the party tactics of Cave Johnson, Weller
and Burke— The Senate this day by a vote of 24 to 16. on the motion of
R. J. Walker of Mississippi,
laid on the table the joint Resolution to adjourn on the 17th of June— 12 members absent are not
voting—a very bad omen— I took a short walk after dinner. Evening visit
from Mr
Thom. I answered two Letters from E. D. Marchant.