John Quincy Adams Totally Explained

Everything about John Quincy Adams totally explained

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was a diplomat, politician, and the sixth President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829). His party affiliations were Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig. John Quincy Adams was the son of the second United States President John Adams and Abigail Adams. He is most famous as a diplomat involved in many international negotiations, and for formulating the Monroe Doctrine. As president he proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement, but was unable to get it through Congress. Late in life, as a Congressman, he was a leading opponent of the Slave Power, arguing that if a civil war ever broke out the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers, a policy followed by Abraham Lincoln in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
To date he is, with Andrew Johnson, one of only two Presidents to subsequently serve in Congress.

Early life

Adams was born in a section of the town of Braintree that's now Quincy, Massachusetts. The John Quincy Adams birthplace, now part of Adams National Historical Park, is open to the public, as is the nearby Abigail Adams Cairn that marks the site from which Adams witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill as a seven-year-old boy. He first learned of the Declaration of Independence from the letters his father wrote his mother from Philadelphia. Much of Adams' youth was spent overseas accompanying his father, who served as an American envoy to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782. During this period, he acquired his early education at institutions such as the University of Leiden. For nearly two years, at the age of only 14, he accompanied Francis Dana, as a secretary on a mission to St. Petersburg, Russia, to gain recognition of the new republic. He also spent time in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and in 1804 published a travel report of Germany's Silesia.
During these years overseas, Adams gained a mastery of French and Dutch and a familiarity with German and other European languages. After returning to America, he'd become far more educated and well-travelled than most of his countrymen even twice his age. He entered Harvard College and graduated in 1788. He apprenticed as a lawyer with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1787-1789. He was then admitted to the bar in 1791 and began practicing law in Boston.

Early political career

George Washington appointed Adams as minister to the Netherlands from 1794 until 1796 and to Portugal in 1796. With George Washington's urging, his father appointed him minister to Prussia from 1797 until 1801. While serving abroad, he married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an American merchant, in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London.
Adams afterwards returned to Massachusetts where he lived in the Old House (now a museum). He began his political career in 1802 when he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. Adams was an unsuccessful Federalist candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the same year. He was elected as a Federalist to the U.S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1803, until June 8, 1808, when he broke with the Federalists, resigned from his Senate seat in June 1808, and became a Republican. Adams served as minister to Russia from 1809 until 1814, chief negotiator of the U.S. commission for the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, and minister to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom) from 1815 until 1817.

Secretary of State

Adams served as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James Monroe from 1817 until 1825, a tenure during which he was instrumental in the acquisition of Florida. Typically, his views were concurrent with those espoused by Monroe. As secretary of state, he negotiated the Adams-Onís Treaty and wrote the Monroe Doctrine, which cautioned European nations against meddling in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.

Election of 1824

Adams ran against four other candidates in the Presidential election of 1824. His opponents included Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, Tennessee Senator Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun. After Crawford suffered a stroke there was no clear favorite. After the elections no one had a majority of either the electoral votes or the popular votes, although Andrew Jackson was the winner of a plurality of both. The decision went to the House of Representatives. The candidate with the lowest votes, Henry Clay, was dropped from consideration, and Clay gave his support to Adams. Adams won on the first ballot and was named president. Adams then named Clay Secretary of State to the angry complaints of Andrew Jackson, who alleged a corrupt bargain and vowed to run again in 1828.

Presidency 1825–1829

Adams served as the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1829. John Quincy Adams took the Oath of Office on a book of laws, instead of the more traditional Bible.

Domestic policies

During his term, he worked on developing the American System, consisting of a high tariff to support internal improvements such as road-building, and a national bank to encourage productive enterprise and form a national currency. In his first annual message to Congress, Adams presented an ambitious program for modernization that included roads, canals, a national university, an astronomical observatory, and other initiatives. The support for his proposals was limited, even from his own supporters. His critics accused him of unseemly arrogance because of his narrow victory. Most of his initiatives were opposed in Congress by Jackson's supporters, who remained outraged over the 1824 election.
   Nevertheless, some of his proposals were adopted, specifically the extension of the Cumberland Road into Ohio with surveys for its continuation west to St. Louis; the beginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the construction of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and the Portland to Louisville Canal around the falls of the Ohio; the connection of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River system in Ohio and Indiana; and the enlargement and rebuilding of the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina. One of the issues which divided the administration was protective tariffs. Henry Clay was a supporter, but Adams's Vice President John C. Calhoun was an opponent. The position of Adams was unknown, because his constituency was divided. After Adams lost the control of Congress in 1827, the situation became more complicated. He also signed into law the highly unpopular Tariff of 1828 (also known as the Tariff of Abominations), thereby compromising his chances of getting anything else done during his presidency.
   He and Clay set up a new party, the National Republican Party, but it never took root in the states. In the elections of 1827 Adams and his supporters lost the control of Congress. New York Senator Martin Van Buren, a future president and follower of Jackson, became one of the leaders of the senate.
   Much of Adams' political difficulties were due to his refusal, on principle, to replace members of his administration who supported Jackson (on the grounds that no one should be removed from office except for incompetence.) For example, his Postmaster General, John McLean, continued in office through the Adams administration, despite the fact that he was using his powers of patronage to curry favor with Jacksonites.
   Another blow to Adams' presidency was his generous policy toward Native Americans. Westerners, who were constantly seeking to move westward, cried for a more expansionist policy. When the federal government tried to assert authority on behalf of the Cherokees, the Georgian governor took up arms, another sign of nullification that foreshadowed the secession of the Southern states during the Civil War.
   Adams defended his domestic agenda as simply continuing Monroe's policies. However, Adams didn't address public works spending like Monroe did, and had a rationale for government intervention. What was most striking was that Adams addressed congress and asked them to ignore objections to parts of his program that provoked the most opposition of the constitution.

Foreign policies

Adams is regarded as one of the greatest diplomats in American history and during his tenure as Secretary of State he was one of the designers of the Monroe Doctrine. But during his term as president, Adams achieved little of consequence in foreign affairs. A reason for this was the opposition he faced in Congress, where his rivals prevented him from succeeding.
Among the few diplomatic achievements of his administration were treaties of reciprocity with a number of nations, including Denmark, Mexico, the Hanseatic League, the Scandinavian countries, Prussia and Austria. However, thanks to the successes of Adams' diplomacy during his previous eight years as Secretary of State, most of the foreign policy issues he'd have faced had been resolved by the time he became President.

Administration and Cabinet

Supreme Court appointments

Robert Trimble – 1826

States admitted to the Union

None

Departure from Office

John Quincy Adams left office on March 4, 1829 after losing the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. Adams didn't attend the inauguration of his successor, Andrew Jackson, who had openly snubbed him by refusing

to pay the traditional "courtesy call" to the outgoing President during the weeks before his own inauguration. He was one of only three Presidents who chose not to attend their respective successor's inauguration, the others were his father and Andrew Johnson.

Election of 1828

After the inauguration of Adams in 1825, Jackson resigned from his senate seat. For four years he worked hard, with help from his supporters in Congress, to defeat Adams in the Presidential election of 1828. The campaign was very much a personal one. Although neither candidate personally campaigned, their political followers organized many campaign events. Both candidates were rhetorically attacked in the press. This reached a low point when Jackson's wife, Rachel, was accused of bigamy. She died a few weeks after the elections. Jackson said he'd forgive those who insulted him, but he'd never forgive the ones who attacked his wife.
In the end, Adams lost the elections in a landslide. He won exactly the same states that his father had won in the election of 1800: the New England states, New Jersey, and Delaware. Jackson won everything else except for New York, which gave 16 of its electoral votes to Adams, and Maryland, which cast 6 of its votes for Adams.

Congressman

Rather than retire, he went on to win election as a National Republican and Whig to the House of Representatives, serving for seventeen years, from 1831 until his death. In Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures (for the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 28th and 29th), the Committee on Indian Affairs (for the 27th Congress) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (also for the 27th Congress). He became an important antislavery voice in the Congress. During the years 1836-37 Adams presented many petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia and elsewhere to Congress. The Gag rule prevented discussion of slavery from 1836 to 1844, but he frequently managed to evade it by parliamentary skill. In 1834 he unsuccessfully ran as the Antimasonic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, losing to John Davis. In 1841, Adams represented the Amistad Africans in the Supreme Court of the United States and successfully argued that the Africans, who had seized control of a Spanish ship where they were being held as illegal slaves (as the international slave trade had been abolished, although slavery itself had not), shouldn't be taken to Cuba but should be considered free and have the option to remain within the U.S. or return home as free people.

Death

While preparing to address the House of Representatives on February 21, 1848, Adams collapsed, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Two days later, on February 23, he died with his wife and children at his side in the Speaker's Room inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His last words were reported to have been, "This is the last of Earth. I'm content." His interment was in the family burial ground at Quincy, and he was subsequently reinterred after his wife's death in a family crypt in the United First Parish Church across the street. His tomb can be viewed today and his parents are also interred there.

Family

John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine (Johnson) Adams had three sons and a daughter, Louisa, who was born in 1811, died of an illness in 1812 while the family was in Russia. They named their first son after George Washington (George Washington Adams), making Adams the only U.S. President to name a son after another.
   Both George and their second son, John (1803-1834), led troubled lives and died in early adulthood.
   Adams's youngest son, Charles Francis Adams (who named his own son John Quincy), also pursued a career in diplomacy and politics. In 1870 Charles Francis built the first memorial presidential library in the United States, to honor his father John Quincy Adams. The Stone Library includes over 14,000 books written in twelve languages. The library is located in the "Old House" at Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.
   The actress Mary Kay Adams is a descendant of John Quincy Adams.
   John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the first father and son to both serve as president. Each man served one term.

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