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John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American lawyer, diplomat, politician, and President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1829). His party affiliations were Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Whig. Adams was the son of U.S. President John Adams, and his mother was Abigail Adams.

Early life

Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in a part of town which eventually became Quincy. 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.

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 in 1780. During this period, he acquired his early education at institutions such as the University of Leiden. After returning to America, he entered Harvard College and graduated in 1787. He was then admitted to the bar association and began practicing law in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early political career

George Washington appointed Adams as minister to the Netherlands from 1794 until 1796 and to Portugal in 1796. 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.

Adams afterwards returned to Quincy 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, breaking with the Federalists and becoming 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 (Great Britain) 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 consonant 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 three other candidates in the Presidential election of 1824. His opponents included Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, and Tennessee senator Andrew Jackson. 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 House of Representatives had to decide and dropped the lowest Henry Clay, who 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 6th President of the United States from March 4, 1825 to March 3, 1829. He became president at the end of an era known as the "Era of Good Feelings", as political rhetoric again became vituperative.

Domestic policies

During his term, he worked on developing the American System. 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 with 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 also 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 of 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 enlargment and rebuilding of the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina.

One of the issues which divided the adminstration 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 complicatited.

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. Senator Martin Van Buren, a future president and follower of Jackson, became one of the leaders of the senate.

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. One of the reasons for this, was the opposition in Congress. Rivals in Congress were determined to deny him any mark of success. For example, when the new Latin American republics, formerly Spanish colonies, convened a congress to promote cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, they invited Adams to send delegates. Congress denied him the money to do so.

But thanks to the Monroe Doctrine, most of the issues in foreign affairs were resolved by the time Adams became President.

Administration and Cabinet

OFFICENAMETERM
PresidentJohn Quincy Adams1825–1829
Vice PresidentJohn C. Calhoun1825–1829
Secretary of StateHenry Clay1825–1829
Secretary of the TreasuryRichard Rush1825–1829
Secretary of WarJames Barbour1825–1828
 Peter Porter1828–1829
Attorney GeneralWilliam Wirt1825–1829
Postmaster GeneralJohn McLean1825–1829
Secretary of the NavySamuel Southard1825–1829

Supreme Court appointments

States admitted to the Union

None

Election of 1828

After the election of Adams, 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 and Jackson never forgave Adams for this.

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 his electoral votes to Adams.

Later life

After his defeat Adams didn't attend the inauguration of his successor Andrew Jackson, just as his father John Adams did 28 years earlier with Jefferson's in 1801. But rather than retire, he went on to win election as a National Republican and Whig to the House of Representatives, serving from 1831 until his death. He was asked by his neighbors to run, and he agreed under two conditions: he would never solicit their votes and he would follow his conscience at all times.

In congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures (for the 22nd through 26th, 28th and 29th Congresses), the Committee on Indian Affairs (for the 27th Congress) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (also for the 27th Congress). He was an important antislavery voice in congress.

In 1834 he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts. 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, should not be taken to Cuba but should be returned home as free people.

Adams died of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 23, 1848, in the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.. 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, where his tomb can be viewed today. His parents are also interred there.

Adams's son Charles Francis Adams also pursued a career in diplomacy and politics.

Trivia

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "John Quincy Adams".

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