Adams, John Quincy, 1767–1848, 6th President of the United States (1825–29), b. Quincy (then in Braintree), Mass.; son of John Adams Adams, John, 1735–1826, 2d President of the United States (1797–1801), b. Quincy (then in Braintree), Mass., grad. Harvard, 1755. John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams , founded one of the most distinguished families of the United States; their son, John
..... Click the link for more information. and Abigail Adams Adams, Abigail, 1744–1818, wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams , b. Weymouth, Mass. She was born Abigail Smith. A lively, intelligent woman, she was the chief figure in the social life of her husband's administration and one
..... Click the link for more information. and father of Charles Francis Adams Adams, Charles Francis, 1807–86, American public official, minister to Great Britain (1861–68), b. Boston; son of John Quincy Adams . After a boyhood spent in various European capitals, he was graduated (1825) from Harvard and studied law under Daniel
..... Click the link for more information. (1807–86). He accompanied his father on missions to Europe, gaining broad knowledge from study and travel—he even accompanied (1781–83) Francis Dana Dana, Francis, 1743–1811, American diplomat, b. Charlestown, Mass. Son of a prominent lawyer, he was himself a lawyer. He went as a colonial agent to England, then served as a delegate to the Massachusetts provincial council (1776–80) and the Continental
..... Click the link for more information. to Russia—before returning home to graduate (1787) from Harvard and study law. Washington appointed (1794) him minister to the Netherlands, and in his father's administration he was minister to Prussia (1797–1801).

In 1803 he became a U.S. senator as a Federalist, but his independence led him to approve Jeffersonian policies in the Louisiana Purchase Louisiana Purchase, 1803, American acquisition from France of the formerly Spanish region of Louisiana.

Reasons for the Purchase

The revelation in 1801 of the secret agreement of 1800, whereby Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, aroused uneasiness
..... Click the link for more information. and in the Embargo Act of 1807 Embargo Act of 1807, passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System . The U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. ; the Federalists were outraged, and he resigned (1808). Sent as minister to Russia in 1809, he was well received, but the Napoleonic wars eclipsed Russian-American relations. He then helped to draw up the Treaty of Ghent Ghent, Treaty of, 1814, agreement ending the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. It was signed at Ghent, Belgium, on Dec. 24, 1814, and ratified by the U.S. Senate in Feb., 1815. The American commissioners were John Q. Adams , James A.
..... Click the link for more information. (1814), and served as minister to Great Britain. As secretary of state (1817–25) under James Monroe, Adams gained enduring fame. He negotiated a major treaty with Spain, which secured for the United States a great expanse of land that stretched to the Pacific. Perhaps most notably, Adams was also the architect of the somewhat misleadingly named Monroe Doctrine Monroe Doctrine, principle of American foreign policy enunciated in President James Monroe's message to Congress, Dec. 2, 1823. It initially called for an end to European intervention in the Americas, but it was later extended to justify U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. (1823).

In 1824 Adams was a candidate for the U.S. presidency. Neither he, nor Andrew Jackson Jackson, Andrew, 1767–1845, 7th President of the United States (1829–37), b. Waxhaw settlement on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina (both states claim him).

Early Career

A child of the backwoods, he was left an orphan at 14.
..... Click the link for more information. , nor Henry Clay Clay, Henry, 1777–1852, American statesman, b. Hanover co., Va.

Early Career

His father died when he was four years old, and Clay's formal schooling was limited to three years.
..... Click the link for more information. received a majority in the electoral college, and the election was decided in the House of Representatives. There Clay supported Adams, making him president. Adams appointed Clay secretary of state, over the Jacksonians' cry that the appointment fulfilled a corrupt bargain. With little popular support and without a party, Adams had an unhappy, ineffective administration, despite his attempts to institute a broad program of internal improvements.

After Jackson won the 1828 election, Adams retired to Quincy, but returned to new renown as a U.S. representative (1831–48). His eloquence, persistence, and moral forcefulness brought an end (1844) to the House gag rule on debate about slavery, and he attacked all other measures that would extend that institution, as well as Jackson's forced removal of southeastern tribes (1837) and the 1846 invasion of Mexico.

Cold and introspective, Adams was not generally popular, but he was respected for his high-mindedness and knowledge. His interest in science led him to promote the Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution, research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of
..... Click the link for more information. . His diary (selections ed. by C. F. Adams, 12 vol., 1874–77, repr. 1970; abridged by A. Nevins, 1928 and 1951) is a valuable document. Most of his writings were edited by W. C. Ford (7 vol., 1913–17); some appear in The Selected Writings of John and John Quincy Adams (ed. by A. Koch and W. Peden, 1946).

Bibliography

See the definitive biography by S. F. Bemis (2 vol., 1949 and 1956), other biographies by J. T. Morse (1883, repr. 1972), B. C. Clark (1932), P. C. Nagel (1997), and R. V. Remini (2002); J. T. Adams, The Adams Family (1930); M. B. Hecht, John Quincy Adams: A Personal History of Independence (1972); R. Brookhiser, America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735–1918 (2002).

Adams, John Quincy

John Quincy Adams.

(born July 11, 1767, Braintree, Mass.—died Feb. 23, 1848, Washington, D.C., U.S.) Sixth president of the U.S. (1825–29). He was the eldest son of John Adams, second president of the U.S., and Abigail Adams. He accompanied his father to Europe on diplomatic missions (1778–80) and was later appointed U.S. minister to the Netherlands (1794) and to Prussia (1797). In 1801 he returned to Massachusetts and served in the U.S. Senate (1803–08). Resuming his diplomatic service, he became U.S. minister to Russia (1809–11) and to Britain (1815–17). Appointed secretary of state (1817–24), he was instrumental in acquiring Florida from Spain and in drafting the Monroe Doctrine. He ran for the presidency in 1824 against three other candidates; none received a majority of the electoral votes, though Andrew Jackson received a plurality. By constitutional design, the selection of the president went to the House of Representatives, where Adams was elected after receiving crucial support from Henry Clay, who had finished third in the initial balloting. He appointed Clay secretary of state, which further angered Jackson. Adams's presidency was unsuccessful; when he ran for reelection, Jackson defeated him. In 1830 he was elected to the House, where he served until his death. He was outspoken in his opposition to slavery; in 1839 he proposed a constitutional amendment forbidding slavery in any new state admitted to the Union. Southern congressmen prevented discussion of antislavery petitions by passing gag rules (repealed in 1844 as a result of Adams's persistence). In 1841 he successfully defended the slaves in the Amistad mutiny case.

Adams, John Quincy (1767–1848) sixth U.S. president; born in Braintree (later Quincy), Mass. (son of John Adams). Reared for public service, he traveled in childhood on his father's diplomatic missions and at age 14 was private secretary to the American envoy at St. Petersburg. In 1787 he graduated from Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1790. Successively ambassador to the Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, and Berlin, he was elected as a Massachusetts Federalist to the U.S. Senate (1803); in 1806, however, his support of Jefferson outraged New England Federalists and he lost his seat in 1808. In 1809 he was ambassador to Russia; in 1814, a member of the commission to negotiate peace with Great Britain; and from 1815 to 1817, ambassador to Great Britain. As a brilliant secretary of state under President Monroe (1817–25), Adams negotiated with Spain the treaty for the acquisition of Florida and wrote a good deal of the "Monroe Doctrine" (1823). In 1824 he won the presidential election over Andrew Jackson, but only after a close vote in the House of Representatives. Cold in manner and too independent to command a following, he was an ineffective president and lost to Jackson in 1828. In 1831 he entered the U.S. House of Representatives where for the rest of his life he was a champion of the antislavery faction. In 1841 he successfully defended the African mutineers of the slave ship Amistad. He suffered a stroke while sitting in the House and died two days later.