John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States and the first son of a former president who himself became president. (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are the only other father-son presidents.)
John Quincy Adams was well known for his diplomatic success and most of all for his role as secretary of state under James Monroe. Adams had previously served as an ambassador to several European countries and as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. He is the only president in history to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives after leaving the presidency. Adams's fierce sense of independent judgment meant that he never completely fit the mold of any political party, and he was surely the only president to have a pet alligator in the White House.
John Quincy Adams was one of America’s great secretaries of state. His accomplishments include obtaining Florida from Spain and working with his president James Monroe to formulate the Monroe Doctrine. During his single term as president, John Quincy Adams sought to bolster domestic business by proposing federally funded roads and canals and protective tariffs. He was an abolitionist and defender of Indian rights, and frequently opposed States rights.
The son of President John Adams, John Quincy Adams, was born in Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts. In 1778 he traveled to France with his father, who was then U.S. commissioner to France. On this and subsequent visits to Europe, the young Adams studied at academies and universities.
At fourteen Adams became private secretary to Francis Dana, the U.S. Minister to Russia; Adams also served as secretary to his father during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris that ended in 1783. In 1787 the twenty year-old Adams graduated from Harvard University. After studying law, he gained admission to the bar in 1790 and began practicing in Boston.
Almost five decades of public service began in 1802 when Adams gained election to the Massachusetts Senate. In addition to numerous diplomatic appointments, Adams went on to serve as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1803 to 1808, U.S. President from 1825 to 1829, and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1831 to 1848.
Adams’ unsurpassed diplomatic career addressed the major foreign policy challenges of his time. President George Washington appointed him U.S. Minister Resident to the Netherlands in 1794. After serving three years in the Netherlands, Adams became U.S. Minister Resident to Prussia from 1797 to 1801, appointed this time by his father.
President James Madison appointed Adams U.S. Minister to Russia in 1809, and Adams served until 1814. He duly reported on Napoleon’s failed invasion, among other events. Adams headed the Commission that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, which ended the War of 1812 with Great Britain. His placement as U.S. Minister to Great Britain from 1815 to 1817 insured that he would be central to the ongoing efforts to improve Anglo-American relations. He concluded the Commercial Convention of 1815, which included a mutual import non-discrimination measure that would serve as a model for future trade agreements.
Adams helped start negotiations to disarm the Great Lakes that culminated in the Rush-Bagot Pact of 1817. He also guided the progress of the Convention of 1818, which set the boundary between the United States and western British North America (later Canada) at the Rocky Mountains and stipulated joint occupation of the Oregon Country, among other issues.
As Secretary of State, Adams’ views about territorial expansion guided President Monroe’s policies. Adams’ brilliant diplomacy with Spain, which led to the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, was largely responsible for the Acquisition of Florida and the U.S. assumption of Spain’s claim to the Oregon Country. Adams worked to delay U.S. support of the new Latin American republics until the treaty was ratified.
By 1822, however, he supported President Monroe’s recognition of several new republics. The following year, Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine, which reflected many of Adams’ views, particularly his insistence that the proclamation be unilateral. Adams also achieved a favorable convention with Russia in 1824 that recognized the U.S. claim to the Oregon Country.
The House of Representatives elected Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as President on February 09, 1825. Following an inconclusive Electoral College result, the House performed the constitutionally prescribed role of deciding the 1825 presidential election. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee had won the popular vote and commanded 99 electoral votes. He was followed in the electoral tally by Adams (84), Treasury Secretary William Crawford (41), and Speaker of the House Henry Clay (37).
Speaker Clay was excluded from the House vote because he did not finish in the top three. The wily Kentuckian, however, still played a decisive role by supporting Adams, whom he knew to share his nationalist agenda. On the appointed day, each state delegation got one vote. On the first ballot 13 state delegations — a majority — chose Adams as President. Jackson received seven votes; Crawford got four.
President Adams nominated Clay as his Secretary of State, reigniting rumors that a deal had been struck before the vote. Convinced that the election had been stolen from him, Jackson stormed, “the Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver . . . Was there ever witnessed such a bare faced corruption in any country before?”
John Quincy Adams had, in common with his father, the same lack of power to deal with men of varied points of view, and a conservatism which prevented him from realizing the impending change. He had not enjoyed Jackson's opportunity to become acquainted with the claims and point of view of the lower strata of society and he was therefore ignorant of the democratic upheaval, which had taken place west of the Alleghanies. Accustomed as he was all his life to mingle with men of culture and wealth, and having served abroad many years as foreign minister, where he had come in contact only with the upper classes, he was peculiarly ill fitted by temperament or training to outride the storm that was soon to break upon his administration.
Foreign affairs were not central to Adams’ presidential term. As a Representative from Massachusetts, however, Adams ended his great drive to expand the territory of the United States. His disapproval of the expansion of slavery led him to oppose the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico. Alternatively, Adams supported President James K. Polk’s efforts to annex the Oregon Country. Adams believed that slavery would not reach Oregon and that the coastal territory would benefit foreign trade.
Adams realized few of his initiatives, because most Americans favored minimal government at that time. Defeated by Andrew Jackson in 1828, Adams went home to Massachusetts, but a year later, his district elected him to the House of Representatives, where he served for 18 years. He was an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery and supporter of the constitutional right of the people to petition the government on that question. “Old Man Eloquent” collapsed while addressing the House in February 1848 and died two days later at the age of 81.
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