John Quincy Adams was more effective in his term as secretary of state
than he was during his one term in the White House. His efforts as president were frustrated by opponents and by his inability to compromise.
An intelligent and committed politician, he went on to a distinguished
eighteen-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Growing up in the Revolutionary War years
Adams was born on July 11, 1767, into a highly distinguished New
England family in Braintree, Massachusetts. His father, John Adams
(1735–1826; served 1797–1801), would become the second president of
the United States. As a young boy, Adams was intrigued with all that was
happening in the years leading up to the American Revolution
(1775–83), the war for independence from Great Britain. Adams was an
exceptionally intelligent young man. He attended private schools in
Europe, graduated from Harvard College, and then studied law.
While still in school, Adams served as secretary to his father in Paris,
France, during negotiations in 1783 to end the American Revolution. In
1794, President George Washington (1732–1799; served 1789–97) appointed him minister to the Netherlands. After his father became president in 1796, Adams served as minister to Prussia, in present-day
Germany.
A change in political course
In 1803, Adams was elected to the U.S. Senate. His father was one of the
founders of Federalism—a school of political thought that supported a
strong national government and an industrial (business and manufacturing) economy. Adams’s supporters in Massachusetts fully expected him
to support Federalist Party policies, but as he watched the new nation take shape, his sympathies turned toward the
Democratic-Republican Party, which favored
states’ rights over federal power and an agrarian
(farming) economy. Adams frequently voted in
favor of the policies of the DemocraticRepublican president, Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826; served 1801–9), including the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which nearly doubled the size of the United States. Having infuriated many of the people who elected him, he
joined the Democratic-Republican Party (which
was also known as the Jeffersonian Republican
Party) at the end of his term in the Senate.
Secretary of state
Adams served in important overseas missions
under President James Madison (1751–1836;
served 1809–17) and was appointed secretary of
state under President James Monroe
(1758–1831; served 1817–25) from 1817 to 1825. In this position, he
used his keen diplomatic skills to build and strengthen the United States.
In the aftermath of the War of 1812 (1812–15), a conflict over trade between Great Britain and the United States, he hammered out an armsreduction agreement with Great Britain. He also negotiated with Great
Britain to establish the boundary between British Canada and the
United States. In 1819, Adams convinced Spain to cede Florida to the
United States.
In 1823, President Monroe presented the Monroe Doctrine to
Congress, which declared that the United States would not tolerate
European interference in, or colonization of, the independent countries
in the Western Hemisphere. Adams was a principal author of the
Monroe Doctrine, which has served as the foundation of U.S. foreign
policy since that time.
President
Adams joined the race for the presidency in 1824, running against four
other Democratic-Republican nominees, one of whom was the popular
military general Andrew Jackson (1767–1845). Although a majority of the popular vote went to Jackson, the race was close, and it fell to the
House of Representatives to choose the new president. The House chose
Adams as the sixth U.S. president. Many felt that Jackson was robbed of
the presidency.
Adams moved into the White House full of ideas. He planned to expand the country’s roads and canals, build a national university, improve
bankruptcy laws, create a standard system of weights and measures for
American business, and much more. Once in office, though, he discovered that every move he made was fiercely opposed by Jackson’s supporters in Congress. The Jacksonians were not his only problem. Adams
refused to play the customary political game in Washington, D.C., neglecting to reward his supporters with the political appointments they
expected. His instincts were honorable, but his lack of charm and unwillingness to compromise prevented him from gaining a popular following.
He lost the election of 1828 to Jackson.
Post-presidential years
In 1830, the former president was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives. Adams served with distinction from 1831 until his
death in 1848, earning the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his
speeches. His crowning achievement was his opposition to the “gag
rules” that prevented antislavery petitions from being read on the floor
of the House. Adams argued that the rules violated the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the freedom of
speech and the right to petition the government. The House discarded
the “gag rules” in 1844. While never officially declaring himself to be in
favor of abolishing slavery, Adams became an outspoken champion of
the antislavery movement in Congress.
In 1848, Adams suffered a stroke on the House floor. He was carried
to the Speaker’s room, where he died two days later.