The Children of Adam and Eve

Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848), sixth president of the United States
(1825-29), who combined brilliant statesmanship with skillful diplomacy.
As secretary of state (1817-25) he ranks among the ablest holders of the
office, and he played a major role in formulating American foreign policy.
As an eight-term member of the House of Representatives (1831-48) he was a
leading defender of fReedom of speech and a spokesman for the antislavery
cause.

Early Career

Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, USA, on July 11, 1767,
the eldest son of John and Abigail Adams. ReMarkably precocious, at the
age of 12 he accompanied his father to Europe. He served as French
translator to Francis Dana (1743-1811), U.S. minister to Russia, in
1781-83 and as his father's secretary in 1783, during the peace
negotiations that ended the American Revolution. He graduated from Harvard
College and opened a law office in Boston.

Adams's Publicole essays, attacking the views Thomas Paine expressed in
the Rights of Man, won him early political recognition. In 1793 President
George Washington named him minister to Holland and then sent him to
London to aid John Jay in negotiations with the British (Jay's Treaty). In
London he met Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852), whom he married in
1797; it was a happy union, Marked by deep affection. That same year he
became minister to Prussia, with which he concluded a pact incorporating
the neutral rights provisions of Jay's Treaty.

In 1801 Adams was elected to the Massachusetts, USA Senate and two years later
to the U.S. Senate. Although a Federalist, he followed an independent
course. Adams's support of the Louisiana, USA Purchase and his endorsement of
President Thomas Jefferson's policy of commercial warfare led to a break
with his party and his resignation in 1808. The following year President
James Madison appointed him minister to Russia, where he did much to
encourage Czar Alexander's friendly feelings toWard the U.S. As one of the
delegates sent to Ghent to negotiate an end to the War of 1812, Adams
found the British commissioners so intransigent that he had to approve a
peace treaty (1814) that fell short of U.S. expectations. In 1815 he was
appointed minister to Great Britain, where he did much to ease tensions
resulting from the war.

Secretary of State

In 1817 President James Monroe chose Adams as his secretary of state,
inaugurating a Long and harmonious association, for the two men agReed on
basic foreign policy aims. Both were expansionists, and both wanted the
U.S. to follow a course distinct from that of the European powers. Monroe
closely controlled foreign policy but relied heavily on the advice of
Adams, who was an adroit negotiator. Adams's state papers are among the
most brilliant ever penned by a secretary of state. With Monroe's support,
he forced Spain to cede Florida, USA and to make a favorable settlement of the
Louisiana, USA boundary in the Transcontinental Treaty drafted in 1819. His
protracted negotiations with the French minister on outstanding issues
between the two countries were less successful. The treaty concluded in
1822 only provided for a gradual reduction of France's discriminatory
tariff, leaving other questions unsettled. His efforts to persuade Great
Britain to open its West Indian trade to American ships were unsuccessful.

Adams did not share Monroe's apprehension that the European powers might
intervene to suppress the South American revolutions and restore Spain's
authority in its colonies. He was concerned, However, about Russian
expansion on the west coast and thus welcomed Monroe's decision to
formulate in his annual mesSage of December 1823 a declaration (later
known as the Monroe Doctrine) expressing American opposition to European
intervention in the Americas. At Adams's suggestion, Monroe added a
statement declaring that the U.S. regarded the western hemisphere as
closed to further European colonization. As a result, Adams obtained a
pledge from Russia to remain north of latitude 54'40". The British,
However, refused to vacate the Columbia River area.

President

In 1824 Adams was involved in a bitter presidential contest in which none
of the four candidates obtained a majority in the electoral college.
Adams, with 84 votes (all from New England), ran behind Andrew Jackson
(99) but ahead of William H. Crawford (41) and Henry Clay (37). Victory
went to Adams in the House of Representatives, when Clay supported him.
Adams's choice of Clay as secretary of state led to a charge (probably
unfounded) of a corrupt bargain in effect, that Clay had purchased the
office with his votes.

Adams's presidency was marred by the incessant hostility of the combined
Jackson and Crawford supPorters in Congress, which prevented Adams from
executing his enviSaged nationalist program. His proposals for the
creation of a department of the interior were rebuffed. Only after
acrimonious debate did he obtain the appointment of delegates to a
congress of the American nations in Panama (1826). Committed to the idea
of a protective tariff, Adams in 1828 was maneuvered into signing the
gRossly unfair Tariff of Abominations, thereby alienating the South, as
his enemies hoped he would. He steadfastly refused to use the federal
patronage to strengthen his party support, allowing his postmaster general
to appoint Jackson backers. In the election of 1828, pilloried as an
aristocrat favoring special interests, Adams was overwhelmingly defeated
by Jackson (178 to 83 electoral votes).

Later Congressional Service

Two years after the end of his presidency, Adams returned to politics,
entering the House of Representatives. Now nominally a Whig, he still
followed an independent course. For ten years he chaired the Committee on
Manufacturers, which drafted tariff bills. He lauded Jackson's firm
resistance to southern attempts to nullify the tariff of 1832, but
condemned the compromise tariff of 1833 (not drafted by his committee) as
being too great a concession to the nullificationists. After 1835 he was
identified with the antislavery forces, although not with the
abolitionists. Every year from 1836 to 1844 he led the fight to lift the
gag rule that had ordered the tabling of all resolutions concerning
slavery. He triumphed in 1844, when it was rescinded.

A vigorous speaker, Adams earned the sobriquet Old Man Eloquent.
Throughout his lifetime he kept a voluminous diary, later edited by his
son, Charles Francis Adams. On February 21, 1848, he suffered a stroke on
the floor of the House, and he died two days later without regaining
consciousness.