John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist. He served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He was also the eighth United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825. He also served as an ambassador, and as a member of the U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives representing Massachusetts.

About John Quincy Adams in brief

Summary John Quincy AdamsJohn Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist. He served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He was also the eighth United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825. During his long diplomatic and political career, Adams also served as an ambassador, and as a member of the U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives representing Massachusetts. Historians generally concur that Adams was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history; they typically rank him as an average president, as he had an ambitious agenda but did not get it passed by Congress. Adams was the eldest son of John Adams, who served as second US president from 1797 to 1801, and First Lady Abigail Adams. His maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, is named for his mother, whom he named Young Quincy, after his father’s law clerk, Nathan Rice. He is the only ex-president to be elected to the chamber of Representatives. He died in 1848, and is buried in Braintree, Massachusetts. He had a son, John Quincy Adams Jr., who was born in 1767 and served as a U. S. ambassador to the Netherlands from 1794 to 1797. He also served in high-ranking diplomatic posts until 1801. He later became a lawyer in Boston, and was appointed as U. S. Ambassador to Russia by President James Madison in 1809.

In 1817, Adams negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty, which provided for the American acquisition of Florida. Adams also helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine, which became a key tenet of U. s. foreign policy. He called for federally funded infrastructure projects, the establishment of a national university, and engagement with the countries of Latin America. He opposed the annexation of Texas and the Mexican–American War, which he saw as a war to extend slavery and its political grip on Congress. He became increasingly critical of slavery and of the Southern leaders whom he believed controlled the Democratic Party. In the mid-1830s, he became affiliated with the Whig Party. Adams became the second president to fail re-election after Andrew Jackson in the 1828 presidential election, and he was the only former president to do so. He remained in Congress until 1831, when he was elected to a second term in the House of Reps. He retired from public service in 1838. He never returned to the Senate or the Senate after his 1831 election to the House. Adams died in Quincy, Massachusetts, and his son, Young Quincy Adams, was named in his honor as a result of his parents’ law clerk’s law clerkship in 1779. His son was also named after his mother’s husband, John Adams Sr., after his cousin, James Thaxter Thaxter, who was his law clerk in the early 1800s.