John Quincy Adams

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 theDemocratic-Republican Party , which favored states’ rights over federal power and an agrarian (farming) economy. Adams frequently voted in favor of the policies of the Democratic-Republican 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 arms-reduction 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.