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The 10 Best Books on President John Quincy Adams

Essential books on john quincy adams.

There are numerous books on John Quincy Adams, and it comes with good reason, beyond being America’s sixth President (1825-1829), he was a member of multiple political parties over the years, and also served as a diplomat, a Senator, and a member of the House of Representatives.

“Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth,” he remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to the height of political power, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on John Quincy Adams.

John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul C. Nagel

February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.:  Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber. The public mourning that followed, writes Paul C. Nagel, “exceeded anything previously seen in America.” Forgotten was his failed presidency and his often cold demeanor. It was the memory of an extraordinary human being – one who in his last years had fought heroically for the right of petition and against a war to expand slavery – that drew a grateful people to salute his coffin in the Capitol and to stand by the railroad tracks as his bier was transported from Washington to Boston.

Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned many offices: minister to Holland, Russia, and England, U.S. senator, secretary of state, president of the United States (1825-1829), and, finally, U.S. representative (the only ex-president to serve in the House).

On the basis of a thorough study of Adams’s seventy-year diary, among a host of other documents, the author gives us a richer account than we have yet had of his life – his passionate marriage to Louisa Johnson, his personal tragedies (two sons lost to alcoholism), his brilliant diplomacy, his recurring depression, his exasperating behavior – and shows us why, in the end, only Abraham Lincoln’s death evoked a greater outpouring of national sorrow in nineteenth-century America.

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

Following his single term as President of the United States (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor’s inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done. Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the “incubus of Jacksonianism.” It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.

In this engaging biography, historian Joseph Wheelan describes Adams’s battles against the House Gag Rule that banished abolition petitions; the removal of Eastern Indian tribes; and the annexation of slave-holding Texas, while recounting his efforts to establish the Smithsonian Institution.

As a “man of the whole country,” Adams was not bound by political party, yet was re-elected to the House eight times before collapsing at his “post of duty” on February 21, 1848, and then dying in the House Speaker’s office.

Nation Builder by Charles N. Edel

“America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy” – John Quincy Adams’s famous words are often quoted to justify noninterference in other nations’ affairs. Yet when he spoke them, Adams was not advocating neutrality or passivity but rather outlining a national policy that balanced democratic idealism with a pragmatic understanding of the young republic’s capabilities and limitations.

America’s rise from a confederation of revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable, but Charles N. Edel’s provocative biography of Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy that shaped America’s rise. Adams’s particular combination of ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil War-era nation of Lincoln.

Adams’s ambitions on behalf of America’s interests, combined with a shrewd understanding of how to counter the threats arrayed against them, allowed him to craft a multitiered policy to insulate the nation from European quarrels, expand U.S. territory, harness natural resources, develop domestic infrastructure, education, and commerce, and transform the United States into a model of progress and liberty respected throughout the world.

Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller

In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a “gag rule” to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring “the peculiar institution” into the national debate, a battle that some historians have called “the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.”

The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end, he made his case through a combination of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slavery  endows history with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of  The Amistad . He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.

John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history, which is why he ranked first in John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage .

The Lost Founding Father by William J. Cooper

Long relegated to the sidelines of history as the hyper-intellectual son of John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams has never basked in the historical spotlight. Remembered, if at all, as an ineffective president during an especially rancorous time, Adams was humiliated in office after the contested election of 1824, viciously assailed by populist opponents for being both slippery and effete, and then resoundingly defeated by the western war hero Andrew Jackson, whose 1828 election ushered in an era of unparalleled expansion.

Aware of this reputation yet convinced that Adams deserves a reconsideration, award-winning historian William J. Cooper has reframed the sixth president’s life in an entirely original way, demonstrating that Adams should be considered our  lost  Founding Father, his morality and political philosophy the final link to the great visionaries who created our nation.

As Cooper demonstrates in this gem among books on John Quincy Adams, no one else in his generation – not Clay, Webster, Calhoun, or Jackson – ever experienced Europe as young Adams did, who at fourteen translated from French at the court of Catherine the Great. In fact, his very exposure to the ideas of the European Enlightenment that had so influenced the Founding Fathers, including their embrace of reason, were hardly shared by his contemporaries, particularly those who could not countenance slaves as equal human beings.

The Birth of Modern Politics by Lynn Hudson Parson

The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England “aristocrat” whose education and political resume were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life.

It was, many historians have argued, the country’s first truly democratic presidential election. It was also the election that opened a pandora’s box of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, “opposition research,” and smear tactics.

In this gem among books on John Quincy Adams, Parsons shows that the Adams-Jackson contest also began a national debate that is eerily contemporary, pitting those whose cultural, social, and economic values were rooted in community action for the common good against those who believed the common good was best served by giving individuals as much freedom as possible to promote their own interests. The book offers fresh and illuminating portraits of both Adams and Jackson and reveals how, despite their vastly different backgrounds, they had started out with many of the same values, admired one another, and had often been allies in common causes.

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’s destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy’s world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age.

As his diplomat father’s adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America’s own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington’s appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage.

But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848.

John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini

Chosen president by the House of Representatives after an inconclusive election against Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams often failed to mesh with the ethos of his era, pushing unsuccessfully for a strong, consolidated national government. Historian Robert V. Remini recounts how in the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd, influential diplomat, and later, as a dynamic secretary of state under President James Monroe, he solidified many basic aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine.

Undoubtedly his greatest triumph was the negotiation of the Transcontinental Treaty, through which Spain acknowledged Florida to be part of the United States. After his term in office, he earned the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his passionate antislavery speeches.

Descent from Glory by Paul C. Nagel

There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America’s first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential books on John Quincy Adams, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President John Adams !

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The Best Book About John Quincy Adams (Appears on 7 Lists)

John quincy adams: a public life, a private life by paul c. nagel.

• At Times Dull
• Best Presidential Bios
• Library of Congress
• Mandi Lindner
• Presidential History
• Presidents USA
• The Tailored Man

February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber. The public mourning that followed, writes Paul C. Nagel, “exceeded anything previously seen in America.” Forgotten was his failed presidency and his often cold demeanor. It was the memory of an extraordinary human being–one who in his last years had fought heroically for the right of petition and against a war to expand slavery–that drew a grateful people to salute his coffin in the Capitol and to stand by the railroad tracks as his bier was transported from Washington to Boston. Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned many offices: minister to Holland, Russia, and England, U.S. senator, secretary of state, president of the United States (1825-1829), and, finally, U.S. representative (the only ex-president to serve in the House). On the basis of a thorough study of Adams’ seventy-year diary, among a host of other documents, the author gives us a richer account than we have yet had of JQA’s life–his passionate marriage to Louisa Johnson, his personal tragedies (two sons lost to alcoholism), his brilliant diplomacy, his recurring depression, his exasperating behavior–and shows us why, in the end, only Abraham Lincoln’s death evoked a greater outpouring of national sorrow in nineteenth-century America. We come to see how much Adams disliked politics and hoped for more from life than high office; how he sought distinction in literary and scientific endeavors, and drew his greatest pleasure from being a poet, critic, translator, essayist, botanist, and professor of oratory at Harvard; how tension between the public and private Adams vexed his life; and how his frustrations kept him masked and aloof (and unpopular). Nagel’s great achievement, in this first biography of America’s sixth president in a quarter century, is finally to portray Adams in all his talent and complexity.

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#2-3 Books (Appear on 4 Lists Each)

John quincy adams by robert v. remini.

• All The Presidents Books
• The Washington Post

Chosen president by the House of Representatives after an inconclusive election against Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams often failed to mesh with the ethos of his era, pushing unsuccessfully for a strong, consolidated national government. Historian Robert V. Remini recounts how in the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd, influential diplomat, and later, as a dynamic secretary of state under President James Monroe, he solidified many basic aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine.

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams—the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams—and persuasively demonstrates how Adams’s inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.

#4-5 (Appear on 3 Lists)

John quincy adams by harlow unger.

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

Lists It Appears On:

Following his single term as President of the United States (1825–1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor’s inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the “incubus of Jacksonianism.” It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.

#6-8 (Appear on 2 Lists)

John quincy adams: a personal history of an independent man by marie hecht.

The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards

Richards’ study presents not only a vivid portrait of John Quincy Adams but also provides an insightful exploration of American politics in the 1830s and 40s. Examining one of the few presidents who sustained a political career after his term in the White House, Richards depicts how two years after losing the presidential election to Andrew Jackson, Adams ran for the House of Representatives and served there until his death seventeen years later.

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis

#9-24 (Appear on 1 List)

American phoenix: john quincy and louisa adams, the war of 1812, and the exile that saved american independence by jane hampton cook.

American Phoenix is the sweeping, riveting tale of a grand historic adventure across forbidding oceans and frozen tundra—from the bustling ports and towering birches of Boston to the remote reaches of pre-Soviet Russia, from an exile in arctic St. Petersburg to resurrection and reunion among the gardens of Paris. Upon these varied landscapes this Adams and his Eve must find a way to transform their banishment into America’s salvation.

Amistad: A Novel by Alexs Pate

Based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny on board the Spanish slave ship, Amistad, here is the frightening sequence of events that led fifty-three young men and women – and one young nation – to seek freedom and justice for all people. Amistad is the story of Cinque, the illegally enslaved son of a Mende chief who led an uprising full of fury and courage. It is also the story of John Quincy Adams, the former American president, who reluctantly heeded the call to justice and defended Cinque in a Supreme Court trial that would alter the nation’s history. And it is the story of men and women searching to find truth and to uphold the basic tenets of the American Constitution. Brilliantly narrated by award-winning novelist Alexs Pate, Amistad celebrates the human spirit’s profound determination to fight, hope, and to be free. Visit the “Amistad” book site! A junior novelization is also available for young adults.

Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller

In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a “gag rule” to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring “the peculiar institution” into the national debate, a battle that some historians have called “the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.” The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end he made his case through a combination of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slaveryendows history with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.

Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family by Paul C. Nagel

There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America’s first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.

Diary of John Quincy Adams by John Quincy Adams

This 586 page book is a compilation of the original 12 volumes published between 1874-1877 by Charles Francis Adams. Allan Nevins has been able to select from the “Memoirs” that matter which is most important and of the greatest permanent worth. He” has given emphasis to the material which throws light on the social background of the period, on John Quincy Adams’ character, and on the more dramatic political and diplomatic events of the time. Thus, in 600 pages, he has presented nearly everything from the Diary that the general reader and ordinary student will want.”

John Quincy Adams by Lynn H. Parsons

The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England “aristocrat” whose education and political résumé were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life. It was, many historians have argued, the country’s first truly democratic presidential election. It was also the election that opened a Pandora’s box of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, “opposition research,” and smear tactics.

John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire by William Earl Weeks

This is the story of a man, a treaty, and a nation. The man was John Quincy Adams, regarded by most historians as America’s greatest secretary of state. The treaty was the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, of which Adams was the architect. It acquired Florida for the young United States, secured a western boundary extending to the Pacific, and bolstered the nation’s position internationally. As William Weeks persuasively argues, the document also represented the first determined step in the creation of an American global empire.

John Quincy Adams and the Union by Samuel Flagg Bemis

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub

John Quincy Adams was the last of his kind—a Puritan from the age of the Founders who despised party and compromise, yet dedicated himself to politics and government. The son of John Adams, he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state, a frustrated president at a historic turning point in American politics, and a dedicated congressman who literally died in office—at the age of 80, in the House of Representatives, in the midst of an impassioned political debate.

Letters Of John Quincy Adams, To His Son, On The Bible And Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams

Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams by William H. Seward

HENRY ADAMS the founder of the Adams family in America fled from ecclesiastical oppression in England and joined the Colony at a very early period but at what precise time is not recorded.

Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife and political partner of John Quincy Adams, became one of the most widely known women in America when her husband assumed office as sixth president in 1825. Shrewd, intellectual, and articulate, she was close to the center of American power over many decades, and extensive archives reveal her as an unparalleled observer of the politics, personalities, and issues of her day. Louisa left behind a trove of journals, essays, letters, and other writings, yet no biographer has mined these riches until now. Margery Heffron brings Louisa out of the shadows at last to offer the first full and nuanced portrait of an extraordinary first lady.

Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams by Josiah Quincy

The ensuing Memoir comprises the most important events in the life of a statesman second to none of his contemporaries in laborious and faithful devotion to the service of his country. The light attempted to be thrown on his course has been derived from personal acquaintance, from his public works, and from authentic unpublished materials. The chief endeavor has been to render him the expositor of his own motives, principles, and character, without fear or favor,—in the spirit neither of criticism or eulogy.

The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul C. Nagel

From his vast storehouse of knowledge about the Adams family. Nagelpulls out the feminine threads of that tapestry to write all about the Adams women, from Abigail to daughter Nabby, from Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy, to Clover Adams, wife of Henry, with others making more than cameo appearances. They all lived exceptional, if not extraordinary, lives, in different ways.

The Presidency of John Quincy Adams by Mary W. Hargreaves

Historians have not been generous in judging the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Those who have most conspicuously upheld Adams’s fame have, at the same time, virtually ignored his service in the White House. Critics, on the other hand, have described his administration as a failure, founded upon “bargain and corruption” and marked by exclusion of the United States from the British West Indian trade, the ineffectiveness of its efforts to promote strong Pan-American relationships, and the enactment of the “tariff of abominations.” Some analysts have even argued that it generated the sectionalism which terminated the “Era of Good Feelings.”

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’s destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy’s world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father’s adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America’s own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington’s appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

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John Quincy Adams

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 3, 2019 | Original: October 27, 2009

John Quincy Adams began his diplomatic career as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands in 1794 and served as minister to Prussia during the presidential administration of his father, the formidable patriot John Adams. After serving in the Massachusetts State Senate and the U.S. Senate, the younger Adams rejoined diplomatic service under President James Madison, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent (1814), which ended the War of 1812. 

As secretary of state under James Monroe, Adams played a key role in determining the president’s foreign policy, including the famous Monroe Doctrine. John Quincy Adams went on to win the presidency in a highly contentious election in 1824 and served only one term. Outspoken in his opposition to slavery and in support of freedom of speech, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830; he would serve until his death in 1848.

John Quincy Adams, Son of John Adams

Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts , John Quincy Adams was the second child and first son of John and Abigail Adams . As a young boy, John Quincy watched the famous Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775) from a hilltop near the family farm with his mother. He accompanied his father on a diplomatic mission to France when he was 10, and would later study at European universities, eventually becoming fluent in seven languages. Adams returned to Massachusetts in 1785 and entered Harvard College, graduating two years later. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1790, after which he set up a law practice in Boston.

Did you know? In a study conducted in 2008, a fitness chain concluded that John Quincy Adams was the fittest president in American history, thanks to his habit of walking more than three miles daily and swimming in the Potomac River during his presidency.

As a young lawyer, Adams wrote articles defending the neutrality policy of George Washington ’s presidential administration regarding the war between France and Britain in 1793. In 1794, Washington appointed him as a U.S. minister to the Netherlands. After the elder John Adams was elected president in 1796, he made his son minister to Prussia (Germany). 

Before leaving for Berlin, John Quincy Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London (she was the daughter of the American consul there). Tragically, the couple would suffer the loss of three children—a daughter in infancy and two sons in adulthood—and by some accounts, it was a largely unhappy match.

John Quincy Adams Returns to the U.S.

After John Adams lost the presidency to Thomas Jefferson in 1800, he recalled John Quincy from Europe; the younger Adams returned to Boston in 1801 and reopened his law practice. The following year he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, and in 1803 the state legislature chose him to serve in the U.S. Senate . 

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Though Adams, like his father, was known as a member of the Federalist Party , once in Washington he voted against the Federalist Party line on several issues, including Jefferson’s ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807, which greatly harmed the interests of New England merchants. He soon became estranged from the Federalists and came to abhor party politics. Adams resigned his Senate seat in June 1808 and returned to Harvard, where he had been made a professor.

In 1809, President James Madison called Adams back into diplomatic service, appointing him ambassador to the Russian court of Czar Alexander I. While in St. Petersburg, Adams observed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and later the withdrawal of the French army after that great conflict. 

Meanwhile, war had broken out between the United States and Britain, and in 1814 Madison called Adams to Belgium in order to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent , which ended the War of 1812 . John Quincy Adams then began serving (like his father before him) as U.S. minister to Great Britain; his son, Charles Francis Adams, would go on to hold the same post during the American Civil War .

John Quincy Adams: From Diplomat to President

In 1817, President James Monroe named John Quincy Adams as his secretary of state, as part of his efforts to build a sectionally balanced cabinet. Adams achieved many diplomatic accomplishments in this post, including negotiating the joint occupation of Oregon with England and acquiring Florida from Spain. He also served as the chief architect of what became known as the Monroe Doctrine (1823), which aimed to prevent further European intervention or colonization in Latin America by asserting U.S. protection over the entire Western Hemisphere.

In 1824, Adams entered a five-way race for the presidency with two other members of Monroe’s cabinet–Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford—along with Henry Clay , then speaker of the House, and the military hero General Andrew Jackson .

Adams carried the New England states, most of New York and a few districts elsewhere, but finished behind Jackson (who won Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and most of the West) in both the electoral and popular votes. No candidate received a majority of electoral votes, and the election was decided by the House of Representatives . Speaker Clay threw his support behind Adams, who won the presidency and later named Clay as secretary of state. Jackson’s supporters raged against this “ corrupt bargain ,” and Jackson himself resigned from the Senate; he would again seek the presidency (successfully) in 1828.

John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States

As president, Adams faced steadfast hostility from the Jacksonians in Congress, which perhaps explained his relatively few substantive accomplishments while in the White House . He proposed a progressive national program, including federal funding of an interstate system of roads and canals and the creation of a national university. Critics, especially Jackson’s supporters, argued that such advancements exceeded federal authority according to the Constitution . 

The Erie Canal was completed while Adams was in office, linking the Great Lakes to East Coast and enabling a flow of products such as grain, whiskey and farm produce to Eastern markets. Adams also sought to provide Native Americans with territory in the West, but like many of his initiatives, this failed to find support in Congress.

Up for reelection in 1828, Adams was hurt by accusations of corruption and criticism of his unpopular domestic program, among other issues; he lost badly to Jackson, who captured most of the southern and western votes. Adams became only the second president in U.S. history to fail to win a second term; the first had been his own father, in 1800. 

Adams retired to private life in Massachusetts only briefly, winning election to the House of Representatives in 1830. He served as a leading congressman for the rest of his life, earning the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his passionate support of freedom of speech and universal education, and especially for his strong arguments against slavery , the “peculiar institution” that would tear the nation apart only decades later. After suffering two strokes, Adams died on February 23, 1848, at the age of 80.

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John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. He was also the eldest son of President John Adams, the second U.S. president.

(1767-1848)

Who Was John Quincy Adams?

John Quincy Adams was the eldest son of President John Adams and the sixth president of the United States. In his pre-presidential years, Adams was one of America's greatest diplomats (formulating, among other things, what became the Monroe Doctrine); in his post-presidential years, he conducted a consistent and often dramatic fight against the expansion of slavery. Though full of promise, his presidential years were difficult. He died in 1848 in Washington, D.C.

As a child, Adams witnessed firsthand the birth of the nation. From the family farm, he and his mother watched the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. At age 10, he traveled to France with his father, who was securing aid during the Revolution. By age 14, Adams was receiving "on-the-job" training in the diplomatic corps and going to school. In 1781, he accompanied diplomat Francis Dana to Russia, serving as his secretary and translator. In 1783, he traveled to Paris to serve as secretary to his father, negotiating the Treaty of Paris. During this time, Adams attended schools in Europe and became fluent in French, Dutch and German. Returning home in 1785, he entered Harvard College and graduated in 1787.

Early Political Career

In 1790, Adams became a practicing attorney in Boston. As tensions mounted between Britain and France, he supported President George Washington 's neutrality policy of 1793. President Washington appreciated young Adams' support so much that he appointed him U.S. minister to Holland. When his father was elected president in 1797, he appointed his son U.S. minister to Prussia. On the way to his post, Adams traveled to England to wed Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of Joshua Johnson, the first U.S. consul to Great Britain.

After his father lost his bid for a second term in 1800, he recalled his son from Prussia. In 1802, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, and one year later, he was elected the U.S. Senate. Like his father, Adams was considered a member of the Federalist Party, but in truth, he was never a strict party man. During his time in the Senate, he supported the Louisiana Purchase and President Thomas Jefferson 's Embargo Act—actions that made him very unpopular with other Federalists. In June 1808, Adams broke with the Federalists, resigned from his Senate seat and became a Democratic-Republican.

Adams returned to the diplomatic corps in 1809, when President James Madison appointed him the first officially recognized minister to Russia (Francis Dana was never officially accepted as a U.S. ambassador by the Russian government). In 1814, Adams was recalled from Russia to serve as chief negotiator for the U.S. government during the Treaty of Ghent, settling the War of 1812. The following year, Adams served as minister to England, a position his father had held 30 years earlier.

In a post he was most suited for, Adams served as secretary of state in President James Monroe 's administration from 1817 to 1825. During this time, he negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty, acquiring Florida for the United States. He also helped negotiate the Treaty of 1818, settling the long-standing border dispute between Britain and the United States over the Oregon Country, and initiating improved relations between Great Britain and its former colonies.

Monroe Doctrine

By age 50, Adams had amassed a very impressive record of public service, but perhaps his most notable and enduring achievement was the Monroe Doctrine . After the Napoleonic wars had ended, several Latin American colonies of Spain rose up and declared independence. A defining moment for the United States, Adams crafted the Monroe Doctrine, which stated the United States would resist any European country's efforts to thwart independence movements in Latin America; the doctrine, first introduced in 1823, served to justify U.S. intervention in Latin America throughout the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries.

Presidential Election of 1824

By 1824, Adams was well-positioned to be the next president of the United States. However, the political climate had changed the way presidents were elected at the time; only the Democratic-Republican Party was viable and five candidates emerged, each representing different sections of the country. Running against Adams were Southerners John C. Calhoun and William Crawford, and Westerners Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson . In addition, by the 1824 election, 18 of 24 states had moved to choose electors to the Electoral College by popular vote instead of to state legislatures.

In the Electoral College vote, no one candidate had a clear majority and, subsequently, the election was sent to the House of Representatives. Clay threw his support to Adams, who was elected on the first ballot. Adams' victory shocked Jackson, who had won the popular vote and fully expected to be president. When Adams later appointed Clay secretary of state, Jackson Democrats cried "corrupt bargain," and were enraged at the seemingly quid pro quo arrangement.

John Quincy Adams Presidency

Adams entered the presidency with several debilitating political liabilities. He possessed the temperament of his father: Aloof, stubborn and ferociously independent in his convictions. As president, Adams failed to develop the political relationships needed—even among members of his own party—to effect significant change. It didn't help that his political opponents were set on making him a one-term president.

In his first year in office, Adams proposed several far-sighted programs that he felt would promote science, as well as encourage a spirit of enterprise and invention in the United States; these goals included building a network of highways and canals to link the different sections of the country, setting aside public lands for conservation, surveying the entire U.S. coast and building astronomical observatories . Adams also saw the need for practical solutions to universal problems, thusly calling for the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures and improving the patent system.

While these may have been admirable goals for an aspiring nation, they were considered overambitious and unrealistic for the United States in the 1820s. Adams' proposals were met with scorn and derision by political opponents; critics charged that the president's policies would enlarge the powers and influence of the federal government at the expense of the state and local governments, and some accused Adams of promoting programs to enhance the elite and neglect the common people. In the midterm election of 1826, Jacksonian opponents won majorities in both Houses of Congress. As a result, many of Adams' initiatives either failed to pass legislation or were woefully underfunded.

The election of 1828 was an especially bitter and personal affair. As was the tradition, neither candidate personally campaigned, but supporters conducted ruthless attacks on the opposing candidates. The campaign reached a low point when the press accused Jackson's wife, Rachel, of bigamy. Adams lost the election by a decisive margin, and he left Washington without attending Jackson's inauguration.

Final Years and Death

Adams did not retire from public life after leaving the presidential office. In 1830, he ran for and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, once again distinguishing himself as a statesman of the first order. In 1836, Adams focused his long-standing anti-slavery sentiment on defeating a gag-rule instituted by Southerners to stifle debate. In 1841, he argued in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of escaped African slaves in the famous Amistad case, and won the release of the captives.

On February 21, 1848, in his last contribution to his country, Adams was on the floor of the House of Representatives, arguing to honor U.S. Army officers who had served in the Mexican-American War (he opposed the war, but felt that the U.S. government was obligated to honor its veterans). During the event, Adams suddenly collapsed, suffering from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. He was taken to the Speaker's Room in the Capitol Building, where he died two days later, on February 23, 1848.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: John Quincy Adams
• Birth Year: 1767
• Birth date: July 11, 1767
• Birth State: Massachusetts
• Birth City: Braintree
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. He was also the eldest son of President John Adams, the second U.S. president.
• Civil Rights
• Politics and Government
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• University of Leiden
• Death Year: 1848
• Death date: February 23, 1848
• Death State: Washington, D.C.
• Death Country: United States

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: John Quincy Adams Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
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• Last Updated: April 19, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
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By Joseph J. Ellis

• April 4, 2016

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Militant Spirit By James Traub 620 pp. Basic Books. $35.

In June of 1775, when John Quincy Adams was almost 8 years old, his mother, the indomitable Abigail, took him by the hand up a peak in Braintree, Mass., to view from afar the battle of Bunker Hill. Over 70 years later, in February 1848, “Old Man Eloquent,” as he was then called, collapsed at his desk in the House of Representatives and an obscure one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln was assigned to the committee making the funeral arrangements. Many of the eulogies to Adams identified him as the last remaining link to the founding generation. James Traub’s splendid new biography, “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,” asks us to envision him as the missing link between the creation of the American Republic and its near dissolution in the Civil War.

John Quincy Adams is easy to admire, but difficult to like, much less love. Traub, whose books include “The Freedom Agenda,” recognizes this problem from the start and solves it by not trying. His Adams is cold, emotionally stunted, impossibly solitary and self-contained, just the kind of man who, as Ralph Waldo Emerson described him, took sulfuric acid with his tea. Even his own adoring son Charles Francis acknowledged that “he makes enemies by perpetually wearing the iron mask.”

The mature Adams, with all his sharp edges and impossible standards of perfection, was very much a product of the parenting practices of Abigail and John. Many American boys — now also girls — are raised to believe that they can grow up to become president of the United States. John Quincy was raised to believe that anything less rendered him an abject failure. Abigail was actually tougher on him than John, and one can only wince at her admonition, written after her 10-year-old son had completed a risky voyage across the Atlantic with his father: “For dear as you are to me, I had much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed . . . rather than see you an immoral profligate or a graceless child.” John Quincy never had a childhood, nor was he raised to be a happy man. He was instead fashioned like a hardened steel projectile, aimed at the center of American history.

The sheer scale of Adams’s career ­poses narrative problems for any aspiring biographer: minister to four European capitals, senator, Harvard professor, secretary of state, president, representative in the House. And even that listing is deceptively simple. More than 60 years ago the Yale historian Samuel Flagg Bemis required two fat volumes to record the public story, which flowed through diplomatic nooks and crannies in multiple venues and stretched from the Louisiana Purchase, through the Monroe Doctrine, to the Mexican War and beyond.

Traub begins with the assumption that the career should be folded into the life, not the other way around. He therefore makes Adams’s journal his central source, the prism through which to view the man. He provides chapter-length accounts, for example, of the Monroe Doctrine and Adams’s argument before the Supreme Court defending African prisoners in the Amistad case. Some scholarly specialists might ask for more details, but I found his versions reliably thorough, blissfully bereft of jargon and nicely paced to blend with the private story.

Which is to say that we glimpse Adams swimming with nothing but goggles in the Potomac at dawn, writing an epic poem about early Ireland, planting hundreds of fruit trees on the trips back to Quincy and, most important of all, interacting awkwardly with Louisa Catherine Adams, his wife of 50 years. Louisa Catherine was an orchid of a woman, indispensable as John Quincy’s diplomatic partner, with a social sense that he altogether lacked, a bit fragile (nine miscarriages) and the hummingbird to Abigail’s eagle. Traub devotes more space to Louisa Catherine than any previous Adams biographer, in part because she is so omnipresent in the journal.

A word about that journal. It is over 14,000 pages long, and without much question the most revealing record by a prominent figure in American history. Adams himself expressed his own amazement at its scope and length: “There has perhaps not been another individual of the human race, whose existence from early childhood to fourscore years has been noted down by his own hand so minutely as mine.” Traub is the beneficiary of heroic work by the editors of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, who have transcribed and digitized the entire journal, allowing Traub to read it on his desktop.

As Traub explains, the presidency was not the capstone of Adams’s career so much as an awkward interlude. This is ironic, since he had been groomed for the office since childhood. But he violated his most cherished principles by effectively stealing the election from Andrew Jackson in a back-room deal with Henry Clay after the decision went to the House. And his presidential agenda was a double-­barreled anachronism: 30 years too late, as an echo of the Hamiltonian program of the 1790s; over a hundred years too early, as a preview of the New Deal. It proposed an activist federal government that promoted vast “internal improvements” (roads, canals) and public projects that featured a national university. In Jacksonian America such a robust expression of government power was dead on arrival. Traub endorses the verdict of the British historian George Dangerfield, describing the Adams presidency as “a rather conspicuous example of a great man in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the right motives and a tragic inability to make himself understood.”

Reverse all the ingredients in that verdict and you have an accurate assessment of John Quincy’s performance as secretary of state. His great achievement was to translate Washington’s vision in the 1796 Farewell Address — neutrality abroad, unity at home — into a grand strategy in which unity at home came to mean consolidation of American control over most of the North American continent. All the political templates that moved against him domestically shifted in his favor diplomatically: Europe after Waterloo craved peace and stability, and Spanish decline continued, rendering her American possessions indefensible, as Adams made abundantly clear in negotiating the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819. Even British ascendancy proved a huge American asset, effectively providing the naval protection that made enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine’s policy of hemispheric isolation possible.

But the most famous Adams utterance, delivered on July 4, 1821, emphasized the limitations of American expansion, chiefly because he believed that republican principles were unlikely to flourish in foreign soil. George Kennan, the architect of the “containment” strategy during the Cold War, loved to cite these words about America’s proper role in the world: “She does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

His long service in the House has the appearance of a quirky epilogue, but in fact was his finest hour. His one-man crusade against the gag rule was part of a larger campaign to insist that slavery be placed on the political agenda as the major piece of unfinished business left by the founders. All the irritating Adams characteristics worked to his advantage here, as his arrogance, stubbornness and sheer audacity made him, as one frustrated Virginia slaveholder put it, the “acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of Southern slavery that ever existed.”

Along the way he left two political legacies that Lincoln subsequently embraced. He insisted that the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, was the seminal document of the American founding, making slavery a self-evident anomaly that must be put on the road to extinction. He also insisted that he was not an abolitionist, because a frontal assault on slavery most probably meant ending the union. Therefore, slavery must be attacked on the flanks, which Lincoln eventually did by opposing its extension to the western territories, but not its existence in the Deep South.

Traub gives the last word to Louisa Catherine, who outlived her husband by four years. (Both houses of Congress closed down in her honor, the first time this tribute was paid a woman.) Traub appears to endorse her final judgment as his own, concluding that John Quincy Adams should be found “exasperating, tendentious, self-absorbed and yet, in the end, magnificent.”

An illustration caption on April 10 with a review of “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,” by James Traub, misstated the number of candidates in the presidential election of 1824. There were four, not three. (In addition to Adams, the candidates were Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay.) A credit with the illustration misstated the surname of the 19th-century cartoonist who depicted the candidates in a foot-race. He was David Claypoole Johnston, not Johnson.

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Joseph J. Ellis is the author, most recently, of “The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution.”

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John Quincy Adams

The 6th President of the United States

The biography for President Adams and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.

John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, served as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. A member of multiple political parties over the years, he also served as a diplomat, a Senator, and a member of the House of Representatives.

The first President who was the son of a President, John Quincy Adams in many respects paralleled the career as well as the temperament and viewpoints of his illustrious father. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1767, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from the top of Penn’s Hill above the family farm. As secretary to his father in Europe, he became an accomplished linguist and assiduous diarist.

After graduating from Harvard College, he became a lawyer. At age 26 he was appointed Minister to the Netherlands, then promoted to the Berlin Legation. In 1802 he was elected to the United States Senate. Six years later President Madison appointed him Minister to Russia.

Serving under President Monroe, Adams was one of America’s great Secretaries of State, arranging with England for the joint occupation of the Oregon country, obtaining from Spain the cession of the Floridas, and formulating with the President the Monroe Doctrine.

In the political tradition of the early 19th century, Adams as Secretary of State was considered the political heir to the Presidency. But the old ways of choosing a President were giving way in 1824 before the clamor for a popular choice.

Within the one and only party–the Republican–sectionalism and factionalism were developing, and each section put up its own candidate for the Presidency. Adams, the candidate of the North, fell behind Gen. Andrew Jackson in both popular and electoral votes, but received more than William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Since no candidate had a majority of electoral votes, the election was decided among the top three by the House of Representatives. Clay, who favored a program similar to that of Adams, threw his crucial support in the House to the New Englander.

Upon becoming President, Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State. Jackson and his angry followers charged that a “corrupt bargain” had taken place and immediately began their campaign to wrest the Presidency from Adams in 1828.

Well aware that he would face hostility in Congress, Adams nevertheless proclaimed in his first Annual Message a spectacular national program. He proposed that the Federal Government bring the sections together with a network of highways and canals, and that it develop and conserve the public domain, using funds from the sale of public lands. In 1828, he broke ground for the 185-mile C & 0 Canal.

Adams also urged the United States to take a lead in the development of the arts and sciences through the establishment of a national university, the financing of scientific expeditions, and the erection of an observatory. His critics declared such measures transcended constitutional limitations.

The campaign of 1828, in which his Jacksonian opponents charged him with corruption and public plunder, was an ordeal Adams did not easily bear. After his defeat he returned to Massachusetts, expecting to spend the remainder of his life enjoying his farm and his books.

Unexpectedly, in 1830, the Plymouth district elected him to the House of Representatives, and there for the remainder of his life he served as a powerful leader. Above all, he fought against circumscription of civil liberties.

In 1836 southern Congressmen passed a “gag rule” providing that the House automatically table petitions against slavery. Adams tirelessly fought the rule for eight years until finally he obtained its repeal.

In 1848, he collapsed on the floor of the House from a stroke and was carried to the Speaker’s Room, where two days later he died. He was buried–as were his father, mother, and wife–at First Parish Church in Quincy. To the end, “Old Man Eloquent” had fought for what he considered right.

Learn more about John Quincy Adams’ spouse, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams .

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U.S. Presidents / John Quincy Adams

1767 - 1848

John quincy adams.

Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty—all have been promoted by the Government under which we have lived. Inaugural Address

Reared for public service, John Quincy Adams became one of the nation's preeminent secretaries of state but proved the wrong man for the presidency. Aloof, stubborn, and ferociously independent, he failed to develop the support he needed in Washington, even among his own party. Faced throughout his term with organized opposition from the Democrats—who were committed to limiting Adams to a single term and replacing him with Andrew Jackson—Adams refused to forge the political alliances necessary to push his ideas into policy. His father, President John Adams, had also ignored the political side of the office and served only one term. History repeated itself with his son: John Quincy Adams lost his reelection bid to Jackson in 1828.

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Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “John Quincy Adams.” Accessed May 31, 2024. https://millercenter.org/president/jqadams.

Margaret A. Hogan

Ms. Hogan is a freelance editor and the former managing editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

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John Quincy Adams

On July 11, 1767, John Quincy Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts to Abigail and John Adams. Over the course of his lifetime, Adams witnessed the American Revolution, the evolution of the new nation, and the crawl toward civil war—almost his entire life was devoted to public service. While he is remembered as vocal opponent of slavery, the reality was more complicated. Adams began his diplomatic training at ten years old, when he traveled to Europe with his father. In 1781, he made his way east to Russia to serve as secretary and translator for diplomat Francis Dana. Two years later, he returned to Paris, this time as his father’s official secretary during negotiations to end the Revolutionary War. While in Europe, he attended school and gained fluency in French, Dutch, and German. When he returned home in 1785, he quickly completed his training at Harvard and graduated two years later. Adams spent a few years working as a lawyer before President George Washington appointed him U.S. Minister to Holland. He followed that diplomatic appointment with another in Prussia during his father’s presidency. Before traveling to Prussia, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of the first U.S. Consul to Great Britain. John Quincy and Louisa Catherine had four children together. When Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams in the presidential election of 1800, Adams resigned and returned home to run for a seat in the Massachusetts legislature. In 1803, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, where he bucked party lines, sided with Jefferson, and supported the Louisiana Purchase. In return for his allegiance to the Democratic-Republican Party, President James Madison appointed Adams as the first official U.S. Minister to Russia. While abroad, he negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, and served as the U.S. minister to Great Britain. When the Adamses returned to Washington, D.C. in 1817, John Quincy Adams served as secretary of state for President James Monroe. He authored the Monroe Doctrine, which declared the United States’ intention to resist European intervention in Latin America. He worked to acquire Florida for the United States and improve Anglo-American relations by settling the border dispute in Oregon Country. He was one of the most accomplished and successful secretaries of state in American history. During the Adamses’s time abroad, slavery had expanded into most homes and the District was a thriving hub for the domestic slave trade. The Adamses first rented a home, before purchasing a house at 244 F Street, previously occupied by President James Monroe. They were surrounded by enslaved people and the slave trade. They lived one block from the Washington jail that served as a prison and slave pen; their close friends and neighbors owned enslaved people; and they attended parties and diplomatic events hosted by many prominent slave-owning families, including the Tayloes and Calhouns—parties made possible by enslaved labor. In 1824, Adams won a bitter election over Andrew Jackson. As president, Adams advocated for internal improvements, such as a national road and a network of canals. Most of his proposals were ahead of his time and rejected by Congress. While the Adamses lived in the White House, Louisa Catherine’s niece and nephew lived with them, and they brought two enslaved people, Holzey and Rachel Clark, that they had inherited from their father. While Adams opposed slavery as a political issue, the enslaved individuals inherited by his niece and nephew likely offered a relationship of convenience—he did not have to purchase them, he did not have to pay someone for their labor, and he avoided hiring additional wage-earning servants. Click here to learn more about the enslaved household of President John Quincy Adams. In 1828, Jackson defeated Adams' reelection, but his retirement from public life was short-lived. Two years later, he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and spent the next two decades railing against slavery, the power of the “slaveocracy,” and the gag-rule that stifled debate on the issue in Congress. Because of his age and personal history of service, southerners could not threaten him with physical violence, like they did to other northern congressmen—which Adams knew and enjoyed immensely as he exploited this privileged position. In 1841, he argued in front of the Supreme Court in the United Staes v. Amistad case and won the release of enslaved African captives. On February 21, 1848, John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke while sitting at his desk on the floor of the House of Representatives. He was moved to the Speaker’s Room in the Capitol Building, when he fell into a coma. He died two days later on February 23, 1848.

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23e. John Quincy Adams

Like his father who was also a one-term president, John Quincy Adams was an intelligent statesman whose strong commitment to certain principles proved to be liabilities as president.

For instance, Adams favored a bold economic role for the national government that was far ahead of public opinion. Like the Democratic-Republicans who preceded him in the Era of Good Feelings, Adams supported a federal role in economic development through the American System that was chiefly associated with Henry Clay. Adams' vision of federal leadership was especially creative and included proposals for a publicly-funded national university and government investment in scientific research and exploration.

Few of Adams' ideas were put into action. He hurt his own case by publicly expressing concerns about the potential dangers of democracy. When politicians in Congress refused to act decisively for fear of displeasing the voters, Adams chided them that they seemed to "proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our constituents."

Although he astutely identified a problem faced by leaders in a democracy, to many Americans he seemed to call into question a central tenet of the new nation. In many respects Adams was a figure of an earlier political era.

For example, he steadfastly refused to campaign for his own re-election because he felt that political office should be a matter of service and not a popularity contest. Although his ideals were surely honorable, when he said that, "if the country wants my services, she must ask for them," he appeared to be an elitist who disdained contact with ordinary people.

John Quincy Adams' public dedication to unpopular principles helped assure his defeat in the presidential election of 1828 . They also led him to take on causes that today seem impressive. For example, Adams overturned a treaty signed by the Creek nation in 1825 that ceded its remaining land to the state of Georgia because he believed that it had been fraudulently obtained through coercive methods. Georgia's governor was outraged, but Adams believed that the matter clearly fell under federal jurisdiction. Although Adams' support of the Creeks didn't prevent their removal to the west, he lost political backing from Americans who widely believed that whites deserved access to all Indian lands.

Adams continued this course of following principle rather than popularity when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives after his presidency. Although not a radical opponent of slavery himself, he was an early leader against congressional rules that prevented anti-slavery petitions from being presented to Congress. He also successfully defended enslaved Africans before the U.S. Supreme Court in the celebrated Amistad case.

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John Quincy Adams: 6th President of the United States

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Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree, Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams had a fascinating childhood. He grew up during the American Revolution . He lived and traveled throughout Europe. He was tutored by his parents and was an excellent student. He went to schools in Paris and Amsterdam. Back in America, he entered Harvard as a Junior. He graduated second in his class in 1787. He then studied law and was a voracious reader his whole life.

Family Ties

John Quincy Adams was the son of America's second President,  John Adams . His mother Abigail Adams was highly influential as First Lady. She was extremely well read and kept up an erudite correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. John Quincy Adams had one sister, Abigail, and two brothers, Charles and Thomas Boylston.

On July 26, 1797, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson. She was the only foreign-born first lady . She was English by birth but spent much of her childhood in France. She and Adams married in England. Together they had three boys named George Washington Adams, John Adams II, and Charles Francis who had an illustrious career as a diplomat. In addition, they had a girl named Louisa Catherine who died when she was one. 

John Quincy Adam's Career Before the Presidency

Adams opened a law office before becoming a minister to the Netherlands (1794-7). He then was named Minister to Prussia (1797-1801). He served as a US Senator (1803-8) and was then appointed by James Madison as Minister to Russia (1809-14). He became Minister to Great Britain in 1815 before being named as James Monroe's Secretary of State (1817-25). He was the chief negotiator of the Treaty of Ghent (1814).

Election of 1824

No major caucuses or national conventions existed to nominate candidates for president. John Quincy Adams had three major opponents: Andrew Jackson , William Crawford, and Henry Clay. The campaign was full of sectional strife. Jackson was much more a "man of the people" than Adams and had widespread support. He won 42% of the popular vote versus Adams 32%. However, Jackson received 37% of the electoral votes and Adams got 32%. Since no one received a majority, the election was sent to the House.

Corrupt Bargain

With the election to be decided in the House, each state could cast one vote for president . Henry Clay dropped out and supported John Quincy Adams who was elected on the first vote. When Adams became president, he appointed Clay to be his Secretary of State. This led opponents to claim that a "corrupt bargain" had been made between the two of them. They both denied this. Clay even participated in a duel to prove his innocence in this matter.

Events and Accomplishments of John Quincy Adam's Presidency

John Quincy Adams served only one term as president . He supported internal improvements including the extension of the Cumberland Road. In 1828, the so-called " tariff of abominations " was passed. Its goal was to protect domestic manufacturing. It was strongly opposed in the South and led Vice President John C. Calhoun to argue again for the right of nullification - to have South Carolina nullify it by ruling it unconstitutional.

Post Presidential Period

Adams became the only President elected to the US House in 1830 after serving as president. He served there for 17 years. One key event during this time was his role in arguing before the Supreme Court to free the enslaved mutineers aboard the Amistad . He died after having a stroke on the floor of the US House on February 23, 1848.

Historical Significance

Adams was significant mainly for his time before being president as Secretary of State. He negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty . He was key in advising Monroe to deliver the Monroe Doctrine without the joint agreement of Great Britain. His election in 1824 over Andrew Jackson had the effect of propelling Jackson into the presidency in 1828. He also was the first president to advocate federal support for internal improvements.

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• John Quincy Adams: Significant Facts and Brief Biography
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• The Election of 1828 Was Marked By Dirty Tactics
• John Adams: Significant Facts and Brief Biography
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• Biography of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States
• What Was the US Second Party System? History and Significance
• Andrew Jackson: Significant Facts and Brief Biography
• Biography of Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States
• Early American Presidents
• Presidential Campaigns of the 1800s
• John C. Calhoun: Significant Facts and Brief Biography
• 10 Interesting Facts About James Buchanan

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Massachusetts historical society. founded 1791., john quincy adams diary now fully online.

by Neal Millikan, Series Editor for Digital Editions, The Adams Papers

The 15,000+ page diary kept by John Quincy Adams from 1779 to 1848 is now fully accessible online as the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary . A publication of the Adams Papers Editorial Project at the MHS, the Digital Diary is also one of four founding member projects of the Primary Source Cooperative , a collaborative digital editions publishing platform hosted by the Society.

The Digital Diary is presented as verified transcriptions paired with manuscript images of related entries. Biographical and historical context is supplied through essays on the major personal and professional divisions of Adams’s life, and people and historical topics are also identified for each date entry. Through the project’s participation in the Primary Source Cooperative, advanced federated search features allow users to track individuals or subjects both within and across the Cooperative editions.

John Quincy Adams often kept multiple versions of his diary, and the Digital Diary provides transcriptions of the entries in each of his 51 diary volumes. These include his “ Rubbish ,” almanac , and line-a-day diaries. The edition also integrates Adams’s earliest diaries, which were previously published in two letterpress volumes by the Adams Papers.

With revised transcriptions, the more than 1,500 pages in this section of the diary chronicle John Quincy Adams’s travels in Europe, as he accompanied his father, John Adams, on a diplomatic mission in 1779 and subsequently attended schools in the Netherlands and France. It also records his travels to St. Petersburg as secretary and interpreter during Francis Dana’s mission to Russia. With John Quincy’s return to the United States in 1785, the diary provides insights into Adams’s preparation for and studies at Harvard College and his legal training in Newburyport.

Thanks to the efforts of many staff members, interns, and volunteers who contributed to the project since its inception in 2016, the full corpus of John Quincy Adams’s diary is now freely accessible and searchable online. Supplemental content will continue to be added via the Digital Diary and the Adams resources portion of the MHS website. This includes a timeline of Adams’s life and visualizations of the diary data via the Cooperative’s partnership with the Digital Scholarship Group at Northeastern University .

Come check it out and let us know what you think! Truly, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected] .

The Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society gratefully acknowledges the support of our sponsors. The Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund provided major funding for the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, along with generous contributions by Harvard University Press and a number of private donors. The Mellon Foundation in partnership with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission also supports the project through funding for the Society’s digital publishing collaborative, the Primary Source Cooperative.

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