John Quincy Adams Facts – 6th U.S. PRESIDENT
Born: July 11, 1767 at Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Died: February 23, 1848 (aged 80) at Washington, D.C.
Education: Leiden University, Harvard College
Spouse: Louisa Catherine Johnson (m. 1797 – 1848)
Offices held:
6th President of the United States (1825 – 1829)
8th United States Secretary of State (1817 – 1825)
United States Senator from Massachusetts (1803 – 1808)
U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts’s 8th district (1843 – 1848)
U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts’s 12th district (1833 – 1843)
U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts’s 11th district (1831 – 1833)
United States Minister to Russia (1809 – 1814)
United States Minister to Prussia (1797 – 1801)
United States Minister to the Netherlands (1794 – 1797)
Political Party:Federalist (1792-1808), Democratic-Republican (1808-1830), National Republican (1830-1834), Anti-Masonic (1834-1838), Whig (1838-1848)
US Vice President: John C. Calhoun
Political Party: Federalist (1792-1808) Democratic-Republican (1808-1830) National Republican (1830-1834) Anti-Masonic (1834-1838) Whig Party (1838-1848)
First Family
First Ladies: Louisa Johnson
Children: George, John, Charles, Louisa
Parents: President John Adams and Abigail Adams
Pictures of Louisa Adams from the Library of Congress
John Adams
Abigail Adams
Photos
Portrait from C-SPAN
Genealogy
Adams family tree
John Quincy Adams ancestors and descendants
John Quincy Adams Childhood
Though he was one of few Americans to be so prepared to serve as president of the United States, John Quincy Adams’s best years of service came before and after his time in the White House. Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree, Massachusetts, John Quincy was the son of John Adams, a prodigy of the American Revolution who would become the second U.S. president just before his John Quincy’s 30th birthday, and his wife, future first lady Abigail Adams.
As a child, John Quincy 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, John Quincy 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, John Quincy attended schools in Europe and became fluent in French, Dutch and German. Returning home in 1785, he entered Harvard College and graduated in 1787.
Biographies
Biography from Biography.com
Congressional Biography
Facts about John Quincy Adams
John Quincy, like his father, kept a diary which he started updating from 1779, age 12, until before his death in 1848. His diary shows that he suffered from depression most of his life. The entries in his diary amount to 51 volumes, more than 14,000 pages and are kept in the Adams Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
When John Quincy was 11 he accompanied his father to Europe on a diplomatic assignment. It took them six weeks on board of the Boston to cross the Atlantic. He earned a Bachelor Degree in Arts and a Master in Arts from Harvard University.
John always wanted to please his parents. He wanted to marry a young lady from Newburyport but his parents opposed as marriage might interfere with his law career. His brother Charles and his second son John Adams II died from alcoholism.
- His last words were “”This is the last of earth. I am content.”” John Quincy was named after Colonel John Quincy, his mothers maternal grandfather.
- Adams served as Secretary of State for 8 consecutive years under President James Monroe. John Quincy is considered one of the most accomplished Secretary of State of all times.
- John Quincy Adam’s victory in the Election of 1824 was known as the ‘Corrupt Bargain’.
John Quincy was an early proponent of Manifest Destiny, an American expansionist policy popular in the 19th century. He changed his position when the expansion of American territory also meant the expansion of slavery. Slavery was abolished in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.
John Quincy was fluent in French, Dutch and German. He was proficient in Italian, Latin and classical Greek. John Quincy had a stroke on February 21, 1848 while the House of Representatives was discussing a matter he strongly opposed. When it came to voting he cried and collapsed.
President Madison named Adams the chief negotiator for peace between America and Great Britain at the end of the War of 1812. His efforts resulted in the Treaty of Ghent.
Where is John Quincy Adams buried?
His original interment was temporary, in the public vault at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Later, he was interred in the family burial ground in Quincy, Massachusetts, across from the First Parish Church, called Hancock Cemetery.
How did John Quincy Adams die?
On February 23, 1848, he died with his wife and youngest son at his side in the Speaker’s Room inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Cause of death was massive cerebral hemorrhage.
John Quincy ADAMS Biography
ADAMS, John Quincy, (son of John Adams, father of Charles Francis Adams, brother-in-law of William Stephens Smith), a Senator and a Representative from Massachusetts and 6th President of the United States; born in Braintree, Mass., July 11, 1767; acquired his early education in Europe at the University of Leyden; was graduated from Harvard University in 1787; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Boston, Mass.; appointed Minister to Netherlands 1794, Minister to Portugal 1796, Minister to Prussia 1797, and served until 1801; commissioned to make a commercial treaty with Sweden in 1798; elected to the Massachusetts State senate in 1802;
Unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1802; elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1803, until June 8, 1808, when he resigned, a successor having been elected six months early after Adams broke with the Federalist party; Minister to Russia 1809-1814; member of the commission which negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814; Minister to England 1815-1817, assisted in concluding the convention of commerce with Great Britain;
Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James Monroe 1817-1825; decision in the 1824 election of the President of the United States fell, according to the Constitution of the United States, upon the House of Representatives, as none of the candidates had secured a majority of the electors chosen by the states, and Adams, who stood second to Andrew Jackson in the electoral vote, was chosen and served from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1829; elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Twenty-second and to the eight succeeding Congresses, becoming a Whig in 1834; served from March 4, 1831, until his death; chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Twenty-second through Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses), Committee on Indian Affairs (Twenty-seventh Congress), Committee on Foreign Affairs (Twenty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1834;
Died in the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., February 23, 1848; interment in the family burial ground at Quincy, Mass.; subsequently re-interred in United First Parish Church.