Considering I had already read the biography of John Adams, I’ll admit, there was a certain level of expectation involved but I was just not prepared for what I read about his son. First of all, biographies of JQA (as he called himself) were not prolific and therefore I had to settle with a book from The American Presidents Series from our library. I picked up John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini (New York: Times Books, 2002). This book is only 155 pages, which I was excited about but it also worried me because I wasn’t sure I was getting a quality bio. Secondly, and I’ve stated this already, I felt like I was one-up on the game. I felt like I knew John Quincy Adams through his own father’s eyes. In reality, it seems, I didn’t know anything at all.
Born July 11, 1767, John Quincy was the second child to John and Abigail Adams in Braintree, MA. Later on, the Adams’ would have two more sons making John the oldest son of the family with attendant birthright and great expectations. According to Remini, though, “Johnny” did not have a great childhood. Dad was away all the time on business for his country while his mother exercised a totalitarian regime in his absence. The Adams’ are known for their letter-writing, which means that little Johnny received his fair share. “And because his parents relentlessly spelled out his duties, reprimanded him when he failed to live up to them, and corrected every move he made that seemed to contradict their expectations of him, it is not surprising that he developed into a very introverted, self-critical individual of enormous pride and low personal esteem” (p. 3). John Quincy doesn’t sound very pleasant, does he?
It was decided when JQA was eight years old that he would accompany his father across the treacherous Atlantic ocean to Paris, France. It was a harrowing journey but they lived t and while John Adams Senior took up his post as minister plenipotentiary to France, John Quincy was put into school. He intermittently traveled (accompanied by his dad) to the United States and back to Europe until it was decided that at age 13 that he would be enrolled in the liberal University of Lleydon in the Netherlands. John Quincy really blossomed in this environment so it was a pity that his time there would be cut short—Francis Dana, new ambassador to Russia, needed a secretary who spoke fluent French. John Quincy was that gay so it was decided to send him to Russia with the US delegation. Johnny spent fourteen long months in Russia and finally returned to Paris in time to welcome his mother and sister there after the Revolutionary War had ended.
In 1785, he returned home so that he could get a college education, hopefully at his father’s alma mater, Harvard. He was accepted and in the requisite three years, graduated in the profession of law. Although he had numerous advantages growing up abroad, he was plagued by depression due to his domineering parents, a profession that he was not fond of, and a love affair that was doomed at the start. Following his father’s example, he became more involved with politics, which culminated with his appointment as ambassador to the Netherlands by President Washington. He accepted the post, against his better judgment, and was soon sailing to London where he was instructed to bring special diplomatic messages to the ambassador. Once there, Adams seemed to have grown fond of Louisa Johnson, the daughter of an American trader, and they married on June 29, 1797. “It was not exactly a marriage of convenience. They did care for one another, but most probably neither deeply loved the other” (p. 30).
John Quincy’s father became President of the United States and promoted his son still higher to the minister plenipotentiary to Prussia. In Prussia, Louisa would suffer through a series of miscarriages until in 1801 a son, George Washington Adams, was born. Unfortunately, John Adams senior, was not re-elected so he chose to recall his son home from Europe instead of allowing Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans fire him.
Back home in the US, John Quincy did not know what to do so he resumed his practice of law. He never really cared for life as a lawyer so when politics called his name again, he was ready. He was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts, although his tenure there was not of long duration. He was considered a loose cannon in the legislative branch because he did not adhere to any political party at all—he simply voted on what he thought was right. “By this time Senator Adams had become a pariah in his own state and no one doubted that his days in Congress were numbered” (p. 39). John Quincy could read the writing on the wall as well and so defiantly, he chose instead to resign.
The newest President, James Madison, chose JQA to become the American ambassador to Russia and the court of Czar Alexander I. Leaving his two oldest children at home (which turned into a fight royal between JQA and Louisa), John Quincy and Louisa embarked on the three month journey to St. Petersburg where she would give him their first daughter. JQA enjoyed being in Russia, partially due to the relationship with the czar. They had a mutually beneficial relationship, allowing John Quincy to ask the czar to intervene diplomatically to end the War of 1812.
John Quincy was asked to chair the peace treaty commission between the United States and Great Britain in Ghent, Belgium. There he was able to influence the peace negotiations into keeping the status quo ante bellum and end the war. The treaty was signed December 24, 1814.
Since he had been away from the US for almost seven years, JQA decided that it was time to return to the United States. He resigned his position in Russia but was told to report to England first as a temporary ambassador there. He finally sent for his sons from the US and the whole family was reunited.
James Monroe was elected President of the United States in 1816 and promptly named John Quincy Adams to the coveted Secretary of State position. It was no secret that the Secretary of State usually went on to become the next President. Remini states that “John Quincy Adams is arguably the greatest secretary of state to serve that office. His negotiating skills and diplomatic insights were mainly responsible for the transformation of the United States into a transcontinental nation, an action that guaranteed the emergence of this country as a world power” (p. 50). The truth of the matter is that JQA did do a good job as secretary of state by really enhancing the power and prestige of the United States in general. One of his first triumphs was the Convention of 1818 where Adams sent ambassadors to England to finalize the particulars of the Treaty of 1814. For example, he set boundary lines in the Northwest, he gave the US full privileges on the Mississippi River and he set fishery compromises with Great Britain. On the flip side, Britain was assured that the US had no designs on their Canadian territories. Thus, things with Britain finally calmed down.
Another triumph for JQA was the Adams-Onis Treaty (or the Transcontinental Treaty) in 1819 that “established the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase” (p. 56). Not only that but the US gave up demands for Texas in return for Florida. John Quincy decided that this treaty was his most important achievement yet.
The election of 1824 is commonly thought to be the birth of modern electioneering. The reason for this is simple—this election is the first one in which the presidential candidates would actively get involved. The election came down to John Quincy Adams and the great general, Andrew Jackson, but it was also a very, very dirty election in many ways. Mudslinging reached a new level of personal insults, while bargaining was going on hard-core behind the scenes. In fact, the final outcome hinged on the opinion of the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, who cast his vote for John Quincy Adams. After becoming President, Adams made Clay his Secretary of State which caused the entire nation scream about a “corrupt bargain”. John Quincy couldn’t know this of course but the “corrupt bargain” would hamper his reelection goals.
His presidency started inauspiciously under the “corrupt bargain” and numerous senators and congressmen banded together against him. His plan to have the US attend the new Pan-American conference in Mexico was ignored and they defeated his idea for a national university. He very clumsily handled the issues with the American Indians due to the fact that “Adams had never been a friend of Indians or sympathetic to their pleas for justice” (p. 91). Even though the Indians were obviously being cheated, Adams allowed the individual states to walk all over the federal government regarding this situation. “Poor Adams. He was a novice both in Indian negotiations and in dealing with a truculent state and soon found himself out of his political depth in handling such matters” (p. 95). JQA also suffered from disloyal employees working behind his back, which, even though he knew about them, he did nothing about. “All these issues resulted in the steady lowering of the Adams administration into its political grave” (p. 87).
“Adams meant well but he did not have the political dexterity, wisdom, or will to do what he knew was right” (p. 100). This sums up John Quincy’s presidency in a nut shell. Even Adams described “his administration as a near total failure” (p. 102) and it only got worse. Relations with our Mexican, Central and South American neighbors worsened. More boundary disputes kept cropping up. Trade between the US and the British West Indies was disrupted due to Adams’ fumbling and the resulting economic crash was blamed on his administration. He also administered the Tariff of Abominations, which gave some states more benefits than others, causing an uproar. “It is really impossible to think of any other president quite like John Quincy Adams. He seemed intent on destroying himself and his administration. By the same token, it is difficult to think of a president with greater personal integrity” (p. 110).
The next election, the election of 1828, was, if possible, even dirtier than the last one. This time the Jacksonian Democrats had plenty of ammunition to use against John Quincy. “By the time Adams signed the ‘abominable’ tariff the attacks on him, his administration had grown so gross and vicious that he reckoned his impending defeat as the greatest humiliation of his life” (p. 117). More slanderous stories were told about Adams: that he and his wife had engaged in premarital sex, that he pimped for the czar of Russia, that he was a gambler. It was no surprise to anyone, Adams included, that he lost the election to Andrew Jackson.
Unlike many of the other presidents, he did not come home to retire. True, he thought that his public life was most definitely over with the suicide of his eldest son as the final death knell. “Feeling used up and infirm, John Quincy was genuinely surprised when a number of Quincy neighbors and the editor of the Boston newspaper, Courier, suggested that he consider running for Congress” (p. 131). He did and won an astonishing victory, allowing him to take his seat in the House of Representatives on December 5, 1831. Thereafter would follow one of the most illustrious post-presidential careers in history, culminating in his advocacy of basic human rights “Perhaps more than anyone else of his generation John Quincy Adams represented the thinking, opinions, and attitudes of the vast majority of American citizens—just like his father before him” (p. 145). He suffered a slight stroke in 1846 but returned Congress as soon as he was able. A couple years later, in a Congressional session, he lapsed into a coma and died shortly afterwards on February 23, 1848.
“John Quincy Adams’s presidency may have been a disaster—historians who regularly run polls on the presidents usually list him as ‘below average’—but everything else in his public life added distinction to this nation’s illustrious history. He envisioned the United States as a continental power and helped achieve it. He conceived and formulated one of this country’s most basic doctrines on foreign policy. And, during his final years, he devoted himself to protecting fundamental human rights” (p. 146).
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