| Bio |

Who they were

John Quincy Adams was born on 11 July 1767 in the North Parish of Braintree, Massachusetts, a district later made into the town of Quincy^[1]. His parents were John and Abigail Adams^[2]. He was named after his great-grandfather on his mother's side, John Quincy^[1]. At seven, he climbed a hill with his mother to listen to the battle of Bunker Hill and watch Charlestown burn^[1]. At nine, he became a post-rider, a courier carrying the latest news between Boston and the family farm^[1]. In 1778 he sailed to France with his father on a diplomatic journey^[1]. In 1781, at thirteen, he went to St Petersburg as private secretary and interpreter to Francis Dana, on a mission to the court of Catherine II^[2].

Adams came home to study at Harvard College, graduating in 1787^[1]. He read law at Newburyport and was admitted to the bar on 15 July 1790^[1]. In 1791 he anonymously published a series of papers, signed Publicola, refuting Thomas Paine's Rights of Man^[1]. In 1794 President Washington appointed him Minister to the Dutch States-General, when he was only twenty-seven^[2]. He met Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of the American consul in London^[1], and married her there on 26 July 1797^[1]. That year he became Minister to Prussia^[2]. In 1803 the Massachusetts legislature elected him United States Senator^[2].

As Senator, Adams played an independent role, backing the Louisiana Purchase, which most Federalists condemned, and Jefferson's embargo^[2]. In 1808 the Federalist-dominated Massachusetts legislature chose his successor early, and he resigned^[2]. In 1809 President Madison sent him to Russia as Minister^[2]. In 1813 he was named one of five American commissioners to negotiate peace with Britain at Ghent^[2], and the treaty was signed on 24 December 1814^[1]. President Monroe made him Secretary of State in 1817^[2]. In 1819 he signed the treaty transferring Florida to the United States^[2], and in 1823 Monroe's message to Congress, the Monroe Doctrine, used words drafted by Adams^[2]. In 1825 the House of Representatives elected him President on the first ballot, after no candidate had won an electoral majority^[2]. Andrew Jackson defeated him in 1828^[2].

Adams declined to accompany Jackson to his inauguration on 4 March 1829^[2]. In 1830 he was elected to the House of Representatives^[2], where he served about sixteen years^[1]. He fought the gag rule, which blocked anti-slavery petitions from being debated^[2], and in 1841 he won freedom for the Amistad captives before the Supreme Court^[2]. On 3 December 1844 the House voted 108 to 80 to drop the gag rule^[1]. He collapsed in his seat on 21 February 1848^[1] and died on 23 February^[2]. The House adjourned while he lay dying^[3]. He was buried in the Adams family crypt in Quincy^[4].

Nevins, who edited a selection of Adams's diary, credited him, more than any other American, with saving the Smithson bequest and putting the Smithsonian on a sound footing^[2][2]. In November 1843 Adams laid the cornerstone of an observatory at Cincinnati, called the first astronomical observatory built in America^[2]. The hill there was named Mt. Adams in his honour^[2]. In 1842 he argued that in wartime the president and army commander could order the emancipation of enslaved people, a speech Nevins says foreshadowed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation^[2].

Adams kept a plain routine even as president, rising at four or five, building his own fire and reading his Bible before the day's work^[2]. He began his diary on a voyage in November 1779^[1] and kept it up almost to the end, the last entry being dated 4 January 1848^[1]. His biographer Morse found no instance of humour in its twelve volumes^[1].

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