John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was a diplomat, politician, and the sixth President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829). His party affiliations were Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig. Adams was the son of United States President John Adams, and Abigail Adams. He is most famous as a diplomat involved in many international negotiations, and for formulating the Monroe Doctrine. As president he proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement, but was unable to get it through Congress. Late in life, as a Congressman, he was a leading opponent of the Slave Power, arguing that if a civil war ever broke out the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers, a policy followed by Abraham Lincoln in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town which eventually became Quincy. The John Quincy Adams birthplace, now part of Adams National Historical Park, is open to the public, as is the nearby Abigail Adams Cairn that marks the site from which Adams witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill as a seven-year-old boy. He first learned of the Declaration of Independence from the letters his father wrote his mother from Philadelphia. Much of Adams' youth was spent overseas accompanying his father, who served as an American envoy to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782. During this period, he acquired his early education at institutions such as the University of Leiden. For nearly two years, at the age of only 14, he accompanied Francis Dana on a mission to St. Petersburg, Russia, to gain recognition of the new republic. He also spent time in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.During these years overseas, Adams gained a mastery of French and Dutch and a familiarity with German and other European languages. After returning to America, he had become far more educated and well-travelled than most of his countrymen even twice his age. He entered Harvard College and graduated in 1788. He was then admitted to the bar in 1791 and began practicing law in Boston. |