Adams John Quincy Essay Research Paper The

Adams, John Quincy Essay, Research Paper The author believes that John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States of America, is not only a major political figure in the forming of the United States as we now know it, but also a just and moral Christian man. John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. He was the second of four children–a girl and three boys. From infancy John saw history being made. Often he was taken to Boston Common to see the hated British soldiers parade. He heard his father, John Adams (second President of the United states), and his mother, Abigail Smith Adams, tell about the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party just after they happened. During the Revolutionary war he saw the fires of

Charleston and heard the noise of Bunker hill (Encyclopedia Brittanica 86). In 1778, John Quincy went with his diplomat father to France and later to Holland. When he was 14 he accompanied Francis Dana, commissioner to Russia, to the St. Petersburg court. He served as secretary and French interpreter. After a fourteen moth stay he traveled alone throughout Europe. By 1785 John Adams was appointed to minister to Great Britain. John Quincy went home alone to attend Harvard College. His College days were busy and happy. He debated often, saw much of his friends, and practiced on his flute. He was a graduate by twenty. Clearly, the lifework for Adams was law. He entered the office of Theophilus Parsons (later chief justice of Massachusetts), studied for three years, and was admitted

to the bar. Client were few at first, so he occupied his time by writing political articles, signing them with such names as Publicola, Marcellus, Columbus, and Barneveld. President George Washington read the articles and appointed Adams Minister to Holland in 1794. He was then only twenty-seven years old (www.whitehouse.gov). With his brother Thomas, Adams sailed for Europe. From Holland he reported on conditions during the French occupation. Back in London, he met Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter of the American consul. She was a high-spirited girl, brilliant and sensitive. They were married July 26, 1797. Adams took his bride to Berlin, where he served as minister to the Prussian court. He worked out a treaty, read much, and traveled with his wife through Germany. Their

first child, George Washington Adams, was born in Berlin in 1801. The same year they returned to Boston and Adams? law practice (Gidding 1). He was soon back in politics, first in the Massachusetts State Senate, then in 1803 in the United States Senate. At once he was drawn into the fight over the government of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Adams fought unsuccessfully to give the new land a democratic form of government. The Federalist party was against him. Its members hated him for supporting the Democratic-Republican action against the British attack on the American frigate Chesapeake. Adams also supported Jefferson’s embargo policy. Yet he remained independent, neither Federalist nor wholly Democratic-Republican. In 1808 he resigned from the Senate and went home

to practice law (Encyclopedia Brittanica 86). In Washington and Boston society Adams was stiff and ill at ease. He had no skill at small talk. With his family and close friends, however, he was easy and sociable. He liked to read aloud before small groups. Children loved him and he them. During these years his sons John and Charles Francis were born (Gidding 2). In 1809 President Madison appointed him minister to Russia. Adams saw Napoleon invade Russia and followed the news of his disastrous retreat from Moscow. At the close of the War of 1812 he was named to the commission which was to work out a peace with Britain. The commission met with the British at Ghent, Belgium, and in four months hammered out the Treaty of Ghent (www.whitehouse.gov). From 1815 to 1817 Adams served as