John Quincy Adams - Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

Life & Contributions

John Quincy Adams was just 10 years old when he accompanied his father, John Adams, on a mission to France during the Revolutionary War. He continued to travel with his father on diplomatic assignments to the Netherlands and Great Britain, all the while studying in the capitals of Europe. At age 14, because of his excellent French, young Adams was sent to St. Petersburg as private secretary and translator for the U.S. mission to Russia. Serious and studious, he returned to the United States to graduate from Harvard at age 20.

In 1794 President George Washington appointed the young Adams minister to the Netherlands, and when the elder Adams became president in 1797, he appointed his son minister to Prussia. There John Quincy negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce. He was soon back in Russia, this time as minister, where he persuaded the czar to allow American ships to trade in Russian ports. Then, in 1814, he left for Ghent, in Belgium, to lead the U.S. peace commission in writing the treaty that ended the War of 1812. Next Adams went to London, where he served as minister to Great Britain for two years, negotiating an important commercial treaty.

In 1817 President James Monroe finally called Adams home, appointing him secretary of state. Over the next eight years Secretary Adams negotiated treaties that acquired Florida from Spain and established U.S. fishing rights off the Canadian coast. Most important, he helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine that warned European nations not to interfere in the affairs of the nation-states in the Western Hemisphere.

With such a strong background in foreign affairs, Adams seemed well prepared to be president. But the election of 1824 was disputed, and followers of his rival Andrew Jackson denied Adams an easy presidency. Though both were strong nationalists, Adams’s proposals for a national university and a national astronomical observatory were ignored. Jackson won the election of 1828, and Adams returned to Massachusetts. But not for long. His native state sent him to the House of Representatives, where he served until his death, a strong opponent of slavery.