|
See also: John
See also: Adams,
See also: sixth president of the See also: United States, was See also: born on the 11th of See also: July 1767, In tnat See also: part of See also: Braintree that is now See also: Quincy, Massachusetts, and was named after John Quincy (1689-1767), his See also: mother's grandfather, who was for many years a prominent member of the Massachusetts legislature
.
In 1778, and again in 178o, See also: young Adams accompanied his See also: father to See also: Europe; studying in See also: Paris in 1778-1779 and at the university of See also: Leiden in 1780
.
In 178o, also, he began to keep that See also: diary which forms so conspicuous a record of the doings of himself and his .contemporaries
.
In 1781, at the age of fourteen, he accompanied See also: Francis Dana (1743-1811), See also: American See also: envoy to See also: Russia, as his private secretary; but Dana was not received by the See also: Russian See also: government, and in 1782 Adams joined his father at Paris, where he acted as " additional secretary " to the American commissioners in the negotiation of the treaty of See also: peace which concluded the War of American Independence
.
Instead of accompanying his father to See also: London, he, of his own choice, returned to Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard See also: College in 1787, three years later was admitted to practise at the See also: bar and at once opened an office in See also: Boston
.
A series of papers written by him in which he controverted some of See also: Thomas Paine's doctrines in the Rights of
See also: Man, and later another series in which he ably supported the neutral policy of the - administration toward See also: France and See also: England, led to his See also: appointment by See also: Washington as See also: minister to the See also: Netherlands in May 1794
.
There was little for him to do at the Hague, but in the See also: absence of a minister at London, he transacted certain public business with the See also: English See also: foreign secretary
.
In 1796 Washington appointed him minister to See also: Portugal, but before his departure thither his father John Adams became president and changed his destination to Berlin (1797)
.
While there, he'negotiated (1799) a treaty of amity and, commerce with Prussia
.
On Thomas Jefferson's election to the See also: presidency in 1800, the elder Adams recalled his son, who returned home in 18o,
.
The next See also: year, he was elected
to the Massachusetts senate, and in 1803 was sent to Washington as a member of the Senate of the United States
.
Up to this See also: time, John Quincy Adams was regarded as belonging to the Federalist party, but he now found its general policy displeasing to him, was frowned upon, as the son of his father, by the followers of See also: Alexander
See also: Hamilton, and found himself nearly powerless as an unpopular member of an unpopular minority
.
He was not now, and indeed never was, a strict party man . On the first important question that came before him in the Senate, the acquisition of See also: Louisiana, he voted with the Republicans, regardless of the opposition of his own section
.
In See also: December 1807 he warmly seconded Jefferson's See also: suggestion of an embargo and vigorously urged instant See also: action, saying: "The president has recommended the measure on his high responsibility
.
I would not consider, I would not deliberate; I would See also: act!" Within five See also: hours the Senate had passed the Embargo See also: Bill and sent it to the See also: House
.
The support of a measure so unpopular in New England caused him to be hated by the Federalists there and cost him his seat in the Senate; his successor was chosen on the 3rd of See also: June 1808, several months before the usual time of filling the vacancy, and five days later Adams resigned
.
In the same year he attended the Republican congressional See also: caucus which nominated See also: Madison for the presidency, and thus definitely joined the Republicans
.
From 1806 to 1809 Adams was professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard
.
In 1809 President Madison sent Adams to Russia to represent the United States
.
He arrived at St See also: Petersburg at the psycho-logical moment when the See also: tsar had made up his mind to break with See also: Napoleon
.
Adams therefore met with a favourable reception and a disposition to further the interests of American commerce in every possible way
.
On the outbreak of the war between the United States and England in 1812, he was still at St Petersburg
.
In See also: September of that year, the Russian government suggested that the tsar was willing to act as mediator between the two belligerents
.
Madison precipitately accepted this proposition and sent See also: Albert See also: Gallatin and See also: James Bayard to act as commissioners with Mr Adams; but England would have nothing to do with it
.
In
See also: August 1814, however, these gentle-men, with See also: Henry
See also: Clay and Jonathan See also: Russell, began negotiations with English commissioners which resulted in the signature of the treaty of See also: Ghent on the 24th of December of that year
.
After this Adams visited Paris, where he witnessed the return of Napoleon from See also: Elba, and then went to London, where, with Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin, he negotiated (1815) a " See also: Convention to Regulate Commerce and Navigation." Soon after-wards he became U.S. minister to See also: Great Britain, as his father had been before him, and as his son, See also: Charles Francis Adams, was after him
.
After accomplishing little in London, he returned to the United States in the summer of 1817 to become secretary of
See also: state in the See also: cabinet of President See also: Monroe
.
As secretary of state, Adams played the leading part in two most important episodes,—the acquisition of See also: Florida and the promulgation of the Monroe See also: Doctrine
.
Ever since the acquisition of Louisiana successive administrations had sought to include a part at least of Florida in that See also: purchase
.
In 1819, after long negotiations, Adams succeeded in bringing the See also: Spanish minister to the point of See also: signing a treaty in which the Spaniards abandoned all claims to territory See also: east of the See also: Mississippi, and the United States relinquished all claim to what is now known as See also: Texas
.
Before the Spanish government ratified the treaty in 1820, Mexico, including Texas, had thrown off allegiance to the mother country, and the United States had occupied Florida by force of arms
.
The Monroe Doctrine (q.v.) rightly bears the name of the president who in 1823 assumed the responsibility for its promulgation; but it was primarily the See also: work of John Quincy Adams
.
The eight years of Monroe's presidency (1817–1825) are known as the " Era of See also: Good Feeling." As his second See also: term See also: drew to a close, there was a great lack of good feeling among his official advisers, three of whom—Adams, secretary of state, See also: Calhoun, secretary of war, and See also: Crawford, secretary of the treasury—aspired to succeed him in his high office
.
In addition, Henry Clay and Andrew See also: Jackson were also candidates
.
Calhounwas nominated for the See also: vice-presidency
.
Of the other four, Jackson received 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37; as no one had a majority, the decision was made by the House of Representatives, which was confined in its choice to the three candidates who had received the largest number of votes . Clay, who wasSee also: speaker of the House of Representatives, and had for years assumed a censorious attitude toward Jackson, cast his influence for Adams and thereby secured his election on the first ballot
.
A few days later Adams offered Clay the secretaryship of state, which was accepted
.
The wholly unjust and baseless See also: charge of " bargain and corruption " followed, and the See also: feud thus created between Adams and Jackson greatly influenced the See also: history of the United States
.
Up to this point Adams's career had been almost uniformly successful, but his presidency (1825–1829) was in most respects a failure, owing to the virulent opposition of the Jacksonians; in 1828 Jackson was elected president over Adams
.
It was during his administration that irreconcilable differences See also: developed between the followers of Adams and the followers of See also: Jack-son, the former becoming known as the See also: National Republicans, who with the See also: Anti-Masons were the precursors of the Whigs
.
In 1829 Adams retired to private See also: life in the See also: town of Quincy; but only for a brief See also: period, for in 1830, largely by Anti-Masonic votes, he was elected a member of the national House of Representatives
.
On its being suggested to him that his acceptance of this position would degrade an ex-president, Adams replied that no See also: person could be degraded by serving the See also: people as a representative in congress or, he added, as a selectman of his town
.
His service in congress from 1831 until his See also: death is, in some respects, the most noteworthy part of his career
.
Through-out he was conspicuous as an opponent of the extension of See also: slavery, though he was never technically an abolitionist, and in particular he was the champion in the House of Representatives of the right of petition at a time when, through the influence of the See also: Southern members, this right was, in practice, denied by that See also: body
.
His prolonged fight for the repeal of the so-called" Gag See also: Laws " is one of the most dramatic contests in the history of congress
.
The agitation for the abolition of slavery, which really began in earnest with the establishment of the Liberator by See also: William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, soon led to the sending of innumerable petitions to congress for the abolition of slavery in the
See also: District of See also: Columbia, over which the Federal government had jurisdiction, and for other action by congress with respect to that institution
.
These petitions were generally sent to Adams for presentation . They aroused the anger of the See also: pro-slavery members of congress, who, in 1836, brought about the passage of the first " Gag See also: Rule," the See also: Pinckney See also: Resolution, presented by Henry L
.
Pinckney, of See also: South Carolina
.
It provided that all petitions See also: relating to slavery should be laid on the table without being referred to committee or printed; and, in substance, this resolution was re-adopted at the beginning of each of the immediately succeeding sessions of congress, the See also: Patton Resolution being adopted in 1837, the See also: Atherton Resolution, or " Atherton Gag," in 1838, and the Twenty-first Rule in 184o and subsequently until repealed
.
Adams contended that these " Gag Rules " were a See also: direct violation of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and refused to be silenced on the question, fighting for repeal with indomitable courage, in spite of the bitter denunciation of his opponents
.
Each year the number of anti-slavery petitions received and presented by him increased; perhaps the See also: climax was in 1837, when Adams presented a petition from twenty-two slaves, and, when threatened by his opponents with censure, defended himself with remarkable keenness and ability
.
At each session, also, the majority against him decreased until in 1844 his motion to repeal the Twenty-first Rule was carried by a See also: vote of 108 to 8o and his See also: battle was won
.
On the 21st of See also: February 1848, after having suffered a previous stroke of apoplexy, he See also: fell insensible on the floor of the Representatives' chamber, and two days later died
.
Few men in American public life have possessed more intrinsic worth, more independence, more public spirit and more ability than Adams, but throughout his See also: political career he was
handicapped by a certain reserve, a certain austerity and coolness of manner, and by his consequent inability to See also: appeal to the imaginations and affections of the people as a whole
.
He had, indeed, few intimate political or See also: personal See also: friends, and few men in American history have, during their lifetime, been regarded with so much hostility and attacked with so much rancour by their political opponents
.
|
|
|
[back] JOHN ADAMS (1735–1826) |
[next] SAMUEL ADAMS (1722-1803) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.