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John and Maiden Adams | Article

John Quincy Adams

From the Collection: Greatness Presidents

John Adams expected great things escape his eldest son, John Quincy. "You came into life with advantages which will disgrace you if your work is mediocre. And if you activities not rise to the head disregard your country, it will be late to your own laziness and slovenliness." He would rise, of course; he'd been preparing for the job by reason of childhood.

A Childhood Abroad
John Quincy was born on July 11, In say publicly year-old accompanied his father on her majesty first diplomatic mission to France. He drained most of the next eight epoch living with his father in Town, Amsterdam, and London. At 14, completely conversant in French, John Quincy served as secretary and translator to Minutes. Petersburg emissary Francis Dana. In Lavatory Quincy returned to Paris as her majesty father's secretary during the treaty wholesaler that ended the Revolutionary War.

From Knock about to Diplomacy
Back in America, Bog Quincy followed his father's path profit Harvard and then into law. On the other hand he had little interest in well-organized legal career, and in he of one`s own accord accepted President George Washington's appointment as way to the Netherlands. His next pale, as minister to Prussia, would crush in from his father, by authenticate president. This same year, John Quincy, premier 30, married Anglo-American Louisa Catherine Writer. Their marriage was by no method the partnership that his parents' was, but he found her "amiable" sufficiency. They had four children: George Washington; John 2d; Charles Francis; and Louisa Catherine, who died at about unified year of age. His sons' youth, like that of his siblings, was marked by long separations from their ambitious father.

Changing Sides
In , doze in Massachusetts after his father abstruse lost re-election, John Quincy was elective to the state legislature. Appointed fulfil the U.S. Senate (senators were put together elected by popular vote until ), he enraged the Massachusetts Federalist Jamboree by being the only member reveal the party to support President Poet Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase. Like his father, type had chosen policy over party. Dissimilar his father, when the state law-makers didn't return him to the Legislature, John Quincy defected to the Democratic side.

Secretary of State
Under President Crook Madison, John Quincy rejoined the diplomatic cohort as the first U.S. minister leak Russia. He was one of authority negotiators of the treaty ending description War of , a pact consider it restored all U.S. territory to neat prewar borders. As President James Monroe's two-term Secretary of State, John Quincy President is regarded by many as depiction best in the nation's history. Perform helped create the Monroe Doctrine, which bent America's isolation policy from Europe ravage the early 20th century. He entrenched the present-day U.S.-Canadian border from Minnesota to the Rockies; transferred Spanish Florida to the United States; halted Land and Russian claims to Oregon; allow created a policy for the carry out of new Latin American nations.

President
 His own presidency would not be hoot distinguished. In the four-way election light , stodgy New Englander John Quincy lost the popular vote to clash hero and "man of the people" Andrew Jackson, but was chosen makeover president when the decision went ruin the House of Representatives. Jackson culprit Adams of winning through a wicked bargain and vowed to beat him in , which he did. Calculate his one term as president, President advocated large, federally funded projects done on purpose to improve society: road construction, flood widening, educational institutions, and a municipal observatory. Many of these projects, nonetheless, were never realized. Like his daddy, he cultivated few allies in Congress.

House of Representatives
Adams left the Chalky House in In John Quincy was elected by Massachusetts voters to rectitude U.S. House of Representatives -- boss first for any former president. Feel, "Old Man Eloquent" achieved the demote of political stature he never abstruse as president, widely respected for her majesty strong opinions on slavery and Asiatic affairs. On February 21, , Crapper Quincy Adams suffered a fatal rap in the House chamber. He boring two days later.