John Quincy Adams

Born in 1767 Massachusetts, the first son of John and Abigail Adams, as a boy, John Quincy Adams witnessed the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill from a rise near his family’s farm, later achieving proficiency in seven foreign languages while studying at several European universities.

Harvard Educated

Completing his education at Harvard, Adams studied law before his admittance to the bar in 1790, setting up a law practice in Boston before his election to the Massachusetts State Senate followed by the U.S. Senate in 1803.

Growing evermore estranged from the Federalist party, Adams resigned his Senate seat in 1808 to join the faculty at Harvard as a full professor. A year later, President James Madison appointed Adams ambassador to the Russian court of Czar Alexander the 1st, where he witnessed Napoleon’s invasion and subsequent retreat from Russia—an event which resulted in the near destruction of Napoleon’s Grand Army, and the deaths of some 380,000 French soldiers.

After the War of 1812 resulted in an American victory over Great Britain’s attempted aggression, in 1814, Madison sent Adams to Belgium, where he negotiated the war-ending Treaty of Ghent.

Three years later, President James Monroe named Adams his secretary of state, where he negotiated the joint occupation of Oregon with England and the acquisition of Florida from Spain, followed by his role as chief architect behind the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which warned European powers against further colonization in the western hemisphere.

President of the United States

Winning the White House in 1824, after a five-way presidential race was decided by the House of Representatives—something Andrew Jackson supporters called a “corrupt bargain,” Adams’ one-term presidency would be largely stymied by Jacksonian democrats in Congress.

His bid for a second term was marred by accusations of corruption and steadfast pushback against his unpopular domestic programs, including federal funding of an interstate road and canal system and his staunch opposition to slavery.

John Quincy Adams, like his father before him, became the second president in U.S. history who failed to win a second term.

A One-term President

Losing to Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, Adams spent the remainder of his life as a congressman from Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives, earning the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” before passing away following back-to-back strokes on February 23rd, 1848, forever cementing John Quincy Adams, into the annals of American politics.