Table of Contents
BOOKS BY HARLOW GILES UNGER
American Tempest
Improbable Patriot
Lion of Liberty
Last Founding Father
The Unexpected George Washington
Lafayette
John Hancock
Noah Webster
Americas Second Revolution
The French War Against America
Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize
That natures God commands the slave to rise,
Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round,
Till not a slave shall on this earth be found.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 1827.
Acknowledgments
My deepest thanks to Sara Georgini, an assistant editor of The Adams Papers, at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, for vetting the finished manuscript of this book. Her encyclopedic knowledge of the life and times of the Adams family saved me weeks, probably months, of research and checking. My thanks, too, to Kelly Cobble, curator, and Patty Smith, museum technician, at the Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, Massachusetts, for their gracious and most generous help in providing illustrations for this book. Also very helpful in obtaining illustrations were Richard Sorenson of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Jessica Blesso, of the Library of Congress duplication services; and Anna J. Cook, assistant reference librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
I know of no words that can express my gratitude to all the great folks at Da Capo Press and the Perseus Books Group, which published this bookthe fourth theyve published with my byline. If this were a newspaper or magazine, all their names would appear on a masthead. I have no idea why book publishers dont print mastheads in books, but, to try to thank those responsible for the publication and sale of this volume, I am breaking with tradition and not only displaying a masthead but dedicating this book to all the people listed.
Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
John Radziewicz, Publisher, Da Capo Press
Robert Pigeon, Executive Editor
Lissa Warren, Vice President, Director of Publicity
Kevin Hanover, Vice President, Director of Marketing
Sean Maher, Marketing Manager
Jonathan Crowe, Editor
Cisca Schreefel, Project Editor
Trish Wilkinson, Designer
Jennifer Kelland, Copy Editor
Cathy Armer, Proofreader
Marie Maes, Indexer
My most sincere thanks to you all and to the entire sales team of the Perseus Books Group.
NOTE: Spellings, punctuation, and grammar in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century letters, manuscripts, and publications cited in this book have, where appropriate, been modernized without my knowingly altering the intent of the original author. Readers may find the original spellings in the works cited in the notes.
Chronology
July 11, 1767John Quincy Adams (JQA) born in Braintree (later renamed Quincy), Massachusetts, the first son of John and Abigail Adams.
1775Sees Battle of Bunkers Hill from hillside near home across Boston Bay.
1778Sails for France with father, the emissary of Congress seeking French financial aid for the Revolutionary War.
17791781Attends school in Paris, then the University of Leyden.
1781Goes to St. Petersburg as secretary for American minister Francis Dana at the Russian court.
1783Rejoins father in The Hague, then Paris; resumes studies.
17851787Returns to the United States; earns degree from Harvard College.
17871790Studies law; admitted to Massachusetts Bar.
17911793Practices law in Boston; publishes newspaper articles assailing French Revolution and defending Washington policy of neutrality.
1794Appointed U.S. minister to Holland by President George Washington; hones skills as a diplomat and undercover observer of political trends.
1797John Adams elected second President of the United States; JQA appointed minister to Prussia; marries Louisa Catherine Johnson.
1800Father loses bid for reelection and recalls son from Prussia; JQAs first child, George Washington Adams, born; resumes law practice.
1802Federalists elect JQA to state senate.
1803Elected to U.S. Senate; second son, John Adams II, born.
18041808Abandons Federalist Party; votes as independent representative of the whole nation; votes for Louisiana Purchase; third son, Charles Francis, born in 1807; Federalists force him to resign from Senate.
1809President James Madison appoints him minister to Russia.
1811Refuses appointment to U.S. Supreme Court.
1813Appointed head of commission to negotiate end to War of 1812.
1817President James Monroe appoints him secretary of state.
1818Negotiates historic treaty with Britain, fixing northern boundaries with Canada; declares support for Latin American revolutions against Spain; mother, Abigail Adams, dies.
1819Negotiates U.S. acquisition of East and West Florida from Spain; extension of western U.S. border to Pacific Ocean.
1820Missouri Compromise; embraces abolition.
1823Rejects military alliance with Britain; writes key passage of Monroe Doctrine.
1824Runs in presidential election; Electoral College vote is inconclusive.
1825House of Representatives elects him sixth President of the United States after Henry Clay shifts votes and is named secretary of state; Andrew Jackson charges corrupt bargain.
1826John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on July 4.
1828Loses presidential election to Jackson, after four years of congressional obstructionism.
1829Firstborn son, George Washington Adams, dies.
1830Massachusetts voters elect him to House of Representatives; rejects party allegiance; renews pledge to represent the whole nation.
1831Presents petitions from Pennsylvania Quakers for abolition of slavery; debates over tariffs.
1832Begins struggle against nullification; snubs Harvard ceremony for Jackson.
1834Supports Jackson demands for French compensation; middle son, John Adams II, dies.
18351836Presents petitions for abolition in Washington, DC; guards Smithson bequest for national scientific institution; leads abolition movement in Congress; House passes Gag Rule to stifle abolition petitions; attacks Gag Rule as unconstitutional.
1839House turns to JQA to organize committees.
1841Wins Supreme Court decision freeing black prisoners of the Amistad; becomes first president ever to be photographed.
1842Momentous House speech provides basis for Emancipation Proclamation; southern House members charge him with treason and demand censure; wins ban on dueling in Washington, DC.
1843Leads unsuccessful struggle to prevent annexation of Texas; promotes construction of astronomical observatories and expanded scientific studies.
