
John Quincy Adams by Gilbert Stuart, 1818 Remini notes that Adams feared that the end of slavery could only come through civil war or the consent of the slave South, and not quickly and painlessly as the abolitionists wanted. Though he, like most anti-slavery contemporaries such as Henry Clay, held the preservation of the union as the primary goal, he increasingly became more forceful for the anti-slavery cause. īiographers Nagle and Parsons argue that he was not a true abolitionist, although he quickly became the primary enemy of slavery in Congress. During the censure debate, Adams said that he took delight in the fact that southerners would forever remember him as "the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed". He vehemently attacked the annexation of Texas (1845) and the Mexican War (1846–1848) as part of a "conspiracy" to extend slavery. Adams repeatedly spoke out against the " Slave Power", that is the organized political power of the slave owners who dominated all the southern states and their representation in Congress.
John quincy adams free#
In the House, Adams became a champion of free speech, demanding that petitions against slavery be heard despite a "gag rule" that said they could not be heard. He often dealt with slavery-related issues during his seventeen-year congressional career, which began after his presidency. Further, abolitionism meant disunion and Adams was a staunch champion of American nationalism and union. He never joined the movement called "abolitionist" by historians-the one led by William Lloyd Garrison-because it demanded the immediate abolition of slavery and insisted it was a sin to enslave people. Ericson asks why he never became an abolitionist. Like most contemporaries, John Quincy Adams' views on slavery evolved over time. Boston Museum of Fine Arts.A copy of a lost daguerreotype of Adams taken by Philip Haas in 1843 John Quincy Adams portrait by John Singleton Copley, 1796. When it came to voting he cried “No!” and collapsed. John Quincy had a stroke on Februwhile the House of Representatives was discussing a matter he strongly opposed. He was proficient in Italian, Latin and classical Greek. John Quincy was fluent in French, Dutch and German. John Adams, 2nd president, and John Quincy Adams, 6 th president, are the first father son pair to become U.S. Slavery was abolished in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. He changed his position when the expansion of American territory also meant the expansion of slavery. John Quincy was an early proponent of Manifest Destiny, an American expansionist policy popular in the 19th century. His father died on July 4 th, 1826 when John Quincy was president. John Quincy is considered one of the most accomplished Secretary of State of all times. Before becoming Secretary of State he served as minister to the Netherlands, Prussia and Russia.Īdams served as Secretary of State for 8 consecutive years under President James Monroe. John Quincy and his father served as Ministers to Britain, a top post in diplomacy. John Quincy was 30 and Louisa Catherine Johnson 22 when they got married. John Quincy married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the only foreign born first lady. His brother Charles and his second son John Adams II died from alcoholism. He wanted to marry a young lady from Newburyport but his parents opposed as marriage might interfere with his law career. John always wanted to please his parents. He earned a Bachelor Degree in Arts and a Master in Arts from Harvard University. It took them six weeks on board of the Boston to cross the Atlantic. When John Quincy was 11 he accompanied his father to Europe on a diplomatic assignment. The entries in his diary amount to 51 volumes, more than 14,000 pages and are kept in the Adams Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. His diary shows that he suffered from depression most of his life. John Quincy, like his father, kept a diary which he started updating from 1779, age 12, until before his death in 1848. His parents had high expectations of him and his siblings. When John was 8 years old he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from a hill near his house in Quincy. The city of Quincy, Massachusetts was named after Colonel Quincy. John Quincy was named after Colonel John Quincy, his mother’s maternal grandfather.
