Global Presidents: John Quincy Adams in Europe
Up to the time of his death in 1848, John Quincy Adams was probably the most well-traveled of any of the Presidents. He made his first trip overseas as a boy who was not yet 11, when he first sailed with his father John Adams in 1778. Much of Adams' youth was spent accompanying his father on diplomatic missions overseas. It took them six weeks on board a ship called the Boston to cross the Atlantic. At one point on the voyage, the elder Adams didn't think that the ship would make it because of a severe storm at sea. When they finally arrived there, the younger Adams was enrolled in L’Ecole de Mathematiques, a private academy. It was on this voyage that John Quincy Adams began keeping a diary, which he continued throughout the remainder of his life until 1848, shortly before he died. He accompanied his father to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782. John Quincy and his brother Charles accompanied John Adams to the Netherlands to negotiated a badly needed loan to support the Revolutionary cause. John Quincy Adams acquired an education at foreign institutions such as Leiden University in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. He matriculated in Leiden on January 10, 1781.
When his father returned home, John Quincy remained in Europe. For nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. John Quincy was fluent in French, which was the language of international diplomacy at the time, and he served as Dana's translator. He also traveled to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. In 1783 he returned to Paris and served as secretary to his father. He remained in France until 1785 when he returned to Boston and started his education in Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
John Quincy graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor Degree in Arts in 1787. For the next two years he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, north of Boston. In 1790 he earned his Master of Arts degree from Harvard and 1791 he was admitted to the bar and started practicing law in Boston. But a lawyer's life was not for John Quincy Adams and in 1794 he accepted an appointment from President George Washington as Minister to the Netherlands. John Quincy had some hesitation about leaving Massachusetts, but his father persuaded him to take the appointment. He was just 26 years old when appointed and he remained in that post until 1797. On his way to the Netherlands, he delivered a set of documents to John Jay, who was negotiating the Jay Treaty. After spending some time with Jay, Adams wrote home to his father, setting out the reasons that he was in support of the treaty. He also made the case for why he thought America should stay out of European affairs. This letter was later shown to George Washington, and parts of it were used by Washington when drafting his farewell address.
While traveling to and from The Hague and London, Adams met and proposed to his future wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson. She was the daughter of a Joshua Johnson, an American merchant who had served as American consul in 1790. Joshua Johnson had fallen on hard times. In 1797 the couple were married in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London. Adams is the first president to marry a first lady born outside of the United States. This did not occur again until President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017.
Washington named Adams minister to Portugal in 1796. Washington called Adams "the most valuable of America's officials abroad." As a diplomat, Adams continued to urge for American neutrality, arguing that the United States would benefit economically by staying out of the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars.
In 1797, when his father was elected President, the elder Adams appointed his son as Minister to Prussia. This was done at Washington's suggestion. It was in Berlin that John Quincy Adams signed the renewal of the very liberal Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce after negotiations with Prussian Foreign Minister Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein. He served at that post until 1801, when Thomas Jefferson took office as president.
Adams returned home in 1801. His wife gave birth to their first child in April of that year and John Quincy was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. In 1804, he published a travel report on Silesia. During these years overseas, Adams became fluent in Dutch and also became familiar with German and other European languages. He remained in the United States and in 1807 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He switched allegiance from the Federalist Party to Democratic-Republican Party. But soon he was back on a ship to Europe when in 1809, President James Madison appointed him as the first U.S Minister to Russia.
Adams and his wife Louisa sailed for Russia aboard a merchant ship that left Boston on Aug. 5, 1809. Their youngest son accompanied them on their long voyage to St. Petersburg. The trip was temporarily interrupted outside the southern coast of Norway because of what was known as the Gunboat War. Their ship was boarded by a British officer who examined their papers and then, later on the same day, by a Norwegian officer who ordered the ship to Christiansand. In Christiansand, Adams discovered thirty-eight U.S. vessels had been detained by the Norwegians. He worked to gain the release of the ships and their crew as soon as possible. The voyage to St. Petersburg resumed but was once again stopped by a British squadron. Adams showed his commission to Admiral Albermarle Bertie, the commander of the Squadron who recognized Adams as an ambassador. Because of all of these delays, Adams did not arrive in St. Petersburg until October 23, 1809.
Adams was formally received by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, Chancellor of the empire. His presentation to the Tsar was postponed. However Rumyantsev invited Adams to a diplomatic dinner which included the French ambassador, Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, numerous foreign ministers then at the Russian Court, and many of the nobility. Adams had dined at this location before in 1781, when he was secretary of Francis Dana. Tsar Alexander I later received Adams alone in a private meeting. Adams told Alexander that "the president of the United States had desired him to express the hope that his mission would be considered as a proof of respect for the person and character of his majesty, as an acknowledgment of the many testimonies of good-will he had already given to the United States, and of a desire to strengthen commercial relations between them and his provinces." Alexander replied, "in everything depending on him, he should be happy to contribute to the increase of their friendly relations; that it was his wish to establish a just system of maritime rights, and that he should adhere invariably to those he had declared." After these official diplomatic greetings were exchanged, Alexander and Adams discussed several other issues pertaining to European politics such as the policies of the different European powers, trade and commerce, and other mutually beneficial prospects. He made the case that Russia and U.S. could be very useful to each other.
Adams urged Rumyantsev to ask for Tsar Alexander's intervention on behalf of the United States in securing the release of the American sailors and ships being held by the Danish. The Tsar ordered the Chancellor to request the release of the American property as soon as possible, and the Danish government complied with the request. Adams spent a great deal of time securing the release of American vessels and sailors.
In 1811, while he was in Russia, Adams received an offer from the Secretary of State to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Adams declined the offer and remained in St. Petersburg. He was in Russia in 1812, during Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the French Emperor's disastrous retreat. Also in 1812, Rumyantsev asked if he should request Alexander to mediate a pacification of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. accepted the offer. In July 1813, two associates of Adams, Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard arrived in St. Petersburg to begin negotiations under mediation by Alexander. Gallatin was at that time Secretary of Treasury. However the Senate rejected his appointment to the diplomatic mission as unconstitutional. This rejection did not occur until after Gallatin and Bayard had left for St. Petersburg. In September, Lord William Cathcart delivered a British message to Alexander communicating the decision of the British government to declining the mediation. This ended the hope that Tsar Alexander could bring about an end to the war.
Louisa Adams became a favorite of the czar. The Adams developed a closeness to the Tsar and his wife. Adams would often take walks with Alexander. The Tsar asked Adams if he would be taking a house in the country over the summer. Adams was asked it financial considerations prevented him from doing so and Adams admitted that this was the reason.
In 1814, Adams was recalled from Russia. He was appointed to serve as chief negotiator of the U.S. commission for the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 between the United States and United Kingdom. The United Kingdom's first peace offer in 1814 was seen as unacceptable to the American delegation. It included unfavorable terms such as the creation of an Indian barrier state out of parts of the northwestern United States. By November 1814, the government of Lord Liverpool decided to seek an end to the war with the U.S. on the basis of a return to the status quo before the war. Adams and his fellow commissioners had hoped for similar terms, although a return to the status quo would mean the continuation of British practice of impressment, which had been a major cause of the war. Nevertheless, the treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. The United States did not gain any concessions from the treaty, but nor did they lose anything. Following the signing of the treaty, Adams traveled to Paris, where he witnessed first-hand the Hundred Days of Napoleon's restoration. During this period, Adams learned that President Madison had appointed him as the minister to the Court of St. James's (Britain).
Adams arrived in London in May 1815. The U.S. Legation there consisted of Adams, two young secretaries and a small office in Craven Street, near Charing Cross. Adams and his wife Louisa lived in Ealing, at that time a village in the countryside, in order to live more frugally. With the aid of Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin, who had also been part of the U.S. commission at Ghent, Adams negotiated a limited trade agreement with Britain. Following the conclusion of the trade agreement, much of Adams's time as ambassador was spent helping stranded American sailors and prisoners of war. In April 1817, Adams received a letter from newly inaugurated President James Monroe, who offered Adams the role of Secretary of State. Adams finally returned to the United States in August 1817.
Adams served as Secretary of State throughout Monroe's eight-year presidency, from 1817 to 1825. In 1817, the US and Britain agreed to the Rush–Bagot Treaty, which limited naval armaments on the Great Lakes. Negotiations between the two powers continued, resulting in the Treaty of 1818, which defined the Canada–United States border west of the Great Lakes. The boundary was set at the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains, while the territory to the west of the mountains (Oregon Country) would be jointly occupied. The agreement represented a turning point in United Kingdom–United States relations. The Adams–Onís Treaty was also signed in 1819, in which the United States acquired Florida and set the western border of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
The vast travel experience of John Quincy Adams contributed to his becoming one of the greatest Secretaries of State in American history. While his presidency, does not rank so highly, his diplomatic experience from an early age was of considerable benefit to his nation.
When his father returned home, John Quincy remained in Europe. For nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. John Quincy was fluent in French, which was the language of international diplomacy at the time, and he served as Dana's translator. He also traveled to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. In 1783 he returned to Paris and served as secretary to his father. He remained in France until 1785 when he returned to Boston and started his education in Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
John Quincy graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor Degree in Arts in 1787. For the next two years he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, north of Boston. In 1790 he earned his Master of Arts degree from Harvard and 1791 he was admitted to the bar and started practicing law in Boston. But a lawyer's life was not for John Quincy Adams and in 1794 he accepted an appointment from President George Washington as Minister to the Netherlands. John Quincy had some hesitation about leaving Massachusetts, but his father persuaded him to take the appointment. He was just 26 years old when appointed and he remained in that post until 1797. On his way to the Netherlands, he delivered a set of documents to John Jay, who was negotiating the Jay Treaty. After spending some time with Jay, Adams wrote home to his father, setting out the reasons that he was in support of the treaty. He also made the case for why he thought America should stay out of European affairs. This letter was later shown to George Washington, and parts of it were used by Washington when drafting his farewell address.
While traveling to and from The Hague and London, Adams met and proposed to his future wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson. She was the daughter of a Joshua Johnson, an American merchant who had served as American consul in 1790. Joshua Johnson had fallen on hard times. In 1797 the couple were married in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London. Adams is the first president to marry a first lady born outside of the United States. This did not occur again until President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017.
Washington named Adams minister to Portugal in 1796. Washington called Adams "the most valuable of America's officials abroad." As a diplomat, Adams continued to urge for American neutrality, arguing that the United States would benefit economically by staying out of the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars.
In 1797, when his father was elected President, the elder Adams appointed his son as Minister to Prussia. This was done at Washington's suggestion. It was in Berlin that John Quincy Adams signed the renewal of the very liberal Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce after negotiations with Prussian Foreign Minister Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein. He served at that post until 1801, when Thomas Jefferson took office as president.
Adams returned home in 1801. His wife gave birth to their first child in April of that year and John Quincy was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. In 1804, he published a travel report on Silesia. During these years overseas, Adams became fluent in Dutch and also became familiar with German and other European languages. He remained in the United States and in 1807 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He switched allegiance from the Federalist Party to Democratic-Republican Party. But soon he was back on a ship to Europe when in 1809, President James Madison appointed him as the first U.S Minister to Russia.
Adams and his wife Louisa sailed for Russia aboard a merchant ship that left Boston on Aug. 5, 1809. Their youngest son accompanied them on their long voyage to St. Petersburg. The trip was temporarily interrupted outside the southern coast of Norway because of what was known as the Gunboat War. Their ship was boarded by a British officer who examined their papers and then, later on the same day, by a Norwegian officer who ordered the ship to Christiansand. In Christiansand, Adams discovered thirty-eight U.S. vessels had been detained by the Norwegians. He worked to gain the release of the ships and their crew as soon as possible. The voyage to St. Petersburg resumed but was once again stopped by a British squadron. Adams showed his commission to Admiral Albermarle Bertie, the commander of the Squadron who recognized Adams as an ambassador. Because of all of these delays, Adams did not arrive in St. Petersburg until October 23, 1809.
Adams was formally received by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, Chancellor of the empire. His presentation to the Tsar was postponed. However Rumyantsev invited Adams to a diplomatic dinner which included the French ambassador, Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, numerous foreign ministers then at the Russian Court, and many of the nobility. Adams had dined at this location before in 1781, when he was secretary of Francis Dana. Tsar Alexander I later received Adams alone in a private meeting. Adams told Alexander that "the president of the United States had desired him to express the hope that his mission would be considered as a proof of respect for the person and character of his majesty, as an acknowledgment of the many testimonies of good-will he had already given to the United States, and of a desire to strengthen commercial relations between them and his provinces." Alexander replied, "in everything depending on him, he should be happy to contribute to the increase of their friendly relations; that it was his wish to establish a just system of maritime rights, and that he should adhere invariably to those he had declared." After these official diplomatic greetings were exchanged, Alexander and Adams discussed several other issues pertaining to European politics such as the policies of the different European powers, trade and commerce, and other mutually beneficial prospects. He made the case that Russia and U.S. could be very useful to each other.
Adams urged Rumyantsev to ask for Tsar Alexander's intervention on behalf of the United States in securing the release of the American sailors and ships being held by the Danish. The Tsar ordered the Chancellor to request the release of the American property as soon as possible, and the Danish government complied with the request. Adams spent a great deal of time securing the release of American vessels and sailors.
In 1811, while he was in Russia, Adams received an offer from the Secretary of State to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Adams declined the offer and remained in St. Petersburg. He was in Russia in 1812, during Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the French Emperor's disastrous retreat. Also in 1812, Rumyantsev asked if he should request Alexander to mediate a pacification of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. accepted the offer. In July 1813, two associates of Adams, Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard arrived in St. Petersburg to begin negotiations under mediation by Alexander. Gallatin was at that time Secretary of Treasury. However the Senate rejected his appointment to the diplomatic mission as unconstitutional. This rejection did not occur until after Gallatin and Bayard had left for St. Petersburg. In September, Lord William Cathcart delivered a British message to Alexander communicating the decision of the British government to declining the mediation. This ended the hope that Tsar Alexander could bring about an end to the war.
Louisa Adams became a favorite of the czar. The Adams developed a closeness to the Tsar and his wife. Adams would often take walks with Alexander. The Tsar asked Adams if he would be taking a house in the country over the summer. Adams was asked it financial considerations prevented him from doing so and Adams admitted that this was the reason.
In 1814, Adams was recalled from Russia. He was appointed to serve as chief negotiator of the U.S. commission for the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 between the United States and United Kingdom. The United Kingdom's first peace offer in 1814 was seen as unacceptable to the American delegation. It included unfavorable terms such as the creation of an Indian barrier state out of parts of the northwestern United States. By November 1814, the government of Lord Liverpool decided to seek an end to the war with the U.S. on the basis of a return to the status quo before the war. Adams and his fellow commissioners had hoped for similar terms, although a return to the status quo would mean the continuation of British practice of impressment, which had been a major cause of the war. Nevertheless, the treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. The United States did not gain any concessions from the treaty, but nor did they lose anything. Following the signing of the treaty, Adams traveled to Paris, where he witnessed first-hand the Hundred Days of Napoleon's restoration. During this period, Adams learned that President Madison had appointed him as the minister to the Court of St. James's (Britain).
Adams arrived in London in May 1815. The U.S. Legation there consisted of Adams, two young secretaries and a small office in Craven Street, near Charing Cross. Adams and his wife Louisa lived in Ealing, at that time a village in the countryside, in order to live more frugally. With the aid of Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin, who had also been part of the U.S. commission at Ghent, Adams negotiated a limited trade agreement with Britain. Following the conclusion of the trade agreement, much of Adams's time as ambassador was spent helping stranded American sailors and prisoners of war. In April 1817, Adams received a letter from newly inaugurated President James Monroe, who offered Adams the role of Secretary of State. Adams finally returned to the United States in August 1817.
Adams served as Secretary of State throughout Monroe's eight-year presidency, from 1817 to 1825. In 1817, the US and Britain agreed to the Rush–Bagot Treaty, which limited naval armaments on the Great Lakes. Negotiations between the two powers continued, resulting in the Treaty of 1818, which defined the Canada–United States border west of the Great Lakes. The boundary was set at the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains, while the territory to the west of the mountains (Oregon Country) would be jointly occupied. The agreement represented a turning point in United Kingdom–United States relations. The Adams–Onís Treaty was also signed in 1819, in which the United States acquired Florida and set the western border of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
The vast travel experience of John Quincy Adams contributed to his becoming one of the greatest Secretaries of State in American history. While his presidency, does not rank so highly, his diplomatic experience from an early age was of considerable benefit to his nation.