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In 1793, Adams became a diplomat in his own rite when President George Washington appointed him as minister to the Netherlands at the age of 26. On his way to the Netherlands, he was tasked with delivery of documents to John Jay, who was negotiating the Jay Treaty. After spending some time with Jay, Adams wrote home to his father, in support of the treaty, stating that he thought America should stay out of European affairs.
While going back and forth between The Hague and London, John Quincy Adams met and proposed to his future wife, Louisa Catherine. He wanted to return to private life at the end of his appointment, but George Washington appointed Adams minister to Portugal in 1796. He was soon promoted to the Berlin Legation. Washington said, in correspondence, that he considered Adams "the most valuable of America's officials abroad."
When John Adams became president, he appointed his son as Minister to Prussia in 1797, with George Washington's approval. While in Prussia, John Quincy Adams signed the renewal of the Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. He served at that post until 1801. While serving abroad, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an American merchant, in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London. Adams remains the only president to have a First Lady born outside of the United States.
He returned to the United States, and stayed out of the diplomatic service for the next 8 years, in part due to the animosity between his father and new President Thomas Jefferson. But in 1809 President James Madison appointed Adams as the first ever United States Minister to Russia. The voyage experienced many delays, and Adams and his family did not arrive in St. Petersburg until October 23, 1809. Adams got along very well with Tsar Alexander I. He was frequently given private audiences with the Tsar and with the empress, who also received Louisa Adams. Adams requested Tsar Alexander to act on behalf of the United States in securing the release of the American sailors and ships being held by the Danish. The Tsar ordered his Chancellor to request the release of the American property as soon as possible, which the Danish government complied with. Adams spent a great deal of time securing the release of American vessels and seamen from various seizures.
In 1811, Adams received a commission from the Secretary of State as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which he declined. In 1812, Adams reported the news of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and Napoleon's disastrous retreat. That same year, Tsar Alexander offered to mediate hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. accepted the offer and in July 1813, Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard arrived in St. Petersburg to begin negotiations under mediation by Alexander. The British declined the offer of mediation, ending President Madison's hope that Alexander could end a war that he himself had declared.
In 1814, Adams was recalled from Russia 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 treaty was negotiated and signed, though word of the Treaty did not reach the United States until after the Americans defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans.
Adams was sent to be minister to the Court of St. James's in London from 1815 until 1817, a post that was first held by his father. He left that post to serve as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James Monroe from 1817 until 1825. As Secretary of State, he negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty (which acquired Florida for the United States), the Treaty of 1818, and he is also credited with authorship of the Monroe Doctrine. Many historians regard him as one of the greatest Secretaries of State in American history.
Although the two men would later become bitter enemies, Adams found himself coming to the defense of General Andrew Jackson while Secretary of State. Monroe had sent in General Jackson to pushed the Seminole Indians south in Florida. While there, Jackson ordered the execution of two British merchants who were supplying weapons. He deposed one governor and named another, and left an American garrison in occupation. President Monroe and all his cabinet, except Adams, believed Jackson had exceeded his instructions. Adams argued that since Spain had proved incapable of policing her territories, the United States was obliged to act in self-defense. Adams defended Jackson's conduct, silencing protests from Spain and Great Britain. Adams used those events to negotiate the Florida Treaty with Spain in 1819 that turned Florida over to the U.S. and resolved border issues regarding the Louisiana Purchase.
At the time there was an ongoing Oregon boundary dispute. Adams tried to negotiate a settlement with England to decide the border between the western United States and Canada. This would become the Treaty of 1818. This resulted in improved relations between the U.S. and Great Britain. The treaty set the boundary between British North America and the United States along the 49th parallel through the Rocky Mountains.
Several European powers, including Spain, were attempting to re-establish control over South America. On Independence Day 1821, Adams gave a speech in which he said that American policy was moral support for independence movements but not armed intervention. He stated:
"America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy, lest she involve herself beyond power of extrication, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force."
From this emerged what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, which was introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. It was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets, one which would come to be invoked by several U.S. presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.