Secretaries of State: John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams is most remembered for his pre- and post-presidential career. In his "presidential afterlife" he was a champion of the cause of abolition of slavery. Before the presidency, he had a stellar career as a diplomat, and is considered by many to be among the best, if not the best Secretary of State. Although his name is not part of its title, he is credited with being the creator of the Monroe Doctrine, a diplomatic pronouncement and foreign relations concept whose relevance has lasted throughout the centuries since its utterance.
Diplomacy was in John Quincy Adams' blood, right from his youth. He accompanied his father John Adams overseas on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 to 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782. While in Europe, he was educated at a number of European schools including Leiden University in the Netherlands. He matriculated from Leiden on January 10, 1781. 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. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, he published a travel report on Silesia. Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and also became conversant in German and other European languages.
Adams enjoyed Europe, but his family decided that he should return to the United States to complete his education and follow in his father's footsteps politically. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Thanks to the influence of his father, had excelled in classical studies and became fluent in Latin and Greek. Even before entering Harvard he had translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, and Aristotle and within six months memorized his Greek grammar and translated the New Testament. After graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789. He earned a Master of Arts from Harvard in 1790, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1791.
Adams began to practice law in Boston as his father had, but his heart wasn't really in it. After publishing a series of articles supporting George Washington's decision to keep America out of the French Revolution, Washington appointed the 26 year old Adams as minister to the Netherlands in 1793. He was reluctant to leave home once again, but he followed his father's advice and accepted the appointment. On route to the Netherlands, he delivered a set of documents to John Jay, who was negotiating the Jay Treaty. He spent some time with Jay and wrote home to his father, in support of the proposed Jay Treaty. The letter ultimately reached Washington, and Washington used parts of it when drafting his farewell address.
It was in London that Adams met and proposed to his future wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an American living in London. At the end of his appointment, Washington named him minister to Portugal in 1796. He was once again reluctant to remain in Europe, but his respect for and loyalty to Washington kept him in the diplomatic service. Washington called the younger Adams "the most valuable of America's officials abroad." The two agreed hat the United States would benefit economically by staying out of the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars.
His diplomatic career did not end with Washington's administration. In 1797 President John Adams appointed his son in as Minister to Prussia, with Washington's support. Adams signed the renewal of the very Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. He served at that post until 1801, when Thomas Jefferson took office as president.
While serving in Europe, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an insolvent American merchant, in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London in 1797. He was the first president to marry a first lady born outside of the United States, something that did not happen again until President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017. Adams returned to the United States in 1797 and was appointed a Commissioner of Monetary Affairs in Boston by a Federal District Judge. This was rescinded by Thomas Jefferson. He was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in April 1802. In November of that same year he ran unsuccessfully as a Federalist for the United States House of Representatives.
In 1803 elected Adams as a Federalist to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1808. That year he broke with the Federalist Party. Adams had supported the Louisiana Purchase and Jefferson's Embargo Act, which made him very unpopular with his party. The Federalist-controlled Massachusetts Legislature chose a replacement for Adams on June 3, 1808. On June 8, Adams renounced his membership in the party, resigned his Senate seat, and became a Republican. After leaving the senate he became a professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard
President James Madison appointed Adams as the first United States Minister to Russia in 1809. Adams and his wife Louisa left for their new post on August 5, 1809. Their youngest son came with them. In Christiansand, Denmark, Adams discovered thirty-eight U.S. vessels had been detained by the Norwegians. The ship was stopped on several occasions leading to delays. The Adamses did not arrive in St. Petersburg until October 23, 1809. Adams enjoyed a good relationship with Tsar Alexander I, and was able to gain the Tsar's assistance in securing the release of the American sailors and ships being held by the Danish.
In 1811, Adams was offered a position as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He declined the offer and remained in St. Petersburg. In 1812, Adams witnessed and reported the news of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the latter's disastrous retreat. That same year, Adams requested Tsar Alexander to mediate hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. accepted the offer and 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. The British rejected the offer of mediation, ended President Madison's hope that this might end the war of 1812.
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. By November 1814, the government of Lord Liverpool decided to seek an end to hostilities with the U.S. The treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. The United States did not gain any concessions from the treaty, at that point this seemed like a victory. Following the signing of the treaty, Adams traveled to Paris, where he was present for the 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 in London.
Adams arrived in Britain in May 1815. In London, Adams negotiated a limited trade agreement with Britain. He also helped 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 accepted the appointment. Monroe believed that a Northerner would be the best selection for the position of Secretary of State, and he was aware of Adams abilities and good reputation as a diplomat. Adams served as Secretary of State throughout Monroe's eight-year presidency, from 1817 to 1825. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, Adams worked hard to avoid another war with a European power, particularly Britain.
One of the major challenges confronting Adams was how to address the power vacuum in Latin America. Spain had lost the Peninsular War and other European powers had their eyes on former Spanish territories. Monroe and Adams agreed on most of the major foreign policy issues. They both favored neutrality in the matter of the Latin American wars of independence. The also agreed that the peace with Great Britain should be maintained and that expansion into the North American territories of the Spanish Empire should be pursued peacefully.
Adams had begun negotiations with Britain over several contentious issues that had not been solved by the War of 1812 or the Treaty of Ghent. In 1817, the two countries 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.
Adams and his Spanish counterpart negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty, through which the United States acquired Florida and set the western border of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. When Adams took office, Spanish possessions bordered the United States to the South and West. In the South, Spain retained control of Florida, which the U.S. wanted to purchase. Spain struggled to control the Native American tribes active in Florida, some of which raided U.S. territory. In the West, New Spain bordered the territory purchased by the U.S. in the Louisiana Purchase, but no clear boundary had been established between U.S. and Spanish territory. After taking office, Adams began negotiations with Luis de Onís, the Spanish minister to the United States, for the purchase of Florida and the settlement of a border between the U.S. and New Spain. Adams hoped to set the U.S. border at the Rio Grande River, while the Spanish preferred that the border be set at the Mississippi River.
While negotiations were ongoing, the Seminole War became active, and in December 1818 President Monroe ordered General Andrew Jackson to enter Florida and retaliate against Seminoles that had raided Georgia. Jackson exceeded his orders, attacking and defeating the Seminoles, but also capturing the Spanish outposts of St. Marks and Pensacola. He also executed two British citizens found to be aiding the Seminoles. The cabinet was outraged by Jackson's actions. Ironically, it was Adams, who would one day become Jackson's fiercrest political enemy, who defended the General. He said that Jackson's actions were necessary in self-defense and protected by international law. Adams convinced Monroe and most of the cabinet to support Jackson. After extended negotiations, the two powers agreed to the Adams–Onís Treaty, in which Spain transferred Florida to the U.S. and the Sabine River was established as the western border of the United States. The treaty was ratified in February 1821.
The Spanish Empire continued to disintegrate during Monroe's second term. Adams and Monroe became increasingly concerned that the Prussia, Austria, and Russia would try to take over Spain's colonies. In 1822, following the conclusion of the Adams–Onís Treaty, the Monroe administration recognized the independence of several Latin American countries, including Argentina and Mexico. In 1823, British Foreign Secretary George Canning suggested that the U.S. and Britain should work together to preserve the independence of these new republics. Adams disagreed. Instead, he urged Monroe to publicly declare U.S. opposition to any European attempt to colonize or re-take control of territory in the Americas. At the same time he pledged U.S. neutrality in European affairs. Adams wrote a draft for Monroe that stated these principles and also proclaimed U.S. support for republican principles. This draft became the basis for Monroe's December 1823 annual message to Congress. It was in that message that Monroe laid out what has become known as the Monroe Doctrine, which has become one of the fundamental principles of U.S. foreign policy.
Adams would succeed Monroe as President in 1825, following the most controversial presidential election up to that time, one that was decided by the House of Representatives after none of the four candidates received a majority of votes in the electoral college. Adams finished second to Andrew Jackson in the electoral college voting, but was selected as President by the House, much to the consternation of Jackson. Adams' skills as a diplomat would not transfer to the presidency, and he was defeated by Jackson in his bid for re-election to the presidency in the 1828 election.
Diplomacy was in John Quincy Adams' blood, right from his youth. He accompanied his father John Adams overseas on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 to 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782. While in Europe, he was educated at a number of European schools including Leiden University in the Netherlands. He matriculated from Leiden on January 10, 1781. 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. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, he published a travel report on Silesia. Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and also became conversant in German and other European languages.
Adams enjoyed Europe, but his family decided that he should return to the United States to complete his education and follow in his father's footsteps politically. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Thanks to the influence of his father, had excelled in classical studies and became fluent in Latin and Greek. Even before entering Harvard he had translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, and Aristotle and within six months memorized his Greek grammar and translated the New Testament. After graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789. He earned a Master of Arts from Harvard in 1790, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1791.
Adams began to practice law in Boston as his father had, but his heart wasn't really in it. After publishing a series of articles supporting George Washington's decision to keep America out of the French Revolution, Washington appointed the 26 year old Adams as minister to the Netherlands in 1793. He was reluctant to leave home once again, but he followed his father's advice and accepted the appointment. On route to the Netherlands, he delivered a set of documents to John Jay, who was negotiating the Jay Treaty. He spent some time with Jay and wrote home to his father, in support of the proposed Jay Treaty. The letter ultimately reached Washington, and Washington used parts of it when drafting his farewell address.
It was in London that Adams met and proposed to his future wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an American living in London. At the end of his appointment, Washington named him minister to Portugal in 1796. He was once again reluctant to remain in Europe, but his respect for and loyalty to Washington kept him in the diplomatic service. Washington called the younger Adams "the most valuable of America's officials abroad." The two agreed hat the United States would benefit economically by staying out of the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars.
His diplomatic career did not end with Washington's administration. In 1797 President John Adams appointed his son in as Minister to Prussia, with Washington's support. Adams signed the renewal of the very Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. He served at that post until 1801, when Thomas Jefferson took office as president.
While serving in Europe, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of an insolvent American merchant, in a ceremony at the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London in 1797. He was the first president to marry a first lady born outside of the United States, something that did not happen again until President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017. Adams returned to the United States in 1797 and was appointed a Commissioner of Monetary Affairs in Boston by a Federal District Judge. This was rescinded by Thomas Jefferson. He was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in April 1802. In November of that same year he ran unsuccessfully as a Federalist for the United States House of Representatives.
In 1803 elected Adams as a Federalist to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1808. That year he broke with the Federalist Party. Adams had supported the Louisiana Purchase and Jefferson's Embargo Act, which made him very unpopular with his party. The Federalist-controlled Massachusetts Legislature chose a replacement for Adams on June 3, 1808. On June 8, Adams renounced his membership in the party, resigned his Senate seat, and became a Republican. After leaving the senate he became a professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard
President James Madison appointed Adams as the first United States Minister to Russia in 1809. Adams and his wife Louisa left for their new post on August 5, 1809. Their youngest son came with them. In Christiansand, Denmark, Adams discovered thirty-eight U.S. vessels had been detained by the Norwegians. The ship was stopped on several occasions leading to delays. The Adamses did not arrive in St. Petersburg until October 23, 1809. Adams enjoyed a good relationship with Tsar Alexander I, and was able to gain the Tsar's assistance in securing the release of the American sailors and ships being held by the Danish.
In 1811, Adams was offered a position as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He declined the offer and remained in St. Petersburg. In 1812, Adams witnessed and reported the news of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the latter's disastrous retreat. That same year, Adams requested Tsar Alexander to mediate hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. accepted the offer and 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. The British rejected the offer of mediation, ended President Madison's hope that this might end the war of 1812.
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. By November 1814, the government of Lord Liverpool decided to seek an end to hostilities with the U.S. The treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. The United States did not gain any concessions from the treaty, at that point this seemed like a victory. Following the signing of the treaty, Adams traveled to Paris, where he was present for the 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 in London.
Adams arrived in Britain in May 1815. In London, Adams negotiated a limited trade agreement with Britain. He also helped 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 accepted the appointment. Monroe believed that a Northerner would be the best selection for the position of Secretary of State, and he was aware of Adams abilities and good reputation as a diplomat. Adams served as Secretary of State throughout Monroe's eight-year presidency, from 1817 to 1825. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, Adams worked hard to avoid another war with a European power, particularly Britain.
One of the major challenges confronting Adams was how to address the power vacuum in Latin America. Spain had lost the Peninsular War and other European powers had their eyes on former Spanish territories. Monroe and Adams agreed on most of the major foreign policy issues. They both favored neutrality in the matter of the Latin American wars of independence. The also agreed that the peace with Great Britain should be maintained and that expansion into the North American territories of the Spanish Empire should be pursued peacefully.
Adams had begun negotiations with Britain over several contentious issues that had not been solved by the War of 1812 or the Treaty of Ghent. In 1817, the two countries 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.
Adams and his Spanish counterpart negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty, through which the United States acquired Florida and set the western border of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. When Adams took office, Spanish possessions bordered the United States to the South and West. In the South, Spain retained control of Florida, which the U.S. wanted to purchase. Spain struggled to control the Native American tribes active in Florida, some of which raided U.S. territory. In the West, New Spain bordered the territory purchased by the U.S. in the Louisiana Purchase, but no clear boundary had been established between U.S. and Spanish territory. After taking office, Adams began negotiations with Luis de Onís, the Spanish minister to the United States, for the purchase of Florida and the settlement of a border between the U.S. and New Spain. Adams hoped to set the U.S. border at the Rio Grande River, while the Spanish preferred that the border be set at the Mississippi River.
While negotiations were ongoing, the Seminole War became active, and in December 1818 President Monroe ordered General Andrew Jackson to enter Florida and retaliate against Seminoles that had raided Georgia. Jackson exceeded his orders, attacking and defeating the Seminoles, but also capturing the Spanish outposts of St. Marks and Pensacola. He also executed two British citizens found to be aiding the Seminoles. The cabinet was outraged by Jackson's actions. Ironically, it was Adams, who would one day become Jackson's fiercrest political enemy, who defended the General. He said that Jackson's actions were necessary in self-defense and protected by international law. Adams convinced Monroe and most of the cabinet to support Jackson. After extended negotiations, the two powers agreed to the Adams–Onís Treaty, in which Spain transferred Florida to the U.S. and the Sabine River was established as the western border of the United States. The treaty was ratified in February 1821.
The Spanish Empire continued to disintegrate during Monroe's second term. Adams and Monroe became increasingly concerned that the Prussia, Austria, and Russia would try to take over Spain's colonies. In 1822, following the conclusion of the Adams–Onís Treaty, the Monroe administration recognized the independence of several Latin American countries, including Argentina and Mexico. In 1823, British Foreign Secretary George Canning suggested that the U.S. and Britain should work together to preserve the independence of these new republics. Adams disagreed. Instead, he urged Monroe to publicly declare U.S. opposition to any European attempt to colonize or re-take control of territory in the Americas. At the same time he pledged U.S. neutrality in European affairs. Adams wrote a draft for Monroe that stated these principles and also proclaimed U.S. support for republican principles. This draft became the basis for Monroe's December 1823 annual message to Congress. It was in that message that Monroe laid out what has become known as the Monroe Doctrine, which has become one of the fundamental principles of U.S. foreign policy.
Adams would succeed Monroe as President in 1825, following the most controversial presidential election up to that time, one that was decided by the House of Representatives after none of the four candidates received a majority of votes in the electoral college. Adams finished second to Andrew Jackson in the electoral college voting, but was selected as President by the House, much to the consternation of Jackson. Adams' skills as a diplomat would not transfer to the presidency, and he was defeated by Jackson in his bid for re-election to the presidency in the 1828 election.