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While Adams had an interesting career up to and including the time of his presidency, his post-presidency years are also an interesting study. After losing the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. He was one of only three Presidents who chose not to attend their respective successor's inauguration. (The others were his father and Andrew Johnson.)
Adams did not retire after leaving office. Instead he won election to the United States House of Representatives in the 1830 elections as a National Republican. He was the first president to serve in Congress after his term of office, and one of only two former presidents to do so. (Andrew Johnson later served in the Senate.) Adams was elected to eight terms, serving as a Representative for 17 years, from 1831 until his death. He ran as Whig in 1836.
In Congress, Adams chaired a number of influential committees including the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures, the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs But his advocacy was most passionate on the issue of slavery. Adams became an important antislavery voice in the Congress. He presented many petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia and elsewhere to Congress. Congress had a "Gag rule" which prevented discussion of slavery from 1836 to 1844, but Adams somehow managed to evade it through his parliamentary skill.
Adams met Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln's sole term as a member of the House of Representatives, from 1847 until Adams' death. He is the only president to have met both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Adams vilified slavery as a terrible evil and preached total abolition. In 1841, Adams represented the defendants in United States v. The Amistad Africans in the Supreme Court of the United States. He successfully argued that the Africans, who had seized control of a Spanish ship on which they were being transported illegally as slaves, should not be extradited or deported to Cuba (a Spanish colony where slavery was legal) but should be considered free. Under President Martin Van Buren, the government argued the Africans should be deported for having mutinied and killed officers on the ship. Adams won their freedom, with the chance to stay in the United States or return to Africa.
Another of Adams' causes was his opposition to the Mexican War. He vehemently attacked the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War because he saw both as part of a "conspiracy" to extend slavery.
On February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives was discussing the matter of honoring US Army officers who served in the Mexican-American War. Adams firmly opposed this idea, so when the rest of the house erupted into 'ayes', he cried out, 'No!' He immediately collapsed, suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Two days later, on February 23, he died with his wife Louise and son Charles at his side in the Speaker's Room inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His last words were reported to have been, "This is the last of Earth. I am content."
Following are assorted clips from the movie Amistad, showing Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of John Quincy Adams: