ADAMS, Jomc Qrrscy (ante). Under the advantages secured while with his father abroad, John Quincy became one of the best educated men of his time. He grad uated from Harvard in 1788, and studied law with Theophilus Parsons three years; was admitted to the bar in 1791, and mixed law practice with writing for the newspapers, especially discussing French neutrality and Tom Paine's Rights of Man. In 1794 Wash ington appointed him minister at the Hague; in 1797 he married the daughter of Joshua Johnson, formerly a merchant at Nantes. On "Washington's written advice, president Adams appointed him minister to Berlin, where he learned German and translated Wieland's Oberon, but did not publish it, because Sotheby's translation just then appeared. Jefferson recalled him, and in 1802 be was a member of the Mass. legislature. When only 36 years of age he was elected senator in congress, but soon afterwards resigned. In 1806 he was professor of rhetoric and belle lettres in Harvard. About this time may be noted the first appearance of the sectional ideas which culminated in the war of the rebellion of 1861-5. During a visit to Washington, A. had a conference with Jefferson in which he charged a portion of the federal leaders with a design of dis solving the union and establishing a separate northern confederacy. This charge was often repeated, and for a dozen years it seriously affected the administration of the gov ernment, reducing the statesmen of New England to a position of much less weight and influence in public affairs than they were entitled to or had enjoyed, and very probably restricting Mr. A. to his one term of the presidency. This idea was said to have orig inated with certain federal members of congress because of the acquisition of Louisiana, and the threatened destruction, by additions of southern and southwestern territory, of the political influence of the n. and e. A. said that these members of congress were to have a meeting in Boston, at which Alex. Hamilton would be present, though he did not approve of their ideas. In 1809 Madison sent A. as minister to Russia, and during his residence there be was made associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, but declined the honor. In Russia he had much influence, inducing the' emperor to offer himself as mediator between our country and Great Britain. In 1813 he was, with Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Jonathan Russell, a commissioner to negotiate peace with Great Britain, which was effected at Ghent after six months' work, and signed Dec. 24, 1814. The next spring A. was made minister to England, and was there until Monroe called him home to be secretary of state, in which position he had important work in defending gen. Jackson's conduct in Fla. against Spain, in the Miranda expedition, and in the ques tion of the La. boundary, in which the Sabine river was accepted as a compromise. Near the end of Monroe's first term the strife between slavery and freedom began on the occa sion of the bill admitting Missouri, sent to Monroe for his signature. He submitted two questions to his cabinet: 1. Has congress constitutional power to prohibit slavery in a
territory? 2. Was the term "forever" in the prohibitive clause forever absolutely, or only during the territorial condition of the country specified? On the first question all the cabinet voted yea; on the second A. thought "forever" covered state as well as territorial condition, but all the other held the others view. To harmonize matters, Cal houn suggested the broader question, " Is the proviso as it stands in the bill constitu tional?" And on this all voted yea. In 1824, Adams, Jackson, Crawford, and Clay, all democrats, were candidates for president. In the colleges the vote was 99 for Jackson, 84 for Adams, 41 for Crawford, and 37 for Clay. In the house A. was chosen, as it was charged, by the influence of Clay. whom he made secretary of state. As soon as A. was in office all the other factions of the democracy united against him and in favor ofJack son ; both houses of congress were against him for the latter part of his term, and he was assailed with the most unscrupulous and vindictive bitterness. For his second term he got only 83 votes to 178 for Jackson. Ile retired to Quincy, but not to idleness. A long political life had closed; a shorter and more important one was about to open. A new party, the anti-masons, sent him to congress, and his district kept him there for seven teen years, during which he was almost ever at his post and always at work. In 1834 he was a candidate for governor of Mass., but was beaten by John Davis, who not long after beat him for U. S. senator. Free from all parties and cliques, A. became the peo ple's champion, especially as to the right of petition, which the southern congressmen were ever anxious to restrict. Everybody soon knew that though he might oppose the purpose sought, A. would promptly jaTeseilt, 'Ibis was fully tested in 1837, when lie astonished everybody by presenting a petition from actual slaves; find compelled its reception, notwithstanding the uproar which it created. By degrees he gravitated towards the abolitionists. Though not identified as one of them, he was always the champion of the right of petition. Ile seconded the repeal of the notorious gag rule; he defended the slave mutineers of the Amistad, and was ready, anywhere and everywhere, to stand up for free speech. On the 26th Nov., 1846, when leaving Boston to take his scat in congress, he had an attack of paralysis, and was kept away four months; after that he was at his post, but seldom spoke. Ou the 21st of Feb.,1848, came a second attack, while lie was in his seat in the house; he was taken to the speaker's private room, and d. on the second day after, his last intelligible words being, " This is the last of earth; I am content." Like his father, he was a Unitarian in his religious views, though not extreme; also, like his father, he kept voluminous diaries and journals, which have been in some degree arranged and published by his son. Many of his poems, orations, and discourses have been published.