JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

A LIFE IN BRIEF
 Born on July 11, 1767
 Son of President John Adams
 For seven and a half years, John Quincy Adams lived in
Paris, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, and London
 He played a major role in formulating the Monroe
Doctrine, which warned European nations not to meddle
in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
LIFE BEFORE PRESIDENCY
 John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in the village of
Braintree, Massachusetts
 The young Adams experienced his first formal schooling at the
Passy Academy outside of Paris, where he studied fencing,
dance, music, and art.
 After college, John Quincy Adams studied law and passed the
Massachusetts bar exam in the summer of 1790
 In 1794, President Washington appointed him minister to the
Netherlands
 He supported the Louisiana Purchase, the only member of his
party in either house to do so
THE CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1824
 1824 was a political turning-point year in which
none of the old rules applied
 many Americans still identified him as a New
Englander and as the son of the old Federalist
leader John Adams
 With each state having one vote, as determined by
the wishes of the majority of each state's
congressional representatives, Adams emerged the
winner with a one-vote margin of victory.
THE CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1828

 When the election campaign officially began,

Adams's supporters adopted the name National
Republicans in contrast to Democrats, trying
thereby to identify themselves accurately with the
link between old-style Federalism and a new
nationalistic republicanism.
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
 Supported the role of the federal government in the
sponsorship of projects and institutions designed to
improve the conditions of society
 Believed that a factory-based northern economy would
provide markets for southern cotton and western
foodstuffs.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
 Achieved little in foreign affairs as President
 the very success of Adams as Monroe's secretary
of state had resolved many of the issues in
foreign affairs that might have engaged Adams as
President.
 Not much was left for the State Department to
tackle in the mid-1820s.
AFTER THE PRESIDENCY
 Adams served nine post-presidential terms in
Congress from 1830 to 1848, usually voting in the
minority
 As one of the House's most articulate and forceful
spokesmen opposed to slavery, Adams earned the
nickname of "Old Man Eloquent.“
 On February 21, 1848, a severe stroke hit John
Quincy Adams just minutes after casting a loud
"No!" vote
IMPACT AND LEGACY
 Considered to have been a failure as a President
because he was such a poor politician in a day and
age when politics were beginning to really matter
again
 Set the essential marks of American foreign policy
for the next century: freedom of the seas, a halt to
further European colonization in the Western
Hemisphere, a Manifest Destiny to expand across the
continent, and isolationism from European affairs.