John Quincy Adams

1767 Braintree
1848 Washington D. C.


John Quincy Adams studied law in Leiden, Netherlands and at the university of Harvard in Cambridge, Massachussetts. After his studies, he practiced as a lawyer in Boston. As of 1794, he was worked as a diplomat and as an ambassador for the United States to the Netherlands (1794-95), Russia (1796 and 1809-14), Prussia (1797-1802), and Great Britain (1815-17). As a Federalist, he was elected to the Massachussetts state legislature in 1802 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1803.
Because of a break with the Federalist party, Adams resigned his Senate seat in 1808. He was appointed Secretary of State by President James Monroe in 1817, whom Adams followed into the Oval Office in 1825. His attempt to be reelected failed when his rival Andrew Jackson became the new president in 1828.
Instead of leaving the political stage completely, Adams was elected as a Democratic Republican Representative to the House of Representatives in 1831, a position he kept until his death. He was the chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, the Committee on Indian Affairs, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He lost his election attempt for Governor of Massachussetts in 1834.
In 1841, Adams represented the slaves of the Spanish slave ship "La Amistad," who protested against their captors and landed in the United States, before the Supreme Court, the highest court of the United States. Because of Adams' efforts, they were not left to the mercy of Spain; rather they were allowed to return to their homeland as free people.

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