John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825; minister to Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia; and senator for Massachusetts. After his presidency, Adams uniquely returned to Congress as a member of the lower house until his death in 1848. He was the eldest son of John Adams, the second president, and First Lady Abigail Adams. Among his children were Charles Francis Adams Sr. Initially a Federalist like his father, Adams spent his presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and later, in the mid-1830s, became affiliated with the Whig Party.

Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, Adams spent much of his youth in Europe, where his father served as a diplomat during the American Revolutionary War. After returning to the United States, Adams established a successful legal practice in Boston. In 1794, President George Washington appointed Adams as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands, while President Adams named him minister to Prussia. After he was recalled in 1801 by the new president Thomas Jefferson, Federalist leaders in Massachusetts arranged for Adams's election to the United States Senate in 1802. However, Adams broke with the Party over foreign policy and was denied re-election. In 1809, President James Madison, a member of Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, appointed Adams as the U.S. minister to Russia, and then to Great Britain, where he led negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent, that ended the War of 1812, and began talks for the Rush–Bagot Treaty that settled lingering claims. In 1817, President James Monroe selected Adams as his secretary of state. In that role, Adams negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819, which transferred Spanish Florida to the United States. He also helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine, which became a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy.