John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams is the only United States president to ever be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after he had left the office of the presidency. It is said that John Quincy Adams accomplished more in U.S. politics as a representative from Massachusetts than he did as the president, even though it was in his blood to be commander in chief. John Quincy Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts to former president John Adams and his wife Abigail on July 11, 1767. John Quincy Adams is also one of the few presidents to be a member of multiple parties throughout his career. Throughout his political life, Adams was associated with the Federalist, Democratic-Republican and National Republican parties. He was also part of the Anti-Masonic and Whig parties earlier in his career.

John Quincy Adams was involved in politics at an early age thanks to his father and he spent much of his childhood in France when his father was the ambassador to France. It was noted that John Quincy Adams’ political agenda, as well as his desire to sit quietly with a book rather than socializing, was very similar behavior to that of his father’s. In his political career prior to being president, John Quincy Adams received appointments from George Washington to first be minister to the Netherlands and then later as the minister to Portugal. Adams eventually met and married Louisa Catherine Johnson, who was born in London to an American merchant sailor.

The children of John Quincy Adams are an interesting study on their own. The couple’s daughter Louisa was born in 1811 and died in 1812 while the family was still in Russia. George Washington Adams was born in 1801 but committed suicide in 1829. John Adams was born in 1803 and died of poor health in 1834. The couple’s youngest son Charles Francis was the only Adams’ child to survive past the age of 35. Charles Francis was the first person to get a memorial library built to honor a president when he dedicated his father’s library in 1870.

John Quincy Adams and John Adams were the first father and son duo to serve as president. John Quincy Adams only served one term as president before being defeated in the general elections by Andrew Jackson. John Quincy Adams did not attend the inauguration of Jackson because he felt Jackson had personally insulted him during the election. John Quincy Adams died in 1848 after collapsing on the floor of Congress during a heated debate.

John Quincy Adams Quotes

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

The Only President to...

John Quincy Adams was the only president to be elected as a U.S. Representative after leaving the office of the presidency.

Interesting John Quincy Adams Facts

John Quincy Adams was a leading opponent of the Slave Power while serving as a U.S. Representitive and made the arguement that if a Civil War ever broke out, the sitting president could use his war powers to abolish savery. That's basically what Abraham Lincoln did in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation.