Time for your history lesson…..stuff your teacher did not teach you…..

What do you know about the 6th president? Save your anxiety…..John Quincy Adams.

The first President who was the son of a President, John Quincy Adams in many respects paralleled the career as well as the temperament and viewpoints of his illustrious father. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1767, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from the top of Penn’s Hill above the family farm. As secretary to his father in Europe, he became an accomplished linguist and assiduous diarist.

After graduating from Harvard College, he became a lawyer. At age 26 he was appointed Minister to the Netherlands, then promoted to the Berlin Legation. In 1802 he was elected to the United States Senate. Six years later President Madison appointed him Minister to Russia.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-quincy-adams/

That was general info that some will already know….then let’s look deeper…..

Why does it matter what Adams said and did 200 years ago? Because the common misunderstanding of his role contributes to a larger misunderstanding of what U.S. foreign policy has been in the past and should be in the future. Advocates of a sharply curtailed foreign policy often contend that they are simply calling for a reversion to the time-tested American tradition of non-intervention and limited engagement with the world. They argue that Adams is representative of a more realistic statecraft that has been lost amid America’s alleged obsession with projecting its influence and values beyond its borders.

Uncovering the actual legacy of John Quincy Adams might make one think differently.

Restraint and the ‘Actual Legacy’ of John Quincy Adams

To rehash the things that Adams did in his life…..

#1 He served as U.S. Ambassador to several nations

In his mid-twenties, John Quincy Adams wrote a series of articles supporting President George Washington’s policy of keeping U.S. out of the hostilities in Europe which resulted due the French Revolution. In 1793, at the age of 26, Adams was appointed the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands by Washington. Three years later, Washington appointed him Minister to Portugal, and in the year after that, he was appointed Minister to Prussia by President John Adams, his father. In 1809, President James Madison appointed him as the first ever U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and in 1815, he was appointed Minister to Great Britain.

10 Major Accomplishments of John Quincy Adams

Now you know all about a little studied president of the United States…..

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