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Battle of Breeds/Bunker Hill
"Seven year old John Quincy Adams and his mother watched a second wave of British troops surge upward over fallen comrades.."(Unger 15). Colonists fortified Breed's hill in Charleston in preparation for British General Gage and his twenty-four hundred soldiers. Gage lost over a thousand men trying to take the hill compared to only a few hundred colonist casualties (Oakes, McGerr, Lewis 195). Many colonists believed it would be a painless war, and John Quincy Adams remembered it until his death. -
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Main Events during the era of John Quincy Adams
Timeline of John Quincy Adams -
Sailing the Boston to Europe
"On February 13, 1778; John Adams and his son John Quincy ignored warnings of a hysterical relative warning dangers on the sea...they climbed aboard the Boston and set sail for France (Unger 26)." Encountering three British frigates, escaping them after a few days and dealing with dangerous storms tested the Adams's. The journey to Europe was out of a commission for France that Congress believed John Adams could help Benjamin Franklin with. -
John Quincy Adams become Secretary to Francis Dana
"Taken by John Quincy Adams erudition, social maturity, and language skills, Dana invited the boy to serve as his secretary (Unger 26)." Congress appointed Francis Dana to seek Russian recognition of American independence. Dana and John Quincy traveled to St. Petersburg to meet Catherine II, this was John Quincy Adams first "adventure" without his father. -
Application to Harvard and meeting with Harvard President Willard
"From the first, Willard resented the boys assumption that as John Adams son his admission was a mere formality (Unger 62)." Willard denied John Quincy Adams admission as a Junior until he could work his way to becoming eligible. This deeply upset John Quincy Adams and began his foundation for his dislike of arbitrary power. He went to study with his uncle Reverend John Shaw in accordance with Willards directive. After studying and preparing with Shaw he was finally admitted in April of 1786. -
Shays Rebellion
"News of Shays rebellion in Springfield, Massachusetts permeated every corner of the land and awakened John Quincy to the woes facing American society (Unger 68)." Shays led a force of 500 (which grew to more than a thousand) men to Springfield to raid the federal armory. Cannon blasts scared off the rioting farmers angry about the foreclosure of farms by state courts. A militia from Boston silenced the rebellion and Shays fled to Vermont, ending the conflict in February of 1787. -
George Washington becomes president, John Adams become Vice President
"John Adams made it clear he wanted to serve as the nations first Vice President under George Washington (Unger 71)." The electoral college elected the two to office and the public largely supported the choice. On April 29 George Washington became the first sworn in President of the United States. The public and Congress were largely unsure what would become of the U.S. but George Washington was a revered leader and gave Americans great hope. -
The French Revolution
"Radicals seized control of the National Assembly and imprisoned King Louis XVI and his family in their own palace (Unger 73)." Many Americans saw the French revolution as emblematic of the American revolution years before. Early in the revolt, America greatly supported the French overthrow of their government but as things became more savage support from Americans eroded. As Robespierre executed mass numbers of loyalists Americans sought neutrality despite agreement to support French. -
John Quincy Adams letter of Publicola
"Early in June, John Quincy Adams wrote the first of eleven essays he called the "Letters of Publicola" assailing Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson (Unger 72)." In these writings John Quincy Adams detailed why the monarchy of England should be overthrown and despite criticism from his father, men like Thomas Jefferson supported it. These letters were intended to convince people of England that they had neither liberty nor a constitution, their only option was to topple the English monarchy. -
France declares mass war, call upon United states for aid
"With the United States all but defenseless, without a navy and only a minuscule army in the West fighting Indians. the President knew he could not risk war with England (Unger 77)." France declares war on Britain, Holland, and Spain and calls upon the United States for aid under the Franco-American alliance of 1778. France referenced their aid of the United States in the American Revolution as they asked for help. Washington's neutrality decision pushed Genet to create protests to U.S. aid. -
The Whiskey Rebellion
"Congress imposed whiskey tax without consent of the states -much as parliament had imposed the Stamp act causing protest (Unger 87)." Washington in response to the rebellion collected thirteen thousand men from four states to cease the rebellion. He showed the strength of the new federal power by forcing the rebels to retreat through the woods of Pennsylvania. Washington took command of the force on the field which was the last time a sitting President has done so -
Jays Treay
" Washington loyalists hailed Jays treaty for averting another brutal war with England and forcing Britain to deal with the United States for the first time as an equal independent sovereign state (Unger 96)." Jays treaty settled disputes with England but got a large amount of negative feedback from those who believed the treaty was too pro-British. John Quincy Adams presented King George III with Jay's treaty and the King was pleased about the new agreement. -
Washington's farewell address
"On September 19, 1796, the American Daily Advertiser published President Washington's farewell address stating emphatically that he would not serve after his second term (Unger 102)." Washington hoped to avoid political parties and remain a neutral nation. Washington represented a new way of being by giving up power that would have been kept by Monarchs across the world. This supported the idea of the United States representative democracy and left many Americans wondering what to do next. -
John Quincy Adams promoted to Minister Plenipotentiary
"John Quincy Adams given a new assignment in Lisbon, Portugal, to begin in spring 1797. His salary doubled...it was the presidents way of publicly demonstrating his confidence in John Quincy Adams (Unger 102)." This was monumental for John Quincy Adams giving him diplomatic power and opening up his chance to afford marriage to Louisa. Reluctant to postpone his return to America, his brother Thomas promised to go with John Quincy Adams on his diplomatic work in Europe. -
John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Johnson
"In the course of three idyllic months honeymooning in the English countryside, they wrote to his "Dear and honored parents" to share their joy: "I have now the happiness of presenting you another daughter.. (Unger 105)." The marriage between John Quincy and Louisa was short lived as John Quincy Adams was assigned to go to frigid Berlin. Creditors from his father in laws failed business harassed John Quincy Adams after the marriage to pay off debts, this created great embarrassment for Louisa. -
French Military collapse
"Russia organized alliances to halt French expansion in Europe. An Anglo-Russian army landed in Holland, while other Russian forces joined the Austrians and pushed French forces out (Unger 115)." With Britain and the United States placing embargos on trade with France (along with French defeat across Europe), France reached out for peace with U.S. A large naval victory took place when Thomas Truxton captured the Insurgente. -
"Natural right" French colonial expansion
"The French Directory's foreign minister, Talleyrand, had just proclaimed what he called France's "natural right" to give law to the world and recover the colonial empire of the 1750's (Unger 110)." French troops moved through Switzerland, Italy, Venice, etc and wreaked havoc on Anglo-American trade in the Caribbean. Under John Adams, America struggled with France over stolen ships and imprisoned seamen from the United States. America put an embargo on trade with France in response. -
French and American peace
"The French and American governments signed a new treaty of peace and amity that respected American rights-and independence- under the neutrality proclamation (Unger 117)." New Englanders were very angry because John Adams had already commissioned shipbuilding facilities to build a new navy. After the XYZ issue, France was more deliberate with this agreement with the fact that American representatives would be accepted with respect. -
Jackson invades Florida
"On May 24, Jackson's troops marched into Spanish controlled Pensacola, on the Gulf of Mexico near the Alabama border, effectively taking control of the entire Florida panhandle (Unger 204)." Andrew Jackson was criticized over his attack on the Spanish by the U.S. cabinet. Adams convinced the President that Jackson had strengthened America's international standing by showing a will to defend American interests. Jackson demanded a letter from Monroe to invade but did so anyway without it. -
British Agreement of 1818
"Under the agreement signed in 1818, the British agreed to ban impressment for ten years, restore American inland fishing rights along Canadian coast, and allow Czar Alexander I of Russia to mediate the slave compensation issue (Unger 202)." The Americans acquired a 150 mile strip of land across northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana from this agreement.John Quincy Adams got into debate with Stratford Canning over the British claim of the Columbia River. -
John Quincy Adams wins the presidency
"After only one House ballot, John Quincy Adams won election as the nation's sixth president. He was the first non-Virginian to win the presidency since his father's election..(Unger 236)." Jackson called the victory of Adams as a "Corrupt Bargain" claiming that John Quincy Adams stole the election from him. Henry Clay worked to get Adams the needed vote for victory because of their ties with the treaty of Ghent and the American System. Henry Clay became Secretary of State after Adams won. -
Jackson beats John Quincy Adams for the presidency
"When the votes were counted on December 3, Jackson had humiliated John Quincy Adams-with 647,276 Americans voting for Jackson and 508,064 for Adams (Unger 255)." John Quincy Adams felt very defeated after losing to Jackson and didn't attend the inauguration or the President's White House reception. South Carolina blamed Adams for an unconstitutional tariff and not vetoing it which lost him a good chunk of voters. Agricultural interests and expansionists were the main base of Jackson's voters.
