Saturday, July 10, 2010

The American President #6: John Quincy Adams


#6
Please feel free to add anything you want about John Quincy Adams

-6th President of the USA; One term (March 4, 1825-March 4, 1829); Vice-President John C. Calhoun

-Born July 11, 1767 in Braintree (now Quincy), MA; Died Feb 23, 1848 in Washington D.C.

-Election of 1824: Electoral vote split 99 Jackson; 84 Adams; 37 Clay; 4 Crawford; Popular vote split 153; Jackson; 109k Adams; 47k Clay; 46k Crawford
- Due to lack of a majority the House of Representatives declared Adams the winner, even though Jackson won both the Electoral and Popular votes

- Religion: Unitarian
- Profession – Lawyer
- Higher Education: Harvard 1787

- The first family dynasty of the office of Presidency, John Quincy Adams was the son of the second President, John Adams

- At an early age he accompanied his father to France where he became fluent in the language and learned a great deal. Upon his return to the US he enrolled and finished 2nd in his class at Harvard, giving a speech with the aptly penned title: “The Importance and Necessity of Public Faith to the Well-being of a Nation” – a just the age of 21

- He kept a diary from the age of 12 until nearly the time of his death that remain to this day a valuable source of information on the times

- He was the only President to be elected to the House of Representatives after leaving the office of the President

- Amistad: in 1839, 49 enslaved Africans aboard the ship Amistad took over the boat and killed the captain and his mate. Upon arriving in New York it was John Quincy Adams who defended the slaves in front of the Supreme Court which ultimately declared them all to be free.

-He was a champion for a national museum and though he could not pull it off while President, during his lifetime he would witness the birth of the Smithsonian.

- He was the first President to be photographed

- Us Population in 1825: 12,866,020
- National debt in 1825: $83,788,433
- President’s salary - $25,000/year
- Number of states in 1829: 24

Final thoughts: Compared to the previous 5 Presidents there just doesn’t seem to be too much memorable about the Presidency of John Quincy Adams. It appears that his most important work came in all the years later as a member of the House of Representatives when he was able to vote on a number of incredible important issues.

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