Page 4 - Presidential Profiles

?C The Sentinel-Record, Monday, Month 00, 2008
The Sentinel-Record, Sunday, February 16, 2020
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
PRESIDENTIALPROFILES | ADAMS
JOHN ADAMS AND
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 2nd and 6th Presidents, First Father-Son Duo
John Adams, the second U.S. president, was a Revolutionary leader who also served as the country’s first vice president under President George Washington. His eldest son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth president, and also served as Secretary of State.
JOHN ADAMS
John Adams was a lawyer who defended British soldiers against mur- der charges in the Boston Massacre and advocated for the right to counsel and the presumption of innocence. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence, and, as a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, pushed for its approval. He went on to help negotiate peace with Great Britain, author the Massachusetts Constitution, and serve two terms as vice president under George Washington.
John Adams served one term as presi- dent as a Federalist. He signed the Alien and Sedition Acts and was the first pres- ident to live in the White House. He lost a bid for reelection and retired to Massachusetts, where he lived with his wife Abigail. He died on July 4, 1826, just hours after his former enemy Thomas Jefferson and on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
John Quincy Adams spent much of his youth in Europe, as his father was a diplomat before serving as president. In 1794, he became one in his own right when President George Washington
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appointed him ambassador to the Netherlands. He served in several for- eign relations posts until Thomas Jefferson’s presidency; then he was elected to the U.S. Senate representing Massachusetts until 1802, when he broke with the Federalist Party. John Quincy Adams returned to public ser- vice in 1809 as ambassador to Russia under President James Madison. In 1817, he became Secretary of State to President James Monroe, where he helped negotiate the annexation of Florida.
He was elected president in 1824 in a contentious election where no candi- date won the outright majority, mean-
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ing the House of Representatives held a contingent election that John Quincy Adams won. As president, he won approval of national infrastructure proj- ects, like roads, canals and railroads to connect the young nation. He also struck deals and negotiated to expand American trade.
FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP
Because John Quincy Adams spent his youth abroad with his father, he was closer to him than his mother Abigail. Like John Adams, he preferred private life. John Quincy Adams also suffered from depression and often blamed it on his parents’ high expectations of him.
John Adams
John Q. Adams