{kwin'-zee}
Quincy is a city in eastern Massachusetts, about 13 km (8 mi) south of Boston on Quincy Bay, an arm of Boston Bay. Its population is 84,985 (1990). A commercial and major shipbuilding center within the Boston metropolitan area, Quincy has industries that manufacture electronic and soap products. Quincy was the birthplace of two U.S. presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and of John Hancock. The Adams National Historic Site includes the Adams family house (1685-18th century), birthplaces of both Adamses, and their burial sites at United First Parish Church (1828).
Settled in 1625 by Thomas Morton, the town was originally the northern part of Braintree. It was incorporated as a town in 1792 and named for Col. John Quincy, a local resident. Quincy was a farming community until the development of granite quarries in 1750. The shipbuilding industry developed after 1894.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was a child of American independence, the primary architect of the first century of the nation's foreign policy, and an implacable foe of slavery.
Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy), Mass., on July 11, 1767, the first son of the brilliant, patriotic, and strong-willed Abigail Smith Adams and her husband, John Adams, then a little-known country lawyer. When John Quincy was seven years old, his father, who was in Philadelphia attending the First Continental Congress, wrote to his wife of her duty to "mould the minds and manners of our children. Let us teach them not only to do virtuously, but to excel. To excel they must be taught to be steady, active, and industrious." A year later, mother and son watched the smoke and heard the cannons from the Battle of Bunker Hill. The letter, and the close, frightening, but also exhilarating event, set the boy's life on its course.
John Quincy Adams began 70 years of public service when in 1778, at the age of 11, he acted as his father's secretary during a diplomatic mission to France. In 1780 he again went to Europe with his father, this time as an official secretary, and a year later he served as secretary and interpreter to Francis Dana on the first American mission to the Russian court at St. Petersburg. Returning to western Europe via Sweden, Denmark, and Germany in early 1783, Adams lived for the next two years in The Hague, London, and Paris, where he pursued his formal education. When he came back to America in 1785 to enter Harvard College, he knew five or six modern languages as well as Latin and Greek, had traveled throughout northern and western Europe, had been under the close tutelage of his father for seven years, and had taken part in much of the diplomacy of the American Revolution.
Adams graduated from Harvard in 1787 and two years later finished his legal apprenticeship. Without enthusiasm he began to practice law in Boston in 1790. He was soon easily distracted into writing a notable series of newspaper articles attacking the ideas of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, and in 1794 he eagerly accepted President Washington's appointment of him as American minister to Holland. He subsequently served as minister to Prussia from 1797 to 1801. His letters to American officials contained by far the most perceptive and influential news coming back across the Atlantic during the crucial years of Napoleon's rise to dominance. During a mission to London in 1796-97 he married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of a Maryland merchant serving as U.S. consul in London. Their marriage produced three children and lasted until his death 51 years later.
Home again in 1801, Adams served briefly in the Massachusetts Senate and then in the U.S. Senate from 1803 to 1808. Although nominally in the FEDERALIST PARTY, he had no use for that party's increasingly regional posture and instead supported most of the policies of Thomas Jefferson's administration, including the EMBARGO ACT of 1807. His refusal to bow to heavy pressure from the Massachusetts legislature to repudiate that measure led to his resignation from the Senate--and, 150 years later, to his inclusion in John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.
President James Madison then appointed Adams minister to Russia, and he sailed--this time with members of his own young family--for St. Petersburg, arriving just before ice closed the Baltic in December 1809. He lived there for four years and gained the confidence of Russian officials, who began negotiations leading to the end of the War of 1812. Adams traveled about northern Europe for 18 months pursuing these negotiations. As chief American commissioner, he signed the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve, 1814. Madison promptly appointed him the first postwar American minister to Britain. Like his father before him and his son, Charles Francis Adams, after him, he stood proudly before the king of the former mother country as the representative of his independent nation.
As secretary of state during the administration (1817-25) of James MONROE, Adams took a leading role in all its deliberations and earned his standing as perhaps the most successful secretary of state in American history. He concluded negotiations he had begun in London to demilitarize the American border with Canada (1818), purchased Florida (1819), demarked a long southern boundary with Spanish Mexico that for the first time recognized American claims extending to the Pacific Ocean (1819), and set forth the principles of Anglo-American reconciliation and New World independence from the Old, known ever since as the MONROE DOCTRINE (1823).
Increasingly bitter political strife, however, puzzled and eventually infuriated Adams. He felt, justly, that he was entirely qualified--indeed that it was his due--to become president in 1825; yet he had only contempt for the selfish machinations and public circus apparently necessary for electoral success. His ambition triumphed, however. Although no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote in 1824, Adams accepted the support of Henry CLAY to secure his final selection--over Andrew JACKSON and William H. CRAWFORD--by the House of Representatives. Although inaugurated as a "minority president," he nonetheless submitted a broad, national program to an increasingly factional and sectionally oriented Congress and public. He called in 1825 for recognition of the new Latin American republics, support of canals and other internal improvements, establishment of a national university, support for scientific explorations, and in general for Congress "to give efficacy to the means committed to us for the common good." Congress ignored these grand programs and instead increasingly responded to the rising tide of laissez-faire expansionism and frontier individualism that swept Adams out and Andrew Jackson into the White House in 1829.
Retired permanently--he thought--to his books and to his farm in Massachusetts, Adams nevertheless responded dutifully when his neighbors elected him to the House of Representatives in 1830 and kept him there for nine consecutive terms. There, as "Old Man Eloquent," again and again speaking his conscience and calling the nation to respond to its highest impulses, he lived out his last and perhaps most remarkable career. In his relentless, eventually successful opposition to the so-called GAG RULES, which stifled antislavery petitions, Adams dramatized for the nation the repressive character of slavery. When fatally stricken in the House in 1848, almost 70 years to the day after he had first sailed for Europe with his father, he had just voted against a resolution thanking the American generals of the MEXICAN WAR, a conflict he had opposed.
When Adams died on Feb. 23, 1848, he was not only the last surviving statesman of the American Revolution but also the first national leader to have dramatized the moral issue that precipitated the Civil War. He thus nearly encompassed in his public career the "four score and seven years" of which Abraham Lincoln was soon to speak; he had also defined the foreign and domestic purposes that in his view undergirded the nation that his father had helped to found and his son would help to preserve. Although he was at times rigid, demanding, self-righteous, and even quaint, John Quincy Adams possessed the personal integrity, devotion to principle, intellectual intensity, and strong will that have made his name and his family a national resource.
Facts about John Quincy Adams 6th President of the United States (1825-29)
Nickname: "Old Man Eloquent"
Born: July 11, 1767, Braintree (now Quincy), Mass.
Education: Harvard College (graduated 1787)
Profession: Lawyer
Religious Affiliation: Unitarian
Marriage: July 26, 1797, to Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852).
Children: George Washington Adams (1801-29); John Adams (1803-34); Charles Francis Adams (1807-86); Louisa Catherine Adams (1811-12).
Political Affiliation: Federalist; Democratic-Republican; Whig
Writings: Memoirs (12 vols., 1874-77); Writings of John Quincy Adams (7 vols., 1913-17).
Died: Feb. 23, 1848, Washington, D.C.
Buried: First Unitarian Church, Quincy, Mass.
Vice-President: John C. Calhoun
CABINET MEMBERS
Secretary of State: Henry Clay
Secretary of the Treasury: Richard Rush
Secretary of War: James Barbour (1825-28); Peter B. Porter (1828).
Attorney General: William Wirt.
Secretary of the Navy: Samuel L. Southard.
John Adams
In three remarkable careers--as a foe of British oppression and champion of Independence (1761-77), as an American diplomat in Europe (1778-88), and as the first vice-president (1789-97) and then the second president (1797-1801) of the United States--John Adams was a founder of the United States. Perhaps equally important, however, was the life of his mind and spirit; in a pungent diary, vivid letters, learned tracts, and patriotic speeches he revealed himself as a quintessential Puritan, patriarch of an illustrious family, tough-minded philosopher of the republic, sage, and sometimes a vain, stubborn, and vitriolic partisan.
John Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy), Mass., on Oct. 30, 1735, in a small saltbox house still standing and open to visitors. His father, John Adams, a deacon and a fifth-generation Massachusetts farmer, and his mother, the former Suzanna Boylston, were, their son wrote, "both fond of reading"; so they resolved to give bookishly inclined John a good education. He became the first of his family to go to college when he entered Harvard in 1751. There, and in six further years of intensive reading while he taught school and studied law in Worcester and Boston, he mastered the technicalities of his profession and the literature and learning of his day. By 1762, when he began 14 years of increasingly successful legal practice, he was well informed, ambitious, and public spirited. His most notable good fortune, however, occurred in 1764 when he married Abigail Smith. John Adams's marriage of 54 years to this wise, learned, strong-willed, passionate, and patriotic woman began the brilliant phase of Adams family history that produced their son John Quincy, his son Charles Francis, his sons Henry and Brooks, and numerous other distinguished progeny.
In 1761, John Adams began to think and write and act against British measures that he believed infringed on colonial liberties and the right of Massachusetts and the other colonies to self-government. A pamphlet entitled A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law and town instructions denouncing the STAMP ACT (1765) marked him as a vigorous, patriotic penman, and, holding various local offices, he soon became a leader among Massachusetts radicals. Although he never wavered in his devotion to colonial rights and early committed himself to independence as an unwelcome last resort, Adams's innate conservatism made him determined in 1770 that the British soldiers accused of the BOSTON MASSACRE receive a fair hearing. He defended the soldiers at their trial. He also spoke out repeatedly against mob violence and other signs of social disintegration.
In 1774-76, Adams was a Massachusetts delegate to the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS in Philadelphia. His speeches and writings (especially a newspaper series signed "Novanglus" in 1775) articulating the colonial cause and his brilliant championing of American rights in Congress caused Thomas JEFFERSON to call him the "Colossus of Independence." Adams helped draft the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, secured its unanimous adoption in Congress, and wrote his wife on July 3, 1776, that "the most memorable Epoch in the History of America has begun."
After 18 months of toil in committee and on the floor of Congress managing the AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Adams crossed the Atlantic to be an American commissioner to France. The termination of this mission after less than a year in Paris allowed him to return home long enough to take a leading role in drafting the new Massachusetts constitution. He sailed again for Europe, accompanied by two of his sons, in November 1779 as a commissioner to seek peace with Britain. After quarrels in Paris with Benjamin FRANKLIN and French officials, he left for the Netherlands, where he secured Dutch recognition of American independence and a substantial loan as well. He returned to Paris in October 1782 to insist on American rights (especially to fish on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland) in the negotiations that led to Britain's recognition of the independence of the United States in the Treaty of Paris of Sept. 3, 1783.
For two more years Adams helped Franklin and Jefferson negotiate treaties of friendship and commerce with numerous foreign powers. Then, appointed the first American minister to Britain, Adams presented his credentials to George III in 1785, noting his pride in "having the distinguished honor to be the first {ex-colonial subject} to stand in your Majesty's royal presence in a diplomatic character." The king, aware of the poignancy of the occasion, returned Adams's compliments and hoped that the "language, religion, and blood" shared by the two nations would "have their natural and full effect," but the British ministry obstructed Adams's efforts to restore equitable commerce between the two nations.
When he returned to the United States in 1788, Adams was greeted by his countrymen as one of the heroes of independence and was promptly elected vice-president under the new Constitution. This post, regarded by Adams as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived," left him time to work out his increasingly sober views of republican government. In Europe he had been impressed with both the unsuitability of self-government for masses of destitute, ignorant people, and the usefulness, in evoking patriotism and in maintaining order, of the pomp and ceremony of monarchy. He was thus appalled, but not surprised, at the riotous French Revolution and emphasized the need for dignity, ritual, and authority in a republic like the United States. He also supported the efforts of George WASHINGTON to give the presidency an almost regal quality and to extend executive power, and he agreed with Alexander HAMILTON on most of the latter's fiscal plans. He never accepted, however, the "high" Federalist biases toward commercial growth and government by "the rich, the well-born, and the able."
Although his own presidency (1797-1801) was a troubled one, Adams made uniquely important contributions during his term as chief executive. He managed orderly transitions of power at both the beginning and the end of his administration, and he gave the government stability by continuing most of the practices established under Washington. The major crisis he faced, however, arose from strained relations with revolutionary France. When, in the so-called XYZ AFFAIR (1797-98), American peace commissioners returned from Paris with lurid stories of deceit and bribery, Adams called for an assertion of national pride, built up the armed forces, and even accepted the ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS as emergency national security measures. With his opponents (led by Jefferson) charging oppression and some of his own FEDERALIST PARTY (led by Hamilton) urging war and conquest, Adams kept his nerve and, when the opportunity arose, dispatched another peace commission to France. This defused the crisis and led in 1800 to an agreement with France that ended the so-called Quasi-War. Nonetheless, deserted by Hamilton and other Federalists who disapproved of his independent course, and attacked by the Jeffersonian Republicans as a vain monarchist, Adams was forced out of office after one term.
When he and Abigail returned to Massachusetts, they moved into a comfortable but unpretentious house in Quincy (it is known today and open to visitors as the Adams National Historic Site) they had bought 12 years before. There, tending to his fields, visiting with neighbors, and enjoying his family, John Adams lived for 25 years as a sage and national patriarch. Of his numerous correspondences, the cherished 14-year (1812-26) one with Jefferson became a literary legacy to the nation. Although the debilitations of old age and the death of his beloved Abigail in 1818 troubled his last years, his mind remained sharp and his spirit buoyant until the end. Like Jefferson, he died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Ninety years old at his death, Adams was revered by his countrymen not only as one of the founding fathers but also as a plain, honest man who personified the best of what the nation could hope of its citizens and leaders.
Facts about John Adams 2d President of the United States (1797-1801)
Nickname: "Atlas of Independence"
Born: Oct. 30, 1735, Braintree (now Quincy), Mass.
Education: Harvard College (graduated 1755).
Profession: Lawyer
Religious Affiliation: Unitarian
Marriage: Oct. 25, 1764, to Abigail Smith (1744-1818).
Children: Abigail Amelia Adams (1765-1813); John Quincy Adams (1767-1848); Susanna Adams (1768-70); Charles Adams (1770-1800); Thomas Boylston Adams (1772-1832).
Political Affiliation: Federalist
Writings: The Life and Works of John Adams (10 vols., 1856); The Adams' Papers (13 vols., 1961-77).
Died: July 4, 1826, Quincy, Mass.
Buried: First Unitarian Church, Quincy, Mass.
Vice-President: Thomas Jefferson
CABINET MEMBERS
Secretary of State: Timothy Pickering (1797-1800); John Marshall (1800-01).
Secretary of the Treasury: Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1797-1801); Samuel Dexter (1801).
Secretary of War: James McHenry (1797-1800); Samuel Dexter (1800-01).
Attorney General: Charles Lee.
Secretary of the Navy: Benjamin Stoddert.
John Hancock
John Hancock, b. Jan. 23, 1737, d. Oct. 8, 1793, was an American Revolutionary statesman and the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Born in Braintree (now Quincy), Mass., he was educated at Harvard and trained for business in London. Inheriting his uncle's firm, Thomas Hancock & Co., he became the wealthiest merchant in Boston. He joined the protest against the Stamp Act and other British regulatory measures. In 1768, when customs agents seized his sloop Liberty, there were public demonstrations in his behalf; he was defended by John Adams, and the charges were dropped.
Groomed by Samuel Adams, who saw the value of affiliating a prominent merchant with the cause of independence, Hancock emerged as a leading figure in the revolutionary movement and in 1774 was chosen president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Elected to the Second Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence and was chosen president of Congress. He resigned in 1777 in disappointment over the failure of Congress to make him commander in chief of the Continental Army, but he continued to be active in Massachusetts politics, serving as governor for nine terms between 1780 and 1793. Unwilling to face the disturbances that resulted in SHAYS'S REBELLION, he resigned from the governorship in 1785 and returned to office only when the uprising had been suppressed.
At first critical of the federal Constitution, Hancock was won over to support ratification by the promise of nomination for the presidency should George Washington decline. Though seemingly in the vanguard of the revolutionaries, he was not considered an independent figure but a tool of Samuel Adams, who played on Hancock's ambition, vanity, and inordinate love of popularity.
Harry Ammon
The Federalist Party
The Federalist party, in U.S. history, is a name that was originally applied to the advocates of ratification of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES of 1787. Later, however, it came to designate supporters of the presidential administrations of George WASHINGTON and John ADAMS and especially supporters of the fiscal policies of Treasury Secretary Alexander HAMILTON.
Until 1795 the Federalists were not a political organization in any modern sense. Rather, Federalism was a frame of mind, a set of attitudes that included belief in a strong and activist central government, public credit, the promotion of commerce and industry, and strict neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars--all of which were generally reflected in government policy. Opposition arose on all these points, however, and became increasingly organized around James MADISON and Thomas JEFFERSON. Federalists began to adopt the tactics of the opposition Democratic-Republicans in response to attacks on JAY'S TREATY with Britain (1794), which Federalists believed preserved neutrality and Democratic-Republicans charged was anti-French. Although parties were widely regarded as inimical to free government, and although Washington, Hamilton, and Adams deplored their rise (together with the tendency toward a North versus South and pro-British versus pro-French polarization of political opinion), parties were an established fact by the presidential election of 1796.
During Adams's presidency the Federalists attempted to stifle dissent by the ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS (1798). These, however, had the effect of stiffening the opposition at the time when the Federalists themselves were splitting into "High" and "Low" wings over the issue of the XYZ AFFAIR and the ensuing Quasi-War with France. By the election of 1800, therefore, the Democratic-Republicans gained control of the federal government. The death of Washington in 1799 and of Hamilton in 1804 left the Federalists without a powerful leader, and they proved inept at the highly organized popular politics of the Democratic-Republicans. Although the party continued to have strength in New England, expressing the opposition of commercial interests to the EMBARGO ACT of 1807 and the WAR OF 1812, it never made a comeback on the national level. After the HARTFORD CONVENTION of 1815, the Federalists were a dying anachronism.
Bibliography: Chambers, William Nisbet, and Burnham, WalterDean, eds., The American Party System (1967); Kerber, Linda K., Federalists in Dissent (1970); Ladenburg, T., The Federalist Era (1989); Zvesper, John, Political Philosophy and Rhetoric: A Study of the Origins of American Party Politics (1977).Adams, John Q., Memoirs, 12 vols., ed. by C.F. Adams (1874-77; repr. 1970); Bemis, Samuel F., John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (1949; repr. 1973); Ford, W. C., ed., The Writings of John Quincy Adams, 7 vols. (1913-17); Hargreaves, Mary W., The Presidency of John Quincy Adams (1985); Hecht, Marie B., John Quincy Adams (1972); Richards, Leonard L., The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams (1986); Seward, William H., The Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams (1849; repr. 1971).