John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was an American diplomat, statesman, writer, and the sixth president of the United States. The son of John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams, he served as minister abroad, senator, secretary of state, president, and later a member of the House of Representatives. His most important public achievements include helping shape the Monroe Doctrine, negotiating the Adams-Onis Treaty, and his long congressional opposition to the gag rule that suppressed antislavery petitions. His diaries are among the major personal records of early American public life. John Quincy Adams matters because he joined learning, duty, diplomacy, and moral persistence over a remarkably long career. His quotes often stress principle, perseverance, leadership, facts, liberty, and responsibility before God. They preserve the voice of a public servant who valued conscience above popularity.

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