Among the successive presidents of the United States, there is a family of about two people who became presidents with their parents. One is the Bush family and the other is the Adams family.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, is the son of the second John Adams.
The first president who did not participate in the American Revolutionary War
The first to fourth presidents of the United States were, so to speak, the generations called the "father of American independence," who were involved in the drafting of the Revolutionary War or the Declaration of Independence, respectively.
The fifth generation James Monroe also participated in the Revolutionary War, and John Quincy Adams is the first president who did not participate in the Revolutionary War.
That said, he wasn't inexperienced because he was born in 1767, eight years old when the American Revolutionary War began.
Quincy, like his father, is from Massachusetts, and the presidents of the United States up to this point are limited to Virginia or Massachusetts.
Quincy spent his childhood in the United States, France, the Netherlands, etc. with his father's assignment, and studied at the prestigious Leiden University in the Netherlands. By the way, Leiden University is also the university from which Grotius, who is said to be the greatest genius in the history of the world.
He continued to travel around Europe, spending time in Russia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Silesia and more.
After his return, he graduated from Harvard University, the same as his father, and in 1791 he became a lawyer like his father.
As an aside, from the first generation to the present day, most of the presidents of the United States are from military commanders or lawyers. It is also a tradition that war heroes such as Eisenhower and the next Andrew Jackson become presidents, as is the case with the first Washington being the former and the second being the latter.
Quincy was fond of George Washington and made full use of his study abroad experience in Europe with the Minister of the Netherlands in 1794, the Minister of Portugal in 1796 and the Minister of Prussian in 1797.
He was a lawyer during President Jefferson's day, but in 1802 he was a member of the Massachusetts State Assembly and in 1803 he was a member of the Federal Senate. In the meantime, he was teaching at his alma mater, Harvard University. Although not often seen in Japan, the pattern of university faculty and presidents becoming politicians is common in the United States.
Under President James Madison, the Russian minister, there was Napoleon's invasion of Russia during this period. Quincy reports on his misery and takes it home to the United States, after which he is entrusted with ceasefire negotiations for the War of 1812, and a treaty of Ghent is signed between the two countries.
He then spent 1815-1817 as a British ambassador.
Because of this background, John Quincy Adams is often called the best diplomat in US history.
In the era of the fifth president James Monroe, he served as Secretary of State for two terms, drafted the Monroe doctrine, insisted on mutual inviolability between Europe and the Americas, and also contributed to the acquisition of Florida. give.
The good achievements of President Monroe may be attributed to Quincy.
In 1824 he became the sixth United States.
His elections at this time were close, winning in a fierce dead heat with candidates such as Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, which led to the division of the United States.
Quincy has appointed his rival Henry Clay as Secretary of State in an attempt to reconcile the situation, but this appointment has been criticized by public opinion for lacking political beliefs.
In addition, Andrew Jackson's faction obstructed the filibuster and even gave him the nickname "Cursed regime."
In the 1828 presidential election, Jackson and the Quincy camp fought the worst-ever traumatic battle, resulting in Jackson becoming the seventh president of the United States.
It was the difference in policy towards Native Americans that divided the outcome of the election, while Quincy took over Monroe's Indian migration plan, but insisted that Natives should be compensated accordingly. Jackson strongly insisted that there was no such need, Native Americans should be slaughtered, and the United States supported the latter.
American division
The United States experienced the Civil War, which was divided into north and south decades later, but it was not only the north and south that were in conflict.
There were also fierce conflicts in the west and east, the point of which was the difference in policy towards Native Americans.
The conflict between the South and the North was for black slaves, which was the conflict between the industrialized North and the South, which relied on agriculture centered on large plantation plantations, while the conflict between the West and the East was the land. It was a conflict between the western part, which sought to expand, and the eastern part, which did not need it.
Quincy, a native of the north and east, was not re-elected without the support of the south and west.
The United States is a democratic country, but whether it is humane or not is another matter.
Personal evaluation of John Quincy Adams
Very few would argue that John Quincy Adams was a good diplomat and a good Secretary of State. His ability to survive the diplomacy of difficult times in the interests of the United States is wonderful, and I wish Japan had such a diplomat.
On the other hand, it was another matter whether he was an excellent president of the United States.
I think Quincy lacked charisma in a nutshell.
Is it a political belief, to put it a little more?
A good person cannot always move a person.
What is required of the President of the United States is the ability to move people.
Kennedy, Lincoln had it.
Quincy would have been better in terms of excellence, but he wasn't enough. If he had it, America might have had a better history.