The Death of JQA

Exactly 163 years ago today, John Quincy Adams died in the Speaker’s Room of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The 80-year-old former President had spent the final 17 years of his life representing Massachusetts in the House of Representatives – the only former President elected to the lower house of Congress. Two days earlier, Adams had given a loud, “No!” vote to a bill being debated on the floor of the House about honors for Mexican War veterans (JQA was a vehement opponent of President Polk’s war in Mexico) and collapsed at his desk.

Carried to the Speaker’s Room, it was quickly understood that Adams had suffered a stroke. One of the world’s greatest diplomats and the son of the feisty second President, John Quincy Adams was also a fighter. For two days, he lingered and attempted to fight the inevitable, but on February 23, 1848, the 6th President of the United States died. Originally interred in Washington’s Congressional Cemetery, JQA was lated moved back to his beloved Massachusetts and buried in Hancock Cemetery. After his wife Louisa died in 1852, he was buried next to her and his parents, John and Abigail Adams, inside the crypt of United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts where he rests today.

John Quincy Adams was an eloquent voice for freedom and liberty, an ardent abolitionist, a candid, outspoken, no-nonsense man, and a witness to the Revolution, the birth of the nation, and the unsteady first half century of America’s story. JQA was a bridge between two almost-mythical eras. He was one of the only people in American History who personally knew George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The son of a President and the foremost diplomat of the young nation’s first decades, JQA helped establish relations with several European countries and helped guide the foreign policies of Presidents from Washington to Monroe.

John Quincy Adams was not one of our greatest Presidents. He wasn’t built for the Presidency and his personality didn’t suit that of a chief executive. Adams was not quick to compromise and had no patience for people who weren’t as smart or hard-working or patriotic as he viewed himself. To make matters worse, the “Corrupt Bargain” between Adams and Henry Clay in 1824 which swung the unsettled Presidential election (which had been thrown into the House of Representatives) to Adams angered many voters and Congressman and made him a lame duck President before he was even inaugurated. JQA’s rival, Andrew Jackson, began running for President against Adams almost immediately after the 1824 election was decided.

What John Quincy Adams was, however, was a great American. He was too young to be a Founding Father, but he was a Founding Son. Born in 1767, he traveled through Europe during the Revolution as his father’s private secretary. No one his age was ever more experienced or more important in politics and diplomacy. JQA was born into service and until he took his final breath exactly 163 years ago today, John Quincy Adams served his country without pause, without fail, and with great pride.