John Quincy Adams

Auguste Edouart captured John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, twelve years after Adams had left office. Here, he stands in a setting that suggests his intellectual leanings. Note the bookshelf in the background and the rolled documents on the floor. Adams, whose political career was unusual, followed in his father’s footsteps and served as the nation’s president from 1825 to 1829. Opposition from Congress made it difficult for him to enact change. Following his defeat to Andrew Jackson for a second term, Adams became successful as a representative of Massachusetts. Adams vehemently opposed slavery. Trained as a lawyer, he effectively argued the well-known Amistad case before the Supreme Court in 1841. Consequently, the court freed the jailed Africans who had murdered the captain and several others on the slave ship that transported them. Adams also opposed the Mexican War, fearing that the annexation of Texas would extend slavery into new territory.