John Quincy Adams: Dedicated to America | 5 Minute Videos

John Quincy Adams, the son of the second President of the United States, became the sixth President of the United States. But the road to that prize was anything but smooth. Jane Hampton Cook, author of American Phoenix, tells how this formidable and intimidating man overcame every obstacle in his path.

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Script:
Imagine your father expected you to grow up to be President of the United States.

Now imagine you did.

That was John Quincy Adams.

His father, John Adams, was a leading figure in the American Revolution and the second President of the United States.

That’s a lot to live up to.

But John Quincy did it… and more.

Born on July 11, 1767, near Boston, he grew up in a time of turmoil. At the age of seven, in 1775, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from a hilltop near his family home.

In 1778, Congress sent his father to Paris to help convince the French to support the American War of Independence. John Quincy traveled with him – a ten-year-old diplomat in training.

And what a training it was.

For the next seven years, in addition to France, John Quincy lived in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and Sweden, learning first-hand the art of diplomacy.

By the time he returned to the United States in 1785 at the age of 18, he had absorbed not only the customs of these countries but learned to speak their languages as well.

After graduating from Harvard, he took up the law. But reading legal documents all day bored him to tears. The world was changing fast, and he wanted to be in the middle of it.

Which is right where he landed.