by Harlow Unger
Sherman, Roger
Slavery. See Abolition/slavery
Smith, Abigail Quincy. See Adams, Abigail
Smith, Billy
Smith, Robert
Smith, Samuel
Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison
Smith, Rev. William
Smith, William, Jr.
Smith, William “Billy,”
Smithson, James
Smithsonian Institution
South America, and independence from Spain
Southard, Samuel L.
Spain
and Floridas, U.S. acquisition of
and French Revolution
and Latin American independence
St. Petersburg, Russia(photo)
State Department Library
Stevens, Joseph
Stewart, Robert
Stiles, Ezra
Story, Joseph
Supreme Court, U.S.
and Jefferson, Thomas, and attempt to alter Federalist bias on
slaveholders in
See also Amistad Case
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
and France, threat of war with
and Quasi-War
Taney, Roger B.
Tecumseh (Shawnee chief)
Texas
annexation of
independence of
Thaxter, John
Thoughts on Government (John Adams)
Tillotson, John
Transcontinental Treaty. See Adams-Onis Treaty
Treaty of Ghent(photo)
Truxton, Thomas
Turner, Nat
Tyler, John(photo)
and abolition/slavery
Union, dissolution of
Van Buren, Martin
and Amistad case
and presidential election (1836), victory in
and Texas, annexation of
as vice president
Vattel, Emmerich von
Vergennes, Comte de
Vernon, William
Versailles, Palais de(photo)
War of 1812
commission to negotiate end to
and New Orleans, Battle of
and rockets, use of
and Treaty of Ghent
and Washington, burning of
Warren, Joseph
Washington, George(photo)
as commander in chief
and Continental Army
and Continental Congress
death of
and French Revolution
as general and commander-in-chief
and George Washington University
and Neutrality Proclamation
and nomination of Adams, John Quincy, as minister in The Hague
as president
as president, retirement of
and whiskey rebellion
Washington, Martha
Washington (capital city) (photo)
burning of, in War of 1812
Waterloo
Watson, Egbert R.
Wayne, “Mad” Anthony
Webster, Daniel
and presidential election (1836)
Weights and measures, system of
Wellington, Duke of
West, Benjamin
Wheate, Jacob
Wheate, Lady
Whiskey rebellion
Whittier, John Greenleaf
Willard, Rev. Joseph
Wirt, William
as attorney general
Wise, Henry
Witherspoon, John
Women, and petition, right of
XYZ dispatches
Yale College
a
Although there is no etymographic or etymological basis for it, the Adams and Quincy families and natives of Massachusetts have, for generations, pronounced “Quincy” as “Quin-zee.” In fact, the origins of the Quincy family lie in Cuincy (now pronounced “Kahn-see” but probably “Ku-whan-see” in old French) in northwestern Normandy, France, where a knight named “de Cuincy” (literally: “from Cuincy”) joined the 1066 invasion of Britain. Some of the “Quincys” evidently intermarried with Scots, whose burr may have corrupted the spelling of “Cuincy” to “Quincy” and its pronunciation to “Quin-zee.” By 1203, nine years before he appears at the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede, Saer de Quincy (tr.: “sieur” or “sire”—i.e., master—of Quincy/Cuincy) appeared as co-commander of a fortress in Normandy with his Scottish cousin Robert Fitzwalter.
b
Harvard graduates included more state governors, state legislators, state and federal judges, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, and Presidents than any other American institution of higher learning.
c
Today, Passy is a largely residential area adjacent to the heights of the Chaillot neighborhood overlooking the Seine on the Paris Right Bank opposite the Eiffel Tower.
d
Bonhomme Richard was the French form of Benjamin Franklin’s pseudonym. Later that summer, Jones would have to abandon the Bonhomme Richard in a sea of flames off the English coast after attacking the British Serapis, which was escorting a fleet of thirty-nine merchant ships. In the ensuing battle, the British commander struck his flag to surrender, and as flames consumed the Bonhomme Richard, Jones transferred his men to the Serapis and sailed it back to Lorient.
e
Deane returned to France later in 1780 and lived the rest of his life in exile, taking his son Jesse with him to Ghent, then London. Jesse Deane sailed home to America to stay in 1783, and Silas Deane died under mysterious circumstances aboard a Boston-bound ship in Deal, England, in 1789.
f
American Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale is said to have paraphrased Cato as he was about to be hung by the British as a spy: Hale’s last words were said to have been, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
g
This large, rectangular stretch of open parkland reaches today from the front of the École Militaire to the Eiffel Tower but ran to the Left Bank of the Seine at the time John Quincy Adams describes.
h
“Dear God, your sister is beautiful. I’ve seen few women as beautiful as she.”
i
A two-wheel, one-horse carriage with a folding top for two people.
j
About $1,200 in today’s money.
k
Scottish-born president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and the only clergyman and only foreign-born delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon was the most influential educator of his time. His students included one president (James Madison), one vice president (Aaron Burr Jr.), sixty members of Congress, and three Supreme Court justices.
l
“Altogether a fraternal visit.”
m
By 1899, John Quincy Adams had gained recognition as “father of German studies in America,” and as late as 1940, the Adams translation of Oberon continued to appear and draw praise for its “unusually scholarly and literary merit, remarkable for its . . . genuine artistry.”
n
To ensure the validity of the purchase, John Quincy later proposed a constitutional amendment, but Congress deemed it unnecessary.
o
John Quincy’s annual salary was second only to that of the President of the United States, who was paid $25,000 a year. The vice president and cabinet officers were paid only $5,000 a year each; the chief justice of the Supreme Court, $4,000; and associate justices, $3,500 each.
p
The British first used rockets against France in 1805 and again in 1807 and 1813. Their first use in America came at the Battle of Bladensburg. Invented in China in the early thirteenth century, they were largely used for setting fire to ships in close-range naval warfare until British ordinance officer William Congreve (1772–1822) added such improvements as sheet-iron casings and elongated tail sticks that converted them into incendiary bombs. The Congreve rocket carried seven pounds of incendiary materials a
s far as 3,000 yards.
q
Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Hermit.”
r
In multinational treaties, names of signatory countries usually appear alphabetically.
s
Four years later, the czar found in favor of the United States and ordered two commissions to determine the number of slaves and value of each due to the United States. In 1826, Britain agreed to pay the United States a total of $1,204,960 in full compensation for all the slaves.
t
The United States would recognize Chile and Argentina in January 1823, Brazil in May 1824, the United Provinces of Central America (now Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) in August 1824, and Peru in May 1826.
u
Private charities emerged in most of the North to feed them. There is little documentation of their fate in the South.
v
This French term dates back to King Louis XIV, who invited a select few to witness his rising and dressing each morning in the royal chamber—a ceremony called la levée du roi, or “rising of the king.”
w
His remains washed ashore a month after his death, and his father buried him in the family vault in Quincy.
x
Edward Everett graduated from Harvard at the top of his class in 1811 and went on to become a Massachusetts congressman and governor, secretary of state, and senator. One of the nation’s great orators, he gave the two-hour-long address at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery, only to be upstaged by Abraham Lincoln’s short address. “I should be glad,” he wrote to President Lincoln the next day, “if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes” (from Webster’s American Biographies).
y
“O, Richard, my king, the world abandons thee.”
z
Dermot MacMorrogh, or the Conquest of Ireland: An Historical Tale of the Twelfth Century, in Four Cantos (Boston: Carter Hendee, 1832; 1832; Columbus, OH: I. N. Whiting, 1834).
aa
Three of the sons joined the military not long after their father’s death; two of them died of typhoid fever, and the third was lost at sea. Still, John Quincy supported Thomas’s wife, Nancy, until her death in 1845.
Copyright © 2012 by Harlow Giles Unger
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Unger, Harlow G., 1931–
John Quincy Adams / Harlow Giles Unger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-0-306-82130-1
(e-book) 1. Adams, John Quincy, 1767–1848. 2. Presidents—United States—Biography. 3. United States—Politics and government—1789–1815. 4. United States—Politics and government—1825–1829. I. Title.
E377.U57 2012
973.5’5092—dc23
[B]
2012009399
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