Women of Our Time Commemorating September 11th Barbara Bush: An Extraordinary Journey ... Season's Greetings from the White House JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Sixth President of the United States Son of John Adams, the Second President of the United States EARLY LIFE John Quincy Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts on July 11, 1767, in revolutionary times. He and his mother heard the cannon shots fired during the Battle of Bunker Hill, while his father was serving on the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. His father, John Adams, recognized John Quincy's precocity early on and took the boy with him on his diplomatic missions to Europe. There, John Quincy served as his father's secretary, and at age 14, acted as both secretary and interpreter to Francis Dana on the first mission to the Russian court at St. Petersburg. DIPLOMAT EXTRAORDINARE He entered Harvard and took his degree in 1787 where he could "write English with one hand while translating Greek with the other." After three years of legal studies, he opened a law practice in Boston. In 1794, President Washington appointed him minister to the Netherlands, and in 1797, his father, President Adams, appointed him minister to Prussia. This phase of his diplomatic career ended when his father lost the 1800 presidential election. | |
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