John Quincy Adams.
John Quincy Adams (1767 - 1848?) was the last Secretary of State of the independent state of Jefferson and the first Secretary of State of the United States of Mexico.
Adams, the son of the noted rebel leader John Adams, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts on 11 July 1767, the second oldest of John Adams' children. John Quincy was 11 years old when his father was arrested for treason in the wake of the North American Rebellion, sent to London for trial, and executed. Sobel does not say when Adams came to Jefferson; it is possible that his mother brought him and his four surviving siblings with her on the Wilderness Walk of 1780-82, but it is more likely that the family emigrated later by ship, after the founding of Jefferson City.
Adams was serving as Secretary of State of Jefferson when, in 1815, Governor Alexander Hamilton sent him to Mexico City, ostensibly to seek Mexican recognition of Jefferson's independence. Mexican President José María Morelos refused to meet personally with Adams, instead delegating the task of negotiating with the Jeffersonian envoy to his young secretary, Pablo Gonzales. The two men apparently quarreled, and the next day's issue of the Diario de Mexico was highly critical of the Jeffersonians in general and Adams in particular. Adams left Mexico City with some difficulty and danger to his life, returning to Jefferson City a month later.
Adams' report on the mission roused the Jeffersonians to fury, enabling Hamilton and his co-Gpvernors James Monroe and John Gaillard to gain a vote for war from the Chamber of Representatives on 16 May 1816. It was only after war was declared that Gaillard learned that Adams' mission was supposed to fail in order
to provide Hamilton and Monroe with a pretext for war. Furious at his betrayal, Gaillard resigned from the government and joined the opposition Liberty Party.
This may have been the period when Adams had a notable exchange with Hamilton. Adams had remarked, "Under most circumstances, republicanism is the most stable form of government. Should a nation have an incompetent as monarch or tyrant, it may easily be destroyed. But the government of a republic springs from the people themselves, and so long as it follows the will of its constituents, it will survive. Should a tyrant clash with his people, the people will be obliged to adjust; in a republic, the people will turn out their leaders, and replace them with men more in harmony with their desires."
Hamilton responded, "And what should be done if the people, as is often the case, are unjust? At such a moment wise men will yearn for a benevolent tyrant to bring about needed stability."
After the formation of the United States of Mexico, the first President of the U.S.M., Andrew Jackson, named Adams as his Secretary of State. During Jackson's Grand Tour of the U.S.M. from April 1823 to February 1824, Adams remained behind in Mexico City with additional administrative powers to oversee the day-to-day operation of the government.
Adams' diary was published in 1856, presumably after his death, revealing the real motives behind his mission to Mexico City in 1815.
Sobel's sources for the life of John Quincy Adams include Adams' diary (Mexico City, 1856); and Thomas Mifflin's "The Adams Mission and its Consequences" Journal of Mexico, XXXVI (June 1934).
See Also[]
- John Quincy Adams at the Harry Turtledove Wiki.
- John Quincy Adams at the Eric Flint Wiki.