John Quincy Adams Essay

John Quincy Adams’ parents were John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams.   He was born in what is now known as Quincy, Massachusetts. (Rettig) John was named after his mother's maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy.(Herring and Longacre)   Adams spent much of his youth with his father overseas.   Adams went to Leiden University and in his travels learned French, Dutch and German. (Brinkley)   When he returned he entered Harvard College and graduated in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.   After graduation, he became an apprentice for Theophilus Parsons, a lawyer, from 1787 to 1789 and began practicing law in Boston in the year 1791. (Nagel)
John Quincy Adams ran for and was elected as a member of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1802.   Adams served as Secretary of State for President James Monroe from 1817 to 1825.   Adams was the sixth President of the United States.   Interestingly He took the oath of office on a law book, instead of the Bible, to preserve the separation of church and state.   (Romero) He supported internal improvements such as roads, ports and canals, a national university and federal support for the arts and sciences.   He favored a high tariff to get people to build more factories, and restricted land sales to slow the movement west. (Parsons)
While He was president, Adams worked on transforming America into a world power through "internal improvements," as a part of the "American System.”   His improvements consisted of a high tariff to encourage internal improvements such as road building, and a national bank to support productive enterprise and form a national currency.   Some of his proposals were used, specifically the extension of the Cumberland Road farther into Ohio with plans for its extension west to St. Louis; the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Louisville and Portland Canal around the falls of the Ohio; the connection of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River...