JQA
John Adams II: Born July 4, 1803 in Boston MA. Accompanied his family in Ealing, England
(now Brentford) during his childhood, studying at the boarding academy of Dr. William Nicholas
along with his brother Charles. John was routinely antagonized by British schoolmates,
especially concerning the War of Independence. Upon returning to America John attended, and
was expelled from, Harvard, where his poor attendance record only served to aggravate his
participation in an unruly protest his senior year. Although John had embarrassed his father,
JQA, he was nonetheless invited to serve as the President’s Private Secretary in early 1825. He
was once assaulted by the editor of the Washington Telegraph in the rotunda of the Capitol while
delivering executive correspondence, one of his routine tasks. In February of 1828, against his
father’s advice, he married his cousin Mary Hellen with whom he had two daughters. John
suffered from hereditary alcoholism, which became a chief cause of his father’s depression later
in life. John died of health complications from alcohol in Washington D.C. on October 23, 1834,
leaving behind $15,000 in debt.
Paul C. Nagel. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
1997
Bennet Champ Clark. John Quincy Adams: “Old Man Eloquent”. Boston: Little, Brown and
Co. 1932