Chapter 1

A Legacy More Valuable

than Gold or Silver
lilac-scented evening of June 3, 1794, John Quincy AdO nams,the then
27, left his Boston law office, at Franklin and the
corner of Court Street, stopped at the post office in the Daily Mail
building on State Street, and retrieved a letter from his father, John
Adams, vice president of the United States, postmarked Philadelphia. He mounted his horse once more and wound his way over the
hilly terrain, the narrow, crooked cobblestone paths and dirt lanes,
mercifully quiet at days end when the Rattle Gabble (his fathers
words) of sights and sounds had dispersed. He hadnt an inkling of
the very unexpected and indeed surprising contents of the letter
in his pocket.1
Home at lasthe was boarding with a favorite cousin and
namesake of his mother Abigail and her husband, Dr. Thomas
Welsh at 39 Hanover Streethe could open the letter that would
mark the beginning of his public career and the end of the only
absolute private life he ever had an opportunity to enjoy.2
John Quincy read and reread his fathers news with some
wonder, doubt and hope all at once. His father wrote that he had
received an important visit that morning. The purpose of Secretary of State Edmund Randolphs call was to give John Adams a

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12 The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

personal report of President George Washingtons plan to nominate
his son to go to The Hague as minister resident of the United States
of America to their High Mightinesses the States General of the
United Netherlands. The President desired to know if I thought
you would accept, his father continued. I answered that I had no
authority from you, but it was my opinion that you would accept,
and that it would be my advice that you should.3
John Quincys knowledge of Dutch, his education in France
and his acquaintance with his fathers old friends and colleagues in
Europe would give him advantages beyond many others. It would,
however, require all your prudence and all your other virtues as
well as all your talents. The tone turned conspiratorial as father
warned son: Be secret. Dont open your mouth to any human being on the subject except your mother. Go and see with how little
wisdom this world is governed.4
Four days later, overflowing with pride, the eager father assured
his son that the nomination, the result of the presidents own observations and reflections, was as politic as it was unexpected, proof
that sound principles in morals and government are cherished by
the executive of the United States. Further, his appointment ought
to be reassuring to England and Hollandin his judgment, it was a
pledge given by the American cabinet that they were not enemies to
a rational form of government, and that they were not carried away
with wild enthusiasm for every unmeaning (that is, Francophile)
cry of Liberty, Republicanism and Equality.5
More fatherly advice followed. John Adams had never kept secret from his son his ambitions for him. John Quincy must get to
work. He must pursue research in international law and diplomacy;
observe the opinions and actions of the belligerent powers; master
all of his countrys disputes with England, Spain and France; study
the lines and boundaries of the United States; and watch the English ambassador and all the rest of the Anglomaniacs. And this
wasnt the whole of it. He must attend to his dress and person, as
no man alive was more attentive to these things than the president himself. Taken altogether, he counseled his son: let no little
weakness escape you, and devote yourself to the service of your
country.6

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A Legacy More Valuable than Gold or Silver

13

In his next letter, the proud father reported to John Quincy

that the speed of his confirmationthe Senate passed it without
a dissenting voice one day after his nomination on May 29was
proof of the presidents esteem. As John Quincy studied this letter, he was torn, nagged with questions. He wished he had been
consulted before his appointment was irrevocable and, in another
way, he wished it had not been made at all. He needed to reassure
himself, and to be reassured, that his fathers prominence hadnt
influenced his appointment.
Father and son met on June 10 at Quincy, where members of the
Adams family had already lived for six generationsamong pinesteeped woods and massive granite quarries, a mile or two from
the intense blue of the salty sea, an 11-mile, two-hour walk from
Bostonreconciled to New Englands moody weather, its blazing
summer sun, cold gray November evenings, January stark white
blizzards, the thick, muddy thaws of winter. They met at the family
home, variously called Peacefield (in honor of the Treaty of 1783)
or Stony Field or Montezillo, or, most often, the Old House, purchased when John Adams served as United States minister plenipotentiary in London in 1787.7
There was an aura of affluence about its designsix rooms
with graceful additions under Abigails supervisionand a certain poignancy about its history, reflecting a clash of loyalties that
necessitated its original owners abandonment. Built as a summer
house in 1781, poised in the midst of a gentle field, two stories
with tall windows, a covered veranda and a Honduras mahoganypaneled interior, it was less the farmhouse of a patriot (according
to John Adams) and more an aspiring plantation house originally
built by Leonard Vassal, grandson of a sugar planter, nostalgic for
his birthplace in Jamaica, the West Indies.
After the grandeur of Europes palaces, churches, museums,
embassies, and their private dwelling placesthe gay and really
beautiful chateau, the Htel de Rouault in Auteuil, just four miles
from the heart of Paris, and the doughty brick mansion on the
northeast corner of Londons Grosvenor SquareJohn Quincys
father and mother had outgrown their former saltbox house in

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14 The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

Braintree on the coast road that ran from Boston to Plymouth.
That humble cottage had been both John Adamss law office
and the birthplace of his children, brothers John Quincy, Thomas
and Charles, and sister Abigail, Nabby. A prim, white, twostory house of brick and clay sheathed in wood, it had five small
rooms with massive fireplaces and cavernous ovens that looked
like fortifications. An addition called a lean-to (sometimes
spelled leanter) included a fireplace and a tiny staircase that
reached an airy bedroom whose floorboards, judging from their
thick widths and great length, had been claimed from a vast and
venerable tree.8
This Old House, which Abigail Adams knew and admired from
visits in pre-Revolution days, was now better suited to their needs,
taste and status. Abandoned by its loyalist owners, the Borlands,
who reclaimed it only after the war, the house was bought by John
Adams through an intermediary, Dr. Cotton Tufts.
Adamss instructions reveal a passion for his homeland that
far exceeds mere real estate. Tufts was to purchase not only the
Vassal-Borland place but every other, that adjoins upon me....
My view is to lay fast hold of the Town of Braintree and embrace
it, with both my arms and all my might. There to live, there to
diethere to lay my bonesand there to plant one of my sons, in
the profession of the law and the practice of agriculture like his father. However sincerely meant, his dreams for his son would burst
beyond all such boundaries.9
On this ravishing day, as John Quincy opened the front gate,
the sky was cerulean, a canopy of deep lavender wisteria crowned
the front path and, looking left, he could see Abigails great rectangular garden, her red and white roses (York and Lancaster
united), framed with a wide border of amethyst-flowering myrtle.
Somewhat appeased, he had been gratified that his nomination had
been as unexpected to his father as to himself.
John Adams had again advised his son to accept the appointment. The Hague, he said, would provide a stepping-stone to higher
and larger spheres, an opportunity to see Europe at a most interesting period of its history.10

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