ADAMS, John Quincy, son of the preceding, was born at Boston in 1767. After spending some years in Europe, he settled as a lawyer in his native city. From 1794 to 1801 he filled the office of American minister at the Hague, and at Berlin. After some years spent in the practice of his profession, and the discharge of various public duties, he was sent, in 1809, as ambassador to St Petersburg, where his influence secured the treaty of peace with Great Britain. He was next ambassador at the court of St James's, from which he was recalled, to act as secretary of state. His distinguished abilities and services finally received their highest acknowledgment, by his election, in 1825, to the president's chair, which high office he discharged with a purity and fidelity that signalled his administration as a pattern of patriotic government. On the expiry of his term of office he retired into private life, acting, however, for many years as a representative in congress. He died at Washington on the 23d of February 1848, in the eighty-second year of his age.