The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

by Phyllis Lee Levin,
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 27, 2015

On July 11, 1803, his 36th birthday, John Quincy Adams noted in his diary “with sorrow to think how long I have lived and with how little purpose.” He would live a lot longer and would serve his country as Secretary of State, President of the United States, and from 1831 to 1848, as one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery in the U.S. House of Representatives.