They would read and learn what they liked – or not.”Īndrew Jackson took every opportunity to stoke political dissatisfaction with Quincy. …the majority of Americans… developed a deep resentment for the Harvard scholar who suggested he knew better than they what they needed to know and what they needed to do.

(This is only one of many parallels in this book to the contemporary political scene.) As Unger writes: Quincy was particularly ridiculed by his dumb-and-proud-of-it political rival Andrew Jackson, who quite successfully wore his lack of education as a point of pride. Later he became something of an honorary son of Thomas Jefferson. Petersburg to be granted access to Russian officials, Quincy spent his time reading history, economics, poetry, and taught himself to read and write German. Dana spoke no French, but Quincy was proficient in it, among other languages. At age fourteen, he was invited as translator to accompany Francis Dana, the new Russian minister, to the court of Empress Catherine II. By age thirteen, Quincy was attending a university in Europe and consorting with lawyers, professors, diplomats, and scholars. When John Adams was appointed by Congress as a commissioner to France, he took Quincy – now ten years old – with him. From the time Quincy was very young his parents directed his education, insisting, for example, that, at age seven, he read Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War in the original Greek. John Quincy Adams was the amazingly gifted son of John and Abigail Adams.

There are remarkable parallels between the election of 2016 and that of 1824, between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

John quincy adams by harlow giles unger