John Quincy Adams"Old Man Eloquent"

Born July 11, 1767, in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, the son of Founding Father and second President John Adams. He had an extraordinary early diplomatic career, accompanying his father on missions to Europe as a boy and serving as U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and Britain before turning 40. He later served as Secretary of State under President James Monroe, where he was the chief architect of the Monroe Doctrine and negotiated the Adams-Onís Treaty, which secured Florida for the United States. He won a highly contested and controversial 1824 election (decided in the House of Representatives after no candidate won a majority, in what critics called a "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay) to become the 6th President of the United States, serving one term marked by ambitious but largely unrealized plans for national infrastructure and scientific institutions. After losing re-election to Andrew Jackson in 1828, he became the only former president to return to the House of Representatives, serving there for 17 years until his death, where he became a fierce and outspoken opponent of slavery.