stud-ied a-broad, and then sailed for home in May,
1783. He at once en-tered the jun-ior class at Har-vard Col-lege and
grad-u-a-ted with next to the high-est hon-ors in 1787. Then he took up
law, as his fa-ther had done, and be-gan to prac-tise in Bos-ton. He
made few friends; folks did not love him as they had ei-ther Mad-i-son
or Mon-roe, but he was al-ways known to be a man of great pow-er, and
of great learn-ing; and know-ing so much of other lands, he was just
the man to be sent as A-mer-i-can Min-is-ter to these coun-tries.

In 1794 Wash-ing-ton sent him to Hol-land, and in 1796 he was sent to
Ber-lin.

When, in 1801, Ad-ams came back home, it was to find new hon-ors
wait-ing for him. He was sent first to the State Sen-ate and then to
Con-gress. You see the steps by which our Pres-i-dents rose to pow-er
were much the same in ev-er-y case. A du-ty well done in a small place
led to some-thing a lit-tle high-er, and so on to the great-est hon-or
of all--the Pres-i-dent's chair.

The State of Mas-sa-chu-setts was ver-y proud of John Quin-cy A-dams;
not only was he a great states-man and the son of the man whom they all
loved, but he was, as well, a fine schol-ar, and a bril-liant speak-er.
In 1809 he was sent a-broad a-gain for his coun-try; this time to
Rus-sia, where he had not been since he was a boy of four-teen; in 1815
he was sent to France, but he was here on-ly a few months, when war
broke out in France, and all the min-is-ters from oth-er coun-tries were
called a-way; he went at once to Eng-land, and here he had a much more
pleasant time than his father had when he went there as the first
Amer-i-can min-is-ter; the U-nit-ed States was now known as a big strong
coun-try, and no one dared to be rude to her min-is-ter. In 1817 his own
land felt the need of the great man who had served her so well a-broad,
and he was called home to be-come Sec-re-ta-ry of State. No man was so
well fit-ted for this post as he; for there were ma-ny men from the
lands a-cross the sea, now com-ing and go-ing in the cap-i-tal of the
U-nit-ed States, to talk o-ver great ques-tions; there were new states
com-ing in-to the Un-i-on; and oth-er lands were al-ways try-ing to
gain a lit-tle pow-er here; so John Quin-cy Ad-ams, who not on-ly was
a great schol-ar, and a fine law-yer, but al-so knew well so ma-ny lands
be-sides his own, was just the man to help Pres-i-dent Mon-roe through
his eight years of work.

He al-so was the man bes