Consider one major accomplishment of the second Adams administration. Casting about for an answer. Still struggling…

John Quincy Adams’s time in the White House charted some domestic and foreign policy successes, but in truth, those triumphs may actually pale in comparison to his previous service. To understand JQA’s frustrations during the mid-1820s, it helps to understand that he had a pattern of soaring as a diplomat and political servant, only to feel grounded by the trappings of the presidency and the infighting that accompanied his years in office.

So, who was John Quincy Adams prior to his presidency?

The second Adams president was nine years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed after his father had been a vocal proponent of independence and a member of the five-person committee that drafted the document. Having a ring-side seat during the most important events of the early days of the nation’s founding — even if that seat was at a distance and fueled by his father’s frequent and detailed letters home — fed the younger John’s commitment to liberty and self-government.

When the Second Continental Congress sent John Adams to Europe to garner support for the revolution, JQ accompanied him. From 1777 until 1785, he would visit the centers of power and watch from the sidelines as his father argued the relative values of siding against the British Empire and supporting the fledgling colonists. This argument relied on John Adams’s quick mind and skillful diplomacy.

JQ, who often served as his father’s secretary, lived for a time in Paris, the Netherlands, and St. Petersburg, quickly adapting to new cities and experiences. Peppered with stints in Sweden, Prussia, and Great Britain (after the fighting ended), the son would improve his mastery of multiple languages, dance, and social graces and develop a love of art and music that would enrich his life for the next decades.

After returning to the United States — those words sound good, right?! — John Quincy Adams attended Harvard and two years later passed the bar and began practicing law. Notes regarding the younger Adams during those years are interesting; he was deemed serious, aloof, intellectually gifted, and often dismissive of those who were not as mentally agile. He read voraciously and enjoyed recording his impressions of the times, a skill lost in current generations.

But John Quincy Adams’s future was not to be dominated by a successful law career.

Instead, President George Washington tapped him in 1794 for diplomatic service as minister to the Netherlands. His fluency in Dutch and French and his diplomatic skills — learned from his father — allowed him to successfully navigate U.S. priorities during a time of upheaval on the continent. He drafted the plan that allowed the United States to repay war debts to the Dutch. Moreover, his insightful observations on the French Revolution, including the reverberations caused by the Reign of Terror and the departure of French emigres for safer abodes, helped Washington draft his own policies regarding the French Revolution. Interesting side note: The younger Adams held Thomas Jefferson in the highest esteem.

Several years later, after his marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter of the U.S. consul to London, JQ was appointed U.S. ambassador to Prussia and served until his return to the U.S. in 1801, where he shortly thereafter stood for a seat in the Massachusetts state senate. He was considered a skillful senator with a disciplined approach to legislative action. In 1803, Massachusetts sent him to the U.S. Senate, where he moved closer to the Democratic-Republican Party’s ideas, often seen as counter to his own family since Jefferson had defeated JQ’s father in a hotly contested presidential election that resulted in the former friends not speaking for over a decade. JQ always seemed guided by his own counsel, and when the Louisiana Purchase came before Congress, he was one of only two Federalists who voted yes.

How did the Federalist-controlled Massachusetts state house react to JQ’s support of Jefferson’s proposal?

Not well. When the powers announced his successor’s name — a year before his term ended, thus making him a lame duck — JQ resigned, formally left the Federalist Party, and joined with the Democratic-Republicans. Wow.

During the next 20 years, JQ Adams served as minister to Russia (observing Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Moscow), helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, lived in London for two years as the U.S. ambassador, and then became James Monroe’s secretary of state for both terms, a position that seemed ideal given his diplomatic experiences and skill. While the Monroe Doctrine drew international interest, it is important to remember that the document was drafted by the secretary of state.

With such a rich background in national and international political affairs, it seems puzzling that John Quincy Adams would make such a mess of his rise to the presidency. And it was messy and troubling…