8. Expelled from Harvard, alcoholics, drug addicts, and dying in early adulthood, the children of John Quincy Adams continued to suffer from the Adams family’s poor parental approaches
John Quincy Adams, the eldest son of John Adams, served as a member of the House of Representatives and Senate, as Secretary of State, and finally as the 6th President of the United States from 1825 until 1829. Initially desiring to avoid following his father into politics, Quincy Adams sought instead to pursue his father’s original career: the law. Nevertheless, likely at his father’s persuasion, Quincy Adams was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1794. During this European sojourn, Quincy Adams met Louisa Catherine Johnson in London and, against his father’s objections, married her in July 1797.
Almost immediately running into complications, with Louisa’s father fleeing England to escape his debtors and failing to pay the promised dowry, the couple’s relationship was unquestionably strained. They would reportedly not speak for weeks at a time, commonly taking separate vacations to avoid one another. In spite of this, the pair had three sons and a daughter. With the daughter dying aged one, their two eldest sons fared little better. The elder, George, a drug addict, committed suicide in 1829, whilst their second-born, John, previously expelled from Harvard in 1823, followed his brother into alcoholism and an early grave in 1834.