John Adams, our second president, had four children. His daughter Abigail, called Nabby, died in her forties of cancer. But two of John Adams' three sons died of alcoholism, one at the young age of 30. Both had outstanding personalities and great ability, but were considered unstable. John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, suffered most of his life from melancholy and self-doubt. He wrote in his diary, after having held almost every important job in our government with great success, that he had accomplished nothing in his life.
John Quincy Adams' children shared the same personality traits displayed by their father, uncles and aunt. Of his four children, one, a daughter, died in her first year. Three sons lived to maturity. One was very successful, as were his children and grandchildren.
George Washington Adams, 1801-1829. George was born in Berlin, Prussia, which is now part of Germany. He was considered brilliant but somewhat unstable. Still, he was considered the most likely candidate to carry on the family tradition of public service to his country. George graduated from Harvard and studied law in the office of Daniel Webster. In 1826, he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. Shortly after that, he developed a "debilitating nervous condition." He became careless in his habits, neglected his law practice and went deeply into debt. His father had to pay off his debts, which were considerable. He also got a girl pregnant. He began hallucinating and became paranoid. In 1829, he was aboard a steamer headed for New York. He became agitated and accused the other passengers of plotting against him. A short time later, he jumped or fell overboard. His body washed up on City Island in Long Island Sound six weeks later. He was marked as lost at sea, but his death was considered by most to be a suicide.
John Adams II, 1803-1834. John Adams II was born on the Fourth of July in Quincy, Massachusetts. He went to college at Harvard, but was expelled during his senior year for participating in a student riot. He then studied law under his father, and became his father's private secretary in the White House. John was very loyal to his father, and even got into a fistfight in the Capitol Rotunda with Russell Jarvis, an anti-administration reporter for the Washington Daily Telegraph. An investigating committee of the House of Representatives determined that Jarvis had attacked the younger Adams, and censured Jarvis. After his father left the White House, John ran a Washington flourmill owned by his father. After a short time, his health failed, and he became ill. He died in 1834. His death, just five years after his older brother's suspected suicide, caused his father great emotional pain. His father wrote of him, "A more honest soul, or more tender heart never breathed on the face of the earth."
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