John Adams and John Quincy Adams may have shared a last name along with many genes, but the guiding focus of this paper is, just how similar were their policies as Presidents of the United States? Did John Quincy Adams follow in the footsteps of his father or did he stray away and create his own path? There are a number of factors that can be used to examine this including foreign policy and domestic policy and the use of presidential power in those fields. Let’s begin with foreign policy, an area which consumed much of the time of John Adams. This was because John Adams took office at a very tumultuous time, the war between Britain and France was leading to some major difficulties for the United States. The event known now as the X, Y, Z…show more content… There was no declaration of war by Adams, but there were a number of battles at sea. After long negotiations the battles ended and peace was made. Adams also passed the Alien and Sedition acts around this time, in order to stifle foreign insurgents in the United States (whitehouse). John Adams had focused his entire presidency dealing with France making his legacy exactly that. John Adams time as president may have come to an end after that, but the Adams name would stick around. John Quincy Adams had spent most of his time prior to his election as a diplomat so he was no stranger to foreign policy, he was even sent by Madison to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 (history). Just like his father, he was very active in foreign affairs and even served as the
