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 The
letters and diary entries in section 10 are written when JQA is between
twelve and fourteen, an age when young people struggle to make sense of
their world. During these years, JQA's world encompasses most of the European
continent. His travels across Spain, France, the Netherlands, the German
states, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Finland expose him to many nationalities
and religions. As he forms opinions about the many peoples he encounters,
however, he is limited by the attitudes of his elders. The New England
he has left behind is still mainly English and puritan, and so the citizens
of JQA's region of the new United States do not have to confront issues
of diversity.
When John Quincy is fourteen years of age, his father agrees to send him
across the European continent to accompany Francis Dana on a mission to
the Russian capital, St. Petersburg. Dana's assignment from Congress includes
no provision for an assistant, but his inability to speak any foreign
language puts him at a great disadvantage. Dana is well aware of JQA's
ability to speak French, a language common to royalty in much of eastern
Europe. Even though Dana's commission is never officially accepted by
the Russian court, he does conduct some useful business, thanks in part
to the interpretive skills of his young secretary.
JQA remains with Dana almost two years. When the sixteen-year-old returns
to Paris in 1783, he arrives in time to witness his father's role in negotiating
the peace treaty with Great Britain that officially ends the Revolutionary
War.
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