Hey it’s Professor Dave, let’s talk about John Quincy Adams.
The son of second President John Adams, John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of
the United States, though like his father, he only served a single term.
A brilliant diplomat and Secretary of State, his Presidency was marred by bitter partisan
politics.
John Quincy Adams served in the Washington Administration as Minister to the Netherlands,
and Minister to Prussia in his father’s term.
He served as Senator of Massachusetts from 1803 to 1808, Minister to Russia under President
Monroe, American envoy to Great Britain during the Madison Administration where he played
an important role in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, and
lastly as Monroe’s Secretary of State.
In this position he negotiated with Britain over the United States border with Canada,
with Spain over the annexation of Florida, and he drafted the Monroe Doctrine.
Historians agree he was a superb diplomat and one of the greatest secretaries of state
in American history.
As Secretary of State, Adams believed that America should provide moral support for independence
movements but not intervention, as he foresaw what would befall the United States if it
sacrificed its republican spirit on the altar of empire.
He stated that America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy” lest she
“involve herself beyond power of extrication, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual
avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.”
The United States, Adams warned, might “become the dictatress of the world but she would
be no longer be the ruler of her own spirit”.
These sentiments were prophetic of things to come in the 20th century.
As the 1824 election drew near, New Englanders urged Adams to enter the race.
His opponents included Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky, Treasury Secretary
William H. Crawford of Georgia, and Andrew Jackson from Tennessee, the popular general
who had won the Battle of New Orleans.
Jackson narrowly won the popular vote but not the Electoral Vote, while Adams received
less than a third of the popular vote.
Under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment, the presidential election fell to the House
of Representatives, which was to choose from the top three candidates: Jackson, Adams,
and Crawford, since Clay had come in fourth place and had not been included on the ballot.
But as Speaker of the House, Clay still wielded considerable power and influence, and his
personal dislike for Jackson and his preference for Adams’ Hamiltonian economic policies
persuaded him to throw his support to Adams, who was elected President by the House on
the first ballot on February 9th, 1825.
Adams’ victory shocked Jackson, who had won the most electoral and popular votes,
and fully expected to be elected president.
When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, the position that Adams and his three
predecessors had held before becoming President, Jacksonian Democrats were outraged, claiming
Adams and Clay had struck a “corrupt bargain”.
This bitterness over Adams’ perceived illegitimacy would haunt his Presidency and greatly contributed
to his loss to Jackson four years later.
Upon his inauguration, Adams took the oath of office on a book of Constitutional Law,
rather than the Bible.
As President, he sought to modernize the American economy and imposed high tariffs to encourage
the growth of domestic industry.
He proposed an elaborate program of internal improvements like roads, ports, and canals,
as well as a national university and federal support for the arts and sciences.
He also paid off much of the national debt.
However, he was hindered time and again by enemies in Congress, the Jacksonian States
Rights faction.
Adams had a most enlightened and generous policy toward Native Americans but it caused
him trouble with settlers on the frontier, who were constantly seeking to move westward,
and urged a much more expansionist policy.
Adams suspended the Treaty of Indian Springs after learning that the Governor of Georgia
had forced the treaty on the Muscogee Tribe.
Adams threatened to send in Federal troops to enforce more favorable terms for Native
Americans, but backed down out of the fear of starting a civil war.
In contrast, future presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren would institute the policy
of Indian removal to the west, known as the “Trail of Tears.”
After Adams’ inauguration in 1825, Jackson resigned from his senate seat, setting his
sights on the defeat of Adams in the 1828 election.
This campaign was very much a personal one.
As was the tradition of this era in American presidential politics, neither candidate personally
campaigned, but their political followers organized many events and both candidates
were savagely attacked in the press.
For Jackson it was his violent life, and accusations that he had stolen his wife from another man.
For Adams it was no less than accusations of acting as a literal pimp in Russia, while
serving as ambassador.
Adams lost the election by a decisive margin, Jackson winning 178 electoral votes to Adams’ 83.
Adams and his father were the only U.S. presidents to serve a single term during the first 48
years of the Presidency.
As historian Thomas Bailey observed, “Seldom has the public mind been so successfully poisoned
against such an honest and high-minded man”.
Adams left office on March 4th, 1829, and did not attend the inauguration since Jackson
had openly snubbed him by refusing to pay the traditional “courtesy call” to the
outgoing president.
He was one of only four presidents who chose not to attend their respective successor’s
inauguration, the others being his father, Andrew Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
Adams was elected as U.S. Representative from Massachusetts after his presidency, serving
for the last 17 years of his life to much greater praise than he had received as president.
Adams considered permanently retiring from public life after his 1828 defeat, and he
was deeply hurt by the suicide of his son, George Washington Adams, in 1829.
However, Adams grew bored of his retirement and still felt that his career was unfinished,
so he ran for a seat in the 1830 elections.
This went against the generally held opinion that former Presidents should not run for
public office.
He was the first of only two presidents to serve in Congress after their presidential
terms ended, the other being Andrew Johnson.
He was elected to nine terms, serving from 1831 until his death.
When James Smithson died, he left his estate to the U.S. government to build an institution
of learning.
Many in Congress wanted to use the money for other purposes, but Adams helped ensure that
the money was instead used to build the Smithsonian Institution.
He also became a leading opponent of slavery, predicting the Union’s dissolution over
the issue, and he said that if the South became independent there would be a series of bloody
slave revolts.
He also suggested that if a Civil War were to break out, the President could abolish
slavery by using his war powers, anticipating the Emancipation Proclamation.
Adams’ greatest legacy is as a diplomat who shaped U.S. foreign policy in line with
his passionate commitment to Republican values.
More recently, he has been portrayed as the exemplar and moral leader in an era of modernization.
But his policies as President were far-sighted and his 17-year tenure as a Congressman was
known for fierce abolitionist views.
In many ways, he was the most far-sighted of all the early Presidents, and though he
was unable to achieve many of his goals while in office because of political obstructionism,
his contribution to the United States is incalculable.