JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
Biography
Many Americans have sought the office of President of the United States and have deliberately shaped their lives to that end. John Quincy Adams’ parents prepared him for the presidency from boyhood. But although Adams achieved his goal of becoming president, his term in the White House was overshadowed by his two other political careers—as America's greatest diplomat and as its greatest defender of human freedom in the U.S. House of Representatives.
His Early Diplomatic Career
He had barely developed a law practice when the French Revolution broke out. Articles Adams wrote for a Boston newspaper attracted the attention of President George Washington. In 1794 Washington appointed the 28-year-old John Quincy Adams minister to the Netherlands. Adams’ official dispatches and his letters from the Dutch capital at The Hague convinced the President that this young man would one day stand at the head of the American diplomatic corps.
In 1797, while on a mission from the Netherlands to England, Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter of the American consul in London.
From The Hague Adams (whose father was now president) was assigned to the Court of Prussia. There he negotiated a treaty of friendship and commerce. He continued his letters and dispatches about the war of the French Revolution. Because of political reasons, John Adams recalled him after Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1800.
Adams’ experiences had convinced him that the United States must never be caught in the “vortex” of European rivalries and wars. This lesson guided him through his later diplomatic career and influenced United States policy for a century afterwards.
A Short Term in the Senate
When he returned to Boston, Adams found the practice of law frustrating. He had a strong desire to enter politics. In 1803 the Massachusetts legislature elected him to the United States Senate.
Diplomat Again
In 1809 President James Madison appointed Adams the first American minister to Russia. Adams was in Russia when the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain. He served on the delegation that brought about the Peace of Ghent in 1814. The following year he became minister to Great Britain, where he served until 1817.
By now Adams was in his 50th year. He was without question the most experienced man in the United States diplomatic service. Because of his European experience, Adams had become a confirmed isolationist. He felt that the future of the United States lay in expansion across the North American continent rather than in European alliances.
Secretary of State
In 1817 President James Monroe called Adams home to become secretary of state. The most important achievements of Secretary Adams were the treaties he negotiated, which brought much of the Far West under American control. The famous Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 (ratified 1821) with Spain gave the United States access to the Pacific Ocean. This was the greatest diplomatic triumph ever achieved by one man in the history of the United States. Adams was also responsible for treaties with the newly-independent countries of Latin America.
The Monroe Doctrine
John Quincy Adams had a major role in forming the Monroe Doctrine. Though Adams' words in that famous document made it clear that the United States would not tolerate any new European colonization in the Americas, the doctrine properly bears President Monroe's name. For it was Monroe who in 1823 first declared its principles to the world as American foreign policy.
The Election of 1824
Adams was never a dynamic politician. But his accomplishments brought him before the people in the national election of 1824. There was no real party contest. The old political parties had disappeared during the so-called “Era of Good Feeling” of Monroe’s administration. It was a contest of leaders.
General Andrew Jackson, the hero of the battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, received a majority of the popular vote. But no candidate received the necessary majority in the Electoral College. Jackson had 99 electoral votes; Adams, 84; William H. Crawford of Georgia, 41; and Henry Clay of Kentucky, 37. Under the Constitution the Election had to be decided by the House of Representatives. The voting there was by states and was limited to the first three candidates. On February 9, 1825, Adams was elected president by a bare majority of states.
John Adams, then 90 years old, was delighted at his son’s victory. But Abigail Adams did not live to see the presidency come to rest on her son's shoulders. She had died in 1818.
His Term as President
President John Quincy Adams appointed Henry Clay secretary of state. Clay had thrown the votes of his supporters in the House of Representatives to Adams rather than Jackson. At once Jackson and his followers raised the cry of “corrupt bargain.” That there was a political deal seems fairly certain. But there is nothing to show that it was dishonest.
The charge of corrupt bargain was the beginning of a quarrel with Jackson that marred Adams’ administration. Jackson had strong support among the voters of the newly admitted states. Adams, after all, had not received a majority of the popular vote. The Jacksonians were out to get rid of Adams and seize office themselves.
The 4 years of Adams’ presidency were prosperous and generally happy years for the United States. Adams’ ambition was to govern “as a man of the whole nation,” not as the leader of a political party. He believed in liberty with power. He favored more power for the federal government in the disposal of public lands and in building new roads and canals to keep up with the westward movement. He supported federal control and protection of the Indian groups against invasion of their lands by the states.
This program hit at the narrow interpretation of the Constitution under the old Jeffersonian concept of states’ rights. It thus aroused Adams’ opponents. In the election of 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president by an overwhelming majority.
With his term as president over, Adams’ career seemed finished. He returned sadly to Quincy, Massachusetts. However, he was still willing to serve his country in any office, large or small. In 1830 he was elected to the House of Representatives. Nothing could have been more pleasing to Adams, for the ghost of the presidency still haunted him. He hoped for the nomination again. But these hopes soon faded.
“Old Man Eloquent”
During Adams’ years in the House of Representatives, the stormy issue of slavery faced the United States. At heart Adams was an abolitionist: he wished to do away completely with slavery. But he was politically prudent, and did not say so publicly. He became a leader of the antislavery forces in Congress but limited his efforts to constitutional means. He sought to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. He opposed its expansion into the territories of the United States. And he championed the right of petition to Congress for abolition of slavery.
As secretary of state and as president, Adams had tried to obtain Texas from Mexico. But in Congress he resisted to the last the movement for annexation of Texas. By that time the entry of Texas into the Union would have meant the creation of one or more new slave states. On the other hand, he championed the annexation of Oregon, where slavery did not exist. “I want the country for our Western pioneers,” he said.
Adams was a patron and supporter in Congress of scientific activities, especially in the fields of weights and measures, and astronomy. He led the movement for establishment of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., one of the nation’s foremost centers of learning.
“Old Man Eloquent,” as Adams was called, opposed the war with Mexico that followed the annexation of Texas in 1845. He considered it an unjust war. On February 21, 1848, while protesting the award of swords of honor to the American generals who had won the war, Adams collapsed on the floor of the House of Representatives. He died two days later in the Capitol.
During most of his early career as a diplomat, Adams was little known throughout the country. His term as president was unpopular. Always a reserved man, he seemed cold and aloof to the people. His career in the House of Representatives made him a violently controversial figure. It was not until the final years of his life that Adams won esteem and almost affection, especially in the hearts and minds of the millions who hated slavery. Representatives of both political parties journeyed to Quincy, Massachusetts, for his funeral. In death, John Quincy Adams seemed at last to belong to the whole nation.
Samuel Flagg Bemis
Yale University, Author, John Quincy Adams and the Union