John Quincy Adams

With only a few exceptions (such as dark horse candidate James K. Polk), the lives of US presidents prior to their election tend to be filled with monumental accomplishments that forged their names as names worthy of being listed in the annals of history, regardless of if they lived in the White House or not. George Washington led American troops to victory - and thus independence - in the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and inspired the religious freedom enshrined in the First Amendment. James Madison was integral to the creation of the Constitution. Zachary Taylor was a general who led American forces during significant victories in the Mexican-American War. Abraham Lincoln defeated the oft-admired Stephen Douglas in a collection of debates. Ulysses S. Grant provided the Union with some of its most important victories in the civil war. John Quincy Adams was no exception to this. His name would be written in gold, frankincense, and myrrh even if he didn't spend one minute in the White House.

From 1817 to his inauguration in 1825, Adams was secretary of state for James Monroe. During this period, Adams brokered the Treaty of 1818, which secured American fishing rights off the coast of all British colonies in North America and established the modern US-Canadian border. Soon after, he worked with Spanish authorities to manufacture the Adams-Onis Treaty, in which the United States paid $5,000,000 worth of claims filed by American citizens against Spain in exchange for control of Florida. The Adams-Onis Treaty also set up a clear border for the Louisiana Territory, an oft-debated subject between the US and Spain. In fact, Adams even helped Monroe write the Monroe Doctrine. A pillar of all US foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine divided the globe into the Western Hemisphere (North and South America) and the Eastern Hemisphere (Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Europe) and demanded that each hemisphere respect the sovereignty of the other.

Adams' impact as a politician did not wither away as his age drifted further and further from the presidency. In fact, he joined the House of Representatives just 2 years into his post-presidency! There, he became one of the fiercest mainstream opponents of slavery. He proposed a Constitutional amendment, even, that would have instituted the gradual elimination of slavery by banning the practice in Washington DC after July 4, 1845, prohibiting its expansion to any new state except Florida, and barring the enslavement of anyone born after July 4, 1842. In the House of Representatives, Adams also helped create the Smithsonian Insitute. Clearly, John Quincy Adams is a name that has echoed throughout all of American history from the moment Adams became a public figure. Few would ever dare deny this obvious fact. However, many are quite critical of his presidency, dubbing him either average or even below average as the chair of the executive branch. Are these criticisms warranted? I do not think so.

The main charge levied against Adams is that he was ineffective, unable to adequately enact or enforce his agenda. It is true that Adams never managed to actually pass the many reforms he proposed. But this shouldn't hurt his score for the following reason: His ineffectiveness was not his fault. Other factors were at play, neutralizing the Adams Administration before the new president could ever declare, "I, John Quincy Adams, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States of America, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." The main issue contributing to this fact was the bizarre, chaotic circumstances in which Adams became president: The 1824 election. That election sported 4 major candidates, rather than the usual 2. Those candidates were Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford.

Because of how many people were involved in the race, no one actually received a majority in the Electoral College, delivering the question of how would replace the then-incumbent president James Monroe to the future of Adams' political destiny: The House of Representatives. The House of Representatives was scheduled the select the new president on February 9, 1825. Exactly a month prior, on January 9, 1825, Adams and Clay met in private. What the two discussed is entirely unknown. What is less opaque, though, is that Clay (who was speaker of the house) supported Adams come election day. Clay, having received fewer votes than Adams, Jackson, or Crawford, was automatically excluded from the race. Since Clay was the speaker of the house, his endorsement of Adams encouraged other Congressmen to vote for Adams, making Adams president-elect.

A few days later, Adams announced that Clay would be his secretary of state. Jackson then pounced on these events and weaved a devastating allegation, claiming that Adams and Clay had conspired to rig the 1824 election. According to the narrative produced by Jackson and his supporters, when Adams and Clay met back in January, they made an immoral agreement that Jackson declared "the corrupt bargain". Under the corrupt bargain, Clay would use his influence as speaker of the house to ensure Adams' victory in the 1824 election. In exchange, Adams would give Clay the office of speaker of the house, which was generally seen at the time as a stepping stone to the executive branch. Jackson tried to substantiate these claims by saying that Clay had come to him, Jackson, with a similar offer prior to the meeting with Adams, which Jackson angrily declined.

Were the corrupt bargain accusations credible? Not really. Clay and Adams agreed on most issues. Although Adams was a northerner from Massachusetts who despised slavery (much like his father John Adams) and Clay was a southerner born in Virginia and politically rooted in Kentucky who personally owned slaves, they largely concurred on what to do about the slavery issue generally. As described at the opening of this article, Adams spent his post-presidency fighting for anti-slavery legislation in Congress. Clay believed in the gradual emancipation of slaves. Both men were very enthusiastic about the Latin American Revolution, where numerous countries across South and Central America declared their independence from Spanish and Portuguese colonizers. Adams helped draft the Monroe Doctrine to preserve these countries' independence and Clay put immense pressure on the federal government to do more in pursuit of protecting Latin America from European incursions. Other issues were sources of agreement and unity between Clay and Adams, so the former did not need the promise of a shiny seat as secretary of state to support the latter.

The corrupt bargain was a fabrication that had no basis in political reality. Andrew Jackson conjured up disturbing images of Clay and Adams maniacally plotting to toss America into their greedy, despotic hands not from real memories and information, but from his own desire to be president and to smear the names of anyone in his way. Adams had no way of knowing that Jackson would make such a slimy, deceptive decision. He had no way of preventing these rumors from spreading across the nation like a virus of lies and slander. It was in no way Adams' fault that he was so ineffective. He entered the White House with a genuine mandate and carrying decades of political experience on his back. He knew the operations of Congress and the State Department incredibly well. Had he been trusted by the people and not demonized as an illegitimate usurper, he would have been able to do wonderful things for the country.

Because Adams was ineffective through no fault of his own, I grade him as I would were he able to do what he intended. But what did he intend? During his earliest months in the White House, Adams outlined a gallery of ambitious, progressive goals for the United States going forward. Adams sought to increase the sovereignty of Native Americans by establishing numerous indigenous reservations across the western US. He also wanted to increase spending on infrastructure (another issue he and Clay agreed on!) and create a naval academy. He also fought for the advancement of the arts and science more than any other president before him, save for Thomas Jefferson. Adams wanted to build a publicly-funded observatory that would supply America and the world with fascinating details about the stars, planets, galaxies, and nebulas populating the cosmos. Adams also proposed commissioning a study of the waters immediately surrounding America's coast. His most progressive idea, perhaps, was creating a college that exceptionally-bright and intelligent citizens could attend for free. Lastly, Adams sought to establish a broad "department of the interior" meant to tend to domestic issues.

Adams' inability to enact these ideas, I believe, is one of American history's greatest tragedies. More tears can only be shed when discussing the carnage of the Revolutionary War, civil war, and other conflicts plaguing the pages of US history, as well as the abuse of blacks and Native Americans during slavery and the Jim Crow era. However, Adams did succeed in passing real legislation and genuine reforms. For instance, while he never got a study of all of America's coasts and the oceans thereof, he did secure a study of the waters immediately surrounding US docks and ports. Other actions taken by Adams during his stint in the White House were less positive, however.

Ultimately, the main issue with the Adams Administration was the Tariff of 1828. In 1828, the country was split on, among other issues, the debate of industrialization vs. agrarianism. The north fought for industrial production, while the south insisted on remaining a primarily-agricultural economy. For this reason, the north was mainly self-sufficient while the south was reliant on foreign imports to access industrial goods. This fact provided a convenient opportunity for Jacksonians in Congress: Adams was already unpopular because of the "corrupt bargain". If Congress exploited Adams' protectionist views and trick him into signing an obscene tariff that would shatter southern economies, any chance Adams had at reelection later that year would be crushed. Congress immediately drafted and approved the Tariff of 1828, raising import taxes to an unacceptable 50%. Much like with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff under Herbert Hoover, even my own protectionism cannot spare this law in my eyes.

Despite the fact that it was a trap, Adams signed the tariff on May 11, 1828, owing to his love of domestic manufacturing. I consider this Adams' worst blunder. The Tariff of 1828 caused immense suffering and turmoil for hundreds of thousands of Americans. It even caused South Carolina to create an unconstitutional Frankenstein monster of political theory known as the nullification doctrine, which claims any state can simply stop enforcing or following a federal law if that law isn't codified in the Constitution. When Jackson signed a new tariff that lowered rates to 35% (which much of the agrarian south still considered too high), South Carolina nullified it on November 24, 1832, sparking the Nullification Crisis, a rebellion that Jackson was forced to put down.

Outside of the Tariff of 1828, what John Quincy Adams actually did as president was pretty good. Like Monroe before him, he gave tremendous support to Latin American independence movements, extending official diplomatic recognition to several of the newly-autonomous countries. He also sent US officials to the very first conference of nations across the Western Hemisphere and created dozens of new trade deals with the outside world. Adams also attempted to buy Texas from Mexico. Generally, I consider territorial expansion to be a negative, as treaties adding land to the US (or any country, for that matter) rarely seek out the actual desires of the people living in the area undergoing a transfer of leadership. However, Texas was famously stuffed to the brim with American settlers who desired union with the US. During Adams' presidency, Georgia signed a treaty with members of the Creek tribe stripping them of huge swathes of their land. Adams was shocked by this and traveled down to Georgia to personally address the crisis. He knew he could never repeal the treaty, but he did convince Georgia to restore much of the Creek land they would have stolen to indigenous control.

I consider John Quincy Adams to be a good president. The actual legacy of his career as a politician may be confined to his conferences with diplomats and consuls as secretary of state or to his ardent battle against slave-owning aristocrats and elitists during his stay in the House of Representatives. His presidency may have been underwhelming and unpopular, but that is through no fault of his own. Other forces, particularly those of Andrew Jackson and his most dedicated sycophants, were willing to lie, deceive, and fabricate in order to topple his administration. And sadly, it worked. The brilliant light trapped inside Adams' mind stayed trapped inside Adams' mind and the dazzling agenda through which he would improve and refine America's social, academic, infrastructural, and scientific institutions was forever quashed.