Keith+-+JQA+-+SP09

= John Quincy Adams =

Full Name: John Quincy Adams (Born July 11, 1767 - died February 23, 1848)

Political Party: Democratic-Republican (Era of Good Feelings; every candidate claimed to be so)

Term of Office: March 4, 1825 - March 4, 1829

Vice President: John C. Calhoun

In being the son of a considerably successful president, John Quincy Adams had a very large pair of shoes to fill. Through happenstance and good luck rather than by political skill, Adams won the presidency without much effort; some would say he won it unfairly. Whether or not his election was legit, however, the issue of if he was a good one nevertheless comes into play. Because John Quincy Adams meant well with his policies, although the American public frowned upon most of them, he deserves a grade of a C-.

Adams set very grand goals for himself in his presidency. Being an ardent nationalist, Adams wished to improve the country by constructing roads and canals, in addition to suggesting a national observatory and reviving the idea of a national university. He was also sympathetic toward the plight of the Native Americans, and sought peace with them rather than forcing them out of the land so greatly desired by the starving Americans. The only real success Adams found in the achievement of these goals was that Congress passed acts related to the construction of some roads, and canals such as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. His requests for an observatory and national university were denied because of the question of whether he had the power to do so under the Constitution. If this question was not the case, then it was the fact that a great deal of taxes would need to be levied in order to see those roads built, and Adams' low popularity would certainly not allow that to happen. His policy toward Native Americans failed due to violent complaints from the Southern states, namely Georgia, who wished to uproot them directly rather than attempt peace so that the land could be settled; they threatened to take up arms should the policy be enforced, and the matter was settled until the election of Andrew Jackson.

Due in no small part to the "corrupt bargain" struck by Henry Clay and himself, Adams had a turbulent relationship with Congress. Supporters of Adams' competition, Andrew Jackson, were still smarting from the scandal, and vehemently opposed most of Adams' suggestions. Adams supporters could not well be called that, because many of them felt betrayed by their leader - John Quincy Adams was known to be a just upholder of honor, and due to that belief, he refused to reward his supporters with higher positions. In essence, Adams was beset by opposition on all sides, partly by chance, but mostly by sheer stubbornness.

Of the few successes to be found in Adams' administration, the expansion of the Cumberland Road through Ohio was likely the most beneficial. Unlike some of his suggested constructions which became useless (such as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal), the Cumberland Road served as a "gateway to the West" for many generations of West-bound settlers. This was also a success simply from the fact that it was passed at all, with credit to Adams' unfortunate reputation with Congress. On the other hand, the policy that had the most negative effect on the country was his Tariff of 1828, better known as the "Tariff of Abominations". Adams suggested the tax on imported goods with the intent to protect American industries from other countries' products. On its own the tariff would not have been as bad, but opponents of Adams sabotaged the tariff to make the tax unbearably high, expecting Congress to refuse to pass the bill. To their surprise it was passed, however, prompting an impassioned outcry from Southerners who received the brunt of the impact that the tariff had. Although the tax was quickly lowered to a tolerable amount, the South still sought a scapegoat upon which they could blame their hard times; of all the sections of the United States, the South was the least prosperous during the time in which the tariff was passed. Eventually, this supposed discrimination would become one of the reasons by which the South would secede from the Union in the Civil War.

In addition to being having the worst impact on the country, the Tariff of Abominations would directly affect future generations - especially those that would fight in the bloody Civil War. After it was passed by Congress in 1828, many Southerners heatedly spoke out in protest of the ridiculous amount of taxes it called for. The most memorable of these outcries was created by the leader of the protesters, John C. Calhoun. Calhoun penned //The South Carolina Exposition//, which stated that the tariff was "unjust" and "unconstitutional", and proclaimed that any state has a right to nullify any law that it believes to be an evil. This was a very radical idea, and would be a precursor to the beliefs that Southern secessionists would hold and eventually fight for in the violent clash of ideals that was to be the Civil War.

The question of whether or not America emerged from Adams' administration a better or worse country could be largely debatable; though most would argue that it was worse off simply because of the Tariff of 1828's involvement with the start of the Civil War, the country would certainly have divided with or without it because of that all-too-familiar topic, slavery. It is also certain that there was some good to be found out of Adams' presidency, with the expansions of roads and constructions of canals. The most logical conclusion would be that the country was slightly worse off than before because of Adams' poor foresight in his decision-making, and his albeit indirect push towards civil war. Although Adams was a victim of his own stubborn personality, his policies ultimately did not lead to any ends that cemented the divide between North and South, and his policies were aimed toward helping the country rather than hindering it, even if they did do the latter.
 * Sources **

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnquincyadams/ - John Quincy Adams Biography from the White House Website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams - John Quincy Adams on Wikipedia __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__ by William A. Degregorio