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John Quincy Adams 6th President of the United States Born: July 11, 1767 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts Died: February 23, 1848 in Washington, D.C. Term of Presidency: 1825-1829 Vice President: John C. Calhoun Political Party: Federalists

John Quincy Adams had some of the best ideas for America. For he wanted to promote nationalism, make internal improvements, and improve relationship with France. However, for the ignorant decision of not replacing members of the enemy filled Congress, Adams was not able to fulfill the goals that he had for the nation. On the other hand the passing of the Tariff of 1828, did put a strain on the economy of the South. For these reasons I award President John Quincy Adams with a B-.

John Quincy Adams was quite qualified to be an appropriate president. Adams’ became a lawyer after graduating from Harvard College. At the young age of twenty-six, Adams was appointed as Minister to the Netherland by Thomas Jefferson. He was later promoted to the Berlin Legation. In 1802, Adams was elected into the United States Senate and in 1808, President James Madison appointed Adams Minister to Russia. During the Presidency of James Monroe, Adams was considered to be the United States’ great Secretaries of State.

In the election of 1825, Adams’ ran for president against the Democratic-Republican, General Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. After voting, Adams, Jackson, and Clay received the most electoral votes, but none of the candidates had a majority of the electoral votes. However under the Twelfth Amendment, the decision went to the House of Representatives. Since Clay had similar views as Adams, he decided that he would give his full support to Adams thus the election of John Quincy Adams for president. In return, Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State. This became known as the “corrupt bargain,” according to Jackson and his followers.

In Adams’ inaugural address Adam states that his overall goal was to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” as capably as he could. Adams additionally declared that he would promote nationalism by further uniting the Union. Also he had the goal of making internal improvements by creating roads, ports, canals, and factories. Lastly, the final goal of Adams was to improve the relationship of the United States with France.

During Adams’ term as president, he worked very hard to further develop the American System. Adams conducted the construction of transportation means, encouraged others to create a national bank for productive enterprise, and unite the country under one national currency to prevent debt. When presenting this to Congress, Adams’ gained little support to modernize the country. Members of Congress that supported Jackson in the race for president thought that Adams’ was being arrogant reflecting how he felt towards his slim victory. But, some of the ideas proposed by Adams’ were granted such as expanding the Cumberland Road, building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, the Portland to Louisville Canal, connecting the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, and enlarging the Dismal Swap Canal. However, this called for a high tariff to support the monetary needs. The Tariff of 1828 was passed by Congress. The tariff was meant to be a protective tariff for northern industries against the British. In the South, the tariff was known as the “Tariff of Abominations” due to how it hurt southern economy.

Adams’ relationship with Congress was not on the best of terms. Most of Congress was Jacksonian Democratic-Republicans. Because of the slim margin that Adams had won the election for president, most of Congress had animosity toward Adams’. But, Adams did have many chances to revise Congress by putting members into office that would support him, but Adam refused because he wanted to gain support from the members of Congress that so greatly despised him. With foreign policies achieved little because of enemy filled Congress. In the end, this did not work and Congress opposed many of Adams’ plans and policies.

John Quincy Adams certainly had bright dreams for the United States during his presidency. However, most of these were demolished by members of Congress; since Adams refused to replace members of Congress, On the other hand, Adams was able to make internal improvements of building roads, canals, and dams. In result this called for the Tariff of 1828, which in turn hurt the economy of the South. If Adams had replaced members of Congress that would support his ideas, Adams most definitely received a higher grade. But because of the things that he was able to achieve with the Congress that could be considered an enemy of Adams‘ and remembering the purpose and affect of the Tariff of 1828, John Quincy Adams receives a B-.

Bibliography:

Howe, Charles A.. "John Quincy Adams." //UUA Server for Other Organizations' Web Sites//. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society (UUHS), n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. []. "John Quincy Adams." //NNDB: Tracking the entire world//. Soylent Communications, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2010. []. "John Quincy Adams | The White House." //The White House//. whitehouse.gov, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. []. "John Quincy Adams: Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989." //Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and hundreds more//. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2010. []