Charlie+P.

John Quincy Adams

July 11, 1767 (Braintree (Quincy), Massachusetts - February 23, 1848 (Washington D.C.)

Political Party: National Republican Party and Whig Party

Term: March 4, 1825 - March 3, 1829

Vice President: John C. Calhoun (1825-1829)

The beginning of sectionalism in the United States is known for being the time of independence of ideals based on geographical ties. Most specifically, a subtle conflict between the north and the south seemed evident. The qualms of the north was met by the dissatisfaction of the south and seemed to result in a period of strain on the American way of life. On a more micro-level, a predominant theme existing throughout J.Q. Adams’s presidency was American diversity. Diversity of political, social, and economic ideals, tied into religious, ethnic, and geographical influences seemed to dominate the minds of the young nation moving into a sectionalist way of life. Obviously, then, one major development in American diversity was the birth of sectionalism and the rise of democratic ideals. As stated by ‘The American Pageant’, “Much of the nation was turning away from post-Ghent nationalism and toward states’ rights and sectionalism.” The only prevalent concentration of nationalist thinkers gathered in New England, which was only about ¼ of the country at the time. Sectionalism and liberal ideals seemed to dominate the political field, giving the conservative, predominantly unitarian north a run for their money. Another major development in American diversity over the span of J.Q. Adams’s presidency was the ever-so controversial topic of slavery. Tensions between the north and the south on this front seemed to grow significantly over the entire 19th century, especially in this time of inevitable antebellum (1820s/30s). While the conservative north had strong arguments against slavery, the south was ever-so-steadily growing in power. A conflict began to arise between the two viewpoints. While the full blown antebellum was at least another ten years away, this time of relative calm before the storm was crucial to the development of antebellum thinking, and by extension, the Civil War.

Known as a “Yankee Misfit”, John Quincy Adams’s reign was essentially the extension of James Monroe’s presidential arm. With many similar viewpoints and results, it is fair to note that Adams and Monroe were two of the most similar presidents to take office one after the other. Their mutually eager desires to promote a well-developed road and canal system, their support of the Hamiltonian ‘American System’, and their advocacy of one strong, independent nation, these nationalists were no doubt mutually radical in thought and conservative in action. However, there are a few problematic aspects of this similarity in thought. One being that nationalism was an outdated system of ideals by the mid-1820s (when JQA took office). He lacked individuality, and therefore was not overly popular with the people. Another problem with this mindset is that it had nothing new to it. With sectionalism on the rise, as well as the existence of morbidly difficult social issues, such as slavery, Adams’s ideas were again outdated, and furthermore not overly helpful to the existing issues faced by the United States. For Adams’s lack of individuality and innovation, consequently paired with minimal results, he deserves a C- for his term as president.

In a time when distinguishments made between political parties is as fuzzy and unclear as a broken television screen, presidential nominees relied primarily on regional endorsement. At the end of the day, the lack of political parties at the end of the era of good feelings was an ultimate disbenefit to the presidential nominees. Sections of the United States could be divided into three major regions: the north, the south, and the west. JQA looked for his support from the north, whereas Andrew Jackson sought support from his homeland, nestled in the west. While the west fought for further expansion and democracy, the north wanted a stronger economy and a nationalist resurgence throughout the government. With seemingly equal support from both sides, the election of 1824 ended in what seemed to be a tie in the popular and electoral votes. This draw in the presidential election led to the infamous tie-breaker conducted by Henry Clay, otherwise known as the “Corrupt Bargain.” Clay’s persuasive power in Congress was the determining factor in not only who would reign as president for the next four years, but also how Adams’s relationship with Congress would grow over his presidential term. With equal representation from each existing political viewpoint at the time, JQA’s relationship with Congress was somewhat divided. Some parts proved more influential than others, especially different sections of the cabinet which advocated the majority of the president’s political stances; namely, Secretary of the Treasury Richard Rush, Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard, and of course, Secretary of State Henry Clay. Although these members of the cabinet seem like strong representatives, they were met by their equally powerful counterparts; in this case, Secretaries of War James Barbour and Peter B. Porter, as well as the Attorney General from Virginia, William Wirt. These equally represented heads in congress symbolized the two separate viewpoints on Adams's political stances, as well as the controversial infamy, the "Corrupt Bargain."

The unexceptional administration of J.Q. Adams accomplished very little over its four-year reign. Its accomplishments can be broken up into three dominating parts, internal improvements, the Panama Congress, and the Tariff of Abominations. Overall, it is not a grueling task to narrow down which action taken by the administration was the most beneficial. The president’s views on the importance of internal improvements, such as the construction of roads and canals, were no doubt the leading aspect of his political stances. He was, in effect, the first president to wholeheartedly endorse federally sponsored internal improvements, and on a controversial note, he harbored no constitutional qualms about the implementation of such improvements. While president Adams had big plans following his belief in internal improvements, more often than not his plans were far too ambitious and inconceivable for the skeptical Congress, who wanted to remain rooted to the constitution and not wander from its comfortable wings of prosperity. A few examples of JQA’s high hopes for federally sponsored improvements was his proposal of a network of roads and canals, a national university, and an astronomical observatory. The skeptical attitude of Congress quickly shot down these ambitious proposals. Throughout his many attempts at improvement, Adams only obtained the westward extension of the Cumberland Road into Ohio and the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. These actions by the JQA administration showed the president’s desire for growth and expansion to the west, and also his ambition to contribute to the federally sponsored internal improvements of the nation. While these actions were relatively brief and not overly remarkable, they were an adequate representation of the administration of John Quincy Adams, and can be concluded as the most beneficial action taken by the administration. On the other hand, the action taken by the administration which had the most negative outcome was the Tariff of Abominations. In 1828, president Adams proposed a high tariff on imported manufactured goods in order to protect domestic industry, then centered in New England. This action was most unfavorable in the south. As heavy consumers of manufactured goods with little manufacturing industry of their own, tariffs in general were hostile to the southerners. They sought to kill the measure by amending the bill to make it overly odious to the northern and southern regions, creating an inevitable veto in Congress. This rebellion failed, and the tariff became law in 1828. The south reacted angrily because they believed that the tariff discriminated against them. Southerners felt that they were being treated unequally on an economic scale, because they sold their cotton and other farm produce on ground unprotected by tariffs, but were forced to purchase their manufactured goods in a heavily protected American market. Not only did the Tariff of 1828 affect the south economically, but much deeper issues underlay the southern outcry, particularly the growing anxiety of possible federal interference with the important institution of slavery in the south. The tariff also led to the corrupt “Nullies” which sprouted from South Carolina in an attempt to muster the necessary two-thirds vote for nullification in the South Carolina legislature. All in all, this action taken by the administration was poorly executed, and much of Adams’s criticism comes from this action of unforeseeable civil disunity.

Throughout his presidency of few accomplishments, John Quincy Adams did little for future generations. His ideas were centered on the there and then and was much more heavily concerned with his own ideas for internal improvement and economic growth to contribute much of anything for later generations. Even his greatest accomplishment, the westward extension of the Cumberland Road into Ohio, was short-lived, in that the National Road soon became an unexceptional interstate highway, much like countless others in the nation less than 100 years later. JQA’s administration is known to be one of the least productive in the 19th-century. Though ambitious for the time being, nothing more than an interstate was established during his reign to accentuate Adams’s good-natured philosophy and highly hopeful political ideals.

In conclusion, it is a fair assessment to state that the country, after the reign of J.Q. Adams, was left in a state worse off than when it began. For one, the Tariff of 1828 was a terrible lead-in to the following presidency; it left a large and irritable mess for President Jackson. Ranked in the upper-bottom half of all presidents (Degregorio 796), the rank of a poor C- designated earlier to the president, after further assessment, still stands. His actions taken were nothing overly useful to the country in the relative state it was in at the time, and they also left the country in a worse state than it was originally. Though good-natured, President John Quincy Adams struggled to work his way to the top, and was cut-short by his overly ambitious ways of thought matched by the stubbornness, not to mention near-disunity, of Congress in the mid-19th century.

**Bibliography**   Degregorio, William A.. "John Quincy Adams." The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. 6th edition ed. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, Inc., 2005. 89-103. Print.

Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. 12th ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Print.

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