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John Quincy Adams Born: July 11, 1767 Died: February 23, 2848 Party: Whig In office from March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829 Vice President: John Calhoun

American Identity: Going into the Election of 1824, there were 4 candidates running for president. After the decision was given to the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States. Although he was not the first choice among the people, he was determined and followed through and became the president. This set a good example and described what every American should be like: determined to accomplish their dreams. Adams was the minority in the election but came from behind to gain the respect of the country. Also, Adams had a great deal of nationalism and pride in being an American and was a great example for the country to look up to. Overall, Adams showed that being a true American means you can never give up and push forwards towards your goals with everything you have.

For his efforts as president, John Quincy Adams deserves a B-. On the positive side, he had great plans to further develop the country with roads and canals or internal improvements and was excellent in his relations with foreign nations. On the other hand, Adams failed to expand the nation westward and reward the people with what they wanted and angered the Jacksonians by passing the Tariff of Abominations (1828). In addition, Adams did not do any single event that stood out above all of the others. He had very good ideas on how to build the country, but he never expanded America and was not popular among the people. He was not elected for a second term and was replaced by Jackson who had completely different ideas compared to his. Adams had a very neutral presidency; he didn’t do anything good to stand out, but didn’t do anything too harmful to the country.

Being the minority in the election, Adams struggled to win the support of the people. In his inaugural address, Adams stated that he wanted to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. He also wanted equal rights among all people and equality between the state and federal government. A powerful statement in his speech was that he wanted to create a Union, justice, tranquility, common defense, general welfare and blessings of liberty for the people and for the previous fathers of our country. People like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who played a enormous role in shaping the United States worked so hard and John Quincy Adams wanted to keep that standard and tradition going and not let them down. In respecting the state governments, Adams said that any issue within a state that only concerns them can be dealt with by that state individually, but any issue that involves America as a whole has to be dealt with by the federal government. Adams wanted to create a safe environment that is peaceful and gives people the right to religion and thought. All around, J. Q. Adams was just looking to create a better nation like any good president would.

Many of Adams main goals were to construct roads and canals across the country so there could be some kind of connection between the cities for trade. He also wanted to establish a national university and an astronomical observatory. Although the observatory was not very popular among the people the public was all for establish roads. Adams was successful in creating roads for trade and transportation. Eliminating the national debt was another goal of Adams as well as creating factories for advanced manufacturing. He succeeded in both of these objectives by significantly lowering the debt and placing a higher tariff on goods to build more factories. Finally, Adams wanted to stop land sales so the nation would quit expanding west. Adams was more focused on internal improvements and did not want to expand which was countering against the people’s opinions. Adams had many goals and was successful in most of them.

In his cabinet, Adams appointed Henry Clay as the Secretary of State which was not a popular decision among the people. Adams and Clay stuck together in the election and some people think the election was staged.The Jacksonians claimed that this was a “corrupt bargain” and that these two had some trick up their sleeve. Due to this controversial election, many of his cabinet members developed a negative attitude towards Adams in the beginning and went against most of his ideas. During his presidency, Adams only removed 12 public servants from the federal government in place of his own people when he had the power to remove as many as he wanted. Some people took this against Adams and said he shouldn’t be president if he is not using all of his power. This seemed to be a good decision of Adams part though because he was the minority in the election and he did not want to make more people mad by replacing the whole Congress with members of his own party. Later when the Tariff of Abominations was in play, the South was opposed to it and vice president John Calhoun argued with South Carolina for nullification declaring the tariff unconstitutional. Adams did not have the best relationship with his cabinet.

Despite all of the negative things, Adams had some very successful internal improvements within the country. Attempting to accomplish his goal of establishing roads and canals across the country, Adams expanded the Cumberland Road further into Ohio. Also, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and the Portland to Louisville Canal were constructed. Adams also connected the Great Lakes to the Ohio River system which further connected the trade routes. The Erie Canal was also finished during his term. All of these canals were very useful for the ships and steamboats that were recently developed to speed up and intensify the amount of trade going on. Railroads were also starting to be built at this time. Another positive was Adams foreign policies. Throughout his eight years as Secretary of State before becoming president and his single term as president, he was a fantastic diplomat for the United States and signed many treaties with European and Middle Eastern nations. An example was his treaties of reciprocity where any benefit or advantage the other country in the treaty gets, the other will get as well. Adams had great foreign relations with Europe and avoided any war and improved the roads and canals in America.

However, John Quincy Adams had many unpopular decisions during his presidency. First of all, Adams never expanded the nation westward or appealed to the people’s desire on this topic. The farmers and land owners in the west wanted to move west and gain more land, but Adams was against it. Also, Adams was very generous towards the Native Americans and didn’t want to harm them. He tried to make peaceful agreements with them but they never worked and America was not expanding. At one point the federal government tried to force the Indians west but Adams defended the Indians and the plan failed. This was terrifying for the West and Jacksonians because they were all about westward expansion and Adams wouldn’t let them do it. Once Jackson became president, the Indians were forced out along the Trail of Tears and the people were happy. Finally, the big problem in Adams presidency was the Tariff of Abomination in 1828. This act was very unpopular in the South because of the increased taxes on wool which was a big product they produced. The South would sell the cotton and wool they produced to the North with no extra tariff on them but when they bought goods, there were very high tariffs on them. This helped the North which was where Adams was from and led the US to buy fewer goods from Britain. As a result of the Tariff, John Calhoun secretly wrote the South Carolina Exposition which announced the tariff unconstitutional and nullified it. If Jackson, who had the support of the South, would not have become president soon after this, there would have been major problems in America.

To the satisfaction of the people, Adams was not elected for his second term. Andrew Jackson became president in a very nasty election. Both sides criticized each other a lot and made jokes about the opposing president. The actions of Adams greatly affected Jackson presidency because of the Tariff and the angered people in the South. Jackson had the whole side angry at the past president and would have to be wise in his decisions and strive to appeal to the people. Lucky for them Jackson was for the South and would work to expand westward and help out the southern economy. Jackson had a lot to deal with as a result of some poor decisions made by Adams in his presidency.

At the end of John Quincy Adams presidency, America was suffering from the Tariff of Abominations but was striving due to the successful roads and canals built. Adams was not very popular among the people to start and at the end was probably even more unpopular. It was better off for Adams to not serve a second term and let someone who was for the South and West take over. America was starting to grow at this time period and having a president who did not want to expand set America back some. However, with the internal improvements Adams made, the country had some positives. Due to his success in building roads and canals, his failure in the Tariff of Abominations and expanding westward, but still remaining neutral in his actions, John Quincy Adams deserves a B- for his presidency.

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