A Study of The' Political Career of The Second President of The United States John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts (Peil), to the second President of the United States who served on the first Continental Congress and helped draft the Constitution ("John Adams the Diplomatic President"), John Adams and his wife Abagail (Peil). During the first years of the Revolution, John Quincy received his education principally by instruction from his father and mother. At ten years of age he accompanied his father on several diplomatic missions to Europe. While in Paris, attending a private school, he learned to speak French fluently and then studied at the University of Leiden. By the time Adams returned to the states in 1785, he was well versed in classical languages, history, and mathematics. Adams finished his education at Harvard in 1787, and then began to practice law in Boston (Bemis), without much success ("John Adams the Diplomatic President"). At age twenty-six he was appointed Minister of the Netherlands by George Washington, and later promoted to the Berlin Legation. Adams was elected to the United States Senate in 1802 as a result of his accomplishments. Six years later Adams was appointed Minister to Russia by President Monroe. Monroe also chose Adams to become secretary of state. In this position Adams gained a great deal of respect and was considered one of America's greatest secretaries of state. This earned him a nomination for President in the election of 1824 ("John Quincy Adams").

The election of 1824 was a landmark election. It was the first in which popular vote actually mattered. In the past the election had been left up to the state legislature. Only six states decided to use this policy. The other sixteen states decided to choose presidential electors by popular vote ("John Adams the Diplomatic President"). There were four candidates for the presidency: William H. Crawford, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and of course John Q. Adams. All four candidates were nominally Democratic-Republicans, so the election would be decided without party affiliation. When the sixteen states that had chosen to use popular votes had voted, Jackson had 153,544 popular votes (43.1%), Adams polled108, 740 in popular votes (30.5%), Clay received 47,136 popular votes (13.2%), and

Crawford came in last receiving only 46,618 (13.1%). Jackson had won the popular votes but the Electoral College only gave him 99 votes, which was thirty-two votes short of a majority. They gave Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. Because no majority was reached, the House of Representatives met under the twelfth amendment to select the president from the top three candidates. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, was eliminated, but still had the most influence in determining the outcome of the election. Clay gave his support to Adams and he won the election by one vote. Adams then selected Clay as his secretary of state. This caused many problems in his presidency. Jackson and his followers were outraged and claimed a "corrupt bargain" had taken place between Adams and Clay. Because of all of the chaos surrounding the election Adams and his Vice President John C. Calhoun had a very difficult four years in the white house ("John Adams the Diplomatic President").

During his presidency, John Quincy Adams wanted to improve the conditions of society by sponsoring projects and institutions. He wanted Congress to support a system of internal improvements including roads, canals, harbors, and rivers. He believed that the North could be a factory based economy and could exchange cotton and "western foodstuff" with the south for manufactured goods. Adams also proposed a plan to create a "national market that included: roads, canals, a national university, a national astronomical observatory, and other initiatives." Congress questioned the abilities of a President that had only been elected by one vote, and did not support his plans. Adams only succeeded in getting an extension of Cumberland Road in to Ohio, and a canal built between the Ohio River and the Chesapeake Bay ("John Adams the Diplomatic President"). Adams opponents in Congress also hindered any progress in foreign affairs by denying financial funds to support foreign travel of delegates ("The Six of Clubs"). Another problem Adams encountered in his presidency was his ailing health. Adams suffered from insomnia, indigestion, eye discomfort, nervous anxiety, and mental depression. Adams is also the first known president to have hemorrhoids. To alleviate his discomfort, Adams developed a habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River near the White House. He continued this until he was 79 years old ("The Sixth of Clubs"). Unfortunately Adams' wife and First Lady could not alleviate her depression by jumping in the river for a swim.

Adams met Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams on his trip to the Netherlands when he was 27. They were married in London in 1794. She became the only first lady to have been born outside of the US, and he became the first President to be married overseas. Adams win brought them to the White House. Louisa's joy over her husbands win and of moving into the White House was diminished by the hostility following the elections. This hostility brought on deep depression and worsened her already poor health. Despite her health Louisa played the part of the First Lady well, attending engagements and even continuing the Tuesday evening dinners, and theater parties that she was famous for before the presidency. Louisa stood by her husband through everything: his constant moving, his defeat, and his betrayal of his Vice President, John C. Calhoun ("Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams").

John C. Calhoun became Vice President in March 1825 under President Adams. During the Adams administration Calhoun had more power than any other vice president in history. Under a rule change in 1823 Calhoun was the first and last vice president to be able to make committee assignments ("Series of 'Historical Minutes'"). In the election of 1828, Calhoun left Adams and gave his support to Adams' opponent Andrew Jackson. Under Jackson, Calhoun was elected to his second term as vice president, when Jackson took a victorious win over Adams. From 1811 until his death he served in the federal government successively as congressman, secretary of war, vice president, senator, secretary of state, and again as senator (Wiltse).

John Quincy Adams, despite his defeat, was elected to another seventeen years in congress, where he had numerous accomplishments. "As the only president to serve in an elected office after his presidency, Adams is viewed as the embodiment of the partisan but highly-principled politician who focused on antislavery as the means of challenging Jacksonian Democracy. The same high-minded and rigidly uncompromising stance on moral issues that so weekend his effectiveness as a president served him well as a representative in Congress from 1831-1848. In taking up the battle against slavery, Adams greatly redeemed himself in the eyes of history for his failure as a president to shape a national consensus ("John Adams the Diplomatic President")." John Adams died in 1848 from a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives. Based on my research I do not believe he could have been elected in the year 2000, because of his unwillingness to compromise and bend his morals to please his people. "To the end, 'Old Man Eloquent (John Adams)' had fought for what he considered right ("John Quincy Adams")."