University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1964 Brooks Adams and his politics in the nineteenth century Dan R. Bieri The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Bieri, Dan R., "Brooks Adams and his politics in the nineteenth century" (1964). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1714. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1714 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ]BtOOKS ADAMS AND HIS POLITICS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ty DAN R. BIERI B.A. Montana State University, 1962 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY 196L Approved by: . chairman, Board of Examiners Dean /Graduate School v AUG 2 1 1964 Date ' UMI Number: EP36184 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, If material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT UMI EP36184 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 (- TABLE CF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRQDÜGTIQN............ 1 I. HIS POLITICS IN THE 1 8 7 0 ' s ................................. lUS II. HIS POLITICS IN THE i B B O ' s ................................. kO III. HIS POLITICS 1890-1892............... 26 ly. HIS POLITICS 1893-1896.................................. 73 y . CONCLUSION ............o.ae.oooo»... 93 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................ 97 INTROmCTim Brooks Adams, the aristocratic Boston reformer of the Gilded Age and scholarly observer of the industrial American scene, belonged to a long established family tradition in scholarship and politics, that determined the character of his social and political criticism of the contanporary American scene. The heritage extended back into the Amer­ ican past to the arrival of the first Henry Adams who entered Boston, Massachusetts, around I636. This first Adams, given a plot of land at Mount Wolaston, later called Braintree, produced a living from the New England soil. For the next one hundred and twenty years the family lived quietly as Puritan freemen» Minor offices such as selectman from Braintree and surveyor of highways were held by several subsequent mem- bers of the family. But the only incident of note occurred when John Adams^ married Susanna Boylston, daughter of a prominent medical family 2 in colonial history. In the fifth generation John Adams achieved national recognition for service as a diplomat and politician. From his career stemmed a family tradition for public service that would continue nationally to 1936. John Adams in the eighteenth century set the tone of active pol­ itical and social leadership, and displayed the qualities of character ^Father of second President of the United States. ^James Truslow Adams, The Adams Family (New York? The Literary Guild, 1930), pp. 6-7. Hereafter cited as: Adams, Adams Family. ^Charles Francis Adams H , son of John Quincy Adams, Jr., and Secretary of the Navy under President Herbert Hoover, was the last of his family to hold a position of national prominence. 2 that would be the mainspring of the Adams tradition for the neort three generations. The primary political tenet upon which the Adams tradition re­ volved was an inherent belief that the political experiment in America must succeed. The secondary tenets of the family tradition were: a be- lief in a typically eighteenth centuiy approach to public and political issues, an aristocratic belief in an educated leadership, and a Puritan belief in continual self analysis. In a sense the Adams mind for at least four generations developed as a single mind with its frame of reference, the eighteenth centuiy. Each generation, unwilling to alter its stubborn principles, became increasingly aware of the family tradi- tion. John Adams served as the country's first vice-president and its second president. His son, John Quincy, was the sixth president and both, noted for their tactlessness in politics, failed to be re-elected. Both refused to become involved in emotionalism and were "guilty" of suggesting policies that were often politically unacceptable.^ ^When John Adams assumed office, James Monroe, who sympathized with the French Radicals, was replaced by Charles G„ Pinckney as Minis- ter of France. This action, together with the Jay Treaty angered the Directory at Paris; Pinckney was ordered home; French vessels were authorized to seize American vessels; and the French Minister to the United States was recalled. Most Federalists demanded war but Adams never succumbed to the war fever. He sent a delegation to Paris which drew up the Convention of 18OO, thus ending the United States' only entangling policy and affirming the principle that free ships make free goods. To the dismay of the extremists he had prevented the United States from being dragged into war. But he also ruined his political career. r^ge Smith, 178L-1826, Vol. II: John Adams (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1962), pp. 923-925, 927-932, passim. John Quincy Adams, in his first message to Congress in 1825, advocated the continuation of the Bank of the United States, a strong national government able to use its power in promoting the national 3 All four generations demanded that there be a place for a politi­ cal statesman who lived a public life dedicated to principle. The principle, of course, would be defined by the Adams tradition. To Charles Francis Adams, a statesman's first and greatest qualification constituted: . the mastery of the whole theory of morals which makes the foundation of all human society. The great and everlasting question of the right and wrong of every act whether of indi­ vidual men or collective bodies. The next is the application of the knowledge thus gained to the events of his time in a . sympathetic way.> The stu(^ of law was another tradition which Brooks Adams acquired from his family heritage. The members of each generation were trained in the conventional method of the time by attending Harvard and reading law under a lawyer of prominence. John Adams read law under James Putnam, John Quincy under Theophilus Parsons, Charles Francis under Daniel Web­ ster, while Henry, who studied at Harvard but never acquired a law degree, twice began his training under Horace Gray.^ Brooks Adams, with char­ acteristic independence, attended Harvard and took the law examination without reading law with anyone. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1873, and began a practice with Edward Jackson Lowell, Members of all four generations revealed an intense individualism. welfare, the establishment of a national university and the advancement of scientific knowledge with the construction of astronomical observa- tories. The West detested his support of the Bank of the United States and the South opposed his advocacy of a strong national government. As a result his administration suffered from chaos and antagonism. Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Union (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 19^6), pp. 69-78. ^Adams, Adams Family, pp. 276-277. ^J. C. Levenson, The Mind and Art of Henry Adams (Boston: Hough­ ton Mifflin Company, 19^7 ), pT%. h A determined^ eren rigid intellectnal individualism and independence marked all of the Adamses and they applied their intellectual powers unequivocally and at times dramatically to social and political ques- tions. They were convinced that the independence of the nation and the individual were inseparable. Occasionally in the careers of the Adamses a glaring example of independence of mind occurred. John Adams defended in the courts the highly unpopular British soldiers after the Boston 7 Massacre. John Quincy Adams in the controversy over the Monroe Doctrine opposed Monroe's cabinet and such eminent statesmen as Jefferson and Madison in maintaining that the United States would not be completely independent if it were not allowed to enjoy the same rights as other nations in the world community. % t h the same fiercely independent spirit, John Quincy Adams, Jr., said, when invited to speak before m@u- bers of the ax-confederacy in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 12, 1868, that he and his family had been anti-slavery politicians and sup­ porters of Lincoln.® In an open letter to the editor of the Boston Sunday Herald, Brooks Adams rebuked Governor Rice's refusal to extradite routinely one Mr. Kimpton at the request of the Governor of South Caro­ lina. Although Rice's decision was popular, Adams pointed out that Rice had violated the rendition clause of the Constitution.^ ^President Monroe and his cabinet (excluding Adams) were reacfy to abandon the nonentanglement principle and act with England in pre­ venting European intervention in the Spanish colonies. Monroe ultim­ ately agreed with Adams' nonentanglement policy. ®Robert Mirak, "John Quincy Adams, Jr., and the Reconstruction Crisis," New England Quarterly, XXXV (June, 1962), I87. As quoted from: "Speech of John Quincy Adams," Massachusetts and South Carolina (Boston, n.d,), p. 8. %rooks Adams, "The Kimpton Case," Boston Sunday Herald, Septm- ber 1, 1878, p. 6. The family not only had independence of mind but t h ^ were also superior intellects.