Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1936 The Attitude of John Quincy Adams Toward the Presidency Helen Tichenor Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tichenor, Helen, "The Attitude of John Quincy Adams Toward the Presidency" (1936). Master's Theses. 395. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/395 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1936 Helen Tichenor THE ATTITUDE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TOYlARD THE PRES IDE!lCY BY Mother Helen Tiohenor~R.S.C.J. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the require­ ments for the degree of Master of Arts in Loyola University February~ 1936 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I - The Inheritance of John Quincy Adams Page 1 John Quincy Adams, an administrator; his theory of government; the New England temperament vs. the Southern; its effect on government in the United States; the influence of John Adams on his son; Secretary to Francis Dana; influence of Voltaire; Deism; rationalism; influence of enlightened despots; journey to Sweden,and Denmark; treaties with Great Britain; decision to return to America; entrance at Harvard. Chapter II - John Quincy Adams - Federalist " 25 The critical period of his life; difficulties of Washington's adlninistration; influence of French Revolution on American politics; Marcellus Papers; their influence on Washington; arrival of Genet; his attitude toward Washington; conduct of Americans; Columbus Papers; consequences in Adams' later life. Chapter III - John Quincy Adams - Republican " 40 French Revolution continued; continued difficulties of neutrality; the Embargo question; John Quincy Adams placed on the Senate Committee; consternation of the courrbry at the Embargo; Adams' reasons for upholding the measure; effect of the Embargo on the country; New England plans secession; Adams' warnings to Jefferson; repeal of the Embargo; Adams' appointIOOnt as Russian Ambas sad or. Chapter IV - John Quinoy Adams - Imperialist Page 55 Change in Adams' attitude toward the presidency; Adams made Seoretary of State; diplomatio importanoe of the period; problem of reoognizing South Amerioan republios; its oonneot! on with the Florida question; Jackson's expedit ion into Florida; consequent difficulties with England; with Spain; Jackson's condemnation by the Cabinet; Adams upholds Jackson; oession of Florida to the United States. Chapter V - John Quincy Adams - Nationalist tI Formation of the Holy Alliance; England's alarm; Canning's proposal; Cabinet discussion concerning it; Monroe's despondency over the situation; Adams' encouragement; Monroe's vacillation; Adams' first draft of the "Monroe Doctrine"; his appeal to Monroe to avoid any pretext for war on the part of the Holy Alliance; Monroe's fear of Congress; Adams upholds American isolation; proclamation of the Doctrine; its approval by the nation. Chapter VI - John Quincy Adams - President " 80 His presidency an anti-olimax; ciroumstances of his election; his presidential program; freedom fram party spirit; internal improve­ ments; oonfliot over states' rights; problem of public lands linked with that of internal improvements; compromising tendency of the legislation of the period; Adams' idea of civilization; a national universitJr; the university a bulwark of respeot for authority; Adams' interpretation of the Constitution; a resume. Bibliography If 95 Bibliographical Essay " 100 CHAPTER I THE INHERITANCE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Theodore Parker. a leading Protestant minister of the nineteenth oentury. makes an interesting comment in a tuneral address preached at Boston in memory of JOhn Quincy Adams. on an obvious olassifioation of great men. There are. he says. the Discoverers of truth at first hand. Whether it be the truth of literature or politics. of philosophy or religio These are the men who blaze the trail. who force their way into the depths of unknown forests. and who. beoause of their prophet's vision and explor- er's oourage. lay the foundation of empires. Following upon the Disooverers oome the Organizers. - men of oonstruotive minds. who form the institutions of the world upon these foundations. and who are the Napoleons. great and little. of history. Last of all in time and in greatness. come the Administrators of What the first and seoond have aocomplished. men of good oommon sense. who carry on in a praotioal and effioient way the ideal sean by the first and adopted by the second.l In this third olass. the orator plaoed John Quincy Adams. At first thougnt the reader is inolined to disagree. Efficiency connotes suooess 1. Theodore Parker. Discourse on the Death of John Quincy Adams. March 5. 1848. Reprinted from 'Eisachusetts"Q'ii'arter1l ReView. 1848. 1-8. ---- 1 2 and few would call the Administration of the sixth President of the United states a suocess. Not even an seoond thought, but only after some depth ot investigation, does one commence to realize that John Quincy Adams was indeed a great administrator, gifted in mind and charaoter with all that such a title implies. True, he himself tailed in the offioe. In all that lay dearest to his heart his purposes were defeated. He failed ot re-elec­ tion and went out of otfice in a storm of unpopularity. But this was a tailure due largely to oiroumstances over which he had no oontrol, a tailur that may well be forgotten in the memory ot the servioes he rendered to the eight more suocessfUl administrators with 'Whom he was contemporaneous. Administrators, in the strict sense of the te~ are not innovators but inheritors. With their inheritanoe, they govern, - and their responsibility lies in their unawervingly taithfUl interpretation ot the Constitutions by which they rule. To use the word interpretation is . immediately to imply that the inheritanoe is twotold. Constitutions are lifeless unless they are interpreted, and the administrator lII1st bring his own training to his interpretation. In his training will lie the roots ot his attitude. This first chapter, then, on "The Attitude of John Quincy Adams toward the Presidency," lII1st neoessarily revi~ his early education. In a letter to Mr. George Banoroft, written from Quincy in Ootober, 1835, he states his theory of good government. Though Adams wrote this letter 'When he was an old man, it may well be quoted in this ohapter, for he based it on Aristotle's definitions ot the three simple forms ot govern­ ment, - definitions he had learned in Greek at the age of eleven.2 The 2. ~ Writings .2!: ~ quinoy Adams, W.C. Ford, II, 189. I"!". 3 first tor.m, aooording to Aristotle, is demooraoy, the government of the a good tor.m Whose,danger is to desoend into oohlooraoy, or the peep1 fI, , go-vernment ot the mob. The seoond is aristooraoy, the government of the best, _ also a good form, but with its oorresponding danger of desoending into oligarchy, the government of the few. In this event, the ff!1¥f will inevitably be the rioh and therefore the ruling power of the aristooratio State is Property. The third of Aristotle's forms is monarohy, - the government of one aooording to the laws of the land, and its danger is despotism. "Now the theory of good government which I have imbibed from childhood," oontinues John Quincy Adams, "Whioh I was taught by the instruotions of my father, whioh I learnt in every stage of the history of mankind, whioh the French Revo- lution at the dawn of my political life brought up again by experiment, and which, from. that day to this, has been tested by a oontinual sucoession of experiments by almost every oivilized nation in llbrope, all terminating in the same results, fix- ing it upon my mind as an oracle of Holy Writ, is a government compounded of the three elements, - a government instituted for the proteotion both of persons and of property, to secure alike the rights of persons and of things. The right of property is a natural right as much as the right of life, whioh is merely personal, but as the earth was given by the Creator to mankind in oommon, the distribution of property within it is left to be settled among the human raoe by physioal foroe or by argument, oompaot, or oovenant. This I take it to be the origin of government. It is founded on persons and on property. And if Demooraoy is founded exolusively on persons and not on property, I fear it will follow the tendenoy of its nature and degenerate into oohlooracy and Lynch Law, burning down convents, and hanging Abolitionists or g~blers, without judge or jury, without fear of God to restrain, and without remorse to punish."3 .3. Letter to George Banoroft, Ootober 25,1835. Published in Bulletin of !!! ~ Public Library, 246. 4 riA compound of the three elements," -does he mean to say a union of the aristocracy of the North with the monarchism of the South wiil result in the demooracy he champions? He goes on in this letter to indicate that the division between the party believing government to be founded upon property may be fotmd rw:ming almost in parallel lines through the whole of our early history, and he concludes with an eloquent plea for "the true theory of government" which provides alike for the protection and seourity both of persons and property.4 Here it would seem is the crux of his greatness and his failure. Freedom from party spirit - not from political parties, these he believed were beneficial to a democracy,5 - union of North and South, in order that the general good of the United States might result, these were ideals unattainable in the age in whioh he lived.