W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1997 Keeping the republic: Ideology and the diplomacy of John Adams, James Madison and John Quincy Adams Robert W. Smith College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Robert W., "Keeping the republic: Ideology and the diplomacy of John Adams, James Madison and John Quincy Adams" (1997). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623906. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-egg6-sf57 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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KEEPING THE REPUBLIC: IDEOLOGY AND THE DIPLOMACY OF JOHN ADAMS, JAMES MADISON AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Robert W. Smith 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9805165 UMI Microform 9805165 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. AH rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Robert w. Smith Approved, April 1997 Edward Pa Crapol XintioJ Michael McGif by $ Charles F . Hobson university Vegas 1 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my mother, Claire w. Smith, and to the memory of my father, Robert W. Smith, Sr. XJLJ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1: THE REPUBLICAN WORLD 2 CHAPTER 2: THE DIPLOMACY OF INDEPENDENCE 43 CHAPTER 3: THE DISILLUSIONING OF A REPUBLICAN 95 CHAPTER 4: THE BOLINGBROKEAN MOMENT 124 CHAPTER 5: EXTENDING THE SPHERE 164 CHAPTER 6: ENGINES OF THE EXECUTIVE 205 CHAPTER 7: THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS 233 CHAPTER 8: THE EDUCATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 285 CHAPTER 9: REPUBLICS AND EMPIRES 314 CHAPTER 10: AN OPPOSITION WHIG 366 CONCLUSION 395 BIBLIOGRAPHY 404 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first acknowledgement goes to someone who is not around to see this dissertation. My father died in 1993, when I was at the beginning of this project. Like the three main figures in this study, I first became interested in politics from listening to my father. This dissertation is product of that bond between us. I cannot begin to calculate Dad's influence on me, or my debt to him, or how much I wish he were here to read this. For the last few years, my mother had endured this dissertation with me, always with a sympathetic ear. She, like my brother Matt, also knew what topic to avoid while I was visiting. I would like to thank my committee; John Selby, Edward Crapol, Michael McGiffert and Charles Hobson. Their suggestions and attention to detail saved me from errors of various sorts. They also deserve thanks for putting up with a temperamental author. My outside reader, Joseph A. Fry, deserves special thanks for stepping in on very short notice. The College of William and Mary and the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati provided financial support. I would like to thank the following for their help with my research; Daniel Preston of the James Monroe Papers, Special Collections and Interlibrary Loan of Swem Library, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, all at the College of William and Mary; Alderman Library and the James Madison Papers at the University of Virginia; the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the American Antiquarian Society. Finally, I would like to thank my friends at William and Mary, particularly (but certainly not exclusively) Richard and Ginny Chew, Mary Carroll Johansen, Chris and Chris Joyce, Lynn Nelson, Dave Rawson and Antoinette van Zelm. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the extent to which the political ideology that formed the basis for the American republic shaped American diplomacy, using John Adams, James Madison and John Quincy Adams as case studies. American statesmen drew on a variety of sources for republican principles of diplomacy. The law of nations and the Scottish political economists supplied the ideas of an international balance of power and freedom of trade. English writers of the Opposition Whig school provided concepts such as political separation from Europe, reliance on a navy for defense, abhorrence of a standing army and, indirectly, the belief that the United States could use its economic power to secure its diplomatic goals. John Adams began his career with a high degree of confidence in the virtue of the American people and the coercive power of American trade. He combined a classical martial ethic with an Opposition Whig strategic sense. Adams's experience in Europe disproved these beliefs, and as president he fell back on the republican realpolitik, based on naval power and separation from Europe, suggested by the Opposition Whig school. James Madison never held out a classical model of virtue and never lost faith in the coercive power of American commerce. His combination of political economy with Opposition thought led him to reject both an army and a navy as monarchical tools of diplomacy. He saw the Constitution as a vehicle for harnessing American economic power. Madison's conception of a republican diplomacy led him, as secretary of state and president, to rely on the Embargo and similar economic measures. John Quincy Adams combined republican realpolitik with a sense of Christian purpose and saw American government and diplomacy as a vehicle for moral improvement. Adams's republic rested on a continental union and a diplomacy directed against European colonization, as a manifestation of monarchy. Non-colonization included removing Spain as a neighbor in North America, preventing European political encroachment in the Western Hemisphere, and securing a hemisphere-wide consensus on neutral rights. As a congressman and critic of slavery-driven expansion, Adams demonstrated the persistence of Opposition Whig thought in American politics. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. KEEPING THE REPUBLIC: IDEOLOGY AND THE DIPLOMACY OF JOHN ADAMS, JAMES MADISON AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1: THE REPUBLICAN WORLD When asked at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention what the convention had created, Benjamin Franklin answered that the delegates had given the American people a republic, "if you can keep it."1 Keeping the republic placed a double burden on the founding generation: to preserve liberty and free institutions at home and to defend national interests abroad. John Quincy Adams captured this duality in 1837 when he observed that "the Declaration of