John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
Review by Dave Gamrath
One-liner: Once again, reading history indicates that history really does repeat itself, and the story of our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, reminds us that the politics of today are not new.
Book Review:
Repeatedly, books I’ve read on American history keep bringing up John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. So, I decided it was time to read his biography by prolific biographer Fred Kaplan. Some elements of his story I knew, but many I did not. But by far the most striking element of Adam’s story was how the politics of his time are in many ways similar to the politics of today, and how the divisions we currently see within America are not new.
But first, a quick review of Adams’ life. Five generations of Adams’ had lived in colonial Massachusetts by the time John Quincy was born there in 1767, the eldest son of Abigale and John Adams. John Adams was one of America’s Founding Fathers, as well as the second President of the United States, and John Quincy’s childhood was deeply impacted by his father’s service to America. Much of John Quincy’s youth was spent in Europe, joining his father who was serving as a diplomat. This allowed John Quincy to learn several languages, as well as diplomatic skills that he put into effect when he too served America as a diplomat, with postings to the Netherlands, Portugal and Prussia. In 1802, John Quincy was elected to the US Senate from Massachusetts. Throughout his life, John Quincy often refused to adopt political party views over his own, and for this he was not re-elected to the Senate.
Instead, America’s forth President, James Madison, appointed John Quincy as the first US Minister to Russia. He served in multiple diplomatic roles throughout Madison’s presidency, establishing himself as America’s top diplomat, and for this, was appointed Secretary of State in 1817 by the then new President, James Monroe. John Quincy achieved multiple successes as a diplomat, including helping to negotiate the treaty to end the war of 1812, the treaty to acquire Florida, as well as being a key author of the Monroe Doctrine that opposed European colonialism in the Americas. John Quincy rode these successes to the Presidency in 1824, but only after the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, after no candidate received enough electoral votes. Sadly, he was a somewhat inconsequential President, running into the populist machine of Andrew Jackson, who worked to defeat his initiatives, and defeated him in the 1828 Presidential election. Against all likelihoods, John Quincy decided to return to service as a member of Congress in 1831, where he served as one of Congress’s most powerful members until his death in 1848.
Throughout his story, slavery is a constant thread. Adams was a strongly outspoken opponent of slavery. “All his life he feared the dissolution of the Union. Slavery would destroy it, he believed.” Other important differences existed between North and South, but slavery was the hammer driving the wedge. The Constitutional compromise of 1787 established slaves as 3/5ths of a person, and gave the South a huge election advantage, allowing the South to control government for much of America’s first eighty years. They used this advantage for their primary objective of advancing slavery.
Like previous Presidents, including Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Andrew Jackson was a slave owner. Jackson was a war hero, having led America’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans, and Jackson manipulated this notoriety to present himself as a man of the people. But in reality, Jackson was mostly a violent racist, not only trying to advance slavery, but also believing it right to violently remove Native Americans from their native lands. When elected in 1828, Jackson “brought to the office a rush of strong executive authoritarianism, intemperate demagoguery, the spoils system under the guise of reform, harsh racism, strong support for slavery, and anti-intellectual ignorance.” Jackson had no middle name; if he did, it might well have been Donald. Jackson believed he had the power to do about whatever he wanted to do, and rallied his base behind him with continuous, slanderous propaganda. Jackson was also passionately against our national banking system, and actually shut down the National Bank, making it a bit ironic that we still celebrate Jackson with his image on the twenty-dollar bill.
John Quincy Adams did his best to lead the fight against the expansion of slavery, but to no avail. As the years passed, Southerners became more and more volatile towards any discussion about slavery. Sadly, John Quincy Adams was correct in his predicting that the end to the brutal, inhumane institution could only come through a long and violent civil war.
Today, America is sadly still struggling with the racist beliefs and values that were held so passionately by many of our Founding Fathers. America was expressly founded on the concept of white male privilege, privileges that many Americans today refuse to acknowledge, let alone work to end. Our country was theoretically founded on the foundations of liberty and freedom. The truth is very much the opposite. Throughout American history, there have been many battles to gain basic civil rights for Americans not born as white males. Our struggles today against hatred and racism are not new; they are embedded in American history. Today’s divisive politics are very representative of the politics throughout our past, and having a dishonest President bent on dividing the country for personal gain is just history repeating itself.
What will future historians write about current times? One hopes that future historians will write that today’s Americans somehow found the will to put social justice above personal gain. BTW, Kaplan’s biography is quite readable.
Reviewer Opinion:
Like many biographies, Kaplan’s biography of John Quincy Adams runs long, but overall is quite a good read.
Reviewer Rating of Book:
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