John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit
John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, at the family home in Braintree, MA. He was the second child born to the Adams’s, but the first son, and great expectations were placed on him from the word go, and he looked to live up to those expectations. JQA was a very smart child, and both his parents took his education directly in hand, first Abigail while John Adams was with the Continental Congress, then John, when JQA traveled with him on his diplomatic mission to France in November 1777.
Now, JQA was 11 years old when he made this trip, and by the time he hit France 6 weeks later, he had the rudiments of French down, and was enrolled in a local school. JQA was smart, learning several languages, including Latin, French, and Dutch. They were in Europe for a few years before returning briefly to the United States, then being asked again to return to Europe. On his second trip to Europe, John Adams took JQA and Adams second son, Charles Adams, with him. Both boys were enrolled in school again in France, but JQA was not enrolled for long. In the 18th Century, French was considered the language of diplomacy. When John Adams secretary Francis Dana was sent to Russia as a diplomatic envoy, JQA was sent with him to act as an interpreter, as Dana did not speak French very well. JQA was 13 years old.
He basically spent the next year traveling to, living in, and returning from Russia, joining his father and brother in Amsterdam. Adams and his sons spent several years in Europe, eventually being joined by Abigail and daughter Nabby. When JQA was 18, he returned from Europe to begin preparing for Harvard, to which he was accepted after bringing his Greek up to snuff. JQA distinguished himself well at Harvard, graduating second in his class, before beginning studies as a law clerk for Theophilus Parsons. Now, JQA did not want to be a lawyer; however, it was expected of him, as this was the path laid out for him by his mother and father. His time studying law and preparing for practice himself were probably to date his darkest times, and he sort of fell into a melancholy, given that he did not want to be a lawyer, yet here he was, studying law.
He did eventually complete his studies, and wanted to marry, falling in love with a young lady, Mary Frazier. The problem being that he was not in a position to support a wife and family, and in the 18th century, you just didn’t get married unless you could properly adult. And as John Adams pointed out to JQA, Abigail and John had other children that also needed looking after, so they were not able to help JQA out. JQA let Mary go and went through another period of depression.
When the nation first founded, though, and George Washington was president with John Adams as vice-president, JQA found himself as advocate of the President, who he admired greatly, and his father, who were both being maligned in the press by the French ambassador. So eloquently did JQA write, under the penname Publicus, that Washington appointed him minister to the Netherlands. JQA lived in morbid fear that he would receive appointment due to nepotism, that he had earned his spot in the diplomatic corps due to his father’s influence, rather than on his own merit. But Washington was able to convince him this was not so, and as JQA left for the Hague, taking his youngest brother Thomas Adams as a secretary. Adams was shortly sent to act as minister to England, pending the arrival of the permanent station, and while there, he met his future wife, Louisa Johnson. Now, she does not appear to be the great love of his life. I’m pretty sure he did love her, and I’m sure she loved him. Author James Traub seems to think they were a bit of an odd couple, with JQA being this very worldly, highly educated man, a diplomat and traveler, son of the Vice President of the United States, whereas Louisa was born on the wrong side of the sheets, with her parents not marrying until she was 10 years old. Additionally, while her father was a US expatriate and merchant, he was apparently not particularly successful, as shortly after JQA and Louisa married, her father and mother fled their creditors in England. One creditor tried to blackmail JQA into paying the bill—JQA told him no.
When Washington stepped down as president, with Adams stepping up, Washington encouraged Adams to keep JQA in the diplomatic corps. JQA again feared nepotism was securing his position, until his father advised he was sending JQA to Berlin in Prussia. This was NOT a plumb diplomatic posting, but it was an important one, being removed from the immediate intrigues in France and Britain. This remove, allowed one of JQA’s true gifts to shine: he was basically a penultimate chess player, and was able to observe the shifting pieces of European politics to see how those would effect America. And he was very adept at reading the chess board.
In Prussia, Louisa started developing the skills needed to be a diplomat’s wife. Traub seems to think that Louisa and JQA did not have the seamlessly happy marriage that Abigail and John Adams had. My interpretation so far is that Louisa brought life to JQA. He had been so buttoned up; always done everything he was told by his parents. Louisa was something he chose for himself, without parental approval. And while his salary was not much, he determined it was enough, and he married her. And she provided a counterpoint to him, not as a meek wife who would do what she was told, but as someone who could help him to look the part of the diplomat. Louisa was, by all accounts, quite charming. She certainly charmed the Prussian royal court. After a series of miscarriages, Louisa finally found her self pregnant, and it looked like she was going to carry the baby to term. When it came time for her lying in, the King of Prussia ordered the streets around her residence closed off, with guards posted to ensure no loud noises startled her into another miscarriage. And on April 12, 1801, Louisa gave birth to their first child, George Washington Adams.
When John Quincy returned to the United States in 1801, he didn’t know what he was going to do with his life. While trained as a lawyer, he did not want to be a lawyer. The job that he had done so well under President’s Washington and Adams didn’t really exist, as there wasn’t really a professional diplomatic corps at the time. So, he was a professional diplomat, at a time when the job didn’t really exist. But his years abroad had helped to quell his fear that he was only in the position he was in because his father was John Adams. He had proven his own meddle on the diplomatic playing field, and when he returned to the states, he had dinner with President Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison at the White House.
Afterwards, he traveled north and introduced his wife to his parents. It’s hard to say if Abigail and Louisa ever got along, but John Adams certainly liked his daughter in law well enough and found her quick witted and charming. And while John Quincy may have worried about his ability to care for a young family, he need not have. He was pretty astute at making investments and had amassed a tidy sum of approximately $43,704. All of this went south though, when the bank he had invested in and that held his parent’s assets, failed. John Quincy was able to pull the family out of the fire by selling some real estate he had purchased in and around Boston, and this allowed him to pay off creditors that now had claim to the family farm in Braintree, with the agreement that his parents had the use of it for life, and John Quincy would retain ownership upon their passing.
Having determined that the law was not what he wanted to be doing, John Quincy turned his eyes to politics, and was quickly voted in, first as State Senator in Massachusetts, then as Senator from Massachusetts to the Capitol. Here, his dogmatic determination to follow the letter of the law made him a man without a party. While nominally a Federalist, his ability to see the point the Republicans were making, and to agree with them when they were right, made him virtually hated among the remaining Federalists in power. And he was stubbornly insistent on what was right, and what was wrong. He agreed that impressment was a problem. The British underpaid their own sailors, so those sailors deserted to American ships where they were better paid and better treated. This was not America’s fault, but the British were making it America’s problem, as the British needed those sailors to keep fighting their war against Napoleon. John Quincy refused to negotiate, if the cost of negotiations was his own morality and ethical belief on a matter. This made him grossly unpopular amongst his fellow politicians, on both sides of the aisle, and made for some lonely years in Washington.
However, during one of his breaks from Congress, he received news that he was going to be offered the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard, a position which still exists today, and is and was very prestigious. Not wanting to give up his spot on the Senate, John Quincy was able to negotiate a half year at the school, where he would lecture twice a week, versus the traditional one a week. His lectures were so popular, that they were attended by auditors, as well as enrolled students, and always filled to overcrowding.
But tensions in Congress soon ramped up, making him outcast even at Harvard, due to his agreement with the Republicans on the matter of Embargo and no trade agreements. As Boston is a harbor town, and dependent on trade with both Britain and France to feed her people, this led to problems with Congress, and at Harvard. John Quincy, with his inimitable gift, saw the writing on the wall and knew he would not be re-elected to the Senate, and chose to retire instead. This left him free to focus on Harvard and teaching, which he enjoyed. In March 1809, John Quincy was in Washington to argue Fletcher v. Peck before the Supreme Court. On March 6, he was called to the White House, where newly sworn in President Madison informed him that Madison was putting forth John Quincy’s name for minister to Russia. The appointment was shot down, as Congress was not sure that we needed a minister in Russia; however, on July 4, John Quincy was informed that he was going to Russia as minister. Congress had changed their mind, and his nomination for the position was approved.
John Quincy and Louisa left for Russia on August 5, 1809, taking with them their youngest son, Charles Frances, and leaving their two oldest boys George and John, to be raised and taught by John and Abigail, and by John Quincy’s aunt and uncle, the Cranches. It was a very long and arduous journey, almost resulting in failure several times. But on October 22, 1809, the Adamses arrived in St. Petersburg, and John Quincy began his work.
While well received by Emperor Alexander and his Empress Elizabeth, Russia in general was not kind to the Adamses. While there, John Quincy received word that President Madison was nominating him for the Supreme court, which nomination was unanimously confirmed. But John Quincy no more wanted to be a judge then he wanted to be a lawyer. He saw the judiciary as a lifelong padded cage, this being the one position that was held for life. So, he declined the nomination. John Adams saw this as proof that John Quincy was setting his sights on the executive branch. And while in Russia, John Quincy and Louisa had their one daughter, Louisa. And they were still in Russia when she died 8 months later. Louisa Adams went mad with grief, and it was nearly a year before she recovered enough to want to leave Russia. By then, John Quincy had been sent to Ghent to begin negotiating a treaty with the British over the War of 1812.
After negotiating the treaty, John Quincy was briefly sent to Paris, and once he reached Paris, he sent for Louisa, who had to cross war torn Europe, still recovering and reeling from Napoleon’s advances, with her son and a nurse maid. The guard and body servant she had hired to escort them refused to go any further than Prussia, lest they be conscripted into Napoleon’s new army. Louisa and Charles Frances finally met up with John Quincy in Paris, just in time for him to receive his new posting in London. The family quickly crossed the channel, and George and John were put on a boat from America to meet their parents in London, where the family spent the next several years. On June 15, 1816, the family boarded a boat to return to America. John Quincy had been appointed Secretary of State by the new President, James Monroe.
Once the family headed back across the Atlantic—for the last time it turned out—John Quincy hit the ground running as Secretary of State. Technology had progressed in the 8 years John Quincy had served overseas, so that once they landed in New York, they took a steamship to Boston, where he met with his parents, both still alive and healthy in 1817. Then they took a steamship to Washington DC, where he was sworn in as Secretary of State on September 22, 1817. Now, to accept this position, he took an enormous loss in pay. As overseas minister, he was earning $9,000 per year. As Secretary of State, it was only $3,500. But the prestige of the position—and the fact that Secretary of State had become a traditional steppingstone to the presidency—made the loss in pay worth it.
Now, in addition to running the fledgling diplomatic corps, directing the overseas ministers on the presidents’ orders and wishes, the Secretary of State handled overseas ambassadors stationed in DC, as well as publishing laws, conducting the census, keeping a registry of federal officials, and affixing the great seal to presidential commissions. Additionally, Congress had tasked the Secretary of State with publishing the records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which were in complete disarray, and on publishing a report on weights and measures (p. 218). Adams undertook all of this without complaint, delegating when he could, doing the work himself when he could not.
When Jackson did his mini, unwarranted, rampage across Florida, Adams is the one who had to step up and handle the outraged ambassadors from France and Spain. Adams eventually managed to negotiate a treaty with Spain that ceded Florida to the United States, as well as marking out US territory along the 41st parallel all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Spain eventually signed this treaty, and America’s claim to the northern American continent seemed set.
During his time as Secretary of State, Adams began to outline and voice his own opinions on slavery, namely that it was nothing good. Adams had always held this opinion, harbored at the family home in Braintree, MA, and as Secretary of State, he did what he could to ensure slavery would gain no further proponents in the US. In his all-seeing way, he knew that the question of slavery would only be settled with a civil war. But he hoped mightily that policies he helped enact would avert the war, or at least delay it to a future date. Ultimately, Adams managed to negotiate a treaty with England on the matter of the slave trade, which had been outlawed in the United States in 1807. What this means for America, is that America was no longer allowed to import new slaves. American slave owners were still allowed to trade slaves they already owned to other slave owners in the United States. I only clarify this, lest someone think I’m saying slavery was outlawed in the States in 1807. It was not.
One of the sticking points with Britain, was that slaves WERE being transported to America. The compromise Adams managed to hit was that BOTH sides would do their part to stop the slave trade. Both ships could stop any ship suspected of Piracy. Both sides agreed to brand their citizens who engaged in the slave trade as pirates, and each side was able to board any ship suspected of such. The captured ship would be returned to its home nation for trial as pirates, and no crew members were to be taken. This effectively ended the question of impressment, over which the War of 1812 had been fought, and would have done much to end the illegal slave trade (p. 296). And while Monroe approved the treaty, it also had to pass Congress, which it did not. The slave states still needed the slave trade, and so they started throwing in language that would have England scuttle the treaty.
Monroe and Adams, while two very different men, worked quite well together. Adams was steely in his resolve, and prone to arguing until he won, whereas Monroe was more softly diplomatic, and capable of softening Adams bitter attacks into something more diplomatically palatable. For all that, when it came time for Monroe to retire, he declined to back any candidates. Monroe had served for 8 years with little rancor, but under the surface of the golden age, the bed for future civil war had been deep seeded in the bitter politics of Washington DC.
And Adams knew this. He had a gift for real sight. Most people see the world as they wish it to be. Adams saw the world for what it really was. This did not make him popular among his colleagues in DC, as this farseeing made it impossible for him to compromise in the name of progress. Especially as he saw the fall out of the compromise. One of the things he refused to compromise on was keeping America out of entangling alliances, much as Washington wished during his retirement speech. All during this time, the Spanish colonies in South America had been fighting for independence. Members of Congress were pushing to send aid, to turn the whole of the American continent, north and south, into independent Republics, in opposition to the imperialist old guard in Europe, where everything was run by inherited royal families. Adams was willing to go as far as acknowledging ministers from these new republics when they came to Washington but was unwilling to send actual aid. His views made their way into Monroe’s famous Doctrine, about keeping Europe off the American continents.
When the 1824 presidential race began, there were four candidates: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford. With this many front runners, with none of them holding a clear majority of the electoral college, it was guaranteed to go to Congress for whoever the top three were, per Constitutional requirements. Henry Clay was knocked out of the running with the first round, when he landed fourth during the initial election. From there, he became a behind the scenes kingmaker. Crawford was essentially out, owing to a series of strokes he had had, which effected his health. In the 1820’s, candidates still did not actively campaign, and for this reason, no one knew about Crawford’s health issues, except for those who worked with him in Washington. Of the two remaining candidates, Jackson enjoyed popular vote success. But once the votes went before Congress, John Quincy won, with 13 of the states voting for him. He was sworn in as the sixth President of the United States on March 4, 1825.
There is quite a lot about John Quincy Adam’s presidency that reminds me of more recent events. He did not win the popular vote, that was Andrew Jackson. Yet he won the presidency. That similarity ends. He basically fought with Congress for the entire four years of his presidency and was immensely unpopular in Congress. Every idea he had, they shot down. When his first term was up, politics were remolded into something resembling modern politics. The Democrats started mudslinging, and didn’t stop, even after Jackson had won the 1828 election. Sounds A LOT like recent events.
Adams truly did try to be a president of the people. His inaugural address acknowledged that both parties had contributed an amazing range of talents and passions to the running of the country, and that collaboration has so far been very successful. He wanted to acknowledge the differences, and the good that comes from working together, through the differences. Accordingly, he refused to terminate anyone from a federal appointment, unless they were corrupt or incompetent, as he would not abide either. As a result, a fair number of staunch Jacksonites remained in the positions to which they had been appointed under Madison and Monroe.
What did turn over was the President’s cabinet, which is standard. The only president so far who had not turned over the cabinet to his most trusted advisors was John Adams, who kept a fair portion of Washington’s cabinet intact, only replacing those who had retired or requested transfer. But John Quincy Adams, did place in his cabinet people he trusted, one of which was former Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Clay WAS a good choice for Secretary of State. Unfortunately, Jackson’s crew immediately bandied about that THIS was corrupt politics of the first order, that Clay had delivered the presidency to Adams in exchange for the State position. There was no proof of this, and while Congress certainly investigated, nothing turned up. But this became the first piece of mud Jackson would throw in preparation for the 1828 election.
The stickiest point of his presidency was how he handled the expansion of Georgia. Today, we think of it as a fairly small, southeastern State. Back then, it encompassed all of Alabama too, and was the ancestral home of the nomadic Creek Indian tribe. Now, it is very popular in the 21st century to view all of the 18th and 19th century as white, colonizing Americans versus the peaceful Native American tribes. This is far from historically accurate. In Georgia at this time, there were multiple Creek tribes, and they were not all friendly to each other. One tribe of Creek had made friends with and got on quite well with the governor of Georgia, George Troup. A rival tribe of Creek Indians had come in and slaughtered a good chunk of them. Now this rival tribe, had signed a treaty with the US Government, following Andrew Jackson’s crusade through that area in March of 1814, which led to the Creek ceding the 23 million acres that make up Alabama to US Government. So now we have one tribe of Creek, who has a treaty with the US Government, attacking another tribe of Creek who has friendship with the governor of Georgia. Adams wanted nothing so much as to do right by the Creek, both tribes, but could see no way to do so. The problem at hand, was settlers wanting to move into the lands held by the Creek in Georgia. But to do so, the Creek in Georgia would have to sell that land, and move to new lands, which they refused to do, and Governor Troup backed them up in this, threatening any surveyor who entered Creek lands with death. The most sensible suggestion was put forth by Secretary of War James Barbour, who recommended the Indians should be assimilated into the national population, thus freeing up their ancestral lands, without banishing them to a new location. This, incidentally, would have made them, the men at least, eligible to vote, and put the Indians on track for equal footing and representation. Henry Clay shot down the idea. He did not think the Indians could be civilized. Adams did not think progress could be stopped and saw it as America’s destiny to spread across the continent. This kills me. On this one thing, if Adams had determined the right course was citizenship… On such decisions is the course of history altered. Instead, Adams continued to treat with them as a sovereign nation and, as history shows, each treaty was violated in turn.
“Adams loved nothing more than a politically despised cause, and if had believed the Creeks or the Cherokees or Choctaws had a right to their ancestral land equal to or greater that that of American pioneers, he might have risked a confrontation with the Georgia “madman.” But the thought never crossed his mind. That is an idea of our own time, which we can entertain with no fear that it will ever be enacted; in Adams’ day, Indians were deemed an obstacle to progress, to be handled roughly or decently, depending on one’s principles.” (p. 322)
Adams believed the President was the servant of the people (he was correct, all politicians are, something more of them need to be reminded of by removing them from their jobs for making such shit of it.) As such, the White House was always open to visitors, and anyone who presented themselves there, could see the President and talk with him. This making himself available to everyone at any time, took a very definite toll on his marriage. Louisa had handled the duties of minister’s wife, and wife to the Secretary of State with great aplomb, being an excellent hostess. Those skills wasted away during their four years residency at the White House, and Louisa found herself sinking into a deep depression.
Adams wanted to use his presidency for internal improvements. He wanted to build canals and roads to help with interstate commerce. Congress would not approve the funds. They did not feel it was the governments job to do any such thing, a stance many modern Libertarians would approve of, myself included. But I can wholly sympathize with a good man, trying to do the right thing based on the principles he understood to be true, something I am confident no person serving in politics today is capable of. Corruption has become endemic to the system.
By the time the 1828 election year rolled around, Adams strongly suspected he would not be re-elected. While he refused to campaign himself, he saw the election process was changing, and he saw how the Jacksonites had formed the new party, calling themselves the Democrats. Jackson DID actively campaign, and the Time of Dirty Politics commenced with Democratic mudslinging. Oh, and it was definitely the Democrats who started modern electioneering mudslinging as we know it today. Andrew Jackson was the founder of the Democratic party, yes as we know it today, and was the first president elected from that party. Adams tried to fight back with the truth, but as Thomas Francklin once observed in 1787 “Falsehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the earth; whilst truth lags behind; her steps, though sure, are slow and solemn, and she has neither the vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy…” The shorter quote is: A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put its pants on.
Adams was advised to attend the inauguration of President Jackson, as was custom, but he could not bring himself to do so. On the morning of Jacksons inauguration, Adams accepted the resignations of his cabinet members, and walked from the White House to his new residence. He was worried about his future. At this time, Presidents did not receive any kind of retirement benefits (they should not today, yet they do…there’s more of that corruption…). And while he had investments, he was still pretty young, being only 61 years old. His own father had lived to 90. How was he going to support himself? Were his investments enough to care for him, and the various relatives who had proven incompetent in life? These were thoughts that consumed his mind, while looking at his garden, in the first days of his retirement from public life. Yet…instead of retiring home to Quincy, MA, he remained in Washington DC. Unlike any other former President before him.
John Quincy Adams, at the age of 61, was effectively retired. This is a venerable age for the 19th century, and it would have surprised no one if he had accepted retirement, returned to Quincy, and lived out his days doting on his children and grandchildren. But he was not a man built for retirement. All his life he had worked, starting as interpreter to the diplomatic envoy to Russia in 1779 when he was only 13. Retirement was inimical to him.
Still, he might have retired, except for several events which helped push him in a different direction. First, his oldest son George began a recognizable downward spiral. John Quincy and Louisa became so alarmed by their communication with George and reports provided by friends that they begged George to join them in Washington. George boarded the steamer Benjamin Franklin on April 29, 1829, headed for Providence, on his way to Washington. While on the ship, his behavior became erratic and frantic. He claimed that people were plotting against him, and that he was hearing voices. While no such diagnosis existed in the 19th century, it seems likely from the description that George was experiencing some kind of psychotic break, or schizophrenic delusion. At 3am, he approached the captain, asking to be put ashore. As the ship was traveling at 16 knots, there was no way to do so. George then wandered to the upper decks, where he conversed briefly with a Mr. Stevens, before vanishing. His body washed up on shore on June 8 in modern day Bronx.
Then, as now, the death of a child could drive a family apart, or pull them together, and this easily could have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Louisa and John Quincy had been pulling apart during the four years he was president, and this could have been what finished the split. But, despite pushing his wife to the background in favor of his political career, John Quincy had always been there for her in times of tragedy. Through multiple miscarriages, illnesses, and the death of their daughter Louisa all those years ago in Russia, John Quincy was there for Louisa when it genuinely mattered. And this was no exception. The result being that their marriage instead strengthened, as they found solace in each other.
At the end of May 1830, Adams left Washington for what he believed was the last time, returning to Quincy and the ancestral home. There he was looking to plant more trees, enjoy his library and his family. Then on September 17, he attended a reception at the home of Lieutenant Governor Winthrop, where he was approached about standing for Congress from the Eighth District in Massachusetts. His friend Edward Everett was worried John Quincy might think a congressional seat a step down, after the executive branch. But for John Quincy, who had served all his life, he saw it as no such thing. He would not run a contested vote, but if the people of the Eighth District wanted him, he would represent them to Congress. Well, they did, and on December 6, 1830, Adams received 1,817 out of 2,545, well over 50% of the votes. He was re-entering the political theater, into what would easily be his most productive political period ever.
And the political stance he would become the bane of Congress over was slavery. Or more accurately, anti-slavery. He had long, as in his entire life, believed slavery to be one of the nations great evils. No Adams had ever owned a slave. The sticking point Adams was running in to, was that he was a strict Constitutionalist. And how ever revolting he personally found the practice of slavery; the Constitution did allow it. Additionally, with the sweeping success of the Jackson candidacy, and the new Democratic party, who professed states rights, including the right to own slaves, being swept into power, Adams was a minority voice in congress on this point. While he knew this horror needed to be addressed, he was not quite sure how to bring about the needed changes. And then the Democratically run congress inadvertently gave him the bully pulpit from which he would pound them to dust.
“On December 18, 1835, at the outset of a new legislative session, William Jackson, a representative from Massachusetts, introduced a petition from his constituents asking Congress to prohibit slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia.” (p. 428) The Democratically run congress, most of whom were slave owners themselves, refused to see the petition. Now, this was nothing new, and Adams had presented many such petitions himself, knowing they would be consigned to the waste bin. But what Congress was proposing to do now was not simply ignore it, but to say that no such petitions could be presented to Congress. This was a direct violation of the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The Right to Petition the Government for a redress of grievances. This part is so frequently overlooked regarding the first amendment, yet there it is. And Adams warned Congress:
“Should the Congress stop up the vent of petitions, he predicted, it would force a discussion of slavery itself to the floor. In that case, he said, “the speeches of my colleagues, probably of myself, will be incendiary”—Adams very consciously chose the word the slaveholders used to describe abolitionist literature— “because, if discussion is thrust upon us, I doubt not I might make a speech as incendiary as any pamphlet upon which such torrents of denunciation have been poured upon us.”” (p. 429)
Congress proceeded to issue its gag order on the subject of Slavery. And Adams took this as his mission, to see that gag order overturned. And by framing it as a Constitutional matter--the right to petition congress--versus the matter of slavery itself, he was able to win over many converts to the belief that slavery itself was evil. While the Abolitionists certainly existed, they were actually considered a fringe group at this time, seen as a bit unhinged and fanatical. And Adams himself said he was not an Abolitionist. He just believed slavery was evil, and a Constitutional means should be found to end it.
Adams spent the rest of his life crusading against this gag order and presented thousands of anti-slavery petitions to Congress along the way. And in this matter, turned the issue of slavery, previously quietly ignored by the northern states, into a cause celebre. In trying to quietly end opposition to slavery, the Democrats had instead forced a huge shining spotlight on the matter, in the form of one John Quincy Adams.
But the best was yet to come. In August 1839, the ship Amistad had been captured by the American Coast Guard, and brought to port in New London, Connecticut. Initially a Spanish slave ship bound for Cuba, the slaves had managed a rebellion, killing the crew except for two members, and directing those two members to return them to Africa. Instead, the crew members would head east during the day, but at night would veer left again, so that instead of Cuba or Africa, the ship ended up in United States water. The question became, were the captives’ pirates, and thus bound to the laws of piracy, which would see them, and the ship returned to Spain for piracy trials. Or were they kidnapped victims who had fought for their freedom, as any freeman has the right to do?
The Amistad captives had very capable lawyers in the form of Roger Baldwin, Theodore Sedgwick, and Seth Staples, and were quickly found not guilty of piracy. They established the Amistad captives were indeed freemen and women from Africa, and so one would think, at this point, that they would happily be sent on their way home to Africa. One would think. Instead, the crew of the Washington, who had captured and brought to shore the Amistad, claimed salvage rights. They made the claim that the ship would have been lost to its rightful owners, and so they were entitled to salvage compensation for the ship, and all the cargo contained therein, including the “slaves.” So, despite having been found to be freemen, captured, and held illegally as slaves, and innocent of piracy, the Amistad captives were still being held pending possible transport to slavery and death. If the crew of the Washington won their case, they would then have legal ownership of the entire cargo—including the free Africans found therein. The case was set to appear before the Supreme Court.
Baldwin, Sedgwick, and Staples WERE excellent attorneys. They had brought the Amistad captives this far. But they asked John Quincy to join them before the Supreme court. They wanted someone of Adams reputation and gravitas, who could speak to the Supremes as a peer, not as a petitioner. So, Adams began his prep work, and the case went before the nine judges in February 1841. Baldwin presented the initial arguments, then Adams began his part of the defense on February 24, 1841. He spoke for 8.5 hours over two days, presenting case law and fact. And on March 9, 1841, 7 of 8, 1 justice having died in the interim, voted to release the Amistad captives to freedom. What is so remarkable about this victory, is that of the 9 justices who started hearing the trial, 7 were slave owners.
In Congress, Adams continued to fight the gag rule. All the way to the bitter end. And on December 3, 1844, he succeeded in getting the gag rule overturned. He had this date inscribed on a walking stick that he been sent to him at the Patent Office as a memorial to his fight against the gag rule and for the right to petition. He then sent the walking stick back the Patent Office, to be held for posterity.
John Quincy Adams broke another barrier in Congress, in addition to overturning their unjust rules, and becoming a voice for freedom and against the tyranny of slavery. On February 21, 1848, when getting ready to present a petition, John Quincy collapsed in Congress. He died on February 23, 1848. His wife Louisa died four years later, on May 15, 1852. They are both buried in Quincy, Massachusetts.
This review was posted to YouTube on September 26, 2021, but is available on Rumble and PodBean now.
