John Quincy Adams - American Visionary

John Quincy Adams - American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

John Quincy Adams is one of those earlier presidents that most people know very little about.  In fact, had it not been for the fact that his father was also president (something not repeated until the George Bushes), I seriously doubt that most would even recognize the name.  Fortunately, the Steven Spielberg movie Amistad gave many a good look at what was probably the man’s most memorable achievement - serving as defense attorney for the mutineers of the infamous slave ship (Adams was played wonderfully by Sir Anthony Hopkins, I might add).

That event happened after Adams was president, and I probably should immediately point out that this book really isn’t a book about the sixth President, but rather about the man himself.    In fact, this man had a rather unmemorable term as president.  I’m not sure I could even tell you exactly what he accomplished during the four years he was in office.  Strangely, I didn’t really care that much.  I’ve read presidential biographies where the author gets so bogged down with the intricacies of the presidential goings on, that it becomes a chore to get through all the every day events affecting the country that never really seem that interesting.   This man, probably because of his upbringing, actually served his young country throughout his whole life, and we read about it all.

Of course, we must always remember when reading a biography, or any book for that matter, that takes place over 150 years ago, that we really don’t have much information to rely on - at least compared to modern times, and much of this information can almost be dismissed as somewhat speculative.  Fortunately, since these individuals didn’t have telephones, internet, nor cable t.v., there really wasn’t that much to do, so learned men like Adams spent much of their time writing - recording events in diaries and penning long letters, so we do, at least, have reliable sources to some extent.

We first read that Adams was a world traveller.  Even as a young man, he accompanied his father to England and France on diplomatic assignments.  Now, we must remember that traveling to another continent was never an easy task.  It would often take six weeks to make the journey across the Atlantic, and there were only certain times of the year when such a journey was considered safe.  In fact, as an adult, Adams and his wife actually take such a journey later in life, and they leave their two oldest sons (who were still fairly young boys) back home with relatives.  I can only imagine the horror of only being able to communicate via pen and paper with your children.  Because of the various assignments of Adams during this time abroad, he and his wife are separated from his children for over eight years.  Unbelievable.

But Adams is devout citizen.  He does whatever his country asks him, considering it his patriotic duty.  Even when he runs for President, you get the feeling that he really doesn’t want the job, but if the people want him in office, who is he to argue?  Without going into details, he actually isn’t the people’s first choice, but the way the electoral college works, he gets the job anyway.  For his entire four years in office, the political pundits that oppose him expose this fact anyway they can.  Adams really doesn’t care.  He simply isn’t a political creature.  It seems quite refreshing to read about such a character when all we hear about today is the constant political bickering and backstabbing between the parties.  It should be pointed out that even though Adams isn’t necessarily a political player, we find out that he’s definitely an anomaly.  That fact is somewhat scary.  Anyone who things our present two party system is some sort of recent cancer, really should study history.

So we actually read very little of the political events during Adams tenure leading up to, and during, his presidency.  Things such as the XYZ affair are barely mentioned, and the Monroe Doctrine (which really was Adams’ baby when he was Secretary of State) doesn’t seem to take up as many pages as I would have thought.  The one area that does, rightly, get plenty of attention, is Adams’ view on slavery.  He truly was the first abolitionist president that the country ever had.  Slavery was a very hot issue throughout his whole lifetime, and he rightly predicted that only war would solve the problem one day (he died many years before the American Civil War).  It’s quite refreshing to read about such an educated, somewhat wealthy early figurehead be so passionate and argue so eloquently about the evils of such an institution.  Especially since the issue of slavery seems to be the major factor that tilts the country politically during this time.  In fact, this book heavily demonizes the extremely popular Andrew Jackson, who seems to be the biggest nemesis of Adams (he would succeed him as the seventh U.S. President).

Another fascinating thing about Adams is that after his presidency is inadequately over, he is then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (I’m not sure if that has ever happened again to any President after he left the office).  He essentially serves in this capacity until his death, doing everything he can to serve his country with everything he has.  It’s during this stage of his life where he defends the would-be slaves of the Amistad after they revolt and kill the ship’s crew.  Again, this was another area that I wish could have been covered in more detail.