Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.

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[1] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXVII., p. 386.

[2] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXVIII., p. 71.

General Jackson was deeply mortified and irritated by Mr. Clay's
preference of Mr. Adams, and still more by his avowal of the motives on
which it was founded. In a letter to Samuel Swartwout, dated the 23d of
February, 1825,[3] by whom it was immediately published, he complained
bitterly of the term "military chieftain," which Mr. Clay, in his letter
to Mr. Brooke, had applied to him; and, utterly disregarding the rights
and duties which the provisions of the constitution had conferred and
imposed on Mr. Clay, he assumed that he was himself entitled, by the
plurality of votes he had received, to be regarded as the object
indicated by "the supremacy of the people's will." Treating the
objections as personal, and as ominously bearing on his future political
prospects, after insinuating that there had been "art or management to
entice a representative in Congress from a conscientious responsibility
to his own or the wishes of his constituents," he declared his intention
"to appeal from this opprobrium and censure to the judgment of an
enlightened, patriotic, uncorrupted people."

[3] Ibid., p. 20.

Not content with uttering these general insinuations against Mr. Clay
and Mr. Adams, he immediately put into circulation among his friends and
partisans an unqualified statement to the effect that Mr. Adams had
obtained the Presidency by means of a corrupt bargain with Henry Clay,
on the condition that he should be elevated to the office of Secretary
of State. To this calumny Jackson gave his name and authority, asserting
that he possessed evidence of its truth; and, although Mr. Clay and his
friends publicly denied the charge, and challenged proof of it, two
years elapsed before they could compel him to produce his evidence.
This, when adduced, proved utterly groundless, and the charge false; the
whole being but the creation of an irritated and disappointed mind.
Though detected and exposed, the calumny had the effect for which it was
calculated. Jackson's numerous partisans and friends made it the source
of an uninterrupted stream of abuse upon Mr. Adams, through his whole
administration.

The Legislature of Tennessee immediately responded to General Jackson's
appeal to the people, by nominating him as their candidate for the
office of President, at the next election; a distinction which he
joyfully accepted, and on that account immediately resigned his seat in
the Senate of the United States.

Thus, before Mr. Adams had made any development of his policy as
President, an opposition to him and his administration was publicly
organized by his chief competitor, under the authority of one of the
states of the Union, which manifested itself in party bitterness, and
animosity to every act and proposition having any bearing on his
political prospects. The appointment of Henry Clay to the office of
Secretary of State was seized upon as unequivocal proof of Jackson's
allegation; yet it was impossible to designate any leading politician
who had such just, unequivocal, and high pretensions to that station, or
one more popular, especially at the South and the West. Mr. Clay had
been a prominent candidate for the Presidency in opposition to Mr.
Adams. His talents were unquestionable, and a long career in public life
rendered him more conspicuous and suitable for the office than any other
statesman of the period. These qualifications weighed nothing in the
scale of popular opinion and prejudice. The strength of opposition,
based on the calumny circulated by Jackson, became apparent on every
question which could be construed to affect the popularity of Mr. Adams;
especially with regard to those measures which were obviously near his
heart, and which tended to give a permanent and effective character to
his administration.

In his inaugural address, on the 4th of March, 1825, after enumerating
the duties of the people and their rulers, he proceeded to intimate the
views which characterized his policy: "There remains one effort of
magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by
individuals, throughout the nation, who have heretofore followed the
standard of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of
rancor against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and
of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which, in times
of contention for principle, was bestowed only on those who bore the
badge of party communion."

His thoughts on this subject were again expressed in May, 1825: "The
custom-house officers throughout the Union, in all probability, were
opposed to my election. They are all now in my power; and I have been
urged very earnestly, and from various quarters, to sweep away my
opponents, and provide for my friends with their places. I can justify
the refusal to adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consistency
of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from this in any one instance, I
shall be called upon by my friends to do the same in many. An invidious
and inquisitorial scrutiny into the personal disposition of public
officers will creep through the whole Union, and the most sordid and
selfish passions will be kindled into activity, to distort the conduct
and misrepresent the feelings of men, whose places may become the prize
of slander upon them."

He made but two removals, both from unquestionable causes; and, in his
new appointments, he was scrupulous in selecting candidates whose
talents were adapted to the public service. It was averred, in the
spirit of complaint or disappointment, that he often conferred offices
on men who immediately coincided with the opponents and became
calumniators of his administration. He was soon made to realize the
impracticability of disregarding the old lines of party. On being
informed, by some of his friends in the Southern States, that the
objections to the appointment of Federalists were insuperable, and would
everywhere affect the popularity of his administration, he observed: "On
such appointments all the wormwood and gall of the old party hatred ooze
out. Not a vacancy to any office occurs but there is a distinguished
Federalist started and pushed home as a candidate to fill it, always
well qualified, sometimes in an eminent degree, and yet so obnoxious to
the Republican party, that they cannot be appointed without exciting a
vehement clamor against him and the administration. It becomes thus
impossible to fill any vacancy in appointment without offending one half
of the community--the Federalists, if their associate is overlooked; the
Republicans, if he be preferred. To this disposition justice must
sometimes make resistance, and policy must often yield."

The intention of Mr. Adams, avowed and invariably pursued, to make
integrity and qualification the only criterions of appointment to
office,--to remove no incumbent on account of political hostility, and
to appoint no one from the sole consideration of political
adherence,--diminished the power of the administration. The most active
members of party, who follow for reward, either of place or station,
were discouraged, and preferred to continue their allegiance to those
from whom pay was certain, rather than to transfer it to an
administration whose continuance, from the well-known influences on
which political power in this country depends, was dubious, and probably
short-lived. These consequences were familiar to the mind of Mr. Adams;
but his spirit was of a temper which chose rather to fall in upholding
the constitution of his country on its true and pure principles, than to
become the abettor of corruption, and participator in its wages, for the
sake of power. The firmness of these principles was put to frequent
trial during his Presidency, but his resolution never wavered.

The confiding spirit in which he conducted his intercourse with his
cabinet was thus stated by himself in November, 1825: "I have given the
draft of my annual message to the members of the administration, who are
to meet and examine it by themselves, and then discuss the result with
me. I have adopted this mode of scrutinizing the message because I wish
to have the benefit of every objection that can be made by every member
of the administration. But it has never been practised before, and I am
not sure that it will be a safe precedent to follow. In England the
message or speech is delivered by a person under no responsibility for
its contents; but here, where he who delivers it is alone responsible,
and those who advise have no responsibility at all, there may be some
danger in placing the composition of it under the control of cabinet
members, by giving it up to discussion entirely among themselves."

His first message to Congress contained the following special
recommendations: "The maturing into a permanent and regular system the
application of all the superfluous revenues of the Union to internal
improvement." "The establishment of a uniform standard of weights and
measures, which had been a duty expressly enjoined on Congress by the
constitution of the United States." "The establishment of a naval
school of instruction for the formation of scientific and accomplished
officers; the want of which is felt with a daily and increasing
aggravation." "The establishment of a national university, which had
been more than once earnestly recommended to Congress by Washington,
and for which he had made express provision in his will." "Connected
with a university, or separated from it, the erection of an
astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an
astronomer." Every one of these recommendations was obviously
intimately associated with the progress and character of the nation,
and independent of all personal or party influences. Yet they were
treated with utter neglect, or, after having been permitted to pass
through the forms of commitment and report, were suffered to lie
unnoticed on the tables of both houses, or to be lost by indefinite
postponement.

The firmness of Mr. Adams, and his independence of personal
considerations, were constantly manifested. Thus, in November, 1825,
when he was urged by some of his influential friends to put into his
message _something soothing to South Carolina_, he replied: "South
Carolina has put it out of my power. She persists in a law[4] which a
judge of the United States has declared to be in direct violation of
the constitution of the United States, and which the Attorney-General
of the United States has also declared to be an infringement of the
rights of foreign nations; against which the British government has
repeatedly remonstrated, and upon which we have promised them that the
cause of complaint should be removed;--a promise which the obstinate
adherence of the government of South Carolina to their law has
disenabled us from fulfilling. The Governor of South Carolina has not
even answered the letter from the Department of State, transmitting to
them the complaint of the British government against this law. In this
state of things, for me to say anything gratifying to the feelings of
the South Carolinians on this subject, would be to abandon the ground
taken by the administration of Mr. Monroe, and disable us from taking
hereafter measures concerning the law, which we may be compelled to
take. To be silent is not to interfere with any state rights, and
renounces no right of ourselves or others."

[4] In the year 1823 the State of South Carolina passed a law
making it the duty of the sheriff of any district to apprehend any
free negro or person of color, brought into that state by any
vessel, and confine him in jail until such vessel depart, and then
to liberate him only on condition of payment of the expenses of
such detention. To this law William Johnson, a South Carolinian,
and a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a letter
to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, called the attention of the
President of the United States, as a violation of the constitution;
and declared his belief "that it had been passed as much for the
pleasure of bringing the functionaries of the United States into
contempt, by exposing their impotence, as from any other cause
whatsoever;" they being precluded from resorting to the writ of
habeas corpus and injunction because the cases assumed the form of
state prosecutions. William Wirt, also, the Attorney-General of
the United States, in a letter to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of
State, pronounced that law "as being against the constitution,
treaties, and laws, and incompatible with the rights of all
nations in amity with the United States."

The same trait of character is evidenced by his persisting in
recommending the application of the superfluous revenue to internal
improvements, notwithstanding he well knew its unpopularity in Virginia,
where it was denounced as realizing the prophecy of Patrick Henry, that
"the Federal government would be a magnificent government." After
delivering his first message, he was told, by a leading and influential
member of Congress from Virginia, that "excitement against the general
government was great and universal in that state; that opinions there
had been before divided, but that now the whole state would move in one
solid column." And the same member read to him letters from Jefferson
and Madison, denouncing the doctrines of the message in the most
emphatic terms.

A letter from distinguished friends of De Witt Clinton, stating that his
adherents predominated in the Legislature of New York, and recommending
a course to conciliate their influence, was shown to Mr. Adams in 1826.
On this suggestion he remarked: "A conciliatory course, so far as may be
compatible with self-respect, is proper and necessary towards all; but,
in the protracted agony of character and reputation which it is the will
of a superior power I should pass through, it is my duty to link myself
to the fortunes of no man. In the balance of politics it is seldom wise
to make one scale preponderate by weights taken from another. Neutrality
towards parties is the proper policy of a President in office."

When officially informed that a senator from Georgia threatened that,
unless the lands of the Creek Indians, claimed by that state as within
its boundaries, were ceded, her weight would be thrown for General
Jackson, Mr. Adams replied, "that we ought not to yield to Georgia,
because we could not do so without gross injustice; and that, as to her
being driven to support General Jackson, he felt little care about that.
He had no more confidence in the one party than the other."

A similar reply was made to an influential New York politician, who told
him that the friends of De Witt Clinton would probably support the
administration, but that Van Buren and his bucktails would be inveterate
in their opposition. "I consider it," said he, "a lottery-ticket whether
either of those parties would support the administration."

The opposition to the election, and subsequently to the administration
of Mr. Adams, in the South, had its origin and support, as we have seen,
first, in the fact that he was (with the exception of his father) the
only President who had not been a slaveholder; and, next, in the fixed
determination, in that section of the Union, to keep the Presidency, if
possible, in the hands of an individual belonging to that class. If,
from circumstances, this should be no longer practicable, then their
policy would be to select a candidate who had no sympathy for the slave,
and whose subserviency to the supremacy of Southern interests was
unquestionable. The attempt to extinguish slavery in Missouri, although
it had resulted in what was called the Missouri compromise, had created
towards all who were not slaveholders a feverish jealousy in the South,
which descended on Mr. Adams with double violence because his free
spirit was known. This was not diminished by the fact that he had,
neither in act nor language, ever transcended the provisions of the
constitution, but had, in every instance, fully recognized its
obligations.

In February, 1826, two resolutions, which had been adopted in executive
session, were brought to Mr. Adams. The first declared "that the
expediency of the Panama mission ought to be debated in Senate with open
doors, unless the publication of the documents, to which it would be
necessary to refer in debate, would prejudice existing negotiations. The
second was a respectful request to the President of the United States to
inform the Senate whether such objection exists to the publication of
all or any part of those documents; and, if so, to specify to what part
it applies."

"These resolutions," said Mr. Adams, "are the fruit of the ingenuity of
Martin Van Buren, and bear the impress of his character. The resolution
to debate an executive nomination with open doors is without example;
and the thirty-sixth rule of the Senate is explicit and unqualified,
that all documents communicated in confidence by the President to the
Senate shall be kept secret by the members. The request to me to specify
the particular documents the publication of which would affect
negotiations was delicate and ensnaring. The limitation was not of
papers the publication of which might be injurious, but merely of such
as would affect existing negotiations; and, this being necessarily a
matter of opinion, if I should specify passages in the document as of
such a character, any senator might make it a question for discussion in
the Senate, and they might finally publish the whole, under color of
entertaining an opinion different from mine upon the probable effect of
the publication. Besides, should the precedent once be established of
opening the doors of the Senate in the midst of a debate upon executive
business, there would be no prospect of ever keeping them shut again. I
answered the resolution of the Senate by a message stating that all the
communications I had made on this subject had been confidential; and
that, believing it important to the public interest that the confidence
between the Executive and the Senate should continue unimpaired, I
should leave to themselves the determination of a question, upon the
motives of which, not being informed, I was not competent to decide."

When the intrigues which embarrassed and disturbed the Presidency of Mr.
Adams were in full vigor, his spirit and strength of character were
conspicuously manifested. In April, 1827, whilst the state elections
were pending, letters were shown to him complaining that the
administration did not support its friends, and intimating that time and
money must be sacrificed to his success. Mr. Adams remarked: "I have
observed the tendency of our elections to venality, and shall not
encourage it. There is much money expended by the adversaries of the
administration, and it runs chiefly in the channels of the press. They
work by slander to vitiate the public spirit, and pay for defamation, to
receive their reward in votes."

At the beginning of the third year of his term of office the currents of
party began to run strongly towards the approaching struggle for the
Presidency. Mr. Adams, writing concerning the aspects of the time,
remarked. "General politics and electioneering topics appear to be the
only material of interest and of discourse to men in the public service.
There are in several states, at this time, and Maryland is one of them,
meetings and counter meetings, committees of correspondence, delegations,
and addresses, for and against the administration; and thousands of
persons are occupied with little else than to work up the passions of
the people preparatory to the presidential election, still more than
eighteen months distant."

Complaints were constantly made that the administration neglected its
friends, and gave offices to its enemies. Applications for appointments,
especially for clerkships, in the departments, were continual, and were
often made to Mr. Adams himself. He always refused to interfere
directly, or by influence, unless his opinion was sought by the heads
of the departments themselves, saying that to them the selection and
responsibility properly belonged. "One of the heaviest burdens of my
station," he observed, "is to hear applications for office, often urged,
accompanied with the cry of distress, almost every day in the year,
sometimes several times in the day, and having it scarcely ever in my
power to administer the desired relief."

In May, 1827, Mr. Adams wrote to a friend: "Mr. Van Buren paid me a
visit this morning. He is on his return from a tour through Virginia,
North and South Carolina, and Georgia, with C. C. Cambreling, since the
close of the last session of Congress. They are generally understood to
be electioneering; and Van Buren is now the great manager for Jackson,
as he was, before the last election, for Mr. Crawford. He is now acting
over the part in the Union which Aaron Burr performed in 1799. Van
Buren, however, has improved, in the art of electioneering, upon Burr,
as the State of New York has grown in relative strength and importance
in the Union. Van Buren has now every prospect of success in his present
movements, and he will avoid the rock on which Burr afterwards split."
These general conclusions, formed on observation and knowledge of
character, projects, and movements, time has proved to be just. At this
day there can be no doubt that, during a tour through the Southern
section of the Union, in April and May, 1827, by Van Buren and
Cambreling, one a senator, the other a representative in Congress from
New York, an alliance was formed between the former and Jackson, having
for its object to supersede Mr. Adams and to elevate themselves in
succession to the Presidency. The result is illustrative of the means
and the arts by which ambition shapes the destinies of republics, by
pampering the passions and prejudices of the multitude, by casting
malign suggestions on laborious merit, effective talent, and faithful
services.

In June, 1827, some of the friends of Mr. Adams urged him to attend the
celebration at the opening of the Pennsylvania Canal, to meet the German
farmers, and speak to them in their own language. He replied: "I am
highly obliged to my friends for their good opinion; but this mode of
electioneering is suited neither to my taste nor my principles. I think
it equally unsuitable to my personal character, and to the station in
which I am placed."

As the year drew towards the close, Van Buren, who had increased his
influence by union with De Witt Clinton, triumphed throughout the State
of New York. "The consequences," said Mr. Adams, "are decisive on the
next presidential election; but the principles on which my administration
has been conducted cannot be overthrown. A session of Congress of
unexampled violence and fury is anticipated by its friends. My own mind
is made up for it. I have only to ask that as my day is so may my
strength be."

A letter from Thomas Mann Randolph, on the opinions of Mr. Jefferson
relative to the last presidential election, which had been recently
published in Ohio, was at this time shown to Mr. Adams, and it was
proposed to him to publish a letter to his father from Mr. Jefferson, on
that subject; which he declined, saying: "The letter is not here, but if
it were I would not publish it. I possess it only as executor to my
father; and, it having been confidential, the executors of Mr. Jefferson
have undoubtedly a copy of it, and, as depositaries of his confidence,
are the only persons who can, with propriety, authorize its publication."
He added: "The divulging private and confidential letters is one of the
worst features of electioneering practised among us. Though often
tempted and provoked to it, I have constantly refrained from it."

At this period Mr. Rush read to Mr. Adams his report on the finances, in
which he largely discussed the policy of encouraging and protecting
domestic manufactures. "It will, of course," said Mr. Adams, "be roughly
handled in Congress and out of it; but the policy it recommends will
outlive the blast of faction, and abide the test of time."

At the opening of the Twentieth Congress, in December, 1827, the
election of Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, a man decidedly hostile to
the administration, as Speaker of the House of Representatives,
manifested that the opposition had now gained a majority in both houses
of Congress; a state of affairs which had never before occurred under
the government of the United States.

Mr. Adams, being informed that it was Mr. Clay's intention to issue
another pamphlet in refutation of the charge of bargaining and
corruption, which General Jackson and his partisans under his authority
had brought against them both, remarked: "They have been already amply
refuted; but, in the excitement of contested elections, and of party
spirit, judgment becomes the slave of the will. Men of intelligence,
talent, and even of integrity upon other occasions, surrender themselves
to their passions, believe anything, with and without, and even against
evidence, according as it suits their own wishes."

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