The Administration of John Quincy Adams

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The Administration of John Quincy Adams

• Return of the Two Party System

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Election of 1824
John Quincy Adams Party DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANHo
me State MAElectoral Votes 84Pop. Vote
113,122 (30.5)
Andrew Jackson Party DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANHome
State TNElectoral Votes 99Pop. Vote 151,271
(43.1)
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William Harris Crawford Party
DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANHome State GAElectoral
Votes 41Pop. Vote 40,856 (13.2)
Henry Clay Party DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANHome
State KYElectoral Votes 37Pop. Vote 47,531
(13.1)
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Election of 1824

• No one received a majority of electoral votes
• House of Reps must decide
• - must choose out of top 3 candidates
• - Adams, Jackson, Crawford
• - Clay was Speaker of the House
• I cannot believe that killing 2,500
  Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the
  various, difficult and complicated duties of
  the Chief Magistracy.
• Adams is chosen
• - Clay becomes Secretary of State
• Jackson followers declare a corrupt bargain!
• - Did Adams trade with Clay for the presidency?

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Henry Clays American System

• government-sponsored program to harmonize and
  balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and
  industry.
• Favored by the Whig Party
• Opposed by the Democratic Party

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3 Parts to the American System

1. a tariff to protect and promote American industry
2. a national bank to foster commerce
3. federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other
   "internal improvements" to develop profitable
   markets for agriculture

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Ridiculing the American System Claiming Home,
Consumption, Internal Imrovements all steal from
each other
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Enacting the American System

• from 1816 to 1828, Congress enacted programs
  supporting each of the American System's major
  elements
• - 1816 Congress approves the 2nd National Bank
• - 1816 passed protective tariff
• limited competition from abroad
• many items most important cotton cloth
• agriculturist objected- they would have to
  pay higher prices for manufactured goods
• - 1828 Tariff of Abomination

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Enacting the American System

• 1824 turnpikes connecting national road to
  Baltimore MD (Cumberland Road)
• 1817-1825 Erie Canal

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The Presidency of John Quincy Adams

• idea of corrupt bargain haunts his presidency
• Jacksonians in Congress block his every move

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Tariff of Abominations

• 1828 on imported goods
• - highest tariff up until the time, enacting a
  62 tax on 92 of all imported goods.
• why?
• - RI and Mass wool manufacturers
• - complain British prices too low
• - run them out of business
• Western support could be obtained only by
  agreeing to include an increase on duties for the
  importation of certain raw materials
• New England upset with accommodation of the West
• The South under any circumstance was opposed to
  protectionism.
• no one was really pleased with the 1828 tariff
  of abominations.

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Election of 1828

• John Quincy Adams National Republicans
• Andrew Jackson- Democratic Republican
• emergence of 2 party system

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Personal attacks on Adams

• Adams was attacked for
• - living in "kingly pomp and splendor
• - traveling on Sunday
• - having premarital relations with his wife
• - misusing public funds he had supposedly
  purchased gambling devices for the presidential
  residence (a chess board and a pool table)
• - while serving as Minister to Russia, had
  surrendered an American servant girl to the
  appetites of the Czar

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Personal attacks on Jackson

• Jackson was attacked as being
• - uneducated and reckless
• - a murderer for executing deserters and for
  dueling
• His mother was referred to as a prostitute
• He was said to have a mulatto father
• His wife was labeled a bigamist and an adulterer
  (she was technically still married when she
  married Jackson)
• He was labeled a jackass

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• Known as a coffin bill

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• - Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour
  husband to be placed in the highest offices of
  this free and Christian sic land?
• Mrs. Jackson was humiliated, became ill and died
  before the inauguration .
• At the funeral Jackson said, I can and do
  forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches
  who have slandered her must look to God for
  mercy.

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• Campaign Slogan
• Adams can write
• Jackson can fight
• he once said he had no respect for a man who
  could think of only one way to spell a word.

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2nd Party System

• 1837 to 1852.
• major parties
• - Democrats led by Andrew Jackson
• - Whigs led by Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and
  Daniel Webster (the Great Triumvirate)
• minor parties
• - Anti-Masonic Party 182734
• - Liberty Party 1840
• - Free-soil Party 1848 and 1852
• - Know Nothing Party 1850s