Welcome to Blogging the Presidents: A Voting While Intoxicated™ Almost Original Series. We will be taking a serious look at the 42 men who have led our country and hopefully finding a few laughable details.
PART VI
While James Monroe benefited from a period of single-party domination, the laws (well, really just law) of Political Science predict well enough that this would not last. With our institutional structures, a two-party system is the default state. The breakdown of the Democratic-Republican Party started in the 1824 election in what should probably be considered the most contested election in history. Though there are examples where the popular vote and electoral vote disagree (2000) and one could imagine a scenario where a candidate wins by vote of the House after capturing only a plurality in one of the two measures (1800 is the closest to this condition) but in the case of 1824, John Quincy Adams captured neither the most popular votes nor the most electoral votes. He ultimately won based on questionable deal-making that drove Andrew Jackson crazy. This weak start likely doomed Adams as he lacked a mandate or a unified party in Congress to support his efforts.
Considering this, Adams is an underrated President or at least an underappreciated man. He had a hand in many foreign policy successes in the preceding quarter Century including the Monroe Doctrine and the Hay-Otis Treaty which expanded our borders to the Pacific in the Northwest.
He should be considered a great early civil rights leader. As President, he took a far friendlier policy towards Native Americans than you hear about from nearly any other President of the era, and paid a great political price for it. After his Presidency, he defended those involved in the Amistad mutiny (an event dramatized in film), winning their freedom. Sadly you do not hear enough stories of major politicians being so far ahead of society on this sort of issue.
He was solid on economics, proposing many new investments into infrastructure and the like, but as was mentioned was frustrated by Congress. Despite all the animosity from Jackson’s supporters, he was a fairly non-partisan individual, keeping on cabinet members supportive of Jackson feeling that incompetence was the only legitimate reason to remove someone from the Administration. He’s like the anti-Bush in this regard.
Ultimately, it is a pity we could not have witnessed an Adams Presidency based on more solid footing. I suspect he could have accomplished quite a lot with a more supportive Congress and a second term. His place in history is largely handicapped by factors largely out of his control, as is often the case.
With the election of John Quincy Adams, we had our first father-son Presidential pair, joined only by the two George Bushes. Apparently giving your son your name is key. We also have Presidential relatives like Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt along with John F Kennedy and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Demolition Man is an accurate document of the future right?) In this case, the nepotism was probably merited as John Quincy Adams proved a very capable public servant.
- VWI
