List Of Executive Actions By John Quincy Adams

The presidency of John Quincy Adams, began on March 4, 1825, when John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1829. Adams, the sixth United States president, took office following the 1824 presidential election, in which he and three other Democratic-Republicans— Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson—sought the presidency. Adams was not a strong president, and he was under continuous attack from Jackson who easily defeated him in the 1828 presidential election.

No candidate won a majority of Electoral College votes, and so the United States House of Representatives chose the president in a contingent election. With the help of Clay, Adams was elected by the House. Adams rewarded Clay with the prestigious role of Secretary of State.
Upon taking office, Adams articulated an ambitious domestic agenda. He envisioned a national marketplace in which North and South, town and country, were tied together by trade and exchange. A supporter of Henry Clay's proposed American System, he proposed major investments in internal improvements (involving the construction of roads and canals), and the creation of educational institutions such as a national university, among other initiatives, to bring this vision to life. Due to meager support from congressional leaders, however, his agenda was largely blocked by Congress. His support of the "Tariff of Abominations," a protective tariff approved by Congress in 1828, hurt his popularity among voters. The foreign affairs initiatives of the Adams administration fared only slightly better, as many of the president's key initiatives were blocked by Congress.

The contentious nature of the 1824 election brought about the demise of the Democratic-Republican Party and the emergence of a new era in American politics. Characterizing Adams's victory as the result of a " corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay, Jackson and his supporters, including Martin Van Buren and Vice President John C. Calhoun, spent the ensuing three years constructing the organization that would become the modern Democratic Party. The followers of Adams organized themselves more loosely as the National Republican Party, but were unable to match the efforts of the Democrats under Jackson, who won the 1828 election in a landslide.

1824 presidential election

The Federalist Party had nearly collapsed in the aftermath of the War of 1812, and all of the major presidential candidates in the 1824 presidential election were members of outgoing President James Monroe's Democratic-Republican Party. As the election approached, Adams, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford all positioned themselves to succeed Monroe, and Monroe would remain neutral during the election. Immediately upon becoming Secretary of State in 1817, Adams had emerged as one of Monroe's most likely successors, as the last three presidents had all led the State Department at some point prior to taking office. Adams felt that his own election as president would vindicate his father, one-term former President John Adams, while also allowing him to pursue an ambitious domestic program. His popular appeal lay primarily in his tenure as secretary of state, during which time he had negotiated agreements with Russia, Britain, and Spain; each of those agreements were either conducive towards or led directly to U.S. expansion in North America. Though he lacked the charisma of his competitors, Adams was widely respected, and his candidacy benefited from his status as the lone Northerner in the race..

Crawford favored state sovereignty and a strict constructionist view of the Constitution, while Calhoun, Clay, and Adams all embraced federally-funded internal improvements, high tariffs, and the national bank. As 1824 approached, General Andrew Jackson jumped into the race, motivated in large part by his anger over Clay and Crawford's denunciations of his actions in Spanish Florida during the First Seminole War.. While the other candidates based their candidacies on their long tenure as congressmen, ambassadors, or members of the cabinet, Jackson's appeal rested on his military service, especially in the Battle of New Orleans. During his sporadic service in Congress, Jackson had not earned a reputation for advocating any particular policies, though he had voted for the General Survey Act of 1824, a measure designed to help establish a national infrastructure network. Many of Jackson's backers attacked the alleged corruption of the federal government and emphasized that Jackson, unlike the other candidates, had not taken part in that corruption. Seeing the strength of Jackson's candidacy, Calhoun dropped out of the presidential race and instead sought the vice presidency.

The congressional nominating caucus had decided upon previous Democratic-Republican presidential nominees, but it had become largely discredited by 1824. Candidates were instead nominated by state legislatures or nominating conventions, and Adams received the endorsement of several New England legislatures. The regional strength of each candidate played an important role in the election; Adams was popular in New England, Clay and Jackson were strong in the West, and Jackson and Crawford competed for the South, despite the latter's health problems. In the 1824 presidential election, Jackson won a plurality in the Electoral College, taking 99 of the 261 electoral votes, while Adams won 84, Crawford won 41, and Clay took 37. Jackson won also won plurality of the national popular vote, although six states did not hold a popular vote for president. As no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote, the House was required to hold contingent election under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment. The House would decide among the top three electoral vote winners, with each state's delegation having one vote; thus, unlike his three rivals, Clay was not eligible to be elected by the House..

Adams knew that his own victory in the contingent election would require the support of Clay, who wielded immense influence in the House of Representatives. Though they were quite different in temperament and had clashed in the past, Adams and Clay shared similar views on national issues. By contrast, Clay viewed Jackson as a dangerous demagogue, and he was unwilling to support Crawford due to the latter's health issues. Adams and Clay met prior to the contingent election, and Clay agreed to support Adams in the contingent election.

On February 9, 1825, Adams won the contingent election on the first ballot, taking 13 of the 24 state delegations. He was the second president elected by the House of Representatives, following Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election. Adams won the House delegations of all the states in which he or Clay had won a majority of the electoral votes, as well as the delegations of Illinois, Louisiana, and Maryland. After the election, many of Jackson's supporters claimed that Adams and Clay had reached a " Corrupt Bargain" in which Adams promised Clay the position of Secretary of State in return for Clay's support..

Inauguration

Adams was sworn in as president by Chief Justice John Marshall on March 4, 1825, in a ceremony held in the House of Representatives Chamber at the United States Capitol. He took the presidential oath upon a volume of Constitutional law instead of the more traditional Bible. In his inaugural address, Adams adopted a post-partisan tone, promising that he would avoid party-building and politically motivated appointments. He also proposed an elaborate program of internal improvements: roads, ports, and canals. Though some questioned the constitutionality of such federal projects, Adams argued that the General Welfare Clause provided for broad constitutional authority. While his predecessors had engaged in projects like the building of the National Road, Adams promised that he would ask Congress to authorize many more such projects.

Administration

Like Monroe, Adams sought a geographically-balanced cabinet that would represent the various party factions, and he asked the members of the Monroe cabinet to remain in place for his own administration. Samuel L. Southard of New Jersey stayed on as Secretary of the Navy, while William Wirt, who had strong ties to both Virginia and Maryland, kept his post of Attorney General. John McLean of Ohio continued to serve as the Postmaster General, an important position that was not part of the cabinet.. Southard and McLean both had favored Calhoun and Jackson in 1824, while Wirt generally shied away from becoming involved in electoral politics.

Adams chose Henry Clay as Secretary of State, angering those who believed that Clay had offered his support in the 1824 election for the most prestigious position in the cabinet. Though Clay would later regret accepting the position since it reinforced the "Corrupt Bargain" accusation, Clay's strength in the West and interest in foreign policy made him a natural choice for the top cabinet position. Adams's first choices for Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury were Andrew Jackson and William Crawford, respectively. As Jackson was uninterested in serving in the Adams administration, Adams selected James Barbour of Virginia, a prominent supporter of Crawford, to lead the War Department. After Crawford declined to continue his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury, Adams asked Albert Gallatin to take the position, but Gallatin also declined. Leadership of the Treasury Department instead went to Richard Rush of Pennsylvania, who had not taken part in the 1824 election by virtue of his service as the ambassador to Britain. As Secretary of the Treasury, Rush became a prominent advocate of internal improvements and protective tariffs. Adams presided over a harmonious and productive cabinet. He met with the cabinet as a group on a weekly basis to discuss major issues of policy, and he gave individual cabinet members a great deal of discretion in carrying out their duties.

In terms of ambassadors, President Adams made or kept the following appointments:
* United Kingdom:
** Rufus King (to 1826)
** Albert Gallatin (to 1827)
** James Barbour
* France:
** James Brown (holdover from previous administration)
* Spain:
** Alexander Hill Everett
* Netherlands:
** Christopher Hughes (Chargé d'affaires)
* Portugal:
** Thomas L.L. Brent (Chargé d'affaires)
* Russia and Prussia: none

Judiciary

Adams appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States and eleven judges to the United States district courts. The first vacancy of Adams's tenure arose upon the death of Associate Justice Thomas Todd in February 1826. To replace Todd, Adams nominated another Kentuckian, Robert Trimble, who was the first federal judge elevated to the Supreme Court. After deliberating for a month, the Senate confirmed Trimble in a 27-to-5 vote. Trimble died in 1828 at the age of 52, creating another vacancy on the court. After Charles Hammond and Clay both declined appointment, Adams nominated Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. Adams made the nomination in December 1828, and the Jacksonians of the lame-duck Senate refused to confirm Crittenden, leaving a vacancy for Jackson to fill.

Domestic affairs

Ambitious agenda

In his 1825 annual message to Congress, Adams presented a comprehensive and ambitious agenda. He called for major investments in internal improvements as well as the creation of a national university, a naval academy, and a national astronomical observatory. Noting the healthy status of the treasury and the possibility for more revenue via land sales, Adams argued for the completion of several projects that were in various stages of construction or planning, including a road from Washington to New Orleans. He also proposed the establishment of a Department of the Interior as a new cabinet-level department that would preside over these internal improvements. Adams hoped to fund these measures primarily through Western land sales, rather than increased taxes or public debt. The domestic agenda of Adams and Clay, which would come to be known as the American System, was designed to unite disparate regional interests in the promotion of a thriving national economy.

Adams's programs faced opposition from various quarters. Many disagreed with his broad interpretation of the constitution and preferred that power be concentrated in state governments rather than the federal government. Others disliked interference from any level of government and were opposed to central planning.. Some in the South feared that Adams was secretly an abolitionist and that he sought to suborn the states to the federal government.

Clay warned the president that many of his proposals held little chance of passage in the 19th Congress, but Adams noted that his agenda might be adopted at some point in the future. As Clay predicted, most of the president's proposals were defeated in Congress. Adams's ideas for a national university, national observatory, and the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures never received congressional votes.. His proposal for the creation of a naval academy won the approval of the Senate, but was defeated in the House in an 86-to-78 vote. Opponents of the naval academy objected to its cost and worried that the establishment of such an institution would "produce degeneracy and corruption of the public morality." Adams's proposal to establish a national bankruptcy law was also defeated. Secretary of the Navy Southard proposed a national survey of the eastern coastline of the United States, but Congress refused to approve of the project, approving only of smaller surveys in South Carolina and Maryland. The administration also attempted to launch a naval expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, but this too was blocked by Congress.

Internal improvements

Unlike other aspects of his domestic agenda, Adams won congressional approval for several ambitious infrastructure projects. Between 1824 and 1828, the United States Army Corps of Engineers conducted surveys for a bevy of potential roads, canals, railroads, and improvements in river navigation. Adams presided over major repairs and further construction on the National Road, and shortly after he left office the National Road extended from Cumberland, Maryland to Zanesville, Ohio. The Adams administration also saw the beginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Louisville and Portland Canal around the falls of the Ohio; the connection of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River system in Ohio and Indiana; and the enlargement and rebuilding of the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina. Additionally, the first passenger railroad in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was constructed during Adams's presidency. Though many of these projects were undertaken by private actors, the government provided money or land to aid in the completion of many of those projects. The projects undertaken by the Adams administration in and around Ohio proved to be particularly important, as those projects enabled rapid development in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Louisville.

Formation of political parties

In the immediate aftermath of the 1825 contingent election, Jackson was gracious to Adams. Adams hoped to continue Monroe's goal of ending partisanship, and his cabinet included individuals of various ideological and regional backgrounds. Nevertheless, Adams's appointment of Clay rankled Jackson, who received a flood of letters encouraging him to run, and in 1825 Jackson accepted the Tennessee legislature's nomination of him for president in the next election. The appointment of Clay also drew opposition from supporters of Crawford and Calhoun. Though he had been close with Adams during Monroe's presidency, Calhoun was politically alienated from the president by the appointment of Clay, which established Clay as the natural heir to Adams. Denmark Vesey's failed slave rebellion in 1822 also contributed to a shift in Calhoun's politics, and he would become an increasingly ardent advocate of the doctrine of states' rights during the 1820s.

Adams's ambitious December 1825 annual message to Congress galvanized the opposition, with important figures such as Francis Preston Blair of Kentucky and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri breaking with the Adams administration. By the end of the first session of the 19th United States Congress, an anti-Adams congressional coalition consisting of Jacksonians (led by Benton and Hugh Lawson White), Crawfordites (led by Martin Van Buren and Nathaniel Macon), and Calhounites (led by Robert Y. Hayne and George McDuffie) had emerged. Aside from Clay, Adams lacked strong supporters outside of the North, and Edward Everett, John Taylor, and Daniel Webster served as his strongest advocates in Congress.. Supporters of Adams began calling themselves National Republicans, while supporters of Jackson began calling themselves Democrats. In the press, they were often described as "Adams Men" and "Jackson Men."

In the 1826 elections, Adams's opponents picked up seats throughout the country, as allies of Adams failed to coordinate among themselves.. Following those elections, Van Buren met with Calhoun, and the two agreed to throw their support behind Jackson in 1828, with Van Buren bringing along many of Crawford's supporters. Calhoun hoped to succeed Jackson in either 1832 or 1836. Van Buren's ultimate goal, meanwhile, was the revival of the Jefferson-era alliance between Southern planters and the "plain Republicans" of the North, which in turn would help recreate the old partisan split between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists. Drawing on the recent debate over the Missouri Compromise, Van Buren feared that the failure to create a two-party system would leave the country split by sectional, rather than partisan, issues.

Unlike Van Buren, Adams clung to the hope of a non-partisan nation, and he refused to make full use of the power of patronage to build up his own party structure. Many of his appointments were designed to mollify critics rather than to reward supporters. He attempted to woo former Federalists like Rufus King, but internal divisions among the Federalists, as well as the continuing unpopularity of Federalists among Democratic-Republicans, prevented Adams from winning their full support. Adams also failed to rally strong support from the fledgling Anti-Masonic movement or from the followers of influential New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. Outside of New England, many of the administration's supporters defined themselves more in their opposition to Jackson than in their support of Adams.

While Jackson had wide support, and many thought that the election had been unfairly stolen from him, he lacked an ideological platform to unite the opponents of Adams. For fear of upsetting the delicate balance among his supporters, Jackson avoided taking any strong positions other than his opposition to the Adams administration. Supporters in the West hoped that Jackson would invest in internal improvements and Pennsylvanians hoped he would favor a high tariff. But at the same time, many Southerners saw Jackson as a beacon of opposition to a powerful federal government, which they feared would eventually be used against slavery. Though Jackson did not articulate a detailed political platform in the same way that Adams did, his coalition was united in opposition to Adams's reliance on government planning. The Jacksonians also tended to favor the opening of Native American lands to white settlement.

On 4 July, 1826, former president and John Quincy Adams's father John Adams, and former President Thomas Jefferson died, notably on the same day. Adams signed his second executive order on July 11, mourning on the death of former presidents and ordering the national flag to wave at half-mast. He would not sign any further executive order until February 28, 1828, announcing death of Major General Jacob Brown.

Tariff of 1828

Allies of Adams lost control of Congress after the 1826 mid-term elections, and pro-Adams Speaker of the House John Taylor was replaced by Andrew Stevenson, a Jackson supporter. Adams himself noted that the U.S. had never before seen a Congress that was firmly under the control of political opponents of the president. During the first half of his administration, Adams avoided taking a strong stand on tariffs, partly because he wanted to avoid alienating his allies in the South and New England. While New England manufacturing interests supported protective tariffs, the region's shipping interests generally opposed them. Southerners, meanwhile, had largely abandoned attempts to industrialize, preferring instead to focus on growing cotton. Clay's home state of Kentucky and other parts of the South favored tariffs, but most Southerners strongly supported low tariffs and free trade.

After Jacksonians took power in 1827, they devised a tariff bill designed to appeal to Western states while instituting high rates on imported materials important to the economy of New England. The bill passed the House in a 105-to-94 vote; administration allies voted 61-to-35 in favor of the bill, while a comfortable majority of Jacksonians voted against it. It is unclear whether Van Buren, who shepherded the bill through Congress, meant for the bill to pass, or if he deliberately designed it in such a way that, he hoped, would force Adams and his allies to oppose it. Regardless, Adams signed the Tariff of 1828, which became known as the "Tariff of Abominations." Adams was denounced in the South, but he received little credit for the tariff in the North. The high tariff rates would eventually lead to the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s.

Indian policy

Adams sought the gradual assimilation of Native Americans via consensual agreements, a priority shared by few whites in the 1820s. Yet Adams was also deeply committed to the westward expansion of the United States. Settlers on the frontier, who were constantly seeking to move westward, cried for a more expansionist policy that disregarded the concerns of Native Americans. Early in his term, Adams suspended the Treaty of Indian Springs after learning that the Governor of Georgia, George Troup, had forced the treaty on the Muscogee

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