John Quincy Adams: America’s Most Successful Failure

just before we get started i will say that  this video is sponsored by quincy 400.   for most presidents their long-term reputation  lives and dies upon what they did during their   administration herbert for example was a  great humanitarian now only remembered for a   much greater depression no one meanwhile seriously  remembers woodrow wilson for overhauling princeton   university heck even dwight d eisenhower is better  known for his two terms than winning goddamn world   war ii but occasionally you get a president whose  deeds before or after their administration are   central to their place in history of these perhaps  none is so fascinating as john quincy adams the   sixth president of the united states adams was  also the white house's first major disappointment   in a single term he failed to do anything much of  consequence existing mainly as a human punching   bag for his successor andrew jackson yet rather  than the pinnacle the presidency would turn out   to be a brief dip in his otherwise remarkable  life as secretary of state pre-presidency adams   helped shape america in profound ways in  his post-white house career he became one   of the most powerful anti-slavery voices in the  nation a mediocre ineffectual president who still   transforms the united states this is the life  of john quincy adams america's greatest failure when john quincy adams was born in braintree  massachusetts later named quincy on july the   11th 1767 it was into a seemingly average family  his parents weren't incredibly rich or highly   connected and while his father was fiercely  interested in politics he wasn't exactly   a mover and shaker but of course we already know  there was nothing average about adams family his   dad was future founding father john adams his mum  future first lady abigail adams and that ensured   there would be nothing remotely average about  john quincy's upbringing things got moving in   1774 with the calling of the first continental  congress essentially a big convention dedicated   to discussing what a [ __ ] george iii was adams's  dad was one of their state's delegates but while   this was the family's first flirtation  with history it would be what came next   that really transformed their fortunes on april  19th 1775 some forgotten soldier at lexington   fired their gun during a tense standoff between  british forces and american militia it was the   opening of the american revolutionary war the shot  heard around the world it was also the starting   gun on john adams's high velocity career with his  dad running off to join the second continental   congress that spring john quincy always left to  witness the war unfold from his mother's side   like literally that summer abigail took her son to  the top of a nearby hill from where they could see   the distant carnage of the battle of bunker hill  the next few years the boy would frequently see   soldiers marching through his hometown then there  were the fears he felt for his dad on july the 4th   1776 john adams signed his name on the declaration  of independence one hour celebrated moment it was   at the time treason and adams was paralyzed by  the fear that the british might execute his dad   not that there was much space for airing these  fears at home always a hard woman abigail adams   had transformed by the war into a mother  determined to raise a future american leader   she would truck no emotions from her boy no  idleness nothing at all that most of us would   associate with childhood and that meant that john  quincy grew up faster than even other kids in this   turbulent era aged just 10 he was sent with his  dad on a dangerous diplomatic trip to europe on   which saw british ships stalk and harass their  vessel on a second voyage the following year the   boat sprang a leak barely making it to the spanish  coast getting to paris then required a grueling   two-month trek on mules at this time john quincy  was also taking on diplomatic responsibilities   like teaching the french minister to the united  states english or sitting in on meetings between   his dad and benjamin franklin it was as if john  and abigail were trying to fashion their son   into a machine for diplomacy a sort of nerdy  robocop built for geopolitics as abigail wrote   to her still prepubescent son these are the times  in which a genius would wish to live it is not   in the still calm of life or the repose  of a pacific station that great characters   are formed which was maybe why adam's  life in europe was as far from still   as it's possible to get over the years of the war  john quincy lived in holland and france spending   time in sweden and prussia he became fluent in  french passable and dutch age 14 he was appointed   secretary and translator to the u.s embassy  to russia in time he'd master seven languages   but his biggest moment came at the age of 16. in  1783 adams served as a secretary to the american   delegation in paris watching from up close as a  peace treaty was thrashed out with britain ending   the revolutionary war it was an invaluable insight  into international politics what adams would take   into his future diplomatic ventures but first the  teenage john quincy wanted to return to america as he reached adulthood john quincy adams had  grown into a highly intelligent well-traveled   and well-read young man he also however had grown  into a neurotic mess an ill-tempered emotionally   cold egotist who most people instinctively  disliked in short the ideal combination for   professional success and personal misery first  the professional success back in the us john   quincy graduated harvard passed the bar and  began practicing law all by the age of 23. he   also found a side gig writing articles in support  of the new president's articles that soon brought   him to george washington's attention it probably  didn't hurt that washington's vice president was   john quincy's dad in 1794 the president appointed  him minister to the netherlands and adams returned   to europe okay so that's the amazing career what  about the personal misery for that we need to look   no further than adams's love life while in the  u.s john quincy had fallen spectacularly for a   local girl he'd even wanted to propose but then  abigail had told him that he needed to focus on   his career so adams broke off with the young  woman only to regret the decision immediately   and intensely in fact he regretted it so much that  when he met 22 year old louisa catherine in london   he didn't even hesitate before asking her to  marry him the daughter of an american expat and   an english woman louisa was intelligent creative  exactly the sort of things that most people would   want in a fiance the problem was adams wasn't most  people he actively refused to be in the same room   as louisa when she played music and could barely  stand talking to her they married in july 1797. by   the time louise became the first of only two  foreign-born first ladies the pair could go   literal weeks without speaking but that was still  many years away for now the young adams simply   kept up his diplomatic work becoming his dad's man  in prussia after john adams gained the presidency   then returning to america again when his dad lost  it not that this loss impacted adams own career   elected to the massachusetts state senate in 1802  adams was quickly promoted to one of the state's   two congressional senators massachusetts c was  controlled by the federalist party since his dad   had been a federalist the leadership assumed  adams was as safe about as they could make   but that assumption couldn't have been more  wrong in congress john quincy surprised   everyone by frequently siding not with his  dad's federalists but with their opponents   the democratic republicans this included weighty  stuff like the 1807 embargo act which blocked   trade with all foreign nations a brave attempt  to get britain to respect america's maritime   rights but one with the unfortunate side effect  of screwing over adams's home base of new england   yet adams voted for the measure feeling his  conscience would not allow him to do otherwise   in massachusetts though the federalists felt  that adams consciousness could kiss their butts   outraged at his betrayal they announced his  replacement before his term was even over five   days later adams resigned shortly after he was  spotted at the democratic republican convention   his switch to the enemy party now official  but while this mountain made him as popular   with federalists as a carolina reaper enema it  was also an excellent career move in the 1808   election democratic republican james madison  trounced his federalist rival he awarded john   quincy switch of allegiance with the job of u.s  minister to russia and so it was back to europe   back to a continent broken and bruised by the  napoleonic wars from his vantage point in saint   petersburg adams was able to witness france's  failed invasion of russia to take part in the   negotiations with britain that ended the war of  1812 to watch napoleon's collapse at waterloo   come 1817 john quincy was living in london with  more experiences under his belt the most managed   in a lifetime yet it would be the next seven  years that saw his greatest achievements of all   back home james monroe had just been elected  president and he had the perfect role lined   up for the worldly intelligent john quincy adams  he wanted adams to become his secretary of state although on paper he was the perfect candidate  deep down adams was worried worried that monroe   had made the wrong choice worried that he'd be a  failure as he wrote to abigail he felt that the   president had overestimated not the goodness of  my intentions but the extent of my talents for a   man so egotistical he once called his own diaries  the most precious and valuable book ever written   by human hands such fears seem remarkable  an indication that adams really did sense   he might not be fit for high office and while  time and the highest office in the land would   eventually prove him right in 1817 the opposite  happened john quincy adams was about to become   perhaps the best secretary of state the u.s ever  had adams is genius in his ability to negotiate   under his watch vital treaties were signed that  changed america forever the most vital of these   the treaties with britain and spain at this point  remember adams had lived through two major wars   with britain and voted for legislation designed  to cuddle trade ties with london so he'd have   been forgiven for making his official stance  screw those limey douchebags but no instead   adams spearheaded the convention of 1818  which permanently set the u.s canadian border   along the 49th parallel all the way to the rocky  mountains with a ban on armaments along the border   this treaty helped diffuse 50 years of tensions  between london and washington ushering in a new   era in which redcoats weren't constantly trying  to burn down the white house more important   still though may have been the treaty with spain  signed in 1819 the treaty saw florida officially   handed to the united states and spain give up its  claims to territory north of latitude 42 degrees   since this included oregon county it set the  stage for yet further u.s expansion westward   in the future in return the southern border was  set with madrid's colony of new spain giving the   spaniards control of texas but since spain was  about to get booted out of what is now mexico   uncle sam wouldn't have to worry about keeping up  his end of the bargain for very long impressive   as these treaties were though perhaps adams's  biggest achievement was a speech which doesn't   even bear his name the monroe doctrine takes its  name from the president who first articulated it   but the idea was nearly all john quincy adams's  in a nutshell the doctrine told europe to forget   sailing across the atlantic to do more colonizing  the newly independent american nations would stay   independent and any attempt to say otherwise would  result in a star-spangled foot being inserted   up the old continent's backside at the time  this was a ballsy statement like scrappy doo   threatening to go 10 rounds with cujo the u.s  simply wasn't powerful enough to be bossing   multiple empires around but it was also a  sign of how the tides were shifting of how   the western hemisphere was turning towards the u.s  in decades to come the monroe doctrine would be   used to justify all sorts of unwelcome intrusions  in latin america but it's no doubt its unveiling   was a pivotal moment so that was john quincy's  career as his time as secretary of state drew   to a close while with the track record of three  major wins plus a minor victory professionalizing   the diplomatic service stacked together all this  made adams feel like it got a pretty good shot at   taking over from monroe when the president left  office the trouble was he wasn't the only one   as the election year of 1824 dawned it was on  a country that had dramatically changed the   federalist party heard collapsed male suffrage had  been expanded 18 of the 24 states now chose their   presidential electors by popular vote it would  in short be a watershed election one that would   fulfill john quincy's wildest dreams even as it  laid the groundwork for his political destruction although only one party contested the 1824  election that doesn't mean there was only one   candidate alongside adams three other men all vied  for the top job each with their own bases of power   it was the fire brand house speaker henry clay  of kendaki the favorite of the elites william h   crawford but it was the outsider candidate that  would throw all of adams's hopes into disarray   the popular and populist tennessee general  andrew jackson from the get-go the race was   messy divided and as bitter as cyanide that summer  crawford was put forward under the old caucus   system selected not by voters but by congressmen  leaning on crawford's selection as undemocratic   massachusetts legislature instead nominated adams  down in kentucky the same thing happened with   henry clay but it was andrew jackson who put up  the most vigorous opposition putting on rallies   that made the pro adams faction's efforts look  like the class nerd's unattended birthday parties   because the class nerd is kind of what adams was  he was clever yes even brilliant but he was also   widely disliked the martin prince of presidential  politics there was no way in this era when the   popular vote actually mattered that cerebral adams  could win against a natural populist like jackson   when the results came it was clear john quincy's  presidential bid had failed while it left client   crawford eating his dust taking 30.9 percent of  the popular vote adams had only won new england   and new york jackson meanwhile had captured 11  states and 41.4 percent of the vote and you don't   need to be a john quincy style genius to know that  41 was a much higher number than 31. so this is it   then the moment when we reveal that all of this  has just been an incredibly long intro to our   andrew jackson biography well not exactly see  jackson may have taken the most votes and states   but his delicate count at the electoral college  was 99 to 32 short of a majority that meant the   12th amendment kicking in meaning the house would  now decide the outcome on a one-state one-vote   basis and with clay prevented from moving to the  second round that meant vital delegates were still   in play on february 9 1825 the house held its  contingent election disgusted by jackson clay   convinced all of his states to back adams he and  former federalists then began pressuring others   to back the sensible john quincy over the fiery  andrew jackson incredibly the campaign worked on   the first ballot 13 states threw their support  to adams giving him the simple majority needed   to be declared winner john quincy adams would now  become the sixth president of the united states   to call jackson outraged would be to underestimate  how volcanically his rage erupted on hearing the   results the general accused adams and clay  of conspiring to make a corrupt bargain a   charge adam seemed to confirm when he  appointed clay his secretary of state   while historians today don't think that any  shady bargain existed the optics were still   terrible for anyone even remotely pro-jackson  it appeared the election had been stolen even   adam seemed to recognize this acknowledging to  the american people i am less possessed of your   confidence in advance than any of my predecessors  yet ultimately it wouldn't matter as he assumed   the presidency john quincy adams did so with a  bold plan for the future one that would be so   transformative so beneficial that andrew jackson  would soon be forgotten yeah about that as adams   was about to discover being president is not  the same as being an old timey king you need   support in both chambers broad following among  the public the sixth president had none of these   things and now adams was going to find out  just how hard ruling as a lame duck really is there can be few u.s presidents with such a  stark gap between what they intended to achieve   and what they actually managed to do when john  quincy adams entered the white house it was with   an ambitious program designed to wed the states  into a true nation with a vast internal market and   a strong executive adams wanted to construct roads  and canals to connect americans to standardize   weights and measures to build universities and  observer trees and dispatch survey teams to map   everything the continent had to offer yet while  he would see modest success with construction   projects including the lake erie canal mostly  what adams would see would be endless failure   1820s america didn't see an early new  deal in his plans for massive public works   no what they saw were attempts to drain power from  states and pump it directly to washington more to   the point they also saw a president elected in  a contentious manner suddenly acting like he was   the messiah of government reform but rather than  the messiah congress would treat adams as a very   naughty boy from the get-go the sixth president  was hampered in all his goals spurned even by   former supporters for two years things just about  held together but then 1826 rolled around and   adam's world fell apart first his father always  his staunchest supporter died from a heart attack   with his dad gone adams lost the one person he  could truly count on yet his personal isolation   would soon be compounded by a second disaster  in the midterm elections that year jacksonians   took control of congress determined to block  everything adams tried to do in the two years   since the contingent election jackson hadn't  remotely mellowed instead launching an endless   campaign against the president all while building  an election-winning machine with congress now   solidly against him adams would spend the rest  of his presidency unable to do anything but   helplessly watch as his ambitions crumbled to  dust there were the delegates adams wanted to   send to panama for a meeting of american nations  only for congress to block their funding or the   tariff package congress forced him to authorize  that was so unpopular it became known as the   tariff of abominations even when adams tried to  do rights such as supporting the rights of creek   indians to have their territory respected congress  still rejected him now this doesn't mean adams was   an actively bad president stacked next to him  james buchanan it looks positively great but it   does mean that he became a mediocre president  one whose term would be defined by inertia   drift and ever shrinking expectations against  this backdrop the 1828 election was almost a   mercy killing now at the head of the newly formed  democratic party andrew jackson was back and he   was ready for vengeance that winter the general  won a crushing victory taking 55.5 percent of the   vote and dominating the electoral college like his  father before him john quincy was now officially a   one-term president and just like his father before  him adam's left under a grumpy cloud refusing to   attend his successors inauguration but while this  would be the end of most presidential bios barring   a quick paragraph explaining how they died adams's  biography still has a final chapter because after   a disappointing presidency his career was going  to have one last glorious high in the coming years   john quincy adams was going to reinvent himself  as nothing less than the conscious of his nation in the 1840s there was nothing guaranteed  to silence the house faster than   old man eloquent standing up to speak as  the 70-something john quincy adams rose a   hush would descend representatives from  the democrats and whigs alike would wait   in respectful quiet to see what their elder had  to say but this respect wasn't just due to adams   age or the fact that he'd once been president  rather it was due to his long and extraordinary   post-white house career after he lost the  election john quincy had gone into retirement   moping miserably around massachusetts as the  jacksonian revolution got underway but then some   neighbors had pressured him to run for congress  and adams had won entering the house in december   of 1831. at the time many thought it beneath  him a former president reduced to just one of   hundreds of representatives as adams put it though  no person could be degraded by serving the people   and serve was exactly what adams intended to  do over 16 plus years john quincy would forge   a second career speaking out forcefully against  aggressive expansion against the war with mexico   but his greatest most lasting achievement would  be his opposition to slavery of the first 12   presidents the only ones who didn't own enslaved  people were john quincy and his dad and while john   quincy would never publicly declare himself an  abolitionist his actions in the house sure suggest   that he was leaning that way his biggest battle  was against the gag rule which banned debate on   any petition concerning slavery convinced this was  an insult to the first amendment adams launched   what can only be described as a crusade against it  from 1836 he violated the rule whenever he could   attempting to get anti-slavery petitions read into  record risking the wrath of southerners for years   it looked like a fool's errand but you know  that old quote often misattributed to gandhi   first they ignore you then they laugh at you then  you win well adams kept going until he won in 1844   the house relented voting to end the gag rule by  then adams was already fighting slavery on other   fronts in 1841 he'd gone before the supreme  court to argue the amistad case on behalf   of slaves who'd mutineed aboard a spanish ship  only to be captured by american sailors adams   argument was a blistering denunciation of slavery  is against american founding principles saying the   moment you come to the declaration of independence  that every man has a right to life and liberty   an inalienable right this case is decided i ask  nothing more in behalf of these unfortunate men   than this declaration he won the case and the  former slaves went free yet while john quincy   would spend his latter years chipping away  at the edifice of slavery he sadly wouldn't   live to see the whole rotten system collapse on  february 21 1848 adams had just finished making a   passionate speech in the house when he suffered a  massive stroke carried to a sofa in the speaker's   office he died two days later his last words were  this is the end of earth but i am content john   quincy adams passed away at the age of 80 leaving  behind a career so long and complex that even now   it's impossible to neatly summarize on the one  hand his time as president was a disappointment   a single term in which little was accomplished  on the other though his careers both pre and   post-presidency were seemingly sprinkled with gold  dust charmed things that glittered brightly next   to the dreary grave is one term it's fascinating  isn't it how ill-equipped we often are to deal   with a narrative that subverts our expectations  that doesn't climax with the presidency but with   the roles of secretary of state and representative  roles we assume are somehow lesser but the life of   the sixth president shows us this isn't the case  the presidential rankings can never capture all   the good and bad of a person's life in summing  up john quincy adams then perhaps we should   instead look to the words of his wife louisa who  once described him as exasperating tendentious   self-absorbed and yet in the end magnificent i  hope you found today's video interesting if you   did please do hit that like button below don't  forget to subscribe and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 243,731

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: bdPISsTsIAs

Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2022