The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams

By Leonard L. Richards

Book Overview

This book is a brilliant portrait of a remarkable man and his age. Most defeated ex-presidents disappear from public life soon after their presidencies. John Quincy Adams was an exception: two years after losing the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson, he ran for the House of Represnetatives and served there until his death seventeen years later. During his spectacular congressional career, Adams became a folk hero in much of the North, hailed by some as "Old Man Eloquent", by others as "the conscience of New England" and by still others as a "bruiser" who loved a good fight. He was feared in the South and regarded by many as a traitor and "the archest enemy of slavery that ever existed". His enemies included most of the great names of his day--men such as Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. But he had allies too, and with their support, he savaged congressmen and presidents who wanted to gut the tariff, silence the antislavery movement, take lands from Indians, annex Texas, make war against Mexico, and add a covey of slave states to the Union. Sometimes he won, often he lost, but, win or lose, he and his cohorts were a vital force in the turbulent politics of the day. This book is partly a vivid character portrait of a famous curmudgeon, but it is also a knowledgeable, dramatic study of congressional politics in the 1830s and 1840s. Obsessed by the slavery issue, Adams was given poor marks as a political analyst by most twentieth-century scholars. With a new perspective on the times, historians now wonder if he was more right than wrong.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195040260
• ISBN13: 9780195040265
• Release Date: September 1986
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 0.9" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

House Bill 584, Verplank Bill, and Bank Wars

Tariffs were a way to force revenue. A very unpopular tariff put heavy dues on the South and was referred to as the tariff of abomination. House Bill 584 was a compromise to the tariff of abomination. House Bill 584 revised the tariff laws of the United States. The bill passed and claimed too cut total revenues by $5 million and establish a reserve for defense and internal improvements. However, crucial levies on iron, cotton goods, and fine woolens would remain high. Overall duties increased by $1 million and nullifiers were not pleased. Lawmakers thought to appease the South by eliminating minimum levies and remission of duties on coarse wool and coarse woolens, so called Negro clothes, which slave masters bought for their slaves. The tariff money had to be put somewhere and that somewhere was a bank. Adams distrusted all bankers calling them swindlers and thieves. Adams believed every dollar beyond the gold or silver backing it, cheated someone. Banks lend more notes than they could cover (3 to 5 times the vault value). Southern legislators argued for strict constructionalism limiting the expansion of government spending and borrowing. Expansionist argued that money and banking made possible manufacturing growth. Protective tariffs were necessary and the constitution provided provision for roads and canals to be built using the money. The Fed's job was to provide a favorable climate for economic growth; the Fed design was too protect against foreign competition; the Fed was charged too create a national market, and the Fed must ensured cohesion of commerce through internal improvements: roads, canals, and education. A second source of income came through the sale of public lands and those funds went into the federal treasury to fund the internal improvements. Almost contradictory in nature to his beliefs, Adams supported a strong national bank to hold in check the smaller state banks. The Verplank Bill passed and Jackson used the law too force South Carolina to pay tariffs. The south did not accept the bill readily. So another law was passed called the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833 that dropped rates down and spread them stepped over a nine-year interval. In 1837, England faced a financial crisis triggered a run on banks in the U.S. Patrons began redeeming notes in gold and prices began to rise. Jackson, the successor to Van Buren championed the case of hard money. Jackson started to criticize the state banking policies and encourage business be done in gold and silver. These economic pressure lead to support of the Independent Treasury Act of 1840. The Bank war rose after the second national bank came due too have its charter renewed. Jackson was against the renewing of the Charter that would expire in 1836. Adams wanted the national bank believing it would keep in line wildcat banks and ride the herd on issuing too many notes. In 1819, Biddle takes over the bank and Adams thinks highly of Biddle. The New York