Presidents in Retirement: John Quincy Adams
Did any former president have a more prolific "retirement" than John Quincy Adams? The 6th President left office on March 4, 1829, but for most of the next two decades, literally until his dying breath, the second President Adams was a force to be reckoned with, and the biggest thorn in the side of abolitionists.
Adams did not attend the inauguration of his successor, Andrew Jackson. There was bad blood between the two after Jackson had accused Adams of being part of a "corrupt bargain" that had denied him the presidency in 1824. After his victorious election in 1828, Jackson snubbed Adams by refusing to pay the traditional "courtesy call" to the outgoing president during the weeks before his own inauguration.Jackson's wife Rachel had died shortly after the election, and Jackson blamed Adams and his followers for her death. Adams mirrored what his father had done by not attending his successor's inauguration.
Adams considered permanently retiring from public life after his 1828 defeat. His eldest son George committed suicide in 1829 and Adams was grief struck as a result. But he was soon drawn back into the fray after becoming appalled by many of the Jackson administration's actions, including its practice of the spoils system. Adams grew bored in his retirement and he missed being part of the political action. In the 1830 mid-term elections, he ran for and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in Massachusetts' 8th District. Many in the political world were shocked at the notion of a former president running for a seat in Congress. These included his own wife and youngest son. Adams became the first president to serve in Congress after his term of office, and one of only two former presidents to do so thus far. (Andrew Johnson later served in the Senate). His constituents had no qualms about sending a former president to Congress. Adams was re-elected to eight more terms after that, serving as a Representative for 17 years, from 1831 until his death in February of 1848.
Adams was sixty-four years old when he began sitting in Congress. He expected a light workload, but Speaker Andrew Stevenson selected Adams to be the chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures. During his time in Congress he also served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Stevenson was an ally of Andrew Jackson's. The plan was to keep Adams busy with these chairmanships, especially with the contentious tariff issue. The presence of a Jacksonian majority on the committees would prevent Adams from wielding any real power.
Adams ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 1833 on the Anti-Masonic ticket. Incumbent National Republican Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. was retiring so Adams main opponents were National Republican candidate John Davis, Democrat Marcus Morton, and Samuel L. Allen of the Working Men's Party. Davis won a plurality with 40%; Adams took 29%, with Morton taking 25% and Allen 6%. Because no candidate had won a majority, the election was decided by the state legislature. Adams withdrew and endorsed Davis, preferring him over Morton, and Davis was chosen in January 1834.
When James Smithson died in June of 1829, he left his entire estate to the U.S. government to build an institution of learning. Many in Congress wanted to use the money for other purposes, but Adams took the lead in ensuring that the money was instead used to build the museum that today has become the Smithsonian Institution. In 1839, Adams was also was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
The annexation of Texas was a contentious issue that arose during Adams time in Congress. It was something that he was opposed to. In his opinion it was unconstitutional to impose U.S. citizenship on foreign nationals unless those nationals first held a referendum on the question. Adams called for the annexation of the entirety of Oregon Country, a disputed region occupied by both the United States and Britain. This issue was resolved when President James K. Polk signed the Oregon Treaty, which divided the land between the two claimants at the 49th parallel.Adams was a strong critic of the Mexican-American War. He called it a war of aggression against Mexico that was designed to take Mexican territory for the benefit of slave-holders. Adams vehemently spoke out against the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the Mexican War. He said that these were both as part of a "conspiracy" to extend slavery. It was during this time that Adams met Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln's only term as a member of the House of Representatives, from 1847 until Adams' death.
Adams had been a longtime opponent of slavery, and he used his position in Congress to fight against it. He became the most prominent national leader calling for the abolition of slavery. In 1836, Southern Representatives voted in a "gag rule" that immediately tabled any petitions about slavery, preventing any discussion or debate on the issue of slavery. Adams took this as a challenge. He became the chief opponent of this rule and looked for ways to circumvent it. He conceived a way around it. The gag rule prevented him from bringing slavery petitions to the floor, so Adams put a petition before the House from a Georgia citizen urging dissolution of the union due to the continuation of slavery in the South. Adams did not support the petition, and made that clear at the time, but he used it as an opportunity to speak at length on the issue. The petition infuriated his Congressional enemies, even though many of them supported the intent of the petition. They moved for Adams to be censured over the matter. This permitted Adams to discuss slavery openly during his subsequent defense during the censure motion. Taking advantage of his right to defend himself, Adams delivered prepared and impromptu remarks against slavery and in favor of abolition. The focus of his remarks were not about his own actions, but rather those of the slaveholders. He took this opportunity to speak out against the slave trade and the ownership of slaves. He decided that if he were censured, he would resign, run for the office again, and probably win easily.
When his opponents realized that they fallen into the trap Adams had laid for them, they tried to remove the censure application, but Adams was able to prevent this so that the debate could continue. He spoke every day for two weeks, condemning slavery and slaveholders as immoral, and calling for an end to it. After two weeks, a vote was held, and he was not censured. Adams took pleasure in the grief he was had caused to the slaveholders. In his diary he prided himself on being "obnoxious to the slave faction."
When the House later addressed the issue of petitions from enslaved persons, Adams once again argued that the right to petition was a universal right, created so that those in the weakest positions might always have recourse to those in the most powerful. After this debate, the gag rule was kept in place, but the discussion put the question of the morality of slavery in the public eye. Adams wrote n his diary that he was pleased that southerners saw him as "the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed."
In 1844, Adams chaired a committee for reform of the rules of Congress. He used this opportunity to try once again to repeal the gag rule. He spent two months building support for this move, but the rule narrowly survived. Adams was critical of northern Representatives and Senators, especially Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, for catering to the slave faction in exchange for southern support. His opposition to slavery made him one of the leading opponents of Texas annexation and the Mexican–American War. It turned out to be an issue on which he and Henry Clay agreed. Adams correctly predicted that civil war was coming.
In 1841, at the request of layers Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring, Adams joined the defense team in the case of United States v. The Amistad. Adams appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship Amistad. On February 24, 1841, Adams spoke before the court for four hours. His argument was persuasive and the Court ruled in favor of the Africans, who were declared free and returned to their homes. Adams success displeased President Martin Van Buren. The Spanish government continued to press for compensation for the ship and its cargo, including the slaves.
In 1843, Adams sat for the what some believe to be the earliest confirmed photograph still in existence of a U.S. president. (Others say that this distinction belongs to William Henry Harrison, who had posed for an earlier photograph in 1841. Adams also became a leading force for the promotion of science. As president, he had proposed a national observatory, which did not win much support. But this effort led to the founding in 1830 of what is now the oldest, still-operational scientific institution of the United States, the United States Naval Observatory. Adams spent many nights at the Observatory, with astronomer Matthew Fontaine Maury, watching and charting the stars.
In 1846, Adams, who was then 78 years old, suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. After a few months of rest, he made a full recovery and resumed his duties in Congress. When Adams entered the House chamber, he was met with a standing ovation. On February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives was discussing the matter of honoring U.S. Army officers who served in the Mexican–American War. Adams had been a staunch critic of the war. As Congressmen rose up to say, "Aye!" in favor of the measure, he instead yelled, "No!" He rose to answer a question put forth by Speaker of the House Robert Charles Winthrop and in the course of doing so, he collapsed. It was later determined that he had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Two days later, on February 23, he died with his wife and youngest son at his side in the Speaker's Room inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His last words were said to be: "This is the last of earth. I am content." He died at 7:20 p.m. First term Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was assigned to the committee making the funeral arrangements.
Adams did not attend the inauguration of his successor, Andrew Jackson. There was bad blood between the two after Jackson had accused Adams of being part of a "corrupt bargain" that had denied him the presidency in 1824. After his victorious election in 1828, Jackson snubbed Adams by refusing to pay the traditional "courtesy call" to the outgoing president during the weeks before his own inauguration.Jackson's wife Rachel had died shortly after the election, and Jackson blamed Adams and his followers for her death. Adams mirrored what his father had done by not attending his successor's inauguration.
Adams considered permanently retiring from public life after his 1828 defeat. His eldest son George committed suicide in 1829 and Adams was grief struck as a result. But he was soon drawn back into the fray after becoming appalled by many of the Jackson administration's actions, including its practice of the spoils system. Adams grew bored in his retirement and he missed being part of the political action. In the 1830 mid-term elections, he ran for and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in Massachusetts' 8th District. Many in the political world were shocked at the notion of a former president running for a seat in Congress. These included his own wife and youngest son. Adams became the first president to serve in Congress after his term of office, and one of only two former presidents to do so thus far. (Andrew Johnson later served in the Senate). His constituents had no qualms about sending a former president to Congress. Adams was re-elected to eight more terms after that, serving as a Representative for 17 years, from 1831 until his death in February of 1848.
Adams was sixty-four years old when he began sitting in Congress. He expected a light workload, but Speaker Andrew Stevenson selected Adams to be the chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures. During his time in Congress he also served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Stevenson was an ally of Andrew Jackson's. The plan was to keep Adams busy with these chairmanships, especially with the contentious tariff issue. The presence of a Jacksonian majority on the committees would prevent Adams from wielding any real power.
Adams ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 1833 on the Anti-Masonic ticket. Incumbent National Republican Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. was retiring so Adams main opponents were National Republican candidate John Davis, Democrat Marcus Morton, and Samuel L. Allen of the Working Men's Party. Davis won a plurality with 40%; Adams took 29%, with Morton taking 25% and Allen 6%. Because no candidate had won a majority, the election was decided by the state legislature. Adams withdrew and endorsed Davis, preferring him over Morton, and Davis was chosen in January 1834.
When James Smithson died in June of 1829, he left his entire estate to the U.S. government to build an institution of learning. Many in Congress wanted to use the money for other purposes, but Adams took the lead in ensuring that the money was instead used to build the museum that today has become the Smithsonian Institution. In 1839, Adams was also was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
The annexation of Texas was a contentious issue that arose during Adams time in Congress. It was something that he was opposed to. In his opinion it was unconstitutional to impose U.S. citizenship on foreign nationals unless those nationals first held a referendum on the question. Adams called for the annexation of the entirety of Oregon Country, a disputed region occupied by both the United States and Britain. This issue was resolved when President James K. Polk signed the Oregon Treaty, which divided the land between the two claimants at the 49th parallel.Adams was a strong critic of the Mexican-American War. He called it a war of aggression against Mexico that was designed to take Mexican territory for the benefit of slave-holders. Adams vehemently spoke out against the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the Mexican War. He said that these were both as part of a "conspiracy" to extend slavery. It was during this time that Adams met Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln's only term as a member of the House of Representatives, from 1847 until Adams' death.
Adams had been a longtime opponent of slavery, and he used his position in Congress to fight against it. He became the most prominent national leader calling for the abolition of slavery. In 1836, Southern Representatives voted in a "gag rule" that immediately tabled any petitions about slavery, preventing any discussion or debate on the issue of slavery. Adams took this as a challenge. He became the chief opponent of this rule and looked for ways to circumvent it. He conceived a way around it. The gag rule prevented him from bringing slavery petitions to the floor, so Adams put a petition before the House from a Georgia citizen urging dissolution of the union due to the continuation of slavery in the South. Adams did not support the petition, and made that clear at the time, but he used it as an opportunity to speak at length on the issue. The petition infuriated his Congressional enemies, even though many of them supported the intent of the petition. They moved for Adams to be censured over the matter. This permitted Adams to discuss slavery openly during his subsequent defense during the censure motion. Taking advantage of his right to defend himself, Adams delivered prepared and impromptu remarks against slavery and in favor of abolition. The focus of his remarks were not about his own actions, but rather those of the slaveholders. He took this opportunity to speak out against the slave trade and the ownership of slaves. He decided that if he were censured, he would resign, run for the office again, and probably win easily.
When his opponents realized that they fallen into the trap Adams had laid for them, they tried to remove the censure application, but Adams was able to prevent this so that the debate could continue. He spoke every day for two weeks, condemning slavery and slaveholders as immoral, and calling for an end to it. After two weeks, a vote was held, and he was not censured. Adams took pleasure in the grief he was had caused to the slaveholders. In his diary he prided himself on being "obnoxious to the slave faction."
When the House later addressed the issue of petitions from enslaved persons, Adams once again argued that the right to petition was a universal right, created so that those in the weakest positions might always have recourse to those in the most powerful. After this debate, the gag rule was kept in place, but the discussion put the question of the morality of slavery in the public eye. Adams wrote n his diary that he was pleased that southerners saw him as "the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed."
In 1844, Adams chaired a committee for reform of the rules of Congress. He used this opportunity to try once again to repeal the gag rule. He spent two months building support for this move, but the rule narrowly survived. Adams was critical of northern Representatives and Senators, especially Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, for catering to the slave faction in exchange for southern support. His opposition to slavery made him one of the leading opponents of Texas annexation and the Mexican–American War. It turned out to be an issue on which he and Henry Clay agreed. Adams correctly predicted that civil war was coming.
In 1841, at the request of layers Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring, Adams joined the defense team in the case of United States v. The Amistad. Adams appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship Amistad. On February 24, 1841, Adams spoke before the court for four hours. His argument was persuasive and the Court ruled in favor of the Africans, who were declared free and returned to their homes. Adams success displeased President Martin Van Buren. The Spanish government continued to press for compensation for the ship and its cargo, including the slaves.
In 1843, Adams sat for the what some believe to be the earliest confirmed photograph still in existence of a U.S. president. (Others say that this distinction belongs to William Henry Harrison, who had posed for an earlier photograph in 1841. Adams also became a leading force for the promotion of science. As president, he had proposed a national observatory, which did not win much support. But this effort led to the founding in 1830 of what is now the oldest, still-operational scientific institution of the United States, the United States Naval Observatory. Adams spent many nights at the Observatory, with astronomer Matthew Fontaine Maury, watching and charting the stars.
In 1846, Adams, who was then 78 years old, suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. After a few months of rest, he made a full recovery and resumed his duties in Congress. When Adams entered the House chamber, he was met with a standing ovation. On February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives was discussing the matter of honoring U.S. Army officers who served in the Mexican–American War. Adams had been a staunch critic of the war. As Congressmen rose up to say, "Aye!" in favor of the measure, he instead yelled, "No!" He rose to answer a question put forth by Speaker of the House Robert Charles Winthrop and in the course of doing so, he collapsed. It was later determined that he had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Two days later, on February 23, he died with his wife and youngest son at his side in the Speaker's Room inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His last words were said to be: "This is the last of earth. I am content." He died at 7:20 p.m. First term Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was assigned to the committee making the funeral arrangements.