The Presidency of John Quincy Adams - Hardcover

Hargreaves, Mary W. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700602720 ISBN 13: 9780700602728

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1985

Synopsis

Historians have not been generous in judging the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Those who have most conspicuously upheld Adams's fame have, at the same time, virtually ignored his service in the White House. Critics, on the other hand, have described his administration as a failure, founded upon "bargain and corruption" and marked by exclusion of the United States from the British West Indian trade, the ineffectiveness of its efforts to promote strong Pan-American relationships, and the enactment of the "tariff of abominations." Some analysts have even argued that it generated the sectionalism which terminated the "Era of Good Feelings."

Mary Hargreaves contends, instead, that the basic effort of Adams's presidency was to harmonize divergent sectional interests. To ignore the Adams administration's commitment to nationalism, she argues, is to overlook a fundamental stage in the establishment of the federal government as guardian of the general interest.

The volume contains new information on the development of United States commercial policy, the nation's early relationships with Latin America, and difficulties of local and regional adjustment to the growth of the national economy. It will be of keen interest to all students of the economic and political history of the early national period.

About this title

About the Author

Mary W. M. Hargreaves is professor emerita of history at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

Adams was one of America's greatest statesmen, yet one of its least effective presidents. Hargreaves explains why in a solid and dispassionate account of his administration. A minority president, Adams was beset by overwhelming political obstructionism. Sectional, local, and personal partisanship destroyed the national perspectives of his ``American system.'' Diplomatically, his efforts to expand American commerce were stymied. Adams was temperamentally and culturally unsuited to popular politics and became a victim of them in 1828. Yet he expanded the federal role in promoting internal improvements, and he presided over four years of sustained economic growth. Excellent documentation and comprehensive analysis will make this book the standard study, definitive in its treatment of public policy. Harry W. Fritz, History Dept., Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700602720
• ISBN 13: 9780700602728
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 414