John Quincy Adams is usually remembered
more for his service outside of the presidency than for his presidency itself. In John
Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life, historian Paul Nagel builds
upon this commonly-held view. In
well-crafted prose, Nagel highlights Adams’ long service as a diplomat, a
career that culminated in an outstanding eight-year tenure as Secretary of
State. He also chronicles Adams’
post-presidency as an abolitionist congressman, during which Adams tirelessly
sought to stymie southern slaveholding interests in the Congress and to promote
the antislavery cause.
Nagel affirms the lack of impact
of JQA’s presidency most significantly by devoting only a single chapter (out
of fifteen) to it. From its very
beginning, Adams’ presidency was overshadowed by the larger-than-life figure of
Andrew Jackson, whose claim that Adams had made a “corrupt bargain” in 1824 to
steal the presidency from Jackson made Adams seem like an illegitimate
president. In addition to being hampered
by Jackson’s shadow, Adams simply did not possess the correct “skill set” (to
use a modern term) to be an effective president. He was insecure and could be exceedingly
irritable, lacking charisma and effective people skills. These issues, much more than anything he did
wrong as president, set him up for a crushing loss in his rematch against
Jackson in 1828.
Nagel’s telling of Adams’ life is
highly psychological, relying heavily on Adams’ copious diary entries to dig
deep into his inner thought life. For
the remainder of this review, I will focus on two very interesting things about
JQA that I learned.
The first major thing I learned
involves JQA’s relationship with his parents, especially his mother
Abigail. I knew from reading David McCullough’s
biography of John Adams and from watching the miniseries based on the book that
John was a highly demanding father. The
senior Adams was a loving and dedicated father who did everything he could to
help his eldest son. But he often went
beyond this, attempting to impose his own desires for his son’s education,
career, and marriage upon JQA. In short, he often tried to micromanage JQA’s
life, to the latter’s continual annoyance.
As Nagel points out (and this is something
of which I was previously unaware), Abigail Adams was even more heavy-handed with her son, at times even crossing the line
into manipulation. Even after JQA
reached adulthood, Abigail never hesitated to upbraid him for poor (in her
opinion) choices and to tell him what she thought he should do. JQA finally
became so irritated with his mother’s constant guilt trips that he quit
responding to her letters for lengthy periods of time. Nagel’s portrait of
Abigail as a nagging, manipulative mother contrasts greatly with David McCullough’s
portrayal of her as a near-saintly wife and mother.
Another key aspect of JQA that I
gleaned from Nagel’s portrait is the sixth president’s great insecurity.
Despite his many great achievements (serving frequently in the diplomatic corps
from age 14 until age 50, mastering several languages, writing several books,
serving in the US Senate, teaching at Harvard, being Secretary of State, being
elected as US President, and later serving as an influential Congressman), JQA
was plagued by constant doubts about his own achievements and a lifelong fear
he was wasting time and being lazy. Seldom
if ever have I read of someone who did so much yet felt he did so little. This constant self-doubt was aggravated by a
tendency toward depression, which seems to have been worse when Adams was not
in politics. Adams always claimed he
would have been happier as a scholar and writer, and yet he was happiest when
he was fighting political battles.
In summary, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life is a fascinating
glimpse of one of the most brilliant men who has ever occupied the White House.
I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the early history of
our nation.
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