John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union

The focus of this book is John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State. The author, Mr. Lewis, proves his proficiency as a fluent writer of clear prose. He begins with a chapter entitled "The Education of John Quincy Adams, 1767 to 1807." This son of our second Pres. John Adams was, pending on your outlook, either blessed or cursed in his early life by the experiences of the Revolution, the absence of his father, his experience as his father's secretary in Europe, and the expectation of his friends and his nation. You might say that his experiences as a young man proved good training for a future Secretary of State. But the author would question this, on page 55 he says, "if Adams had carefully masterminded Clay's and Jackson's actions, thus orchestrating the pressures that led to the Spanish government to accept a treaty on American terms, he would have established a strong claim to being precisely the kind of master diplomat that many historians have portrayed. In fact, Adams had not orchestrated them at all." Whatever failures as Secretary of State Adams may have encountered they were not all of his doing. Pres. Monroe refuse to Adams a free hand in the selection of employees to the State Department. The president insists upon keeping appointments within his own hand. As Sec. Adams found himself unable to influence the cabinet, a failure which he attributed to his own personality, "[I am] a man of reserved, cold, austere, and forbidding manners [64]." John Quincy Adams served one term as president and then began his life as a truly effective politician. From December 1831 until he died in February 1848 Adams served his home district as a member of the House of Representatives in Washington. During these years he fought against the Gag Rule, defended the Amistad prisoners in the US Supreme Court, gained the deep deep respect of anti-slavery proponents in the North, and the abiding hatred of his slavery element in the South. In his conclusion the author asks, "was John Quincy Adams the `greatest'American Secretary of State?... Perhaps his single greatest achievement as a foreign-policy maker in this period was an invisible one - preserving peace for the present and reducing tensions for the future [141]". This book has some very valuable assets: it is readable, it lacks hero worship, the type is a good size, footnotes are found at the end of each chapter, and the author clearly knows his subject. This work is recommended for anyone, professional historian or lay person, interested in 19th century American politics.

John Quincy Adams blends history and biography in presenting a new study of the statecraft and life of John Quincy Adams, policy-maker in the early American republic. It's recommended reading for high school and college undergraduate students, as well as any non-specialist general radeing studying early American history and politics.