John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams 's quality as a human being has a direct and obvious relation to his political and social thinking. The reactions of his contemporaries to his personality are, of course, important to the rendering of a sound critical judgment, but those reactions are so inextricably bound together with political passions, the immediate prejudices of the day, and the effect of party or sectional loyalties that it is worth while to seek another source of appraisal.

Adams's own writings are a profitable source of information about his personality and nature. They in high degree reveal why it was Brooks Adams's fervent wish that his grandfather might live again in another light, understood for his ambitions, his purposes, and his failures, and not remain merely a "martyr to his belief in God, education, and science." Thus may be revealed those "anfractuosities, humors, and prejudices" that no doubt have in considerable measure prevented his posterity from viewing him with the interest and admiration that his stature and contributions merit.

The failure of those who have followed properly to evaluate him is the more difficult to understand when the eulogies of his fellow countrymen at the time of his death are read, and it is recognized how  widely they cut across sectional and party lines. Not the least of these came from Mr. Holmes of North Carolina, a fellow-member of the House representing that part of the country where in many quarters the name of John Quincy Adams had long been an abomination by reason of his stand on slavery and related issues. A most confirmed political opponent, Senator T. H. Benton of Missouri, with whom Adams had been in controversy on an issue exceedingly close to his heart, internal improvement and the public lands, rose in the Senate at the time of Adams's death to do him honor and pay him the last respects of that body. It would have been well for the record had sentiments then expressed forever put to rest the "intrigue, hatred, and slander" that had surrounded him and through which he had "pursued his undeviating course in the serene consciousness of high motives."

The very consciousness of high rectitude and motive that he never lost may be a major reason for a forgetful posterity, which would have preferred more common human weaknesses. The consistency with which he maintained his standards of industry, frugality, patience, and perseverance which he early established as guides to success understandably could make enemies of those who disliked appearing at a disadvantage in relation to such standards.