By the standards that historians usually use to judge presidents,
John Quincy Adams was a failure. Although better qualified for the
office than any American of his generation, he served for only one
term and was unable to accomplish any of the most cherished goals
set forth so boldly at the beginning of his presidency. His
election to the presidency in 1824 was itself fraught with
controversy and charges of political corruption and he was soundly
defeated in his bid for re-election by Andrew Jackson. To many
contemporaries and even some historians, Adams has appeared
completely out of touch with the democratic revolution that was
transforming American life at the time. He seemed a relic of a
discredited, eighteenth-century political world. Yet John Quincy
Adams has not shared the fate of other presidential "failures" who
have faded almost entirely from the national memory. Indeed, a
steady stream of excellent biographies has issued forth from
historians who continue to find his life and presidency
illustrative of important themes in nineteenth-century American
political and cultural history. Adams has gained significant ground
on earlier critics and has re-emerged as a first-rate diplomat and
as a principled leader. The intention of this book is to provide a
concise, synthetic biography of Adams that seeks to integrate the
themes of his life into an understandable whole that explains both
the successes and failures of his extraordinary career. Using his
published journals and writings as basic sources, the book seeks to
present a succinct narrative of Adams' career that draws upon the
best scholarship on his life and times.
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