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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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John Quincy Adams was sworn in as President of the United Stateson March fourth, eighteen-twenty-five. A big crowd came to thecapitol building for the ceremony. All the leaders of governmentwere there: Senators; Congressmen; the Supreme Court; and JamesMonroe, whose term as president was ending.

VOICE TWO:

John Quincy Adams spoke to the crowd. The main idea in his speechwas unity. Adams said the Constitution and the representativedemocracy of the United States had proved a success. The nation wasfree and strong. And it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean across thecontinent of North America to the Pacific Ocean. During the past tenyears, he noted, political party differences had eased. So now, hesaid, it was time for the people to settle their differences to makea truly national government. Adams closed his speech by recognizingthat he was a minority president. He said he needed the help ofeveryone in the years to come. Then he took the oath that made himthe sixth President of the United States.

VOICE ONE:

John Quincy Adams had been raised to serve his country. Hisfather was John Adams, the second President of the United States.His mother, Abigail, made sure he received an excellent education.There were three major periods in John Quincy Adams's public life.The period as President was the shortest. For about twenty-fiveyears, Adams held mostly appointed jobs. He was the United Statesambassador to the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and Britain. Hehelped lead the negotiations that ended the War of 1812 betweenBritain and the United States. And he served eight years asSecretary of State. He was President for four years after that. Thenhe served about seventeen years in the House of Representatives. Hedied in eighteen-forty-eight.

VOICE TWO:

As Secretary of State, Adams had two major successes. He wasmostly responsible for the policy called the Monroe Doctrine. Inthat policy, President James Monroe declared that no European powershould try to establish a colony anywhere in the Americas. Anyattempt to do so would be considered a threat to the peace andsafety of the United States. Adams's other success was theTranscontinental Treaty with Spain. In that treaty, Spain recognizedAmerican control over Florida. Spain also agreed on the line markingthe western American frontier. The line went from the Gulf of Mexicoto the Rocky Mountains. From there, it went to the Pacific Ocean,along what is now the border between the states of Oregon andCalifornia.

VOICE ONE:

John Quincy Adams did not care for political battles. Instead, hetried to bring his political opponents and the different parts ofthe country together in his cabinet. His opponents, however, refusedto serve. And, although his cabinet included southerners, he did notreally have the support of the south. Others in his administrationtried to use the political power that he refused to use. One wasVice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Calhoun hoped tobe president himself one day. He tried to influence Adams's choicesfor cabinet positions. Adams rejected Calhoun's ideas and made hisown choices. Senator James Barbour, a former Governor of Virginia,became Secretary of War. Richard Rush of Pennsylvania becameSecretary of the Treasury. And William Wirt of Maryland continued asAttorney General. Adams thought he had chosen men who wouldrepresent the different interests of the different parts of thecountry.

VOICE TWO:

In his first message to Congress, President Adams described hisideas about the national government. The chief purpose of thegovernment, he said, was to improve the lives of the people itgoverned. To do this, he offered a national program of buildingroads and canals. He also proposed a national university and anational scientific center. Adams said Congress should not belimited only to making laws to improve the nation's economic life.He said it should make laws to improve the arts and sciences, too.Many people of the west and south did not believe that theConstitution gave the national government the power to do all thesethings. They believed that these powers belonged to the states.Their representatives in Congress rejected Adams's proposals.

VOICE ONE:

The political picture in the United States began to change duringthe administration of John Quincy Adams. His opponents won controlof both houses of Congress in the elections of eighteen-twenty-six.These men called themselves Democrats. They supported General AndrewJackson for president in the next presidential election ineighteen-twenty-eight.

VOICE Two:

A major piece of legislation during President Adams's terminvolved import taxes. A number of western states wanted taxes onindustrial goods imported from other countries. The purpose was toprotect their own industries. Southern states opposed import taxes.They produced no industrial goods that needed protection. And theysaid the Constitution did not give the national government the rightto approve such taxes. Democrats needed the support of both the westand south to get Andrew Jackson elected president. So they proposeda bill that appeared to help the west, but was sure to be defeated.They thought the west would be happy that Democrats had tried tohelp. And the south would be happy that there would be no importtaxes.

VOICE ONE:

To the Democrats' surprise, many congressmen from the northeastjoined with congressmen from the west to vote for the bill. They didso even though the bill would harm industries in the northeast.Their goal was to keep alive the idea of protective trade taxes. Thebill passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.This left President Adams with a difficult decision. Should he signit into law. Or should he veto it. If he signed the bill, it wouldshow he believed that the Constitution permitted protective tradetaxes. That would create even more opposition to him in the south.If he vetoed it, then he would lose support in the west andnortheast. Adams signed the bill. But he made clear that Congresswas fully responsible for it.

VOICE TWO:

There were other attempts by Democrats in Congress to weakensupport for President Adams. For example, they claimed that Adamswas mis-using government money. They tried to show that he, and hisfather before him, had become rich from government service. Othersaccused him of giving government jobs to his supporters. This chargewas false. Top administration officials had urged Adams to givegovernment jobs only to men who were loyal to him. Adams refused. Hefelt that as long as a government worker had done nothing wrong, heshould continue in his job. During his four years as president, heremoved only twelve people from government jobs. In each case, theperson had failed to do his work or had done something criminal.Adams often gave jobs to people who did not support him politically.He believed it was completely wrong to give a person a job forpolitical reasons. Many of Adams's supporters, who had worked hardto get him elected, could not understand this. Their support for himcooled.

VOICE ONE:

The political battle between Adams's Republican Party andJackson's Democratic Party was bitter. Perhaps the worst fightingtook place in the press. Each side had its own newspaper. The "DailyNational Journal" supported the administration. The "United StatesTelegraph" supported Andrew Jackson. At first, the administration'snewspaper called for national unity and an end to personal politics.Then it changed its policy. The paper had to defend charges ofpolitical wrong-doing within the Republican Party. It needed to turnreaders away from these problems. So it printed a pamphlet that hadbeen used against Andrew Jackson during an election campaign. Thepamphlet accused Jackson of many bad things. The most damaging partsaid he had taken another man's wife. That will be our story on thenext program of THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THEMAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and ShirleyGriffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.