Interesting editorial in today's Great Gray Lady:
August 16, 2001
The Father-and-Son Presidencies
By SEAN WILENTZ
PRINCETON, N.J. -- During his vacation this month in Texas,
President Bush will be reading David McCullough's best- selling
biography of John Adams, he told reporters. "I'm particularly paying
attention to that part about John Quincy Adams," Mr. Bush said with a smile.
"You might remember, Quincy and I have got something in common."
Mr. Bush was no doubt referring to the status he and Adams share as the
only sons of presidents to themselves win the White House. But he actually
has a lot more in common with Quincy than that — and a lot less.
Both Adams and George W. Bush were born to privileged New England
families, though Mr. Bush went with his father to Texas and adopted the
persona and politics of a down-home Western oil man. Both followed
fathers whose presidencies lasted just one term: John Adams, like the elder
George Bush, was rejected by the electorate after four years in office. And
like the younger Bush, the younger Adams was elected president with a
disputed voter mandate and under controversial circumstances.
John Quincy Adams lost the popular vote in 1824 to a candidate from
Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, just as George W. Bush lost the popular vote
in 2000 to a Tennessean, Al Gore. Only thanks to questionable actions by
the House of Representatives did Adams finally prevail. Millions of
Americans believed that what Jackson's supporters called a back-room
"corrupt bargain" ensured Adams's ultimate victory in the House — the
fourth-place finisher, Henry Clay, backed Adams and then became Adams's
secretary of state. Mr. Bush's election was resolved by what some have
considered a questionably partisan 5-4 vote in the Supreme Court that
precluded further vote-counting in Florida. From the start of his presidency,
John Quincy Adams lacked legitimacy with large sections of the public —
much as President Bush does now.
But as President Bush does his reading, he will also discover the many ways
in which he differs sharply from John Quincy Adams.
Early in his political career, Adams renounced his father's Federalists and
became, in effect, a man without a party. Mr. Bush is a solid backer of his
father's Republicans.
While Mr. Bush arrived in the presidency with only domestic political
experience, Adams had a wider background in foreign policy than any other
president before or since. He was secretary to the American delegation to
Russia in 1781, when he was just 14. Later, as secretary of state under
James Monroe, he was, among other things, the true author of what came to
be known as the Monroe Doctrine. He was known and respected by heads
of state and diplomats all over the world.
Today, the Republican Party and Mr. Bush, as its most prominent leader,
advocate curbing a federal government that they believe has grown too large.
Adams, serving at a time when the government was small, called (albeit
unsuccessfully) for forceful federal efforts that would expand the national
government's role: building roads and canals, supporting scientific research
and establishing a national university.
Adams's nationalist view was a political precursor to the activist philosophy
of the Republican Party that arose a few decades later, with Abraham
Lincoln as president. Under Lincoln, the federal government not only ended
secession and slavery, but provided for land-grant universities and a
transcontinental railroad. Theodore Roosevelt later revived this activist
current under the rubric of the New Nationalism. George W. Bush upholds a
later and contrary tradition of Republicanism. His "compassionate
conservatism" looks to voluntarism and charity, not government action, to
cure social ills, and many of his policies endorse a stronger vision of states'
rights.
Seven months into George W. Bush's term, it is obviously too soon to guess
at his legacy or the degree of his continued activism after his presidency
ends. Adams offers an interesting precedent. As a former president, he was
elected to the House of Representatives, where he continued to press for
strong national policies. He stood up to pro-slavery forces and led lonely
fights against parliamentary maneuvers to silence critics of slavery. At 80, he
collapsed on the floor of the House after rising to speak against the Mexican
War. He died two days later.
Down on his ranch, Mr. Bush may realize that in most respects he really is no
Quincy. But that may come, finally, as a relief. John Quincy Adams never
recovered from the stigma of his disputed election and became an object of
resentment and ridicule. In 1828, Quincy was crushed by the same
Tennessean he had dubiously defeated four years earlier. |
