Political Courage — John Quincy Adams vs. the South
Why Southerners Hated John Quincy Adams
Mutiny on the Amistad
John Quincy Adams sits stoically in his seat in the Supreme Court Chamber of the US Capital Building. It’s 1841 and slavery is still legal in Washington City, the capital of the United States. He is there to defend numerous Africans who were kidnapped two years previously from Africa, bound for slavery in Cuba.
Onboard the ship Amistad off the coast of Cuba, the Africans revolted, and killed the captain and other sailors. They took control of the ship and demanded to be returned to Africa. The navigators of the ship agreed but tricked them and sailed north, eventually dropping anchor off Long Island, New York. New York was a free state but nearby Connecticut was still a slave state. The Africans were taken to Connecticut and jailed on charges of mutiny and murder.
Now, in the court chamber, Adams is there to assert the freedom of the Africans and get them back to Africa.
Profiles in Courage
I find myself going back time and again to the topic of political courage. Yesterday’s post reignited this for me. I love the topic. Politics is a conspicuous and pressure-filled arena wherein we do not see courage often enough.
John F. Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage in 1955. I have my father’s edition of the book, the Inaugural Edition, printed in 1961. I cherish it. The book begins, “This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues — courage.”
Kennedy’s book was written while he served in the US Senate representing Massachusetts. The book is about eight men, all United States Senators, who exhibited courage in office when it was not expected or wanted. These men endured many difficulties as a result: “risks to their careers, the unpopularity of their courses, [and] the defamation of their characters” but rarely vindication.
John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams and our nation’s sixth president. He was politically active his entire life, officially beginning at the age of fourteen, serving in Russia as the secretary to an American diplomat.
Adams served one term as president and ran for a second term but lost the election to Andrew Jackson. After leaving the presidency, he remained in politics and was elected to the US House of Representatives where he remained until his death in 1848, winning re-election to the House nine times. Adams is one of only two former presidents to serve in Congress, Andrew Johnson being the other.
While serving in the House in particular, Adams was a passionate combatant for the issues that were important to him. Party politics were as big then as they are now but Adams tried to follow his heart and voted the way he felt was right regardless of party affiliation. In 1835, Adams was nearly elected to the Senate but he had recently given his support on a minor foreign policy matter to President Jackson, a member of the opposing party. Adams’ party leaders were aggravated and withdrew their support for his candidacy, resulting in his loss.
Interestingly, the passion Adams felt for the issues for which he fought gained him enemies in the south and distanced him from southern interests, southern politicians, and southern landowners. A few of the reasons why the south hated John Quincy Adams:
- Adams backed tariff legislation which strengthened the northern economy and indirectly hurt the south.
- Adams believed in gradual integration of Native Americans via consensual agreements. He believed they should be paid for their land while Andrew Jackson’s removal policy, which was favored throughout the south, simply took the land and forced the natives out. Adams called Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy “Fraudulent and brutal.”
- Adams hated slavery and lobbied strongly for abolition throughout his life. He fought for years to have the slavery “gag rule” within the House of Representatives.
The Amistad was a Spanish ship, owned by Spaniards, while the 53 Africans bound for slavery were entrusted to the ship’s captain by the governor-general of Cuba. The Amistad was apprehended by a US Revenue Cutter Service (now the Coast Guard) ship off the coast of New York who took control of the ship and the Africans.
Spain claimed ownership and demanded return of the ship, its cargo, and the Africans. Southern interests and southern politicians demanded that the slaves were property and should be returned to the rightful owners. US President Martin Van Buren, although a New Yorker and northerner, feared declining relations with Spain and for his re-election prospects with southern voters. Van Buren sided with Spain and the southern interests and demanded that the slaves be returned to Cuba and servitude.
Citing numerous treaties between nations and the illegal slave trade, the US District Court ruled that the slaves were legally free and ordered them freed and delivered back to their homes in Africa. President Van Buren ordered the US Attorney’s office to appeal. The case was eventually upheld by the court of appeals. The US attorney again appealed, this time to the US Supreme Court.
Abolitionists asked John Quincy Adams to defend the Africans. Adams wrote in his diary of duty and conscience but also “the magnitude, the danger, the insurmountable burden” of taking on a case regarding slavery and the slave trade.
Slavery was still legal and practiced in Washington DC. Slaves were bought and sold in the neighborhood. Abolitionists, slave owners, newspapers, and politicians on both sides were constantly at odds.
Adams spoke for nine hours over two days before the Supreme Court. He argued that all three trials were within the jurisdiction of the judiciary, and according to the Constitution and its outlined separation of powers, President Van Buren and the secretary of state were guilty of assuming unconstitutional authority by getting involved. Adams called Van Buren’s involvement “utter injustice.”
Adams asserted the Africans were free men, not property. And as free men, they were not criminals as they had been kidnapped and had been defending their own rights. Adams succeeded in swaying the majority of the justices to his side. The Supreme Court agreed with Adams’ arguments and upheld the lower court’s decision. The Africans were ordered to be freed immediately.
The Africans gifted Adams a bible as a token of their gratitude. The bible had an inscription in their own handwriting which quoted the 124th Psalm, Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Kennedy wrote in the conclusion to his book, “Courage, the universal virtue, is comprehended by us all.”
Thank you and God bless America!
