The presidential seat is the most hotly contested political position in the United States. The two most prominent political parties; the Democratic and Republican parties, have a history of differing ideologies, which sharply divide voters. Winning the presidency in the United States is a difficult task, especially because of the large territory one has to cover as well as the resources needed to cover all expenses. While some presidents won the seat because of massive support, other presidential elections were marred by controversy. In particular, president John Quincy Adams’ election to the White House was controversial compared to Woodrow Wilson’s, who arguably, enjoyed popular support.
John Quincy Adams
Early years
John Quincy Adams was born in 1767 in Massachusetts. He was John and Abigail Adams’ second child and first son. Reportedly, when Quincy Adams was still a young boy, he witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill on a hilltop close to the family home with his mother. He also went with his father to France on a diplomatic mission when he was only 10 ( HISTORY, 2019) . He later studied at European universities, and consequently became fluent in seven languages. In 1785, he returned to Massachusetts and enrolled at Harvard College, and graduated two years later. He proceeded to study law and passed his bar exams in 1790. He then established a law practice in Boston. During his early career, Adams wrote numerous articles, where he defended President George Washington’s decision to remain neutral on the war between Britain and France in 1793. Seemingly, Washington must have been impressed by Adams’ position because he appointed him a U.S. minister to the Netherlands in 1794.
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After the election of John Quincy Adams’ father as president in 1796, Adams was made minister to Prussia, now Germany. He however, married Louisa Catherine Johnson before he left for Berlin. He had met Louisa in London, who was the American consul daughter there. The couple would later lose three children; one daughter in infancy and two sons. When the senior John Adams failed to be reelected for a second term, he recalled Quincy Adams from Europe. After returning to Boston in 1801, he reopened his law firm (Edel, 2014). Nevertheless, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate the following year. In 1903, he was selected by the state legislature to serve in the United States Senate. Adams father had been known to be a member of the Federalist Party and everyone assumed that his son, Quincy Adams, too, was a member. However, Quincy Adams disagreed with many of the issues of the Federalist Party, one of the major ones being the Embargo Act of 1807 that adversely affected the New England merchants’ interests. He would soon be expelled from the party, which was then led by Alexander Hamilton, a fierce political opponent of his father. Adams later resigned from his Senate seat in 1808 and returned to Harvard after being made professor.
Although Quincy Adams at some point disliked politics, it seems it was a career that overrode his destiny. For example, in 1809, then President James Madison recalled Adams into diplomatic service, only a year after he had resigned from his Senate seat. He was appointed ambassador to Russia. Adams witnessed invasion of Russia by Napoleon and later the French army withdrawal after the great conflict. In 1814, war broke out between Britain and the United States, and Madison was summoned by Madison to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium. The treaty ended the War of 1812 ( HISTORY, 2019) . Subsequently, Quincy Adams served as a United States minister to Britain.
Presidency
Quincy Adams’ popularity rose when James Monroe, then president, appointed him as his secretary of state in 1817. President James Monroe chose Adams as part of his initiatives to create a balanced cabinet. As secretary of state, Quincy accomplished several diplomatic missions. Firstly, he negotiated for the joint occupation of Oregon with Britain and acquisition of Florida from Spain. Secondly, he was the chief architect of the Monroe Doctrine, which intended to stop any European colonization or intervention in Latin America by installing US protection over the whole of the Western Hemisphere. Adams entered the US race for presidency in 1824 with four other candidates. The other candidates were William Crawford (Secretary of the Treasury), John Calhoun (Cabinet Secretary of War), Andrew Jackson, a celebrated military general, and Henry Clay, who was speaker of the House. Adams finished behind Jackson but for the first time, no candidate got a majority of the electoral votes ( HISTORY, 2019) . The election had to be decided by the House of Representatives. It still remains to be one of the most controversial elections in US. Clay decided to support Adams, and helping him win the presidency. As a gesture of appreciation, Adams appointed Clay as secretary of state.
As expected, Adams’ presidency faced a lot of hostility from Jackson’s supporters, both in public and in the Congress. Most of his proposals and policies faced a lot of opposition in Congress, mainly from Jackson’s supporters. He favored the nationalization of various sectors. For instance, he proposed federal funding for road networks and canals across various states, as well as the construction of a national university. However, critics argued that the constitution limited the federal government against carrying out such mandate (Edel, 2014). Nonetheless, the Erie Canal was constructed while Adams was still president. The canal connected the East Coast with the Great Lakes and enhanced movement of products such as whiskey, grain, and farm produce to markets in the East. Besides, Adams attempted to provide a territory to Native Americans in the West but the initiative failed due to lack of support in Congress.
When Adams sought for a reelection in 1828, he failed, just like his father. He was accused of corruption and criticized of his unpopular programs. He lost to Andrew Jackson in one of the most humiliating defeats. He however retracted to private life only briefly before being elected in 1830 to the House of Representatives. He was a leading congressman for the remaining part of his life, and advocated for universal education and freedom of speech, while opposing slavery vehemently. He died in 1848 after suffering two strokes at the age of 80 (Edel, 2014). Evidently, John Quincy Adams had a lot of experience in public service and diplomacy. He achieved little accomplishments during his presidency because he lacked popular support. The Congress comprised mainly of members of the opposition who had already disputed his presidency. In such a scenario, the opposition was determined to paint him as a non-performer and derail his efforts to seek a second term.
Woodrow Wilson
Early years
Woodrow Wilson was born in 1856 in Virginia. His father was a Presbyterian minister, while his mother was a minister’s daughter. Wilson spent most of his teen years in Georgia and South Carolina. His father served as a Confederate army chaplain during the Civil War and used the church as a hospital for the wounded Confederate troops. In regard to education, Woodrow graduated from Princeton University in 1879 before enrolling into law school at the University of Virginia (Thompson, 2015). He practiced law briefly in Atlanta and afterwards was awarded with a Ph.D. in political science by Johns Hopkins University. Reportedly, Woodrow remains the only United States president to attain a doctorate degree. He consequently taught at Wesleyan and Bryn Mawr colleges before moving to Princeton in 1890 as a lecturer in jurisprudence and politics. He was also a president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910. He married Ellen Axson in 1885, a daughter of a minister and a native of Georgia. Ellen died in 1914 of kidney disease, and Woodrow married Edith Bolling Galt a year later.
Rise to politics and his presidency
Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910, a position he used to gain recognition as a progressive reformer. He was nominated by the Democrats in 1912 for president (Mulder, 2015). The Democrats also selected the governor of Indiana, Thomas Marshall as his running mate. The split by the Republican Party over their choice for presidential candidate gave Wilson a headway. Wilson won 435 electoral votes against Roosevelt’s 88. He also got almost 42 percent of the popular vote. Wilson was sworn into office in 1913 and was the last United States president to travel in a horse-drawn carriage. During his first term in office, he made several achievements. Firstly, the Underwood-Simmons Act was passed by the Congress, cutting the tariff on imports and created a novel federal income tax. The Congress also passed legislation to establish the Federal Reserve, as well as the Federal Trade Commission.
When the First World War began in Europe in 1914, Woodrow adamantly maintained a low profile and opposed any efforts to involve the US military into the war. Even when a German submarine sank a British ship in 1915 killing 128 Americans among the 1100 people who died, Wilson remained neutral. He however warned Germany that any future sinking would be perceived by the United States as deliberate. Wilson, together with his vice president, were re-nominated by the Democrats to seek the presidency. They won in their bid for a second term. During his second term, Wilson declared war against Germany after Germany launched incessant submarine attacks on United States merchant ships. The US participation in the war helped the Allies win the war and for the Germans to sign an armistice in 1918. Wilson also helped negotiate the Treaty of Versailles (Uwizeyimana, 2013). It was also during Wilson’s presidency that the women’s suffrage movement achieved a great milestone because they were allowed to vote in 1920 after the 19 th Amendment became law. Wilson left office in 1921, and afterwards tried to establish a law firm but his poor health hindered him from working. He died in 1924 at the age of 67. Clearly, Wilson was one of the most educated and visionary presidents the United States have ever had. Perhaps his academic achievement was one of the factors that guided him during his presidency.
In summary, while John Quincy Adams lacked popular support during his presidency, Wilson Woodrow enjoyed support from the public and Congress, which helped him roll out important programs. Quincy Adams was also well educated, and had vast experience in public service and foreign relations, but arguably, his presidential bid came at the wrong time. Andrew Jackson was a war hero, who used his popularity to seek the presidency. Many leaders in Congress seemingly had to support Jackson to protect their political careers. He would have maybe achieved many accomplishments if the Congress supported his policies and programs. Wilson Woodrow used the support he enjoyed to initiate important policies and programs such as reducing the tariff on imports. Women were also given the right to participate in politics. Besides, Wilson’s neutrality in war demonstrates he disliked engaging in conflict or directing huge resources to war.
References
Edel, C. N. (2014). Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic . Harvard University Press.
HISTORY. (2019). John Quincy Adams . Retrieved 14 January 2019, from https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/john-quincy-adams
Mulder, J. M. (2015). Woodrow Wilson: The Years of Preparation. Wilson Supplemental Volumes: The Years of Preparation. Wilson Supplemental Volumes . Princeton University Press.
Thompson, J. A. (2015). Woodrow Wilson . Routledge.
Uwizeyimana, D. E. (2013). The politics-administration dichotomy: Was Woodrow Wilson misunderstood or misquoted. J. US-China Public Adm , 10 (2), 165-173.
