Campaigner

But some of his regulations are excellent, and was a corrupt and sectionalized Congress. General
many of his principles are truly admirable. His Jackson, aided by covert British backing, was mobiargument
upon the existence and nature of the lizing the most backward elements in the country
gods, upon th¢ immortality of the soul, and upon against the administration. Newspaper slanders and
future rewards and punishments is inferior to Jacobin demonstrations broke out after Adams pushed
nothing but Christianity, and stronger in logic through the Tariffof 1828 to protect the nascent U.S.
than the Phaedo.The doctrine upon Love, peculiar manufacturing industry against the manipulated fito
Plato, is fully set £orth in this book, and, in nancial warfare against America of the Barings, Rothspite
of all ridicule, is both beautiful and sublime, schilds and others. Therefore, the Adams administra-
The doctrine about numbers seems to me rather tion was virtually in the position of a principled elite,
pedantic than profound. But the advice to study battling against opinionpublique to represent the polithe
mathematics and astronomy is well-reasoned, cies and program of the Founding Fathers.
I hope to be yet much better acquainted with
Adams's personal political history and statesman-
Plato. ship, symbolized by the development of the Monroe
Doctrine, ensured that his entering the White House
After serving as minister to Russia, Adams was on would not merely be an internal U.S. affair, but
the negotiating team at the Ghent Peace Commission allow for an offensive of the international republican
(1814), minister to Great Britain (1815-1817), and networks, which were to lead to the events at the end
secretary of state under James Monroe (1817-1825). of his administration: Lafayette's ill-fated plan to
After his Presidency (1825-1829), he served for over replace the Bourbons of France with a "throne sura
decade as a Massachusetts representative to Con- rounded by republican institutions" in 1830, the
gress. Thus, Adams was educated by Franklin, served Belgian independence from Holland (1830), and the
as minister for George Washington, and was also a uprising in Poland (1830-1831).
fellow-congressman with Abraham Lincoln. Despite the fact that none of these particular
The program of the John Quincy Adams admini- struggles succeeded in replicating the model of the
stration was to implement the Hami!tonian policy of American republic in the short term, and in fact had
fostering scientific and industrial development at brutal consequences, the successful industrialization
home through a foreign policy committed to fostering in the 19th century of America, Russia, Germany,
a community of sovereign national republics abroad. Japan and the further development of French produc-
With Henry Clay as his secretary of state, the admini- tive industry and science are the direct results of the
stration represented an elite coalition based upon the mobilization of the international republican networks
"American System" of economic growth through the of this period.
instrument of a National Bank against the mass The quality and character of the long-term global
opposition of Jackson's Jacobin movemerlt. The ad- stakes of the political and economic program of the
ministration fought for a federal program of internal republican-humanist faction, were directly emphaimprovements,
especially road and school construc- sized during the official addresses on the occasion of
tion.
Lafayette's two appearances before the joint houses of
He advocated cheap credit for promoting manu- Congress in 1824 and 1825.
facture and the industrialization of agriculture as well
as scientific and educational projects: from westward Lafayette at the Congress
expansion and colonization, to the creation of a When Lafayette was in America on his tour, he
national university and a national observatory. His appeared before the joint houses of Congress on Dec.
economic policy was to protect the progress of Amer- 9 and 10, 1824. Henry Clay, the speaker of the House,
ican industrial development through high tariffs. He greeted him:
had had the highest level of preparation on both sides
of the Atlantic from the international Founding Fath- The vain wish has been sometimesindulged, that
ers, Franklin to Schiller, and was informed on the Providence would allow the patriot, after death,
continuity of their political principles back to the to return to his country, and to contemplate the
conceptions of Plato. intermediate changes which had taken place--to
All throughout the course of the Adams adminis- view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountration,
the republican networks internationally were tains leveled, the canals cut, the highways conengaged
in a war against British destabilizations and structed, the progress of the arts, the advancement
subversion. In fact, in the United States, little of the of learning and the increasein population--Gen-
Adams program itself was legislated through what eral, your present visit to the United States is a
CAMPAIGNER/June 1980 17