OPINION:
It’s almost certain, given recent reports, that Jeb Bush will run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, with the former Florida governor and his staff doing all the pre-campaign homework before the formal announcement.
One area that should not escape their notice, however, is American history. To wit, the ladder of family presidential succession exemplified by John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush doesn’t extend easily to a third rung. No one knew that better than Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), the only surviving son of John Quincy Adams.
In many ways, like Jeb Bush, Charles Francis Adams was an attractive political figure. As a youngster, he accompanied his father to his posts as ambassador to Russia (1809-1815) and then to Great Britain (1815-1817). He graduated from Harvard in 1825, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829 and began his practice. By the 1830s, he was prominent not only as a lawyer but also as an essayist on politics for local newspapers. His schooling in officeholding was incremental, starting with election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1841-1843), the state Senate (1844-1845) and the U.S. House in 1858 and again in 1860.
Like his father and grandfather, Adams aspired to even higher office, but in an era of the nation’s westward expansion and burgeoning democracy, he naively thought that the first historic families of the nation still had voter attraction. He was convinced that no family had contributed more to the success of the American Revolution and the forging of a strong national government than that led by his grandfather and father.
A longtime member of the Whig Party in opposition to the Democratic Party founded by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, Adams took advantage of a Whig Party revolt in 1848, when he decided to throw his hat into a third-party ring, the Free Soil Party, committed to no further extension of slavery into the western territories. The party’s convention nominated a former Democratic president, Martin Van Buren, as its top candidate and Adams as its No. 2 man. Their two familiar names, however, reflected the old-time aristocracy of New York and New England, and the ticket bombed, garnering only 10 percent of the popular vote and not a single electoral vote. Worse, the Whig’s presidential nominee, military hero Zachary Taylor, not only won the election but, in spite of being a slaveholder, also opposed extension of slavery in the west, dooming Adams to pariah status.
Becoming a Republican in 1856, Adams still was outside the party loop, having no enthusiasm for the election of the first GOP candidate to the White House, Abraham Lincoln:
“I must affirm without hesitation, that in the history of our government down to this hour, no experiment so rash has ever been made as that of elevating to the head of affairs a man with so little previous experience for his task as Mr. Lincoln.”
Still, when President Lincoln asked Adams to become his ambassador to Great Britain in 1861, Adams resigned his congressional seat and accepted the post, knowing that this appointment in the midst of the Civil War could elevate him to a plateau of significance greater than that of the president if handled well. It also would keep his White House hopes alive. The major obstacle to good relations with Britain was its recognizing the Confederacy’s role as a belligerent. Adams’ job was to keep Britain from giving full diplomatic status to the Confederacy, thereby keeping that nation from extending greater aid. Adams did just that, holding the post for seven years.
Afterward, from 1871-1872, Adams served as one of five arbitrators in settling outstanding claims against Britain for damages to Union shipping from Confederate ships built in Britain. Again, he was successful, garnering $15.5 million in compensation for the United States.
Not surprisingly, Adams’ feats accomplished just what he wanted — respect from party chiefs. The only problem was that in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was almost certain to get the GOP re-election nod, no matter his scandal-plagued administration. Fortunately, for Adams, there were enough Grant haters that a Liberal Republican Party convened in Cincinnati in May 1872. By all accounts, Adams was the leading candidate for the top post, which he indicated he would accept if nominated. He would not, however, actively campaign for it.
For six ballots, it appeared that an Adams would once again run for the White House. But on the seventh ballot, a groundswell developed for New York Tribune Editor Horace Greeley, long a party supporter and so attractive as to be nominated even by the Democrats as their candidate. Grant won, however, and the campaign was so hard on Greeley that he passed away shortly after the election.
As for Adams, he played little part in subsequent politics, except to alienate the GOP a bit more by siding in the disputed presidential election of 1876 with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden instead of the eventual Republican winner, Rutherford B. Hayes. Adams rejected a bid to become president of Harvard University, spending the rest of his life building the first presidential library in honor of his father, John Quincy Adams.
• Thomas V. DiBacco is professor emeritus at American University.
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