Presidency (1825–1829)

Main article: Presidency of John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams, George Peter Alexander Healy, 1858

Inauguration

Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1825. He took the oath of office on a book of constitutional law, instead of the more traditional Bible.^[54] In his inaugural address, adopted a post-partisan tone, promising that he would avoid party-building and politically-motivated appointments. He also proposed an elaborate program of "internal improvements": roads, ports, and canals. Though some worried about the constitutionality of such federal projects, Adams argued that the General Welfare Clause provided for broad constitutional authority. While his predecessors had engaged in projects like the building of the National Road, Adams promised that he would ask Congress to authorize many more such projects.^[55]

Appointments

Administration and cabinet

The Adams Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	John Quincy Adams	1825–1829
Vice President	John C. Calhoun	1825–1829
Secretary of State	Henry Clay	1825–1829
Secretary of Treasury	Richard Rush	1825–1829
Secretary of War	James Barbour	1825–1828
	Peter B. Porter	1828–1829
Attorney General	William Wirt	1825–1829
Secretary of the Navy	Samuel L. Southard	1825–1829

Judiciary

Adams appointed one Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States and eleven judges to the United States district courts. The lone Supreme Court Justice, Robert Trimble, served from May 1826 to his death in August 1828. Adams nominated John J. Crittenden to replace Trimble, but the Senate never voted on Crittenden's nomination.^[56]

Domestic policies

In his 1825 annual message to Congress, Adams presented a comprehensive and ambitious agenda. He called for major investments in internal improvements as well as the creation of a national university, a naval academy, and a national astronomical observatory. Noting the healthy status of the treasury and the possibility for more revenue via land sales, Adams argued for the completion of several projects that were in various stages of construction or planning, including a road from Washington to New Orleans.^[57] However, Adams's programs faced opposition from various quarters. Many disagreed with his broad interpretation of the constitution, and favored stronger state governments at the expense of the federal government. Others disliked any government interference and were opposed to central planning.^[58] Some in the South feared that Adams was secretly an abolitionist and that he sought to suborn the states to the federal government.^[59]
Some of his proposals were adopted, specifically the extension of the Cumberland Road into Ohio with surveys for its continuation west to St. Louis; the beginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Louisville and Portland Canal around the falls of the Ohio; the connection of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River system in Ohio and Indiana; and the enlargement and rebuilding of the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina.^[60] One of the issues which divided the administration was protective tariffs, of which Henry Clay was a leading advocate.^{[citation needed]}
Allies of Adams lost control of Congress after the 1826 mid-term elections, and pro-Adams Speaker of the House John Taylor was replaced by Andrew Stevenson, a Jackson supporter.^[61] Jacksonian Congressmen lobbied numerous attacks against Adams, including attacks on Adams's actions at Ghent and criticism of White House expenditures such as the purchase of a pool table.^[62] Jacksonians devised the Tariff of 1828, which raised tariffs considerably. After signing the tariff, Adams was denounced in the South, but received little credit for the tariff in the North.^[63]
Adams sought the gradual assimilation of Native Americans via consensual agreements, a priority shared by few whites in the 1820s. Yet Adams was also deeply committed to the westward expansion of the United States. Settlers on the frontier, who were constantly seeking to move westward, cried for a more expansionist policy that disregarded the concerns of a supposedly inferior civilization. Early in his term, Adams suspended the Treaty of Indian Springs after learning that the Governor of Georgia, George Troup, had forced the treaty on the Muscogee.^[64] Adams signed a new treaty with the Muskogee in January 1826 that allowed the Muskogee to stay but ceded most of their land to Georgia. Troup refused to accept its terms, and authorized all Georgian citizens to evict the Muskogee. A third treaty was signed in 1828, giving all of the Muskogee land to Georgia.^[65]