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John Quincy Adams and the ethics of America's national interest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1993

Greg Russell
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Extract

This essay examines John Quincy Adams' diplomatic and ethical thinking and explores the implications of this legacy for the exercise of American power in contemporary world affairs. Both as America's most accomplished Secretary of State i n the nineteenth century, and through his voluminous public and private papers, Adams helped to identify the normative foundations of the national interest. In particular, he defined the limits of America's obligations to defend human rights and t o intervene on behalf of revolutionary principles in the quarrels of distant nations. Attention focuses here upon Adams' contribution to historic debates concerning: (1) individual and national rights which must be defended if freedom is to be maintained; (2) the basis for American neutrality in the 1790s; and (3) the claims upon American diplomacy generated by the independence movements of South American and Greek patriots.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 23 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1993

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References

1 John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), the son of John and Abigail Adams, enjoyed a career unsurpassed by any other American of his generation. A graduate of Harvard College (1787), he served as: Minister to Netherlands (1794); Minister to Prussia (1797); Member of Massachusetts Senate (1802); United States Senator (1803); Minister to Russia (1809); Minister to Great Britain (1815); Secretary of State (1817); President of the United States (1824); Member of the House of Representatives (1831–48).

2 Kissinger, Henry A., “Morality and Power”, in Lefever, Ernest W. (ed.), Morality and Foreign Policy (Washington, 1977), pp. 59–60Google Scholar.

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7 George Washington to Adams, John, 20 February 1797, in Works of John Adams, ed. Adams, Charles Francis, 10 vols. (Boston, 1853), VIII, p. 529Google Scholar.

8 Thomas Jefferson to President Monroe, 18 January 1819, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Ford, Paul Leicester, 12 vols. (New York, 1904-1905), X, p. 122Google Scholar.

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12 Adams, ‘Publicola Nos. 12’ T, Writings, I, pp. 65–72.

13 The Life and Works of Thomas Paine, ed. van der Weyde, William M., 9 vols. (New Rochelle, 1925), VI, pp. 211Google Scholar,231–2.

14 Adams, ‘Publicola No. 2’, Writings, I, p. 69.

15 The Life anil Works of Thomas Paine, VI, pp. 16–21; Adams, ‘Publicola No. 2.’, Writings, I, pp. 70–1.

16 1 Adams, ‘Publicola No. 2’, p. 70. 71 Adams, ‘Publicola No. 2’, p. 71.

17 Adams, ‘Publicola No. 2’, p. 71.

18 Secretary Adams affirmed the policy in a letter of instructions to the American Minister to Russia, declining the invitation of Czar Alexander I to join the Holy Alliance. ‘The political system of the United States’, he said, three years before the Monroe Doctrine, ‘is extra-European. To stand in firm and cautious independence of all entanglement in the European system has been a cardinal point of their policy under every administration of their government from the peace of 1783 to the present day.’ See Bemis, Samuel Flagg, American Foreign Policy And The Blessings Of Liberty (New Haven, 1962), p. 261Google Scholar.

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22 Adams,‘Marcellus No. 1’, pp. 135–6.

23 See an analysis of Locke's position in the Statement of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., before the Special Subcommittee On War Powers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the United States, 14 July 1988.

24 Adams, ‘Marcellus No. 2’, Writings, p. 139.

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30 Adams, ‘Marcellus No. 2’, p. 142.

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32 Adams, Memoirs, V. p. 252f.

33 Adams,Memoirs, p. VI, 515. When Secretary of State Adams drew up in November 1823 the customary sketch of foreign policy topics which might interest the president in connection with the preparation of the forthcoming message, he included in the paragraph on the Russian negotiations a reference to the new dogma. That paragraph was taken over almost without verbal change by Monroe and thus it appeared in his communication to Congress. See Perkins, Dexter, The Monroe Doctrine, 1823–26 (Cambridge, MA, 1927), pp. 13–14Google Scholar.

34 See Adams to Henry Middleton, 5 July 1820, Writings, VIII, pp. 46–51; Adams to Richard Rush, 6 February 1821, Ibid, pp.92–4; Adams to Caesar Augustus Rodney, 17 May 1823, Ibid. pp. 437ff; Adams to Richard C. Anderson, 27 May 1823, Ibid. pp. 457–61. See also Wheaton, Henry, Elements of International Law, 8th edn, ed. Dana, R. H. (London, 1936), p. 82nGoogle Scholar.

35 Quoted in Dangerfield, George, The Era of Good Feelings (New York, 1963), pp. 268–9Google Scholar.

36 The international government commonly called the Holy Alliance was based upon three treaties: The Treaty of Chaumont of 9 March 1814, The Quadruple Alliance signed at Paris on 20 November 1815, and the Treaty of the Holy Alliance of 26 September 1815. In contrast with the Quadruple Alliance-which presented, as it were, the constitutional law of the international government of the Holy Alliance-the Treaty of the Holy Alliance itself contained no principles of government at all. It proclaimed the adherence of all rulers to the principles of Christianity, with God as the actual sovereign of the world. Originally signed by the rulers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, the Holy Alliance was adhered to by all the European rulers, with the exception of the Pope and the Sultan. The British monarch, for constitutional reasons, could not formally adhere; the prime minister acceded informally. See Morgenthau, Hans J., Politics Among Nations, 5th edn (New York, 1973), pp. 435Google Scholar, 435n.2.

37 Adams to Henry Middleton, Writings, VII, p. 47. See also Adams to Hugh Nelson, 28 April 1823, Ibid p. 370.

38 Morrison, Samuel Eliot and Commager, Henry Steele, The Growth of the American Republic, 2 vols. (New York, 1959), I. p. 454Google Scholar.

39 See Arthur Whitaker's useful summary of the Clay speech, in his chapter on John Quincy Adams' 4th-of-July oration of 1821. U.S. and Latin American Independence, ch. XII, ‘The Reply to Lexington and Edinburgh’.

40 Adams, Memoirs, V, pp. 324–5.

41 Adams to Richard C. Anderson, Department of State, 27 May 1823, Writings, VII, pp. 466–7.

42 See National Archives, Records of the Department of State, Diplomatic Instructions, All Countries, VII, p. 241. See also Adams, John Quincy, ‘Third Annual Message’, in Richardson, James D. (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 (Congress, 1900), p. 380Google Scholar.

43 Writings, VII, pp. 442–3.

44 Writings, VII, pp. 444–6.

45 Morrison and Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, I, pp. 458–9.

46 See Sevvard, William H., Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United Slates, (Auburn, 1851), p. 124Google Scholar.

47 Cited in Current, Richard N., Daniel Webster and the Rise of National Conservatism (Boston, 1955), p. 43Google Scholar.

48 Adams, Memoirs, VI, pp. 195–6.

49 Adams. Memoirs, VI, pp. 193–8.

50 Allan Nevins (ed.), The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794–1845, pp. 300, 323.

51 Graebner, Norman A., Foundations of American Foreign Policy, A Realist Appraisal from Franklin to McKinley (Wilmington, 1985), p. 169Google Scholar.

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53 Adams to Edward Everett, 31 July 1822, Writings, VII, pp. 197–202.

54 Adams, , An Address Delivered At the request of a Committee of the Citizens of Washington; On The Occasion Of Reading The Declaration of Independence, On The Fourth Of July, 1821, (Washington, D.C., 1821), pp. 29–31Google Scholar.

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56 George F. Kennan, ‘The National Interest of the United States’, Illinois Law Review (January-February, 1951), pp. 730, 736, 738. See also Thompson, Kenneth W., ‘A Realist Response to the Appeal for Pacifism’, Perspectives on Political Science, 20 (1991), p. 74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 See the comments of Kennan, George F., ‘Morality and Foreign Policy’, Foreign Affairs, 64 (1985-1986), pp. 212, 215CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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