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He had no party organization to back him. He lacked the personal magnetism to
fire the national imagination and impose his will. Even with all this opposition
Adams continued to work hard and serve his country. Serving his country meant
not firing his political rivals if they did their jobs. Even though they were
intent on ruining his presidency, Adams would not remove them from office as
long as they did their jobs. Adams' chief blunders was simply his fair and
high-minded treatment of his political enemies. The era of the spoil-system did
not reward political integrity of the sort that refused to kick men out of
office merely because they were performing their jobs ably. The Jacksonian's and
their Whig successors judged political appointees not so much by the quality of
their public performance as by their loyalty to the man or the party in power.
He not only would not replace his political enemies; he would not condemn them
for their wrong doing towards him. Self-defense or countercharge was out of the
question: refusing to sink to the level of his opponents, Adams remained
tight-lipped, retained his dignity, and was soundly beaten. The sun of my
political life, he confided in his diary, sets in the deepest gloom. He remained
a man of high moral standards and strong conviction. His integrity was worth
more to him than a second term. He appears to have contemplated his forthcoming
political disaster reflectively, fortified by his conviction that the path he
had taken was the moral one.
Adams lost the following presidential election. He
had given up a good part of his life to serve his country. Unfortunately it
seemed neither neither he nor the country realized his important contribution. I
should of been one of the greatest benefactors of my country.... But the
connective power of mind was not conferred upon me but by my Maker, and I have
not improved the scanty portions of His gifts as I might and ought to have done.
His presidency was judged a failure due in a large part to the presidential
scandal he seemed unable to overcome. His rivals were responsible for keeping it
alive in everyone's minds. They never let the public forget his Corrupt Bargain
with Clay. They also doomed almost every piece of important legislation he had
tried to pass. Adams' own integrity allowed his rivals free reign. His own high
standards about refusing to abuse his office resulted in his rivals retaining
their positions of power. The scandal, political rivals, and his own integrity
doomed his presidency to failure.
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