John Quincy Adams was chosen president by the House of Representatives,
there being no choice in the electoral contest, Adams receiving 84 votes,
Andrew Jackson 99, William H. Crawford 41, and Henry Clay 37. Clay stood
in with Mr. Adams in the House of Representatives deal, it was said, and
was appointed secretary of state under Mr. Adams as a result. This may not
be true, but a party told me about it who got it straight from Washington,
and he also told me in confidence that he made it a rule never to
prevaricate.
Mr. Adams was opposed to American slavery, and on several occasions in
Congress alluded to his convictions.
He was in Congress seventeen years, and during that time he was frequently
on his feet attending to little matters in which he felt an interest, and
when he began to make allusions, and blush all over the top of his head,
and kick the desk, and throw ink-bottles at the presiding officer, they
say that John Q. made them pay attention. Seward says, "with unwavering
firmness, against a bitter and unscrupulous opposition, exasperated to the
highest pitch by his pertinacity--amidst a perfect tempest of vituperation
and abuse--he persevered in presenting his anti-slavery petitions, one by
one, to the amount sometimes of 200 in one day." As one of his eminent
biographers has truly said: "John Quincy Adams was indeed no slouch.
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