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John Quincy Adams was a principled man.
He assailed the two-party system in the United States where men were more loyal to party than they were to country. As a politician, he believed in representing the whole country, not just his party's portion of it. He also believed in being led by his conscience not party opinion.
"My choice is made," Adams is quoted by Harlow Giles Unger in his terrific new, but too brief biography, John Quincy Adams. "If I cannot hope to give satisfaction to my country, I am at least determined to have the approbation of my own reflections."
He had a mostly ineffectual one-term presidency, but had the greatest post-presidency of all presidents-and yes, that includes Jimmy Carter. After his term was over, he ran for Congress and played out his days from 1830 to 1848 as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
Ultimately, he became the foremost political voice against slavery at the time, and he was a driver of the arts and sciences in America. Significantly, he also helped secure free speech and government access for Americans by assuring that any person or group would have the right to petition congress while others in congress sought to limit that right.
His convictions usually flew in the face of the politics of his colleagues, and he often got shouted down by them. But through his many battles, he won important ground that still impacts us today.
But then sometimes even principled people need to ease up...
Earlier in his career, before he was president, Adams was voted to the Senate by the Massachusetts legislature (that's the way it was done back then). Basically they were trying to get rid of him because he was a pain in the neck.
He rolled right into the Senate as his own one-man firebrand, fighting for high ideals and liberty for all, never adhering to party, but only to what he felt was right.
And then his fire got a little wild...
"John Quincy continued outraging both Republicans and Federalists at every turn," writes Unger.
And this is where it gets a little whacky...
"He even opposed an inoffensive resolution for senators to wear black crepe arm bands for a month to memorialize the deaths of three patriots, including his father's cousin Samuel Adams."
You fought against arm bands? Really, dude?
Adams asked for any written bylaw that gave the Senate the freedom to spend it's time debating and voting on these types of matters. When none could be given, he objected to even considering the arm bands.
Writes Unger: "Adams not only lost the debate, but the goodwill of most of his Senate colleagues, who now viewed him as an unconscionable turncoat and chronic malcontent."
Ah...the loss of goodwill-goodwill that could have been spent on more substantive matters down the road. Was it worth its erosion to argue on principle a relatively meaningless and innocuous measure? I think not.
Be principled to be sure my friends, but keep the big picture in view. Give on little things today that have relatively little meaning, to gain support for big things tomorrow. And don't be a one hundred percent protagonist, otherwise others will simply tune you out.
Learn to pick your battles.
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