John Quincy Adams: FEDERALIST

Aimee Dennett

John Quincy Adams Attack Ad- 1824
Immediately I intended to cause discomfort for the viewer at the beginning
of my video with a close-up of John Quincy Adams’ eyes from his portrait joined
with the cacophonous music. The music I used is entitled “Quartet No. 8: III.
Allegretto” by the Kronos Quartet. Since Jackson and his supporters were
considered to be radical or aggressive, I wanted the music to reflect the distaste they
might have for a candidate like Adams. A slightly zoomed out frame reveals the rest
of his face, then his shoulders. The dark background of the portrait was helpful in
creating a negative and gloomy image of Adams. Next the video slowly zooms into a
black and white portrait of Adams. These are the only two images of Adams I used
in my ad, in order to avoid confusion or distracting the viewer. Ideally, I wanted to
use just one black and white image of Adams (to later tie him to his father) to avoid
any sort of confusion, but I thought the first portrait of Adams was too fitting to not
include in the ad. The next quick sequence begins with Adams’ title in order to tie
the two images with the correct name. I chose to quickly alternate between his
name, images, and the words “internal improvements” and “Federalist” in order to
subliminally connect Adams to these ideals that were viewed by some to be very
negative at the time.
The next part of the video I use to provide evidence for my claims. “Internal
improvements” fades into the screen to introduce the idea, followed by a newspaper
clipping that claims that the “liberties of the nation” will be destroyed “by making
John Quincy Adams the next President” (source 2). I highlighted certain parts of the
quote with red as the music becomes more cacophonous to create further
discomfort. I felt that this quote connected to those who opposed Adams’ plan for
internal improvements. Although people may not have opposed the idea of
2
improvements themselves, the major problem was the state funding for the internal
improvements. If the government had the power to fund roads, post offices, etc., it
would continue to accumulate power until it constitutionally could abolish slavery.
Many citizens, especially in the South, would have seen this as an attack on the rights
and liberties individuals. In this way, I thought the first newspaper clipping was
relevant to internal improvements.
Next I transition back to Adams’ name and remind the viewer of the black
and white photo. Then the “Federalist” title fades in, and the next newspaper
clipping discusses how certain Federalist newspapers have endorsed Adams’
candidacy for president appears. During the election of 1824, Adams’ held the
support of almost all New England old Federalists even though he was technically a
democratic-republican. This would certainly be seen as negative to some voters,
especially Jackson supporters, since Federalism was seen as the enemy to individual
liberties. For this reason, I chose to end my video with presenting the black and
white photo of John Quincy Adams that quickly cuts to a similar looking image of
John Adams. This was to imply that Quincy Adams would be much of the same
president as his father—Federalist, and generally thought to be negative.
Sources:
1. JQA Title Clipping 1:
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/
we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=H54P4FALMT
MzMTE3NTk0OC42MjgyODc6MToxNDoxMzcuMTY1LjI3LjE2NA&p_action=d
oc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=2&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=2&p_docnum=71&
p_docref=v2:10380B74B5F0BB28@EANX-105B69639E87EE91@2386938-
105B69641F41A278@2-105B6965AE23A2B4@John+Quincy+Adams
2. Liberties destroyed:
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/
we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=W5DY59LVM
TMzMTE3NTk0OC42MjgyODc6MToxNDoxMzcuMTY1LjI3LjE2NA&p_action=
doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=2&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=2&p_docnum=19
&p_docref=v2:10C617B76CD6DDD8@EANX-10CA20F41B495618@2386907-
10CA20F469B92700@1-
10CA20F5DE6C2D70@[Political%3B+Columbian+Observer%3B+Brutus%3B+Virgin
ia%3B+Massachusetts%3B+John+Quincy+Adams%3B+President]
3
3. No Statesman (didn’t use):
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/
we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=W5DY59LVM
TMzMTE3NTk0OC42MjgyODc6MToxNDoxMzcuMTY1LjI3LjE2NA&p_action=
doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=2&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=2&p_docnum=28
&p_docref=v2:10BF3A14CE0BCF58@EANX-10C0FBCA72A76070@2386914-
10C0FBCAA5DEA038@1-10C0FBCB6B00F4F8@Another+Controversy
4. Federalist?:
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/
we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=H54P4FALMT
MzMTE3NTk0OC42MjgyODc6MToxNDoxMzcuMTY1LjI3LjE2NA&p_action=d
oc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=2&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=2&p_docnum=50
&p_docref=v2:10380B58EB4A4298@EANX-1056BB13485B4B02@2386921-
1056BB1351C2D610@0-1056BB13DBCA589A@From+the+Baltimore+Patriot
5. 1818 Pic of JQA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Quincy_Adams_by_Gilbert_Stuart,_1818.jpg
6. JQA pic 3 (before 1815):
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/det/4a30000/4a31000/4a31300/4a31347v.jpg
7. Jackson cartoon:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002708979/
8. Internal improvements:
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/
we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=A5FL5ATWM
TMzMTE4ODg1MS40NTk3OjE6MTQ6MTM3LjE2NS4yNy4xNjQ&p_action=do
c&s_lastnonissuequeryname=3&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=3&p_docnum=9&p
_docref=v2:1044E8FD0EBBC638@EANX-10B30B8BE6E33EF8@2386907-
10B30B8BF808ECC8@0-10B30B8D82DB7DB8