John Q. Adams Administration - Adams's Advisers

Adams's Advisers

When Adams became president in 1825, he offered to retain his predecessor's entire cabinet, including William H. Crawford as secretary of the Treasury who had run against Adams in the presidential election. This meant Adams only had to appoint secretaries of state and war. Adams offered the former position to Speaker of the House Henry Clay, whom he thought was best qualified, and the latter to Andrew Jackson. Clay and Jackson were Adams's other opponents for president in 1824. Adams even reached out to the Federalists by nominating one of the leading Federalists, Rufus King of New York, as minister to Great Britain, a post King held during John Adams's administration. John Quincy Adams's goal was to unite not only the Republican Party but the whole country, geographically and politically, in the aftermath of the election.

Adams's cabinet plan failed. Crawford refused to remain in the cabinet and Jackson...

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