THE ADAMS CHRONICLES (1976) – CONCLUSION

As promised, here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the final 7 episodes of this 13-episode miniseries. Each installment ran 50 minutes.

EPISODE SEVEN: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DIPLOMAT (Mar 2nd, 1976) – From 1809 t0 1814 John Quincy Adams (David Birney) serves as U.S. Minister to Russia. Showing much more tact than his father, John Quincy charms Tsar Alexander (CHRISTOPHER LLOYD in his television debut!) and manages fairly favorable treatment of the United States by Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.

      Adams and his wife Louise-Catherine (Pamela Payton-Wright) mourn the death of their only child in St. Petersburg. Later 1814 finds John Quincy in Ghent helping to negotiate the peace treaty ending the War of 1812 between America and Great Britain on advantageous terms for the U.S. Ken Kercheval again plays (now President) James Madison, Steven Krey is Charles Francis Adams, Valerie French is Countess Rostov and George Hearn plays Henry Clay. 

EPISODE EIGHT: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SECRETARY OF STATE (Mar 9th) – In 1818 John Quincy Adams – now played by William Daniels – is serving as President James Monroe’s (Henry Butler) Secretary of State. Among his accomplishments he smooths over the international incident stemming from General Andrew Jackson (Wesley Addy) hanging two British subjects as spies in Spanish Florida during the First Seminole War.

      More significantly, Secretary Adams is the chief architect of what is ironically called the Monroe Doctrine and engineers America’s purchase of Florida from Spain. In 1824 John Quincy runs for president against Andrew Jackson, who wins the popular vote and the electoral vote but did not reach the necessary total for victory. Once again, the presidential election goes to the House of Representatives to choose from Adams, Jackson and Henry Clay. Clay throws his support behind Adams, and John Quincy becomes the 6th President of the United States. 

      David Elliott portrays George Washington Adams, Richard Mathews plays Thomas Adams, Tim Wilson is John Adams II and Rodman Flender is Charles Francis Adams. Robert Phalen plays John C. Calhoun. 

EPISODE NINE: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, PRESIDENT (Mar 16th) – Adams’s presidency is marred by controversy. He names Henry Clay his Secretary of State, prompting cries of a “Corrupt Bargain” implying Adams guaranteed Clay the position in exchange for having his supporters in the House of Representatives vote for John Quincy for President.

      NOTE: At the time, becoming Secretary of State was like being named the presidential successor. Madison had been Jefferson’s Sec. of State, then president; Monroe had been Madison’s Sec. of State, then president; and John Quincy Adams had been Monroe’s Sec. of State, and now president.

      Former Senator Andrew Jackson’s supporters in Washington do everything they can to frustrate and undermine President Adams. This sets up a rematch between Adams and Jackson in the 1828 election. Andrew Jackson wins, and the bitterness between him and Adams prompts J.Q. to leave Washington the night before Jackson’s inauguration. Peter Coffield is now playing George Washington Adams and Blair Brown joins the cast as Susan B. Clark.

EPISODE TEN: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, CONGRESSMAN (Mar 23rd) – Still desiring to serve the United States, former President John Quincy Adams gets elected to the House of Representatives in the November 1830 elections. Despite some friends and family believing it is beneath a former president to “stoop” to being a mere congressman, Adams thrives in this office.

      When Congressional Democrats impose a Gag Rule forbidding debates regarding the abolition of slavery, J.Q. tries to rally enough votes to undo the Gag Rule and is ultimately successful. During his 9 terms in the House he earns the nickname Old Man Eloquent from a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln and ultimately dies while strenuously speaking out against the Mexican War on the House floor in 1848.   

EPISODE ELEVEN: CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, MINISTER TO GREAT BRITAIN (Mar 30th) – Charles Francis Adams (John Beal) runs for Vice President from the Free Soil Party with former President Martin Van Buren heading the ticket. They lose, and Adams drifts to the Whigs and then the new Republican Party. In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln (Stephen D. Newman) appoints Charles U.S. Minister to Great Britain, and he takes his son Henry (Peter Brandon) with him.

      Adams placates the British over the Trent Affair and serves until 1868, proving crucial to persuading Great Britain to remain neutral and not aid the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. C.F.’s sons serve in the conflict on the Union side. After the war, Charles successfully pursues the Alabama Claims before returning to the U.S. Sandra Gartner plays Mary Adams, Nancy Coleman is Abigail Brooks Adams and Ron Siebert is Charles Francis Adams II.

EPISODE TWELVE: HENRY ADAMS, HISTORIAN (Apr 6th) – The scholarly, introspective Henry Adams avoids serving in office and indeed grows wary of the loud, angry nature of political life in post-Civil War America. He writes The History of the U.S.A. 1801-1817 and other works, becoming the figurative conscience and judge of his family and the United States.

      Henry recognizes that the Adamses will no longer reach high elective office given the new norms of political campaigning and eloquently expresses the current Adamses’s anxiety over not living up to the deeds of their forebears. His novel Democracy (1880) deals with political corruption in the Gilded Age. Charles Siebert now plays Charles Francis Adams II, Patricia Elliott is Minnie Adams, Gilmer McCormick portrays Marian Hooper Adams, Nicholas Pryor is John Quincy Adams II, Charles Tenney is Brooks Adams and Susan Bjurman is Fanny Adams.     

EPISODE THIRTEEN: CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS II, INDUSTRIALIST (Apr 13th) – While quarrying drives the family from Quincy, MA Charles Francis Adams II throws off the ennui and soul-searching of his kin through his successes as an industrialist and a power behind the Union Pacific Railroad. Brooks Adams, however, continues Henry’s wallowing in the family’s shrinking influence.

      Brooks goes even further, developing a quasi-snobbish attitude that the mass of Americans have also failed to live up to the ideals of the Adamses. His essay The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma nicely distilled his fairly pessimistic outlook. Overall, Charles Francis Adams II’s general satisfaction with his life helps buoy this final episode. Julia Barr joins the cast as Molly Adams and Walter Mathews plays Senator Hoar (no comment).   

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