Evening star., 1925-12-08
CONGRESS OF 100 YEARS AGO
REJECTED PEACE ALLIANCE
President Then Urged Pact With South American
Nations-Idea Bore Fruit in Bureau of Ameri-
Republics 64 Years Later

The assembling of the first session of
the Sixty-ninth Congress, which might
be termed a centennial session of the
national legislature and under the ex.
ecutive leadership of the fourth New
England Chief Magistrate elected
directly to the high office of the Presi-
dency of the Nation, recalls that just
100 years ago the first session of the
Nineteenth Congress convened on 5th
day OF December, the first meeting
! of the Legislative branch of the Gov
! ernment under the administration of
John Quincy Adams, the only instance
in our national life where a son has
claimed the honor of being his father $
successor in the presidential Off, e.
The State of Massa chuSetts has fur
| nished three of these high officials.
John Adams, second President. 1897;
John Quincy Adams, 1924. the sixth,
and Calvin Coolidge, 1924, the thir-
tieth. New Hampshire furnished
President Pierce. the fourteenth
President, 1852. Both Presidents Ar
thur. the twenty-first. and Coolidge.
succeeded their chiefs from the Vice
PRESIDENCY, each of whom were native
sons of Vermont.
Peace Alliance Rejected.
The questions before the country
100 years ago at the beginning of the
second Adams administration con-
sisted at first of a matter of domestic
concern, controversy with the State
or Georgia growing out of treaty
with the Creek Indians, which might
! he termed a conflict Of Federal ami
State authorities, and finally resulted
| in the selection of the Indian Terri
tory for the Southern Indian tribes
west or the Mississippi River During
this session of the Nineteenth Con
gress from December 5, 1925, to May
3, 1926, the question of internal inn
provements by the Federal Govern
ment for the first time came uD and
preclpltated warm and heated debate.
AT the same session President
Adams warmly advocated the propo-
sltion made by the Spanish American
republics for what has been known
as the Panama Congress or Mis-
SION" from which developed, Ga years
later, in 1889, the splendid conception
or North and South American com
mercial and international intercourse,
the Bureau of American Republics,
at Washington.
President Adams favored the PAN
anna Missions" but his Congress. it
seems. opposed him. The invitation
was from Peru. Chile. Colombia, Mex
leo and the states of Central Amer
I
Panama in the coming Summer.
President Adams appointed his United
States commissioners, one of whom
was then Minister to the republic of
Colombia, who died at Cartgena on
his way to Panama. Mr.. Sargent. the
other commissioner. not being able TO
attend. the United States had no rep
resentative at this celebrated assem-
| bly,. Peru, Colombia. Mexico and
other states of Central America were
represented, and they entered into a
treaty of friendship and perpetual
confederation, to which all the other
American powers were invited to ac.
cede. The congress adjourned to as
semble in Mexico. and President
Adams appointed Mr.. Poinsett. United
| States Minister to Mexico. to meet this
body on it's re-assembly. but it never
met again.
Tariff Then an Issue.
Thus is had a similar illustration
| of executive and legislative differ.
ences on great public questions, GOV
ering a period of 100 years. Presi
! dent Adams in 1925 favored Panama
congress, which proposed the estab
| lishment of liberal doctrines Of com
mercial intercourse, but the American
Congress at that time did not favor
it. President Coolidge in 1925. 100
years later. favors a world court, but
the Senates stand is uncertain.
| The tariff question and various
! schemes of internal improvement We're
J the main subjects of discussion during
the remaining years of the Adams ad
ministration. 18251s29. 1t was dur
| ing this Congress, the Nineteenth,
| that the semi-centennial anniversary