Democracy by Henry Adams

First published: 1880

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Political realism

Time of plot: Late nineteenth century

Locale: Washington, D.C.

Principal characters

• Madeleine Lee, a wealthy young widow
• Sybil Ross, Lee’s younger sister
• John Carrington, a lawyer, in love with Lee
• Silas P. Ratcliffe, a corrupt U.S. senator, who wants to marry Lee

The Story:

Madeleine Lee, also known as Mrs. Lightfoot Lee, a wealthy New York widow, decides to spend the winter in Washington, D.C. Since the death of her husband, Lee has lost interest in New York society and has tried to find meaning in the study of philosophy and in philanthropy. She wants to go to Washington, the center of American political life, to see what the world of power can offer.

On a December 1 in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Lee and her younger sister, Sybil Ross, move into their rented house on Lafayette Square in Washington. Lee is intellectually inclined, artistic, and skeptical, and Sybil is sociable, straightforward, and religious. Lee takes up the practice of sitting in on sessions of the U.S. Congress, and during her visits there she meets John Carrington, a lawyer from Virginia. Carrington, about forty years old, is a former Confederate soldier whose formerly wealthy plantation family became impoverished in the American Civil War.

Carrington invites Lee to attend what he says may be the last speech of Illinois senator Silas P. Ratcliffe, known as the Prairie Giant of Peoria. After narrowly missing his party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency, Ratcliffe is, according to Carrington, expected to be appointed U.S. secretary of state or secretary of the Treasury by the new president. Lee later meets Ratcliffe at a senatorial dinner, to which she is invited by her friend, Schuyler Clinton, the senator from New York. At the dinner she also meets Lord Skye, the British minister to the United States.

Ratcliffe begins visiting Lee at the Sunday evening gatherings at her home. Her social gatherings are popular with other Washington figures, such as Baron Jacobi, an elderly and cynical Bulgarian minister; the secretary of the Russian Legation, Count Popoff; Connecticut congressman C. C. French; the wealthy Philadelphian, Hartbeest Schneidecoupon; and historian Nathan Gore, whose specialty is the history of Spain in America (Gore hopes that the new president will name him minister to Spain). Gore is particularly interested in cultivating the acquaintance of Ratcliffe because he believes the senator may help him win the desired ministry.

Ratcliffe quickly becomes enamored of Lee, in part because he is genuinely attracted to her and in part because he sees marriage with her as an asset in his quest for the presidency. Carrington falls in love with her as well. For her part, Lee values Carrington’s friendship and character, but she also is drawn to the possibility of being a positive influence on the openly corrupt Ratcliffe and on American politics through Ratcliffe.

The weather is becoming warmer, and Carrington serves as a guide on a trip to George Washington’s Mount Vernon. On the trip are Lee, Sybil, Gore, Lord Skye, the flirtatious Victoria Dare, and Lord Dunbeg, an Irish aristocrat and friend of Lord Skye. Mrs. Samuel Baker, the widow of a recently deceased lobbyist who has worked with Carrington, goes on the trip as well. The courtship of Dare and Lord Dunbeg, begins with the Mount Vernon trip. The trip also gives everyone a chance to discuss George Washington, and to contrast the politics of the first president with those of Ratcliffe.

Back in Washington, D.C., the newly elected president, who is from Indiana, is advised by his associates to try to sideline the powerful and dangerous Ratcliffe. They devise a plan to have the president appoint Ratcliffe as secretary of the Treasury in a cabinet in which the new secretary will have no allies. The plan is to then dismiss Ratcliffe when he proves to be unable to operate effectively in this setting. In the meanwhile, Ratcliffe attempts to court Lee by presenting himself as needing her help and advice, playing on her sense of duty. The wily politician also starts creating alliances so that the Treasury job will actually turn out to his own advantage.

Sybil and Carrington take another outing to Virginia, where Sybil learns of Carrington’s tragic experiences in the Civil War, and Carrington talks to her about his love for her sister. The two agree to enter into an alliance to prevent a marriage between Lee and Ratcliffe. At about the same time, Ratcliffe learns that Carrington is executor for the estate of lobbyist Baker, with whom the Illinois senator had some extremely corrupt dealings. Ratcliffe begins his own maneuvering to sideline Carrington with a job appointment that will remove Carrington as a barrier to the pursuit of Lee. The senator begins by offering Carrington a job in the Treasury Department through Lee, both to test Carrington’s enmity and to portray himself to the widow as a person of good will. When Carrington refuses the job, the politician arranges to have the secretary of state appoint the attorney to a highly desirable position in Mexico.

Before leaving the country, Carrington meets again with Sybil and reminds her of their earlier conversation. He leaves a sealed letter with her, which she is to give Lee if it seems a wedding with Ratcliffe cannot be avoided. Only Lee and Ratcliffe are to read the letter. The historian, Nathan Gore, disappointed in his ambitions for the Spanish ministry, also attempts to warn Lee about the new Treasury secretary.

The grand duke and duchess of Saxe-Baden-Hombourg, Germany, visit Washington. Because the duchess is also an English princess, Lord Skye is obliged to give the couple a ball. The duchess develops an intense dislike for the vulgarities of the new president. Also, because there has been friction between the First Lady and Lee, the visiting noblewoman insists on keeping Lee at her side throughout the ball. At the end of the party, Ratcliffe proposes to Lee.

Lee is on the verge of accepting the proposal when Sybil gives her Carrington’s letter. The letter discloses a substantial payoff that the late Baker’s company had made to Senator Ratcliffe to get a bill passed to subsidize Baker’s company. Lee is so disturbed by this new evidence of Ratcliffe’s extreme corruption that she refuses the proposal and shows the letter to the politician, just as Carrington requested. In a fit of anger, he pushes the elderly Baron Jacobi out of his way on leaving Lee’s house and the old man responds by hitting him in the face with a walking cane.

Back in New York, Sybil writes to Carrington and tells him about Ratcliffe’s failed proposal and about her sister’s plans to go abroad. In an extra note, Sybil encourages Carrington to again try his courtship with Lee.

Bibliography

Brookhiser, Richard. America’s First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918. New York: Free Press, 2002. A history of the politically important Adams family. This book discusses Henry Adams’s privileged insight into American politics.

Chalfant, Edward. Better in Darkness: A Biography of Henry Adams—His Second Life, 1862-1891. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1994. The second volume of Chalfant’s comprehensive three-volume biography of Henry Adams, this work covers the period of Adams’s efforts at political reform and his career as a muckraking journalist during the period that saw the publication of Democracy.

Dawidoff, Robert. The Genteel Tradition and the Sacred Rage: High Culture versus Democracy in Adams, James, and Santayana. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. A discussion of the influence of the French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, on Adams as well as on novelist Henry James and philosopher George Santayana. Chapter 2 considers Democracy a critical reflection on the limitations and problems of the democratic system.

O’Brien, Michael. Henry Adams and the Southern Question. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005. A study of Adams’s perspective on the American South. O’Brien’s work provides background for the character John Carrington in Democracy.

Simpson, Brooks D. The Political Education of Henry Adams. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996. An examination of Adams’s political career that will help readers understand the frustrations with democracy expressed by Adams in the novel. Simpson argues that Adams wanted to reform American politics through his journalism and lobbying, but that he undermined himself by offending the people he sought to influence.