12. The President and the Mole People
John Quincy Adams lent his support to Symnes’ Hollow Earth theory and the assumption that the hollow planet’s internal concentric spheres must be inhabited by humans or human-like beings: de facto Mole Men. JQ Adams was interested in the natural resources beneath the earth, and like Symmes, he wanted to establish trade with the hollow earth’s inhabitants. Backed by heavyweights whose numbers included the president, Symmes’ expedition actually made it to the agenda of the US House of Representatives and came up for a vote. Fortunately, the proposal was defeated, 56 to 46.
On the other, the vote meant that roughly 44% of the country’s Congressmen wanted to spend taxpayer money to try and contact Mole People. The president did not give up. He tried to get Congress to reconsider and did all he could to gather support and resources for the expedition. However, like his father, JQ Adams served only one term. He lost the 1828 election to Andrew Jackson, and the newly elected POTUS canceled the expedition and abandoned his predecessor’s attempts to reach the center of the hollow earth. Which came as no surprise, since Andrew Jackson did not believe that the Earth was hollow: he thought it was flat.
