1
00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:33,280
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding son John Quincy's America.

2
00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 1: June seventeenth, seventeen seventy five. A seven year old John

3
00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:41,839
Speaker 1: Quincy Adams. Here's explosions in the distance.

4
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,479
Speaker 2: His mother, Abigail, took him up to a nearby hill

5
00:00:47,559 --> 00:00:50,039
Speaker 2: when they heard the sounds of canons.

6
00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,440
Speaker 1: Presidential historian Lindsay Stravinsky says that when John Quincy and

7
00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 1: his mother got to the top of the hill, they

8
00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,440
Speaker 1: saw all the British and the Continental armies locked in

9
00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 1: a heated battle.

10
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:06,080
Speaker 2: And he actually observed and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill,

11
00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:09,800
Speaker 2: which is one of those incidents that you read about

12
00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:11,840
Speaker 2: and you just think like, surely this cannot be true,

13
00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,679
Speaker 2: surely this is made up. And yet he was there

14
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 2: and he saw it.

15
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,600
Speaker 1: Fifty years before John Quincy Adams was president. He saw

16
00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:27,200
Speaker 1: the American Revolutionary War up close, first as a spectator

17
00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:32,120
Speaker 1: from his home in nearby Braintree, Massachusetts, but eventually as

18
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,040
Speaker 1: an unofficial ambassador. The son of one of America's most

19
00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,880
Speaker 1: important diplomats, John Adams, he.

20
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:41,280
Speaker 2: Was this remarkable child. He was eleven years old and

21
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,960
Speaker 2: his father brought him to Europe to serve as his

22
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:46,120
Speaker 2: private secretary.

23
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,720
Speaker 1: He ate new cuisines, spent evenings at the opera, learned

24
00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,920
Speaker 1: at some of the world's finest schools.

25
00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,040
Speaker 2: He was picking up new languages, and so it totally

26
00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:00,680
Speaker 2: changed who he would become because he had such a

27
00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 2: worldly perspective and ultimately ended up having so many decas

28
00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,600
Speaker 2: aids of experience at the foreign policy level that he

29
00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:10,359
Speaker 2: was just an unparalleled mind.

30
00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams was born in seventeen sixty seven, the

31
00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: same year as his future political rival Andrew Jackson. But

32
00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:23,200
Speaker 1: even though the two men were the same age, Jackson

33
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,360
Speaker 1: lived through a very different revolutionary war.

34
00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:30,520
Speaker 3: He was a boy soldier, not a soldier exactly, but

35
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:32,520
Speaker 3: he was a boy participant in the American Revolution.

36
00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,960
Speaker 1: Sean Wallentz is the author of The Rise of American

37
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,680
Speaker 1: Democracy Jefferson de Lincoln. He says Jackson grew up along

38
00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,280
Speaker 1: the border of North and South Carolina, in a region

39
00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:44,880
Speaker 1: known as the Waxaws.

40
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,720
Speaker 3: That part of South Carolina, the part of the Carolinas,

41
00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,760
Speaker 3: was dark and bloody ground during the Revolution, and at

42
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,440
Speaker 3: one point he was captured by the British and was

43
00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,280
Speaker 3: asked to shine a an officer's shoes or.

44
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,720
Speaker 1: Boots Jackson refused.

45
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:05,840
Speaker 3: Upon which the outraged officer lifted his sword and cracked

46
00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,000
Speaker 3: him over the head and hit him so hard that

47
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:10,760
Speaker 3: he bore that scar for the rest of his life.

48
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 3: And I actually think that that's an important moment in

49
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:17,600
Speaker 3: understanding Jackson, because his hatred of the British Empire was

50
00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:19,160
Speaker 3: from that moment on undying.

51
00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,480
Speaker 1: To say Jackson held a grudge is an understatement. He

52
00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,280
Speaker 1: didn't just have bad blood with the British, but anyone

53
00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,240
Speaker 1: who wronged him, and in eighteen twenty four, John Quincy

54
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:37,400
Speaker 1: had done just that. In Jackson's mind, John Quincy and

55
00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,280
Speaker 1: Henry Clay had broken a backroom deal to steal the

56
00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:45,400
Speaker 1: presidency from him. From that moment on, Jackson and his

57
00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,800
Speaker 1: supporters were hell bent on getting even.

58
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 4: It appears we live in evil times when those exalted

59
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:57,440
Speaker 4: to high, dignified and honorable stations have abandoned the course

60
00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:02,240
Speaker 4: dictated by truth and honor and move on to self aggrandizement,

61
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,560
Speaker 4: regardless of the use of the means by wi may

62
00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:06,320
Speaker 4: be acquired.

63
00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:11,120
Speaker 1: How far would Jackson's followers go to make John Quincy

64
00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,840
Speaker 1: Adams a one term president and who would win the

65
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:26,200
Speaker 1: rematch between the two Chapter two Andrew Jackson strikes back.

66
00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:38,560
Speaker 1: It's late morning on March fourth, eighteen twenty five, cavalry

67
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,880
Speaker 1: arrived at John Quincy adams f Street home in Washington,

68
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,400
Speaker 1: d C. Trumpets blared, cannons boomed as Adams prepared to

69
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:50,880
Speaker 1: leave for the inauguration. He put on his plain black coat.

70
00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:53,760
Speaker 1: It would be his last moments as a private citizen

71
00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:59,520
Speaker 1: before being sworn in as the nation's sixth president. His wife, Louisa,

72
00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,480
Speaker 1: lay sick in her bed the night before. She had

73
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,680
Speaker 1: a violent fever and the doctor attempted to bleed the

74
00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:06,560
Speaker 1: sickness from her.

75
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,279
Speaker 5: Body, and afterwards, to what should be the surprise of

76
00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:11,240
Speaker 5: no one, she fainted.

77
00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,480
Speaker 1: This is Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker

78
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,440
Speaker 1: and author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.

79
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,120
Speaker 1: She says Luisa had long suffered from physical and mental illnesses.

80
00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,120
Speaker 1: Many were misdiagnosed and mistreated, which was not uncommon at

81
00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:29,240
Speaker 1: the time, especially if you were a woman.

82
00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:34,880
Speaker 5: She was given leeches laudanum, which is basically opium mercury.

83
00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,000
Speaker 5: I mean, he's just basically poisoned. Every turn.

84
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,800
Speaker 1: With his wife bedridden, John Quincy headed to his inauguration alone.

85
00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,200
Speaker 5: She did rouse herself out of bed and got dressed

86
00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,839
Speaker 5: and came down afterward, and then when the family went

87
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,120
Speaker 5: on to celebrate the inauguration, she went to bed.

88
00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:59,160
Speaker 1: After taking the oath of office, President John Quincy Adams

89
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:04,039
Speaker 1: plunged into his extremely ambitious agenda. He detailed plans to

90
00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,560
Speaker 1: transform the nation through what he called improvements.

91
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 6: For Adams, improvements meant physical things, what we would today

92
00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:18,440
Speaker 6: call infrastructure, the building of roads and canals. It meant institutions,

93
00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:22,840
Speaker 6: the creation of a naval academy. He dreamed of building

94
00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:25,880
Speaker 6: a network of what he called lighthouses of the skies,

95
00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,480
Speaker 6: which meant telescopes, because he he loved telescopes.

96
00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,840
Speaker 1: James Traub is author of John Quincy adams Militant Spirit.

97
00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:36,880
Speaker 1: He says, shortly after taking office, Adams planned to tell

98
00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:41,400
Speaker 1: the nation about his improvements during his first message to Congress.

99
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:45,000
Speaker 1: But when Adams rehearsed the speech to his cabinet, they

100
00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,160
Speaker 1: were like, m, we have a few notes.

101
00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,240
Speaker 6: When he read his the equivalent of the State of

102
00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:58,600
Speaker 6: the Union speech, his first annual speech, they all blanched

103
00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:04,040
Speaker 6: because of how ambitious the demands were, and even the language.

104
00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:08,560
Speaker 1: The idea of a strong federal government stoked fears of tyranny.

105
00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,400
Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty five, freedom meant freedom from government, and

106
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,880
Speaker 1: many lawmakers believe the Constitution wouldn't allow the government to

107
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:21,200
Speaker 1: fund John Quincy's infrastructure projects. Adams ignored the advice of

108
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:23,840
Speaker 1: his cabinet and threw all of his energy and political

109
00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: capital into the American system.

110
00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:31,640
Speaker 6: Anyway, thereby infuriating a large fraction of the Congress and

111
00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,160
Speaker 6: maybe the public you know who thought otherwise.

112
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:39,920
Speaker 1: Adams's determination to plow forward required trust in the government,

113
00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,360
Speaker 1: flying in the face of Thomas Jefferson's idea that government

114
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,520
Speaker 1: is best which governs least, still a widely popular sentiment.

115
00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,160
Speaker 1: On top of that, many Americans considered Adams an illegitimate president.

116
00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:55,040
Speaker 1: Congress elected him, not the people.

117
00:07:55,600 --> 00:08:00,040
Speaker 6: There were so many reasons why Adams failed as president

118
00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:06,320
Speaker 6: that you almost could remove the legitimacy question and say

119
00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:07,840
Speaker 6: he still would have failed.

120
00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,760
Speaker 1: John Quincy refused to compromise his beliefs and his political ambitions,

121
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:18,680
Speaker 1: and he balked at the idea of working with his

122
00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,240
Speaker 1: political opponents. He had a critical handicap as commander in chief.

123
00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:28,000
Speaker 1: His worldly experience and privileged upbringing made him detached from

124
00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 1: the typical American he was quick to show off as

125
00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:36,319
Speaker 1: Harvard education, quoting Cicero and Tacitus at will, Adams thundered

126
00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,479
Speaker 1: in his first annual message in December of eighteen twenty.

127
00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 7: Five, while foreign nations are advancing with gigantic strides and

128
00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:48,559
Speaker 7: public improvement, were we to slumber and indolence and proclaim

129
00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,760
Speaker 7: to the world that we are paulsied by the will

130
00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,439
Speaker 7: of our constituents, would it not be to doom ourselves

131
00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:56,320
Speaker 7: to perpetual inferiority.

132
00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,440
Speaker 1: You may not understand exactly what paulsied by the will

133
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,920
Speaker 1: of our constituents means, but Adams might as well have

134
00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,400
Speaker 1: called a vast swapt of Americans a basket of deplorables.

135
00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:11,280
Speaker 1: In the early eighteen hundreds, America was still mostly an

136
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:15,800
Speaker 1: agrarian society. Many of its citizens were planners, farmers, and

137
00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:20,040
Speaker 1: mechanics with no formal education, and Adams essentially said that

138
00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:23,640
Speaker 1: they were the reason America couldn't compete with Europe. Not

139
00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,120
Speaker 1: to be outdone, Jackson replied.

140
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,760
Speaker 4: When I view the declaration, that it would be criminal

141
00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,360
Speaker 4: for the agents of our government to be poalsied by

142
00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,520
Speaker 4: the will of their constituents. I shudder for the consequence.

143
00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:40,640
Speaker 4: The voice of the people must be heard.

144
00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:45,880
Speaker 1: Jackson got it, Adams did not. And it wasn't just

145
00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,640
Speaker 1: voters who hated the direction Adams and Henry Clay wanted

146
00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:54,720
Speaker 1: to take America. Southern politicians had their own specific misgivings

147
00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:58,080
Speaker 1: about the policies. They despised the goals of Clay and

148
00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:00,240
Speaker 1: Adams's so called American system.

149
00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:04,679
Speaker 2: The American system posed a threat to slavery in a

150
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,520
Speaker 2: number of ways. If you have more and better forms

151
00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 2: of travel and communication, it's easier for enslaved individuals to

152
00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:16,360
Speaker 2: self emancipate and to run away. It's easier for the

153
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,640
Speaker 2: federal government to encroach on what they call the Southern

154
00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:24,079
Speaker 2: way of life. So they really saw any measure of

155
00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,720
Speaker 2: federal intervention as a threat to slavery.

156
00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:34,319
Speaker 1: While Andrew Jackson represented the antithesis of everything Adams believed,

157
00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,959
Speaker 1: he was mostly the figurehead operating by proxy. Jackson's loyal

158
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,120
Speaker 1: network of supporters and followers did his bidding in Congress,

159
00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:46,640
Speaker 1: and the man leading Jackson's rabid sympathizers was a senator

160
00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:47,320
Speaker 1: from New York.

161
00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:54,800
Speaker 6: Martin Van Buren was an operator. You know, he'd be

162
00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:56,680
Speaker 6: like Carl Rove or something.

163
00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:03,679
Speaker 1: Van Buren was a Northerner who liked many didn't necessarily

164
00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:08,480
Speaker 1: like Jackson. But where others saw widening political division, he

165
00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:10,400
Speaker 1: saw opportunity.

166
00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:16,680
Speaker 6: He saw that there was a chance to combine the

167
00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:20,760
Speaker 6: West and the South, the old planter class and this

168
00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:24,439
Speaker 6: new class, as well as some Northerners who could live

169
00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 6: with slavery.

170
00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:30,760
Speaker 1: Since the original parties had dissolved, politics divided along regional boundaries,

171
00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,000
Speaker 1: really North versus South. Van Buren wanted to bring back

172
00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:40,400
Speaker 1: a Jeffersonian way of dividing political allegiancies by ideology, and

173
00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:44,160
Speaker 1: for him, the winning strategy was Jacksonian populism.

174
00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:48,640
Speaker 6: And so Van Buren is thinking, we have to found

175
00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:54,560
Speaker 6: a new popular party which poses itself against these old

176
00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:59,480
Speaker 6: populations and old parties and saying, let's create this new thing.

177
00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,960
Speaker 1: That new thing is the Democratic Party, and that system

178
00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:10,280
Speaker 1: has evolved into the two party system that largely exists today.

179
00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:13,079
Speaker 1: The new party was still just an idea in Van

180
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:17,280
Speaker 1: Buren's head when the midterm elections of eighteen twenty six

181
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:22,240
Speaker 1: rolled around, but the divisions were real. Jacksonian candidates swept

182
00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:26,479
Speaker 1: the election, winning a vast majority in both chambers of Congress.

183
00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,640
Speaker 8: The drubbing that he takes in Eateen twenty six is

184
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 8: an indication that most of Congress, even people who would

185
00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,720
Speaker 8: normally think of themselves as belonging to the president's party,

186
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,000
Speaker 8: would see that John Quincy Adams was perhaps more of

187
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:43,559
Speaker 8: a nationalist than what they were. Perhaps, if you're in

188
00:12:43,560 --> 00:12:47,520
Speaker 8: the House of Representatives, their constituency wants to see in

189
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:48,240
Speaker 8: a president.

190
00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:52,559
Speaker 1: David S. Brown is a professor of history at Elizabethtown

191
00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:53,880
Speaker 1: College in Pennsylvania.

192
00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,600
Speaker 8: He could not position himself in such a way that

193
00:12:56,679 --> 00:12:59,200
Speaker 8: even some of his advocates in his own party could

194
00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:04,600
Speaker 8: really campaign on his record, and so they run against him.

195
00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,560
Speaker 1: Voters in Congress soundly rejected the American system. John Quincy,

196
00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:12,960
Speaker 1: like his father, believed to his core that it was

197
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,880
Speaker 1: the president's duty to doggedly pursue what was best for

198
00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:21,760
Speaker 1: the nation and to rise above party politics. The midterm

199
00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:26,640
Speaker 1: election of eighteen twenty six proved that this belief, while laudable,

200
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:32,400
Speaker 1: was not a strategy for political success. New York City

201
00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,520
Speaker 1: Mayor Philip Hohne later said of Adams, his desire to

202
00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:40,280
Speaker 1: avoid party influence lost him all the favor of all

203
00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:45,400
Speaker 1: the parties. Eighteen twenty six was a tough year all

204
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,640
Speaker 1: around for John Quincy. His agenda had stalled in Congress,

205
00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:53,199
Speaker 1: blocked by obstructionists, his opposition had swept the midterm elections.

206
00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,000
Speaker 1: In that summer, he learned that two founding fathers had died.

207
00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:02,880
Speaker 1: In the early afternoon of July fourth, eighteen twenty six,

208
00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:07,680
Speaker 1: President Adams was informed that Thomas Jefferson had died. The

209
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,760
Speaker 1: irony of the moment was not lost on anyone, the

210
00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:16,280
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but the news

211
00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:19,960
Speaker 1: got even worse. John Quincy learned that on the very

212
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:26,800
Speaker 1: same day, July fourth, his father, his mentor, his hero,

213
00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:29,680
Speaker 1: John Adams, had also died.

214
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:32,360
Speaker 3: And it was taken as a great omen by a

215
00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:34,280
Speaker 3: lot of people, but it was a special omen for

216
00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,400
Speaker 3: John Quincy Adams in the middle of his what would

217
00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:42,000
Speaker 3: be his only term as president, in the.

218
00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:45,520
Speaker 1: Wake of his father's funeral and his trouncing in the midterms,

219
00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 1: John Quincy was in deep despair. Putting his father's affairs

220
00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:53,440
Speaker 1: in order, John Quincy contemplated what was to come.

221
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:59,480
Speaker 9: For an active and much agitated life to pass suddenly

222
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:05,000
Speaker 9: forever to a condition of total retirement and almost solitude

223
00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,960
Speaker 9: trial to which I cannot look without some concern.

224
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:12,880
Speaker 1: He was heading into what many said would be the

225
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:16,880
Speaker 1: biggest political route in American history. The election of eighteen

226
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:21,680
Speaker 1: twenty eight. The populist wave had become a tsunami powerful

227
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:25,400
Speaker 1: enough to sweep Adams from office, and at the head

228
00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:28,840
Speaker 1: of this movement was his former and now current opponent,

229
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:36,160
Speaker 1: General Andrew Jackson. Coming up. Jackson and Adams square off

230
00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:40,480
Speaker 1: for the presidency again, and this time it's personal, like

231
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:59,520
Speaker 1: real personal. We'll have more after the break. The election

232
00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,280
Speaker 1: of eighteen twenty eight was a rematch of eighteen twenty

233
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:07,960
Speaker 1: four John Quincy Adams, once again facing Southerner Andrew Jackson,

234
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:09,800
Speaker 1: and he was prepared to win.

235
00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,120
Speaker 2: So when people say today that elections and politics are

236
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:18,560
Speaker 2: nastier than they've ever been, that usually indicates that they

237
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,440
Speaker 2: haven't actually looked into elections in the past, because the

238
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:25,240
Speaker 2: eighteen twenty eight election was incredibly nasty.

239
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:30,040
Speaker 1: Newspapers at the time were used by politicians as instruments

240
00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:31,200
Speaker 1: of personal destruction.

241
00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:35,960
Speaker 8: Most newspapers didn't even pretend to be objective. The storylines

242
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,200
Speaker 8: they might be fabricated, they might have a bit of

243
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,480
Speaker 8: truth in them, but really this was not objective reporting.

244
00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,600
Speaker 1: Newspapers on both sides were brutal and unforgiving in their attacks.

245
00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:52,400
Speaker 6: On Jackson's side, it was the NonStop corrupt bargain which

246
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,880
Speaker 6: they turned into the greatest scandal in the nation's history.

247
00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 1: Publications on Adam's side got personal, some downright cruel.

248
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:07,320
Speaker 6: One of the more scurreless newspapers in Cincinnati runs some

249
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:12,239
Speaker 6: giant headline about Jackson's mother was a prostitute.

250
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,759
Speaker 1: Jackson fumed at the attacks on his mother, Elizabeth. His

251
00:17:16,879 --> 00:17:20,359
Speaker 1: father died before he was born, so he felt fiercely

252
00:17:20,399 --> 00:17:23,879
Speaker 1: protective of the only parent he knew, a woman who

253
00:17:23,879 --> 00:17:28,359
Speaker 1: had given literally everything to her children and her country.

254
00:17:30,639 --> 00:17:33,719
Speaker 1: When Jackson and his guerrilla fighting brothers were captured by

255
00:17:33,719 --> 00:17:36,479
Speaker 1: the British in the Revolutionary War, they were sent to

256
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:37,560
Speaker 1: a prison camp.

257
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 2: And the conditions were so terrible that when they were released,

258
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,239
Speaker 2: his brother died two days later, and then his mom.

259
00:17:44,719 --> 00:17:47,399
Speaker 2: Because she was so moved by this experience, served as

260
00:17:47,399 --> 00:17:50,239
Speaker 2: a nurse for other prisoners of war that were held

261
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:54,040
Speaker 2: on British ships, on which the conditions were absolutely ghastly.

262
00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:57,840
Speaker 1: While working as a nurse on the ship, she came

263
00:17:57,879 --> 00:18:02,040
Speaker 1: down with cholera and died, leaving Jackson an orphan when

264
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:06,320
Speaker 1: he was just fourteen years old. It's of John Quincy

265
00:18:06,399 --> 00:18:10,679
Speaker 1: to drag Jackson's mother through the mud, calling her a prostitute.

266
00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:14,000
Speaker 1: This cut Jackson to the core, but what really set

267
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,920
Speaker 1: him off were the attacks on his wife, Rachel.

268
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:24,760
Speaker 6: Rachel was previously married and she then sought a divorce,

269
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:31,160
Speaker 6: but it certainly appears that she married Jackson before her

270
00:18:31,239 --> 00:18:36,119
Speaker 6: divorce was finalized, so that then gave rise to the

271
00:18:36,159 --> 00:18:39,279
Speaker 6: notion that Jackson had married a harlot.

272
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:43,359
Speaker 1: But like I said, the attacks were vicious on both sides.

273
00:18:43,919 --> 00:18:47,439
Speaker 1: The newspapers that were sympathetic to Jackson were plenty cruel

274
00:18:47,439 --> 00:18:47,879
Speaker 1: as well.

275
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 8: John Quincy Adams held several diplomatic posts in Europe and

276
00:18:52,719 --> 00:18:56,519
Speaker 8: one was in Russia, and the opposition press in eighteen

277
00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:01,879
Speaker 8: twenty four and to claim that Quincy Adams, while ambassador,

278
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:09,040
Speaker 8: had pemped out one of his female servants to the Czar.

279
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 1: This, of course is false, and the press targeted John

280
00:19:13,399 --> 00:19:15,240
Speaker 1: Quincy's wife, Louisa too.

281
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 8: The claim about his wife being British is of course true,

282
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 8: and up until Melania Trump, his wife was the only

283
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,399
Speaker 8: first lady to have been born elsewhere.

284
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,719
Speaker 1: Louisa Catherine Johnson was born in London in seventeen seventy five.

285
00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:35,599
Speaker 5: The same year as Jane Austen.

286
00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:38,439
Speaker 10: To give you some contexts also, you know, on the

287
00:19:38,439 --> 00:19:43,080
Speaker 10: eve of the Revolutionary War. Her father was an American,

288
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:48,439
Speaker 10: her mother was a Londoner, and she had a sense

289
00:19:48,439 --> 00:19:51,600
Speaker 10: of herself as always an outsider looking in.

290
00:19:52,919 --> 00:19:56,960
Speaker 1: When the Revolutionary War began, Louisa's father, a patriot from

291
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,280
Speaker 1: Maryland living in London, fled with his family to France.

292
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,279
Speaker 1: When the war was over, she returned with her family

293
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 1: to London. It was there seventeen ninety five that Louisa

294
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,159
Speaker 1: met John Quincy Adams at a party at their home,

295
00:20:10,719 --> 00:20:14,359
Speaker 1: a young diplomat of the fledgling United States, dressed in

296
00:20:14,399 --> 00:20:15,199
Speaker 1: a boxy coat.

297
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,679
Speaker 5: Oh, she thought he looked ridiculous. He wasn't dressed fashionable.

298
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,480
Speaker 1: Louisa came from a large family and had a lot

299
00:20:24,479 --> 00:20:30,000
Speaker 1: of sisters. They were all educated, fashionable, social, very pretty

300
00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:31,119
Speaker 1: and played music.

301
00:20:31,399 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 5: I think he somewhat fell in love with the scene

302
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:37,199
Speaker 5: at first. He was wrote in his diary about the

303
00:20:37,239 --> 00:20:40,280
Speaker 5: beautiful music and the good food, and the good conversation

304
00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:43,479
Speaker 5: and the daughters, and he sort of mentioned, you know,

305
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:45,279
Speaker 5: which one was good at the harbor, which one was

306
00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:47,879
Speaker 5: good at piano? And Louisa sings. I think that was

307
00:20:47,919 --> 00:20:49,080
Speaker 5: his first mention of her.

308
00:20:52,479 --> 00:20:55,199
Speaker 1: John Quincy found himself falling in love with one of

309
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:59,239
Speaker 1: Louisa's sisters. Eventually, though it seems like he sort of

310
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:01,440
Speaker 1: listened to his heart and chose Louisa.

311
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,399
Speaker 5: His account of getting engaged, in fact, was he was

312
00:21:04,439 --> 00:21:07,159
Speaker 5: like passive. This isn't the exact line, but it was

313
00:21:07,159 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 5: something like the ring jumped from my finger or something.

314
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:11,800
Speaker 5: I mean, it was a very odd way of phrasing.

315
00:21:12,159 --> 00:21:18,239
Speaker 1: In seventeen ninety seven, John and Luisa got married. Fast

316
00:21:18,239 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 1: forward thirty years later. Now her name was smeared across

317
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:26,119
Speaker 1: the front pages of newspapers across America. She was criticized

318
00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:31,559
Speaker 1: for being European upper class. Her sympathies lied with the monarchs,

319
00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: not with their subjects.

320
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:38,399
Speaker 5: She felt vilified and she was. They poked every single

321
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 5: sore spot for her, and it was an extraordinarily painful experience.

322
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,959
Speaker 1: At this time in American history, it was still only

323
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 1: white men who could vote, but in the election of

324
00:21:51,479 --> 00:21:55,560
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty eight, more men than ever cast ballots, many

325
00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,319
Speaker 1: for the first time, and candidates were fiercely competing for

326
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:00,399
Speaker 1: these new voters.

327
00:22:02,239 --> 00:22:08,560
Speaker 8: This is a demographic revolution happening. Between eighteen three and

328
00:22:08,679 --> 00:22:13,119
Speaker 8: eighteen twenty one, eight states entered the Union. All of

329
00:22:13,159 --> 00:22:15,800
Speaker 8: them were in the South and the west, excepting for one,

330
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:16,960
Speaker 8: the state of Maine.

331
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,799
Speaker 1: The nation was growing, spreading south and west, racing towards

332
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 1: the Pacific.

333
00:22:22,439 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 8: Ocean sunbult politics isn't just a twentieth century or twenty

334
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 8: first century phenomena. It was growing in the early nineteenth century,

335
00:22:30,879 --> 00:22:32,519
Speaker 8: and Jackson embodies it.

336
00:22:32,959 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 1: For these new voters. Intellectuals and establishment politicians like John

337
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,239
Speaker 1: Quincy were what was wrong with the nation. But an

338
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: adventurer from the West who rose from humble beginnings to

339
00:22:44,399 --> 00:22:47,399
Speaker 1: become a war hero, that was someone the people could

340
00:22:47,479 --> 00:22:47,999
Speaker 1: relate to.

341
00:22:48,679 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 8: Jackson is going to be really the only candidate who

342
00:22:52,679 --> 00:22:53,919
Speaker 8: could win the selection. I think.

343
00:22:54,399 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 1: When all the votes were counted in the late fall,

344
00:22:57,159 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 1: Jackson was the clear winner of the popular vote again,

345
00:23:01,639 --> 00:23:05,279
Speaker 1: but he had also won a decisive one hundred in

346
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 1: seventy eight electoral votes. It was a landslide that completely

347
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: wiped out John Quincy. Unlike the eighteen twenty four vote,

348
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 1: there could be no doubt that the people had rejected

349
00:23:19,399 --> 00:23:23,600
Speaker 1: Adams and the ideals he stood for. Jackson's limited government

350
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,119
Speaker 1: and states rights agenda prevailed, but Jackson's victory came at

351
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:32,479
Speaker 1: a great cost. Just weeks later, his wife, Rachel died.

352
00:23:34,479 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 1: She had suffered from debilitating health issues for years. President

353
00:23:38,639 --> 00:23:42,280
Speaker 1: elect Andrew Jackson blamed her death on the brutal attacks

354
00:23:42,639 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 1: that Adams and his allies broadcast during the campaign.

355
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 6: Rachel was prostrated by this public humiliation and died after

356
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:58,679
Speaker 6: Jackson was elected and before he was inaugurated. And so

357
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:05,759
Speaker 6: you can't imagine how bitter Jackson felt towards it, Adams

358
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 6: towards everyone on the other side, and indeed, more broadly,

359
00:24:08,919 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 6: how Jacksonians felt about them.

360
00:24:12,719 --> 00:24:14,679
Speaker 1: Jackson later said about his wife.

361
00:24:15,479 --> 00:24:18,999
Speaker 4: Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do

362
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 4: not meet my wife there.

363
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:24,999
Speaker 1: The election came in a great cost for John Quincy

364
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,999
Speaker 1: as well. He had spent his life coping with depression,

365
00:24:28,439 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: and after losing the White House, he was consumed by despair.

366
00:24:32,239 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 3: What we think of now is clinical depression. He had it.

367
00:24:34,639 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 3: There's no question, you read it. He has a serotonin deficiency.

368
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:42,679
Speaker 3: It's a problem. So when he left office he was depressed.

369
00:24:42,679 --> 00:24:44,399
Speaker 3: He thought he had let the country down. He had

370
00:24:44,479 --> 00:24:49,039
Speaker 3: let his father's memory down, his parents' memory down, so

371
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:49,959
Speaker 3: he's pretty low.

372
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: After Jackson's inauguration, John Quincy and Louisa lingered in Washington,

373
00:24:58,639 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 1: waiting for their eldest son, George, to help them make

374
00:25:01,719 --> 00:25:07,039
Speaker 1: the trip back to Quincy. Louisa was devastated from the

375
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 1: stress of the campaign and a combination of physical afflictions.

376
00:25:11,479 --> 00:25:13,999
Speaker 1: She looked forward to seeing her oldest son, George.

377
00:25:14,639 --> 00:25:17,479
Speaker 5: She was very close to her children and to George

378
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:18,600
Speaker 5: in particular.

379
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,359
Speaker 1: But George had taken a bad turn. Shortly after the election,

380
00:25:22,919 --> 00:25:26,439
Speaker 1: Louisa received a letter from her other son, Charles Francis,

381
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,159
Speaker 1: telling her that George was not doing well.

382
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 11: I write this without any intention of unnecessarily alarming you.

383
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,479
Speaker 11: He is well enough in all bodily respects, but he

384
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 11: pines for want of some kind of excitement to action

385
00:25:40,639 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 11: which does not exist.

386
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,799
Speaker 1: George Washington Adams was never adept at handling the pressure

387
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: of being born into one of the most influential families

388
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,479
Speaker 1: in New England. He was an alcoholic and womanizer. Now

389
00:25:53,639 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: his behavior was getting worse. Louisa and John Quincy had

390
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:03,479
Speaker 1: watched their son slowly unravel, feeling helpless, hoping a trip

391
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: to Washington would do him good. John Quincy was still

392
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: waiting for George to arrive when his brother in law

393
00:26:09,639 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: showed up instead. He broke the news George Washington Adams

394
00:26:15,239 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 1: had gone overboard and drowned.

395
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:19,679
Speaker 5: It may have been an accident, It may have been

396
00:26:19,719 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 5: a mental health crisis. He may have been hearing voices

397
00:26:22,879 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 5: of some kind. He may have been drunk, he may

398
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 5: have jumped.

399
00:26:31,399 --> 00:26:35,199
Speaker 1: In his diary, John Quincy wrote that upon learning the

400
00:26:35,239 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: news about George's death, Louisa's condition is not to be described.

401
00:26:40,679 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 5: For him too, that was an unspeakable tragedy, and he

402
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 5: was open with himself, at least in his diary, that

403
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 5: the pain of the losing the election was nothing, nothing

404
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 5: compared to the pain of losing his son.

405
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,239
Speaker 1: Utterly crushed by his defeat in the election and the

406
00:26:57,239 --> 00:27:00,559
Speaker 1: death of his first child, John Quincy retreated to the

407
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:06,999
Speaker 1: solitude of Peacefield, been his days, tending to his garden

408
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,919
Speaker 1: and focusing on his next project, organizing and publishing a

409
00:27:10,919 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 1: collection of his father's papers. And while this could have

410
00:27:14,199 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 1: been the end of John Quincy's story, it was actually

411
00:27:17,479 --> 00:27:23,799
Speaker 1: just the beginning on a late September morning in eighteen thirty,

412
00:27:24,199 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: Adams was visited by a few old friends.

413
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 3: He's approached by locals in Massachusetts to actually or get

414
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 3: back into the fray. Go run for Congress.

415
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: Run for Congress. He had reached the pinnacle of political

416
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: success in America. Now he was being asked to be

417
00:27:41,199 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 1: one of dozens of elected officials, all of equal power.

418
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,519
Speaker 1: He didn't like the idea of taking into motion, but

419
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 1: there was something he did like.

420
00:27:52,479 --> 00:27:55,199
Speaker 3: There was a certain aspect of revenge. I've always thought

421
00:27:55,239 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 3: that it's not so much that he wanted to get

422
00:27:56,879 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 3: out one particular person, but he did want to reclaim

423
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,719
Speaker 3: his greatness after he'd been knocked down, after he'd been

424
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 3: hurt eighteen twenty at election, after his presidency actually had

425
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 3: been something of a failure.

426
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: Getting back at Jackson and the other politicians who sank

427
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:19,719
Speaker 1: his presidency was an enticing prospect. There are probably many

428
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:24,239
Speaker 1: reasons Adams ran for Congress, but Louis's wishes were not

429
00:28:24,919 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 1: one of them. In fact, his wife did not know

430
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,959
Speaker 1: he was even considering it until days later when she

431
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: read about it in the newspaper. She was furious she.

432
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:42,279
Speaker 5: Had forcedeign politics. Washington wanted no part in that. She

433
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 5: blamed also all that for killing George.

434
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 12: Certainly, she wrote, to pretend that I make this sacrifice

435
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 12: willingly would be ridiculous and false.

436
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: She basically told John Quincy, enough is enough. How much

437
00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 1: of your family are you willing to sacrifice to satisfy

438
00:28:59,320 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: your ambition?

439
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 12: In the marriage compact, there are, as in every other,

440
00:29:03,959 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 12: two parties, each of which have rights strictly defined by

441
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,999
Speaker 12: law and by the usages of society. In that compact,

442
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 12: the parties agree, before the face of Heaven, to promote,

443
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 12: as far as in their power, the wealthare and happiness

444
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 12: of each other. The woman, being the weaker of the two,

445
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 12: is expected and does, nine times out of ten, make

446
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:26,959
Speaker 12: the great sacrifices for her husband.

447
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: For Louisa, the sacrifices were gut.

448
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 12: Wrenching, the grave of my lost child, the grasping ambition,

449
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,999
Speaker 12: which is an insatiable passion, swallowing and consuming all in

450
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 12: its ever devouring more.

451
00:29:42,479 --> 00:29:47,600
Speaker 1: Against his wife's wishes. John Quincy Adams successfully ran for Congress.

452
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: He took the oath of office once again in December

453
00:29:51,239 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one, this time not as president but a

454
00:29:55,040 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: US representative. A king now upon thrust into the raucous

455
00:30:02,239 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: us House of Representatives. He entered Congress at a time

456
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: when the nation's fabric was tearing apart. The insidious slaveocracy

457
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 1: was burrowing itself deep into the soul of America. John

458
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,319
Speaker 1: Quincy was yet to make his greatest contribution to his

459
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: legacy in the country he loved. On the next episode

460
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: of Founding Son.

461
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,519
Speaker 3: John Quincy Adams played in a deeply important role in

462
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,959
Speaker 3: bringing slavery to the center of American national debates at

463
00:30:48,959 --> 00:30:50,999
Speaker 3: a time when no one else or very few people

464
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 3: wanted to do that.

465
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 9: You suppressed the right of petition.

466
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 7: You suppressed the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press,

467
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 7: and the freedom of religion.

468
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: Founding Son is a curiosity podcast asked brought to you

469
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: by iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with

470
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,319
Speaker 1: this episode, we want to thank James Traub, author of

471
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams Militant Spirit, Lindsay Stravinsky, author of The Cabinet,

472
00:31:18,959 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. Luisa Thomas,

473
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Louisa,

474
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:31,959
Speaker 1: The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams. Sean Willentz, author of

475
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,959
Speaker 1: the Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson to Lincoln. David S. Brown,

476
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: author of The First Populist, The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson.

477
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: Our lead producer, story editor and sound designer is James Morrison.

478
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:51,839
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker. Fact checking by Adam Bisno.

479
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:57,839
Speaker 1: Jesse Niswanger mixed and mastered this episode. Executive producers are

480
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, L. C. Crowley, and Jason English.

481
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 1: Original music by me Bob Crawford. Additional scoring is by

482
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:12,719
Speaker 1: Blue Dot Sessions. John Quincy Adams is voiced by Patrick Warburton.

483
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick Offerman. Luisa Adams is

484
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional voice in this episode provided

485
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: by Scott David Show art designed by Darren Shock. Special

486
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 1: thanks to John Higgins from Curiosity Stream, Julia Chris Gal,

487
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the National Park Service. We

488
00:32:35,479 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 1: couldn't do this podcast without them. If you're a fan

489
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: of the podcast, please give it a five star rating

490
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 1: in your podcast app. You can also check out other

491
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:49,239
Speaker 1: Curiosity podcasts to learn about history, pop culture, true crime,

492
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: and more. This podcast was recorded under a SAG after

493
00:32:54,479 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: collective bargaining agreement. I'm your host, Bob Crawford, Thanks for listening.

494
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 6: School of Humans