Speaker 1: I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding Son John Quincy's America.
Speaker 1: Late winter eighteen forty one, William Henry Harrison arrives in
Speaker 1: downtown Washington, d c aboard a piece of cutting edge
Speaker 1: technology the train. A cold wind bears down on the
Speaker 1: city as Harrison walks to the steps of the US
Speaker 1: Capitol to be sworn in as the nation's ninth president.
Speaker 1: Harrison wants to project a strong image to the nation.
Speaker 1: Like Jackson, he was a war hero, having fought against
Speaker 1: several native tribes in the country's expansion westward. That day
Speaker 1: was cold and wet, but Harrison refused to wear an overcoat, hat,
Speaker 1: or even gloves. He wanted to distinguish himself from his
Speaker 1: aristocratic predecessor, Martin Van Buren. Harrison was a frontiersman from Ohio.
Speaker 1: A little cold wouldn't hurt him. The Harrison administration provided
Speaker 1: new hope for the nation and John Quincy Adams anti
Speaker 1: Federalist Democrats had held the reins of power for over
Speaker 1: a decade. Now the Whigs, John Quincy's party, had taken
Speaker 1: over the House, Senate, and presidency in one fell swoop.
Speaker 1: A week after the inauguration, President Harrison showed up at
Speaker 1: Adams's door, telling the ex president he was welcome at
Speaker 1: the White House anytime, come when you please, as often
Speaker 1: as you please, or drop me a line, for I
Speaker 1: shall at any time be happy to take your advice
Speaker 1: and counsel as that of a brother. This came at
Speaker 1: roughly the same time the nation was celebrating Adams for
Speaker 1: winning the Amistadt case at the Supreme Court. He was
Speaker 1: riding one of the highest waves of his life until
Speaker 1: William Henry Harrison fell ill after his inauguration, first a cold,
Speaker 1: then pneumonia, and on April fourth, eighteen forty one, he died,
Speaker 1: serving just thirty one days in office. Now the man
Speaker 1: in charge was Vice President John Tyler, who could not
Speaker 1: have been more different than Harrison.
Speaker 2: John Tyler's a slaveholding Virginian.
Speaker 1: Matthew carp is an associate professor of history at Princeton University.
Speaker 1: He says John Tyler was a member of the same
Speaker 1: party as William Henry Harrison and John Quincy Adams, but
Speaker 1: he was also a stalwart supporter of slavery In States rights.
Speaker 2: He was one of the few Southern congressmen to sort
Speaker 2: of support nullification outside of South Carolina. He's a strong
Speaker 2: ally of Calhoun.
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams saw President John Tyler as a gathering
Speaker 1: storm who could ruin the smooth seas he was hoping
Speaker 1: to sail across for the next four years.
Speaker 3: Tyler is a political sectarian of the slave driving Virginian Jeffersonian.
Speaker 4: School, principled against all improvement, with all the interests and
Speaker 4: passions and vices of slavery, rooted in his moral and
Speaker 4: political constitution, with talents not above mediocrity, and a spirit
Speaker 4: incapable of expansion to the dimensions of the station upon
Speaker 4: which he has been cast by the hand of providence,
Speaker 4: an unseen through the apparent agency of chance.
Speaker 1: Can I just pause for a second to point out
Speaker 1: that sick burn talents not above mediocrity. That's why I
Speaker 1: love John Quincy Adams. Old man eloquent had been thrown
Speaker 1: a vicious twist of faith. Tyler's presidency threatened all his
Speaker 1: hopes of national progress. But John Quincy Adams had more
Speaker 1: political capital than ever, and he was ready for a fight,
Speaker 1: even if it might be his last. Chapter six The
Speaker 1: Last of Earth. After his victory in the Amistad case,
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams had some juice. With the political winds
Speaker 1: blowing in his favor, Adams readied his harpoon for the
Speaker 1: biggest whale in his sight, the Gag Rule. Adams couldn't
Speaker 1: help but taunt his Southern adversaries and flout the gag
Speaker 1: rule every chance he got. But in February of eighteen
Speaker 1: forty two, he pushed his foes a little too far.
Speaker 5: Adams comically, among other things, presents a petition demanding that
Speaker 5: he John Quincy Adams, be expelled as the Chairman of
Speaker 5: the Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 1: That's John Quincy Adams. Biographer James Traub He says there's
Speaker 1: some debate on whether this petition, said to be from Georgia,
Speaker 1: was authentic or not. Some think Adams might have written
Speaker 1: it himself. In any case, the call for Adams's expulsion
Speaker 1: gave him the House floor to defend himself, and once
Speaker 1: he had the floor, he didn't shut up for days,
Speaker 1: doing what he did best.
Speaker 5: He presents a petition from citizens of Massachusetts saying they
Speaker 5: seek to dissolve the Union because they can no longer
Speaker 5: be her to support the South.
Speaker 1: Treason. Southerners cried out, dissolve the Union? Are you mad?
Speaker 1: Bedlam took over the house floor. Of all the people
Speaker 1: yelling at Adams to sit down and shut up, one
Speaker 1: voice screamed louder than all the rest.
Speaker 2: From my perspective, his most formidable, or at least his
Speaker 2: most heated opponent, was Henry Wise of Virginia.
Speaker 1: Wise called Adams the acutest, a studist artist, enemy of
Speaker 1: southern slavery that ever existed. Wise meant it as an insult.
Speaker 1: Adams wore it like a badge of honor. In the chaos,
Speaker 1: Adams shouted back, Oh, you think I'm the crazy one.
Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing here. Adams knew exactly what he was doing.
Speaker 1: He had manufactured this whole debate. His goal shined the
Speaker 1: national spotlight on the absurdity of the gag rule. His
Speaker 1: southern foes had walked right into his trap.
Speaker 6: So the old lifted up his voice like a trumpet
Speaker 6: till slaveholding, slave trading, and slave breeding absolutely quailed and
Speaker 6: howled under his dissecting knife.
Speaker 1: Theodore Weld was so mesmerized by John Quincy's verbal athleticism
Speaker 1: that he wrote his wife to tell her about it.
Speaker 7: A perfect uproar like Babbel would burst forth every two
Speaker 7: or three minutes is mister A with his bold surgery,
Speaker 7: would smite his cleaver into the very bone.
Speaker 1: Henry Wise and other Southern politicians called to censure Adams
Speaker 1: for high treason and perjury. Adams replied, simply good. The
Speaker 1: house broke for the day, Adams preparing himself for the
Speaker 1: fight to come. That night, Theodore Weld and a few
Speaker 1: members of the small Abolition Caucus visited Adams's f Street home.
Speaker 5: Adams is sitting there in his armchair reading. You know
Speaker 5: when they come and they say, we're gonna defend you,
Speaker 5: you know, we're going to fight this to the end,
Speaker 5: and Adams says something like, you know, I've never had
Speaker 5: any company in any of my fights before.
Speaker 1: Adams was famously stonefaced and stoic, something he no doubt
Speaker 1: learned from his father. But the men saw Adams's lip quiver.
Speaker 5: And these men went away and thought, you know, what
Speaker 5: an astonishing old man, and what a kind of frightening solitude.
Speaker 5: At the same time.
Speaker 1: The next morning, the House gallery was packed with spectators.
Speaker 1: Government officials blew off their duties to watch history unfold
Speaker 1: before their very eyes. Thomas Marshall, nephew of late Chief
Speaker 1: Justice John Marshall took the unenviable task of presenting the
Speaker 1: case against Adams. To kick things off, Marshall read a
Speaker 1: resolution that rocked the House.
Speaker 8: The dissolution of the Union necessarily implied the destruction of
Speaker 8: that instrument, the overthrow of the American Republic, and the
Speaker 8: extension of our national existence.
Speaker 1: Let me break it down for you. Marshall accused Adams of.
Speaker 8: The destruction of our country and the crime of high treason.
Speaker 1: The consequence not just censure, expulsion in the eyes of
Speaker 1: the South. Adams, the seventy five year old former president,
Speaker 1: was a trader. But remember, Adams had set all this
Speaker 1: in motion. He dared his opponents to expel him.
Speaker 3: I have constituents to go to, and they will have
Speaker 3: something to say. If this House expels me.
Speaker 9: And all, will it be long before the gentlemen see
Speaker 9: me here again.
Speaker 1: Southerners heeded Adams' warning and stop short of expelling him.
Speaker 1: Everything was playing out exactly as he had hoped, and seriously,
Speaker 1: ma versus Adams not a fair fight.
Speaker 5: He would relish every mistake the poor fellow made, and
Speaker 5: he would say things like, you know, it's really surprising
Speaker 5: to me to realize that you have been to one
Speaker 5: of the great law schools of our nation, because I
Speaker 5: think about this elementary error that you've just committed.
Speaker 1: Adams is like a mean girl, saying, how embarrassing for you.
Speaker 1: He told Thomas Marshall he should attend some.
Speaker 3: Law school, learn a little of the rights these citizens
Speaker 3: and of these states and the members of this house.
Speaker 5: Adams tore the guy to shreds and said, in effect,
Speaker 5: you should have gone to a better law school. You
Speaker 5: don't even know the law. You don't even know what
Speaker 5: treason is.
Speaker 1: The battle exhilarated Adams. Friends said they never saw him
Speaker 1: so happy. Well found him.
Speaker 7: As fresh and elastic as a boy. He went on
Speaker 7: for an hour or nearly that, in a voice loud
Speaker 7: enough to be heard by a large audience.
Speaker 6: Wonderful man.
Speaker 5: Adams at one point said, I've only just begun.
Speaker 1: The house was at a standstill.
Speaker 5: All they were doing was this trial, and they suddenly
Speaker 5: they finally realized if we don't surrender, this guy's going
Speaker 5: to hold us hostage for forever. And so they insisted
Speaker 5: on an early voting, and Adams won the vote overwhelming.
Speaker 1: After two weeks of trial, Marshall moved to table the
Speaker 1: censure resolution, never to be taken up again. Adams had
Speaker 1: yet again defeated the slaveocracy. After the vote, Thomas Marshall
Speaker 1: was overheard telling another congressman.
Speaker 8: I would rather die thousand discs and again encounter that
Speaker 8: old man.
Speaker 1: That was Marshall's last session in Congress. John Quincy Adams
Speaker 1: was an unpopular one term president. Now in Congress, his
Speaker 1: popularity knew no bounds.
Speaker 5: Adams's nobility was almost suicidal. What's extraordinary is that at
Speaker 5: the end of his career he finds a cause which
Speaker 5: is perfectly suited to his solitude. And it's precisely because
Speaker 5: he is so solitary and heroic that finally, at the
Speaker 5: end of his life, he's hero worshiped in a way
Speaker 5: that he never was before.
Speaker 1: Adams couldn't keep up with the unending request for personal appearances.
Speaker 1: It seemed like everybody wanted a piece of the ex president.
Speaker 1: But then he got an offer he couldn't refuse. The
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Astronomical Society invited Adams to lay the cornerstone for
Speaker 1: a new observatory. Congress never funded John Quincy's dream of
Speaker 1: lighthouses in the sky even after he left the White House,
Speaker 1: but universities and astronomical societies across the country invested in
Speaker 1: their own telescopes. The march of scientific progress vindicated him
Speaker 1: when closed minded politicians had refused. Adams's trip to Cincinnati
Speaker 1: was the first time he had ventured west. If you
Speaker 1: were to listen to Andrew Jackson, you think the coastal
Speaker 1: elitist John Quincy would find no love in the heartland.
Speaker 1: But Adams's reputation preceded him. People swarmed him during public appearances.
Speaker 1: At a barber shop in Cleveland, John Quincy spent the
Speaker 1: afternoon shaking hands with hundreds of people who gathered to
Speaker 1: get a glimpse of America's founding son. In Cincinnati, he
Speaker 1: was greeted by a banner which read John Quincy Adams,
Speaker 1: Defender of the Rights of Man. In Pittsburgh, the last
Speaker 1: stop on Adams's Western tour, factories closed for the day,
Speaker 1: newspapers announced his arrival. John Quincy Adams was an American celebrity.
Speaker 1: Still ahead, Adams and his old rival Andrew Jackson go
Speaker 1: at it again, a feud that was bitter to the
Speaker 1: very end. Literally that's coming up after the break. John
Speaker 1: Quincy Adams was riding high then the midterm elections of
Speaker 1: eighteen forty two happened. His party took one of the
Speaker 1: largest electoral drubbings in American history, losing their forty two
Speaker 1: seat Whig majority. In its place, Democrats now held a
Speaker 1: massive majority. Adams, Gettings and their abolitionist allies all but
Speaker 1: lost hope of overturning the Gag rule. But a year later,
Speaker 1: old Man eloquent made his final stand. Adams swiftly proposed
Speaker 1: the elimination of the gag rule. This time, James Dellitt,
Speaker 1: a congressman from Alabama, led the attack against Adams. Dell
Speaker 1: It used Adams's own words as ammo. He pulled a
Speaker 1: quote from a speech Adams gave on his Western tour
Speaker 1: to a group of free black men and women, a
Speaker 1: promise that their day of redemption.
Speaker 9: Was bound to come and make come and peace, or
Speaker 9: it may come in blood. But whether in peace or
Speaker 9: in blood, let it come.
Speaker 1: Repeating the quote for effect, dell Itt told the body
Speaker 1: that this was the true agenda of anti gag activists,
Speaker 1: the end of slavery through bloodshed. Adams shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9: I say now let it come.
Speaker 1: Dell It repeated himself, feeling vindicated, Adams admits it. Adams
Speaker 1: again shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9: No, it cost the blood of millions of white men.
Speaker 9: Let it come. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Speaker 1: John Quincy's outburst rocked the chamber and horrified the slaveholders.
Speaker 5: And he finally said, if we have no way of
Speaker 5: ending this monstrous practice, save by the greatest nightmare, any
Speaker 5: of us can imagine the dissolution of the Union, he said,
Speaker 5: then so be it.
Speaker 1: Adams had gone all in, basically saying, we must end
Speaker 1: this gaggrule if we are ever to rid ourselves of slavery,
Speaker 1: and if we don't, I'm willing to burn this whole
Speaker 1: American experiment to the ground.
Speaker 5: And for a man who had grown up regardless the
Speaker 5: Union as the most holy of holies, to say that
Speaker 5: this moral evil is so great that we must be
Speaker 5: prepared to destroy the Union in order to extirpay it,
Speaker 5: that's extraordinary.
Speaker 1: John Quincy's game of chicken paid off. On December third,
Speaker 1: eighteen forty four, the gag rule at long last fell. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: he wrote in his diary.
Speaker 9: Blessed ever, blessed be the name of God.
Speaker 1: John Quincy achieved one of the greatest political accomplishments in Congress.
Speaker 1: It had taken the entire congressional session. It was now
Speaker 1: the general election of eighteen forty four. Henry Clay once
Speaker 1: again tried and failed to capture the presidency, losing to
Speaker 1: James K. Polk in the final days of eighteen forty five.
Speaker 1: Against the objections of John Quincy Adams, Polk annex Texas,
Speaker 1: essentially kicking a hornet's nest. Mexico never recognized the treaty
Speaker 1: President Santa Anna signed after his routing by General Sam Houston,
Speaker 1: so Mexico saw Polk's annexation of Texas as an act
Speaker 1: of aggression, starting the Mexican American War. It also reignited
Speaker 1: the old feud between Adams and Andrew Jackson. This round
Speaker 1: of the Adams versus Jackson grudge match is a bit complicated,
Speaker 1: so let me break it down first. You need to
Speaker 1: understand that Andrew Jackson had lived a rough life and
Speaker 1: he was getting pretty old. It reminds me of that
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones quote, it's not the years, it's the mileage.
Speaker 10: His memory on Texas wasn't the best.
Speaker 1: David S. Brown is professor of history at Elizabethtown College
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 10: As he got older, he seemed to think that that
Speaker 10: Texas have been part of the United States in eighteen
Speaker 10: nineteen when the United States signed a treaty with Spain
Speaker 10: that did give us Florida but did not give us Texas.
Speaker 10: So Jackson and a few others would refer not to
Speaker 10: the annexation of Texas as in we want Texas annexed.
Speaker 10: They would refer to it as the re annexation, kind
Speaker 10: of selectively remembering the pasture for their benefit.
Speaker 1: This takes us back to the Monroe administration when John
Speaker 1: Quincy was Secretary of State and negotiated the eighteen nineteen
Speaker 1: treaty with Spain. Now some twenty plus years later, Jackson
Speaker 1: said that Texas would have been a part of the
Speaker 1: deal if it weren't for the underhanded dealings of President
Speaker 1: Monroe and as Lackey Adams, who hates slavery. You have
Speaker 1: to understand that for Jackson, he considered the annexation of
Speaker 1: all new Southern states part of it domino effect that
Speaker 1: he started. Texas was simply the next domino to fall.
Speaker 1: In a speech in Boston, Adams attacked Jackson and the
Speaker 1: annexation of Texas. He spoke of Jackson's ingratitude.
Speaker 9: I defended him against his enemies and Monroe's cabinet, defended
Speaker 9: him against the remonstrances of ministers of Spain and Great Britain,
Speaker 9: and here and in Europe, defended him against the strong disappropriation,
Speaker 9: unanimous in both houses of Congress and throughout the nation.
Speaker 9: And for what I could not and did not approve.
Speaker 1: A Jackson ally later responded by attacking Adams' entire career.
Speaker 11: He gave away half of the American continent. Lest Braintree
Speaker 11: should suffer or complain. All of our present troubles in Texas,
Speaker 11: in Oregon are bitter fruits of mister Adams's generosity, and
Speaker 11: attribute of which he is seldom accused. The navigation of
Speaker 11: the Mississippi would not be an American possession of mister
Speaker 11: Adams could have swapped it for Coddfish. Grocers will make
Speaker 11: packing paper of his speeches, lectures, letters, and interminable diaries.
Speaker 1: When Jackson read what his friend said about Adams, he
Speaker 1: thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 12: It is the severest castigation and withering sarcasm I ever read.
Speaker 12: I would not be surprised to hear that he was
Speaker 12: stricken down by a paralytic stroke.
Speaker 1: Damn, things were getting heated, but Jackson's wish to watch
Speaker 1: Adams die would go unfulfilled. On a warm June evening
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty five, Andrew Jackson lay on his deathbed,
Speaker 1: his heart slowly failing. He fumbled for his glasses, and
Speaker 1: when he put them on, he could see the tearful
Speaker 1: faces of family, friends and the people he enslaved who'd
Speaker 1: come to see him off to the next world. Before
Speaker 1: he passed, he said to those gathered, do not cry.
Speaker 12: I hope to meet you all in heaven. Yes, all
Speaker 12: in heaven, white and black. My conversation is for you all.
Speaker 12: Christ has no respect for color.
Speaker 13: I am in God, and God is in me. He
Speaker 13: dwelleth in me, and I dwell in him.
Speaker 1: Old Hickory shut his eyes and never opened them again.
Speaker 1: He was seventy eight years old, older than the country
Speaker 1: he had led as president. America mourned the death of
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson. Even old enemies and Northerners set aside the
Speaker 1: malice they once felt for him. Adams, though, was like,
Speaker 1: if that guy, I don't care if he's dead.
Speaker 10: When Jackson dies, Quincy Adams writes in his journal, Jackson
Speaker 10: was a.
Speaker 3: Hero, a murderer, an adulter, and a profoundly pious Presbyterian who,
Speaker 3: in his last days of his life blied and slandered
Speaker 3: me before the world.
Speaker 10: So this was a time when even Boston was having,
Speaker 10: you know, condolence parades for the fallen Andrew Jackson. They
Speaker 10: didn't love the man, but they recognized that he had
Speaker 10: played a significant role in America's short history. But John
Speaker 10: Quincy Adams was true to himself and would not engage
Speaker 10: in the false hypocrisy of saying that he was sorry
Speaker 10: to see Andrew Jackson leave the scene.
Speaker 9: He was not.
Speaker 1: Adams had outlive Jackson, but age was catching up with him.
Speaker 1: In late eighteen forty six, he collapsed while on a
Speaker 1: walk with a friend in Quincy. His doctor told him
Speaker 1: he had a stroke. By spring of next year, he
Speaker 1: had recovered enough to return to his seat in Congress.
Speaker 1: He was well aware of how little time he had left,
Speaker 1: writing in his diary.
Speaker 3: I date my decease and consider myself, for every useful
Speaker 3: purpose to myself or to my fellow creatures, dead, And
Speaker 3: hence I call this and what I may write hereafter
Speaker 3: a posthumous memoir.
Speaker 1: Adams was now eighty years old. That's a little more
Speaker 1: common today in politics, but back then he was ancient. Still,
Speaker 1: Adams couldn't be kept off the house floor. Just months
Speaker 1: after his stroke, he was back in Congress railing against
Speaker 1: the Mexican American War. It was shortly after one of
Speaker 1: these fiery speeches that a court reporter looks.
Speaker 5: Over and sees that Adams is trembling. His right arm
Speaker 5: is moving on him, his desk and his lips are moving,
Speaker 5: but he's unable to speak. And he then rises up
Speaker 5: and topples over.
Speaker 1: A shock rang through the house floor. Lawmakers jumped to
Speaker 1: their feet.
Speaker 5: People shouted, Adams is dying. Adams is dying, and they
Speaker 5: laid him out on a couch in the Speaker's office.
Speaker 1: Adams was out of it, but not yet unconscious. He
Speaker 1: was overheard whispering, this is.
Speaker 3: The last of earth, but I am composed.
Speaker 1: Friends and foes gathered to pay their respects. As he
Speaker 1: lay unconscious.
Speaker 5: Everybody is able to come see him. Clay stands there,
Speaker 5: holding his hand and weeping.
Speaker 1: Lawmakers rushed to Adam's home to tell Louisa what happened.
Speaker 1: She thought he had only fainted, but by the time
Speaker 1: she arrived at the Capitol, John Quincy was barely conscious.
Speaker 1: He did not recognize his partner of fifty years. Overcome
Speaker 1: with grief, Louisa was allowed a few private hours with
Speaker 1: her husband, but as his breathing became more shallow, doctors
Speaker 1: and members of Congress shuffled her away.
Speaker 14: And she is furious.
Speaker 1: Luisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and
Speaker 1: author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
Speaker 14: She is absolutely furious. All she wanted to be was
Speaker 14: to be the one to pose's eyes.
Speaker 1: Why wasn't she permitted?
Speaker 14: Oh she's a woman, you know, I was too tender
Speaker 14: or something too delicate.
Speaker 9: I was forced to leave him without even the privilege
Speaker 9: of indulging the fee which all holds sacred at such moments.
Speaker 14: And she was denied that private consolation, and that was
Speaker 14: very painful to her.
Speaker 1: A knife twisted in her broken heart. Strangers stood between
Speaker 1: her and her husband. On February twenty third, at seven
Speaker 1: to fifteen pm, John Quincy Adams died.
Speaker 14: He died of public death, and in some ways that
Speaker 14: was right, you know, that's a kind of legend.
Speaker 15: He literally died with his boots on. If you will,
Speaker 15: Sean Wood Lentz, I mean he died, you know, fighting
Speaker 15: what he thought of as an unjust war, a wicked war,
Speaker 15: and doing his best to rail against it in public service.
Speaker 1: To the very end, John Quincy Adams would make the
Speaker 1: trip from Washington, d c. To his home in Quincy, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: one last time. A young cong ersman from Illinois named
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln had watched Adam's collapse on the House floor
Speaker 1: and was now a member of Adams's funeral committee.
Speaker 5: This was the beginning of Adams's last term and the
Speaker 5: beginning of Lincoln's one and only term in Congress. So
Speaker 5: I don't believe they met, But in so many ways
Speaker 5: Adams stretches his hand forward to Lincoln, and in so
Speaker 5: many ways makes Lincoln possible.
Speaker 1: It's been said that John Quincy Adams embodied the national
Speaker 1: history that Lincoln had read by candlelight as a boy.
Speaker 15: John Quincy Adams, with all of his actions in the
Speaker 15: late eighteen thirties and early eighteen forties, helped bring the
Speaker 15: slavery issue into the center of politics, from which it
Speaker 15: could not be removed. Lincoln made sure that it would
Speaker 15: stay there So in that sense, Lincoln is very much
Speaker 15: Adams's successor.
Speaker 1: People gathered along the tracks for hundreds of miles to
Speaker 1: see the train pass.
Speaker 15: He is a great hero. He has a chief popular heroism,
Speaker 15: if you will, at the end of his life that
Speaker 15: he can never expected to have enjoyed earlier on.
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams was buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, beside his
Speaker 1: mother Abigail and his father John. Four years later, his
Speaker 1: wife Louisa would join him. John Quincy Adams continued the
Speaker 1: legacy of his family name. He protected and preserved the
Speaker 1: American democracy of the founding generation. Indeed, John Quincy fought
Speaker 1: a different revolution than his father, because as hard as
Speaker 1: it is to create a democracy, it takes the long
Speaker 1: suffering skill of perseverance to uphold it. And now he
Speaker 1: had passed it to the next generation.
Speaker 16: I am blown away by the scope of his life,
Speaker 16: from the time that he was eight years old seen
Speaker 16: the Battle of Bunker Hill, to when he died he
Speaker 16: could see the coming Civil War, was trying desperately to
Speaker 16: stop it. He really lived the first epic of American history.
Speaker 16: And I think that that is a much more interesting
Speaker 16: and powerful story than could be crafted in fiction.
Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams may not have been an extraordinary president
Speaker 1: like Washington and Lincoln, but he is our most extraordinary
Speaker 1: ex president. He is the bridge between the founding period
Speaker 1: and the Civil War, the man standing in the breach,
Speaker 1: a maverick, a public servant, an American hero, America's founding son.
Speaker 1: Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this series,
Speaker 1: we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy
Speaker 1: adams Militant Spirit, Mary Elliott, creator of American Slavery at
Speaker 1: the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Speaker 1: Shaan Willentz, author of the Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson
Speaker 1: to Lincoln. Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker
Speaker 1: and author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
Speaker 1: David S. Brown, author of The First Populist, The Defiant
Speaker 1: Life of Andrew Jackson. Richard Newman, professor of history at
Speaker 1: Rochester Institute of Technology, Lindsay Shravinsky, author of The Cabinet,
Speaker 1: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. And
Speaker 1: Matthew Carp Professor of History at Princeton University and author
Speaker 1: of this Vast Southern Empire Slaveholders at the Helm of
Speaker 1: American Farm Policy. Our lead producer, story editor, and sound
Speaker 1: designer is James Morrison. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker.
Speaker 1: Our production manager is Daisy Church. Fact checking by Adam Bisno.
Speaker 1: This episode was mixed and mastered by George Hicks. Executive
Speaker 1: producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, el C. Crowley, and
Speaker 1: Jason English. Original music by me Bob Crawford. Additional scoring
Speaker 1: by Blue Dot Sessions. John Quincy Adams is voiced by
Speaker 1: Patrick Warburton, Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick Offerman. Luisa
Speaker 1: Adams is voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional voices in this
Speaker 1: episode provided by Scott Avid, Michael Smerconish, and James Moore.
Speaker 1: Show art designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins,
Speaker 1: Julia Chriscau, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the National Park Service.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a five
Speaker 1: star rating in your podcast app. You can also check
Speaker 1: out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history, pop culture,
Speaker 1: true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded under a
Speaker 1: SAG after a collective bargaining agreement. I'm your host, Bob Crawford.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This was the last episode of the
Speaker 1: series and I am composed
Speaker 5: School of Humans