0:18

I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding

0:20

Son John Quincy's America.

0:41

Late winter eighteen forty one, William

0:44

Henry Harrison arrives in downtown Washington,

0:47

d c aboard a piece of cutting

0:49

edge technology the train. A

0:52

cold wind bears down on the city as

0:55

Harrison walks to the steps of the US Capitol

0:58

to be sworn in as the nation's ninth president.

1:02

Harrison wants to project a strong image

1:04

to the nation. Like Jackson, he

1:07

was a war hero, having fought against

1:09

several native tribes in the country's expansion

1:12

westward. That

1:14

day was cold and wet, but

1:16

Harrison refused to wear an overcoat, hat,

1:19

or even gloves. He wanted

1:21

to distinguish himself from his aristocratic

1:24

predecessor, Martin Van Buren.

1:26

Harrison was a frontiersman from Ohio.

1:29

A little cold wouldn't hurt him.

1:33

The Harrison administration provided

1:35

new hope for the nation and John Quincy

1:37

Adams anti Federalist Democrats

1:40

had held the reins of power for over a decade.

1:43

Now the Whigs, John Quincy's

1:46

party, had taken over the House,

1:49

Senate, and presidency in

1:51

one fell swoop.

1:56

A week after the inauguration, President

1:58

Harrison showed up at Adams's door, telling

2:01

the ex president he was welcome at the White

2:03

House anytime, come

2:06

when you please, as often as you please,

2:08

or drop me a line, for I shall at

2:10

any time be happy to take your advice

2:12

and counsel as that of a brother.

2:15

This came at roughly the same time the

2:17

nation was celebrating Adams for

2:19

winning the Amistadt case at the Supreme

2:21

Court. He was riding one of

2:23

the highest waves of his life

2:26

until William

2:30

Henry Harrison fell ill after his inauguration,

2:33

first a cold, then pneumonia,

2:36

and on April fourth, eighteen forty one,

2:39

he died, serving just thirty

2:41

one days in office. Now

2:44

the man in charge was Vice President John

2:46

Tyler, who could not have been

2:48

more different than Harrison.

2:50

John Tyler's a slaveholding Virginian.

2:52

Matthew carp is an associate professor

2:54

of history at Princeton University.

2:57

He says John Tyler was a member of the same

3:00

party as William Henry Harrison and

3:02

John Quincy Adams, but he was

3:04

also a stalwart supporter of

3:07

slavery In States rights.

3:09

He was one of the few Southern congressmen

3:11

to sort of support nullification outside of

3:13

South Carolina. He's a strong ally of

3:15

Calhoun.

3:17

John Quincy Adams saw President

3:19

John Tyler as a gathering

3:21

storm who could ruin the smooth

3:24

seas he was hoping to sail across

3:26

for the next four years.

3:28

Tyler is a political sectarian

3:31

of the slave driving Virginian

3:33

Jeffersonian.

3:35

School, principled

3:37

against all improvement, with

3:40

all the interests and passions and

3:42

vices of slavery, rooted

3:44

in his moral and political

3:46

constitution, with talents not above

3:49

mediocrity, and

3:51

a spirit incapable

3:54

of expansion to the dimensions of the station

3:56

upon which he has been cast by the

3:58

hand of providence, an unseen

4:01

through the apparent agency of chance.

4:05

Can I just pause for a second to point

4:07

out that sick burn talents

4:10

not above mediocrity. That's

4:12

why I love John Quincy Adams. Old

4:16

man eloquent had been thrown a vicious

4:19

twist of faith. Tyler's

4:21

presidency threatened all his hopes

4:24

of national progress. But

4:27

John Quincy Adams had more political capital

4:29

than ever, and he was ready for a fight,

4:33

even if it might be his last. Chapter

4:40

six The Last of Earth.

4:53

After his victory in the Amistad case, John

4:56

Quincy Adams had some juice. With

4:59

the political winds blowing in his favor,

5:01

Adams readied his harpoon for the biggest

5:04

whale in his sight, the Gag Rule.

5:09

Adams couldn't help but taunt his Southern

5:11

adversaries and flout the gag rule

5:13

every chance he got. But

5:16

in February of eighteen forty two, he

5:18

pushed his foes a little too

5:21

far.

5:22

Adams comically, among

5:24

other things, presents a petition demanding

5:27

that he John Quincy Adams, be expelled

5:30

as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

5:33

That's John Quincy Adams. Biographer James

5:35

Traub He says there's some debate

5:37

on whether this petition, said to

5:39

be from Georgia, was authentic or

5:41

not. Some think

5:44

Adams might have written it himself. In

5:47

any case, the call for Adams's

5:49

expulsion gave him the House floor

5:51

to defend himself, and once

5:53

he had the floor, he didn't shut

5:55

up for days, doing

5:58

what he did best.

5:59

He presents a petition from citizens

6:01

of Massachusetts saying they seek

6:03

to dissolve the Union because

6:06

they can no longer be her to support the South.

6:10

Treason. Southerners cried out, dissolve

6:12

the Union? Are you mad? Bedlam

6:15

took over the house floor. Of all

6:17

the people yelling at Adams to sit down and

6:19

shut up, one voice screamed

6:22

louder than all the rest.

6:23

From my perspective, his most formidable,

6:26

or at least his most heated opponent, was Henry Wise

6:28

of Virginia.

6:30

Wise called Adams the acutest,

6:33

a studist artist, enemy

6:35

of southern slavery that ever existed.

6:38

Wise meant it as an insult.

6:41

Adams wore it like a badge of

6:43

honor. In the chaos, Adams

6:45

shouted back, Oh, you think I'm

6:47

the crazy one. I'm paraphrasing here.

6:50

Adams knew exactly what he was doing. He

6:52

had manufactured this whole debate.

6:55

His goal shined the national

6:57

spotlight on the absurdity of the

6:59

gag rule. His southern foes

7:02

had walked right into his trap.

7:04

So the old lifted up his voice

7:06

like a trumpet till slaveholding,

7:08

slave trading, and slave breeding absolutely

7:11

quailed and howled under his dissecting

7:14

knife.

7:14

Theodore Weld was so mesmerized

7:17

by John Quincy's verbal athleticism

7:20

that he wrote his wife to tell her about

7:22

it.

7:22

A perfect uproar like Babbel would

7:25

burst forth every two or three minutes is

7:27

mister A with his bold surgery,

7:29

would smite his cleaver into the very

7:32

bone.

7:33

Henry Wise and other Southern politicians

7:35

called to censure Adams for high

7:37

treason and perjury. Adams

7:40

replied, simply good.

7:44

The house broke for the day, Adams

7:47

preparing himself for the fight to come. That

7:50

night, Theodore Weld and a

7:52

few members of the small Abolition

7:55

Caucus visited Adams's

7:57

f Street home.

7:58

Adams is sitting there in his armchair

8:01

reading. You know when they come

8:03

and they say, we're gonna defend you, you know, we're

8:05

going to fight this to the end, and

8:08

Adams says something like, you know, I've

8:11

never had any company in any

8:13

of my fights before.

8:16

Adams was famously stonefaced and

8:18

stoic, something he no doubt

8:20

learned from his father. But the

8:22

men saw Adams's lip quiver.

8:25

And these men went away and thought,

8:27

you know, what an astonishing old

8:29

man, and what a kind of frightening solitude.

8:31

At the same time.

8:35

The next morning, the House gallery

8:37

was packed with spectators. Government

8:40

officials blew off their duties to watch

8:42

history unfold before their very eyes.

8:45

Thomas Marshall, nephew of

8:47

late Chief Justice John Marshall

8:50

took the unenviable task of

8:52

presenting the case against Adams. To

8:55

kick things off, Marshall read a resolution

8:58

that rocked the House.

9:00

The dissolution of the Union necessarily

9:04

implied the destruction of that

9:06

instrument, the overthrow

9:08

of the American Republic, and

9:11

the extension of our national existence.

9:14

Let me break it down for you. Marshall

9:16

accused Adams of.

9:18

The destruction of our country

9:21

and the crime of high treason.

9:24

The consequence not just censure,

9:28

expulsion in the

9:30

eyes of the South. Adams, the

9:33

seventy five year old former president,

9:36

was a trader. But remember,

9:39

Adams had set all this in motion. He

9:42

dared his opponents to expel him.

9:45

I have constituents to go to, and

9:47

they will have something to say. If this

9:49

House expels me.

9:50

And all, will it be long before the gentlemen

9:53

see me here again.

9:54

Southerners heeded Adams' warning and

9:57

stop short of expelling him. Everything

10:00

was playing out exactly as he

10:02

had hoped, and seriously, ma

10:05

versus Adams not a

10:08

fair fight.

10:11

He would relish every mistake the poor

10:14

fellow made, and he would say things like,

10:16

you know, it's really surprising

10:19

to me to realize that you have

10:22

been to one of the great law schools

10:24

of our nation, because

10:26

I think about this elementary error

10:29

that you've just committed.

10:31

Adams is like a mean girl, saying, how

10:34

embarrassing for you. He

10:36

told Thomas Marshall he should attend some.

10:39

Law school, learn a little of the rights

10:42

these citizens and of these states and the

10:44

members of this house.

10:47

Adams tore the guy to shreds

10:50

and said, in effect, you

10:52

should have gone to a better law school. You

10:55

don't even know the law. You don't even know what treason

10:58

is.

10:59

The battle exhilarated Adams. Friends

11:01

said they never saw him so happy. Well

11:04

found him.

11:05

As fresh and elastic as a boy.

11:08

He went on for an hour or nearly that,

11:10

in a voice loud enough to be heard by a

11:12

large audience.

11:14

Wonderful man.

11:15

Adams at one point said, I've only just begun.

11:19

The house was at a standstill.

11:21

All they were doing was this trial, and they suddenly

11:23

they finally realized if we don't surrender,

11:26

this guy's going to hold us hostage for forever.

11:29

And so they insisted on an early voting, and

11:32

Adams won the vote overwhelming.

11:36

After two weeks of trial, Marshall

11:38

moved to table the censure resolution,

11:41

never to be taken up again. Adams

11:44

had yet again defeated

11:46

the slaveocracy. After

11:48

the vote, Thomas Marshall was overheard

11:50

telling another congressman.

11:53

I would rather die thousand discs

11:55

and again encounter that old man.

11:58

That was Marshall's last session

12:00

in Congress. John

12:02

Quincy Adams was an unpopular

12:05

one term president. Now

12:07

in Congress, his popularity

12:10

knew no bounds.

12:11

Adams's nobility was almost suicidal.

12:15

What's extraordinary is that at the end

12:17

of his career he finds a

12:19

cause which is perfectly

12:22

suited to his solitude.

12:24

And it's precisely because he

12:27

is so solitary and heroic that

12:29

finally, at the end of his life,

12:31

he's hero worshiped in a way that he never

12:34

was before.

12:35

Adams couldn't keep up with the unending request

12:37

for personal appearances. It

12:39

seemed like everybody wanted

12:41

a piece of the ex president. But

12:44

then he got an offer he couldn't

12:46

refuse. The Cincinnati Astronomical

12:49

Society invited Adams to lay

12:51

the cornerstone for a new observatory. Congress

12:54

never funded John Quincy's dream of

12:56

lighthouses in the sky even

12:58

after he left the White House, but universities

13:01

and astronomical societies across

13:03

the country invested in their own telescopes.

13:06

The march of scientific progress vindicated

13:09

him when closed minded politicians

13:11

had refused. Adams's

13:16

trip to Cincinnati was the first time

13:18

he had ventured west. If you were

13:20

to listen to Andrew Jackson, you think

13:22

the coastal elitist John Quincy

13:25

would find no love in the heartland. But

13:27

Adams's reputation preceded him.

13:30

People swarmed him during

13:32

public appearances. At a barber

13:34

shop in Cleveland, John Quincy

13:36

spent the afternoon shaking hands with hundreds

13:38

of people who gathered to get a glimpse

13:41

of America's founding son. In

13:43

Cincinnati, he was greeted by a banner

13:46

which read John Quincy Adams,

13:48

Defender of the Rights of Man. In

13:51

Pittsburgh, the last stop on Adams's

13:54

Western tour, factories closed

13:56

for the day, newspapers announced

13:58

his arrival. John Quincy Adams

14:01

was an American celebrity.

14:05

Still ahead, Adams and his old rival

14:08

Andrew Jackson go at it again,

14:11

a feud that was bitter to the very

14:13

end. Literally that's

14:16

coming up after the break.

14:36

John Quincy Adams was riding

14:38

high then the midterm

14:40

elections of eighteen forty two happened.

14:43

His party took one of the largest electoral

14:46

drubbings in American history, losing

14:48

their forty two seat Whig majority. In

14:51

its place, Democrats now held

14:53

a massive majority. Adams,

14:57

Gettings and their abolitionist

14:59

allies all but lost hope of

15:01

overturning the Gag rule. But

15:03

a year later, old Man eloquent

15:06

made his final stand. Adams

15:11

swiftly proposed the elimination of

15:13

the gag rule. This time, James

15:15

Dellitt, a congressman from Alabama,

15:18

led the attack against Adams. Dell

15:21

It used Adams's own words as ammo.

15:24

He pulled a quote from a speech Adams

15:26

gave on his Western tour to a

15:28

group of free black men and women, a

15:31

promise that their day of redemption.

15:33

Was bound to come and make come

15:36

and peace, or it may come in blood. But

15:38

whether in peace or in blood,

15:41

let it come.

15:45

Repeating the quote for effect, dell

15:47

Itt told the body that this was the

15:50

true agenda of anti gag

15:52

activists, the end

15:54

of slavery through bloodshed. Adams

15:57

shouted from his seat.

15:59

I say now let

16:02

it come.

16:05

Dell It repeated himself, feeling vindicated,

16:08

Adams admits it. Adams

16:10

again shouted from his seat.

16:12

No, it cost the blood of millions

16:14

of white men. Let it come.

16:17

Let justice be done though

16:19

the heavens fall.

16:27

John Quincy's outburst rocked the

16:29

chamber and horrified the slaveholders.

16:32

And he finally said, if

16:35

we have no way of ending this monstrous

16:38

practice, save by the

16:40

greatest nightmare, any of us can

16:42

imagine the dissolution of

16:44

the Union, he said, then so be

16:47

it.

16:48

Adams had gone all in, basically

16:50

saying, we must end this gaggrule

16:53

if we are ever to rid ourselves of slavery,

16:56

and if we don't, I'm willing

16:58

to burn this whole American experiment

17:00

to the ground.

17:02

And for a man who had grown up regardless

17:05

the Union as the

17:07

most holy of holies,

17:10

to say that this

17:13

moral evil is so great

17:15

that we must be prepared to destroy the Union

17:18

in order to extirpay it, that's

17:20

extraordinary.

17:22

John Quincy's game of chicken paid

17:24

off. On December third, eighteen

17:26

forty four, the gag rule

17:29

at long last fell. Afterwards,

17:32

he wrote in his diary.

17:34

Blessed ever, blessed

17:36

be the name of God.

17:40

John Quincy achieved one of the greatest

17:42

political accomplishments in Congress.

17:45

It had taken the entire congressional session.

17:48

It was now the general election of eighteen forty

17:50

four. Henry Clay once

17:53

again tried and failed

17:55

to capture the presidency, losing

17:58

to James K. Polk in the

18:00

final days of eighteen forty five. Against

18:02

the objections of John Quincy Adams,

18:05

Polk annex Texas, essentially

18:08

kicking a hornet's nest. Mexico

18:12

never recognized the treaty President

18:15

Santa Anna signed after his routing

18:17

by General Sam Houston, so Mexico

18:20

saw Polk's annexation of Texas as

18:22

an act of aggression, starting

18:24

the Mexican American War. It

18:27

also reignited the old feud between

18:29

Adams and Andrew Jackson. This

18:32

round of the Adams versus Jackson grudge

18:34

match is a bit complicated, so

18:36

let me break it down first.

18:41

You need to understand that Andrew Jackson had

18:43

lived a rough life and he was getting

18:46

pretty old. It reminds

18:48

me of that Indiana Jones quote, it's

18:50

not the years, it's the mileage.

18:52

His memory on Texas wasn't

18:55

the best.

18:56

David S. Brown is professor of history

18:59

at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

19:02

As he got older, he seemed to think

19:04

that that Texas have been part of

19:07

the United States in eighteen nineteen

19:09

when the United States signed a treaty with

19:12

Spain that did give us Florida

19:16

but did not give us Texas. So

19:18

Jackson and a few others would refer

19:21

not to the annexation of Texas as

19:23

in we want Texas annexed. They

19:25

would refer to it as the re annexation,

19:28

kind of selectively remembering

19:30

the pasture for their benefit.

19:35

This takes us back to the Monroe administration

19:37

when John Quincy was Secretary of State

19:40

and negotiated the eighteen nineteen treaty

19:43

with Spain. Now some twenty

19:45

plus years later, Jackson said

19:47

that Texas would have been a part

19:50

of the deal if it weren't for the

19:52

underhanded dealings of President Monroe

19:55

and as Lackey Adams, who hates

19:57

slavery. You have to understand

19:59

that for Jackson, he considered the

20:01

annexation of all new Southern

20:03

states part of it domino effect

20:06

that he started. Texas

20:08

was simply the next domino to fall.

20:11

In a speech in Boston, Adams

20:13

attacked Jackson and the

20:15

annexation of Texas. He

20:17

spoke of Jackson's ingratitude.

20:21

I defended him against his enemies

20:23

and Monroe's cabinet, defended him against

20:26

the remonstrances of ministers

20:28

of Spain and Great Britain, and

20:30

here and in Europe, defended

20:32

him against the strong disappropriation,

20:35

unanimous in both houses of Congress

20:37

and throughout the nation. And

20:40

for what I could not and did not approve.

20:43

A Jackson ally later responded by

20:45

attacking Adams' entire career.

20:48

He gave away half of the American continent.

20:50

Lest Braintree should suffer or complain.

20:54

All of our present troubles in Texas,

20:56

in Oregon are bitter fruits

20:58

of mister Adams's generosity,

21:01

and attribute of which he is seldom

21:03

accused. The navigation of

21:05

the Mississippi would not be an American

21:07

possession of mister Adams could have swapped

21:09

it for Coddfish. Grocers

21:12

will make packing paper of his speeches,

21:15

lectures, letters, and interminable

21:17

diaries.

21:19

When Jackson read what his friend said

21:21

about Adams, he thought it was hilarious.

21:24

It is the severest castigation

21:26

and withering sarcasm I ever

21:28

read. I would not be surprised

21:31

to hear that he was stricken down by a

21:33

paralytic stroke.

21:35

Damn, things were getting heated,

21:38

but Jackson's wish to watch Adams die

21:40

would go unfulfilled. On

21:44

a warm June evening in eighteen forty

21:46

five, Andrew Jackson lay

21:48

on his deathbed, his heart

21:50

slowly failing. He fumbled

21:53

for his glasses, and when he put

21:55

them on, he could see the tearful faces

21:57

of family, friends and

22:00

the people he enslaved who'd

22:02

come to see him off to the next world. Before

22:06

he passed, he said to those gathered, do

22:09

not cry.

22:12

I hope to meet you all in

22:14

heaven. Yes, all

22:18

in heaven, white and black. My

22:23

conversation is for you all.

22:27

Christ has no respect for

22:29

color.

22:31

I am in God, and God

22:34

is in me. He

22:36

dwelleth in me, and

22:39

I dwell in him.

22:49

Old Hickory shut his eyes and never opened

22:51

them again. He was seventy eight

22:53

years old, older

22:56

than the country he had led as president. America

22:59

mourned the death of Andrew Jackson. Even

23:02

old enemies and Northerners set aside the

23:04

malice they once felt for him.

23:08

Adams, though, was like, if

23:10

that guy, I don't care if he's dead.

23:12

When Jackson dies, Quincy

23:15

Adams writes in his journal,

23:17

Jackson was a.

23:18

Hero, a murderer,

23:20

an adulter, and a profoundly

23:23

pious Presbyterian who, in his last

23:25

days of his life blied and slandered

23:28

me before the world.

23:30

So this was a time when even Boston

23:33

was having, you know, condolence parades

23:35

for the fallen Andrew Jackson. They didn't

23:38

love the man, but they recognized that he had played

23:40

a significant role in America's short

23:42

history. But John Quincy

23:44

Adams was true

23:47

to himself and would not

23:49

engage in the false hypocrisy of saying

23:51

that he was sorry to see Andrew Jackson leave

23:53

the scene.

23:54

He was not.

23:55

Adams had outlive Jackson, but

23:58

age was catching up with him. In

24:00

late eighteen forty six, he collapsed

24:02

while on a walk with a friend in Quincy.

24:05

His doctor told him he had a stroke. By

24:08

spring of next year, he had recovered

24:10

enough to return to his seat in Congress.

24:13

He was well aware of how little time

24:15

he had left, writing in his diary.

24:18

I date my decease and

24:21

consider myself, for every useful

24:23

purpose to myself or to my fellow

24:26

creatures, dead,

24:28

And hence I call

24:31

this and what I may write hereafter

24:33

a posthumous memoir.

24:35

Adams was now eighty years old.

24:38

That's a little more common today in politics,

24:40

but back then he was ancient. Still,

24:44

Adams couldn't be kept off the house floor.

24:47

Just months after his stroke, he was

24:49

back in Congress railing against the Mexican

24:51

American War. It was shortly

24:53

after one of these fiery speeches that

24:56

a court reporter looks.

24:57

Over and sees that

25:00

Adams is trembling. His

25:02

right arm is moving on

25:04

him, his desk and

25:07

his lips are moving, but he's

25:09

unable to speak. And

25:12

he then rises up and topples

25:15

over.

25:17

A shock rang through the house floor. Lawmakers

25:20

jumped to their feet.

25:22

People shouted, Adams is dying. Adams

25:24

is dying, and they laid

25:27

him out on a couch in the Speaker's

25:30

office.

25:31

Adams was out of it, but not yet

25:33

unconscious. He was

25:35

overheard whispering, this

25:38

is.

25:38

The last of earth, but I

25:42

am composed.

25:51

Friends and foes gathered to pay their

25:53

respects. As he lay unconscious.

25:55

Everybody is able to come see

25:58

him. Clay stands

26:00

there, holding his hand

26:02

and weeping.

26:05

Lawmakers rushed to Adam's home to tell

26:08

Louisa what happened. She

26:10

thought he had only fainted, but by

26:12

the time she arrived at the Capitol, John

26:15

Quincy was barely conscious. He

26:18

did not recognize his partner of fifty

26:20

years.

26:24

Overcome with grief, Louisa

26:27

was allowed a few private hours with her husband,

26:30

but as his breathing became more shallow, doctors

26:33

and members of Congress shuffled her away.

26:36

And she is furious.

26:39

Luisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker

26:41

and author of Louisa, The

26:43

Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.

26:46

She is absolutely furious.

26:49

All she wanted to be was to be the one to

26:51

pose's eyes.

26:52

Why wasn't she permitted?

26:54

Oh she's a woman, you know,

26:56

I was too tender or something too

26:58

delicate.

27:00

I was forced to leave him

27:02

without even the privilege of indulging the fee

27:05

which all holds sacred at such

27:07

moments.

27:10

And she was denied that private consolation,

27:14

and that was very painful to her.

27:20

A knife twisted in her broken heart.

27:23

Strangers stood between her and

27:25

her husband. On February

27:27

twenty third, at seven to fifteen pm,

27:30

John Quincy Adams died.

27:33

He died of public death, and

27:35

in some ways that was right, you know, that's

27:38

a kind of legend.

27:40

He literally died with his boots on. If

27:42

you will, Sean Wood Lentz, I mean

27:44

he died, you know, fighting what

27:46

he thought of as an unjust war, a

27:48

wicked war, and doing his best

27:50

to rail against it in public

27:53

service.

27:54

To the very end, John

27:56

Quincy Adams would make the trip from Washington,

27:59

d c. To his home in Quincy,

28:01

Massachusetts, one last time. A

28:04

young cong ersman from Illinois named

28:06

Abraham Lincoln had watched

28:08

Adam's collapse on the House floor and

28:11

was now a member of Adams's funeral committee.

28:14

This was the beginning of Adams's

28:16

last term and the beginning of Lincoln's

28:18

one and only term in Congress. So

28:20

I don't believe they met, But

28:22

in so many ways Adams

28:25

stretches his hand forward

28:27

to Lincoln, and in so many ways makes

28:29

Lincoln possible.

28:31

It's been said that John Quincy Adams

28:33

embodied the national history that

28:35

Lincoln had read by candlelight as a boy.

28:38

John Quincy Adams, with all of his actions

28:40

in the late eighteen thirties and early eighteen forties,

28:42

helped bring the slavery issue into the center of

28:44

politics, from which it could not be removed.

28:47

Lincoln made sure that it would stay there

28:50

So in that sense, Lincoln is

28:52

very much Adams's successor.

28:54

People gathered along the tracks for hundreds

28:56

of miles to see the train pass.

28:59

He is a great hero. He has a chief popular

29:01

heroism, if you will, at the end of

29:03

his life that he can never expected to

29:05

have enjoyed earlier on.

29:08

John Quincy Adams was buried in Quincy,

29:10

Massachusetts, beside his mother

29:12

Abigail and his father John. Four

29:15

years later, his wife Louisa

29:18

would join him.

29:25

John Quincy Adams continued the legacy

29:27

of his family name. He protected

29:29

and preserved the American democracy of the

29:32

founding generation. Indeed,

29:34

John Quincy fought a different revolution

29:37

than his father, because as

29:39

hard as it is to create a democracy, it

29:42

takes the long suffering skill

29:44

of perseverance to uphold

29:46

it. And now he

29:48

had passed it to the next generation.

29:52

I am blown away by

29:55

the scope of his life, from the time that he was eight

29:57

years old seen the Battle

29:59

of Bunker Hill, to when

30:01

he died he could see the coming Civil War,

30:05

was trying desperately to stop it. He

30:09

really lived the first epic

30:13

of American history. And I think that

30:15

that is a much more interesting

30:18

and powerful story than could be crafted

30:20

in fiction.

30:26

John Quincy Adams may not have

30:28

been an extraordinary president

30:31

like Washington and Lincoln, but

30:33

he is our most extraordinary

30:35

ex president. He

30:37

is the bridge between the founding period

30:40

and the Civil War, the

30:42

man standing in the breach, a

30:45

maverick, a public servant,

30:48

an American hero, America's

30:51

founding son. Founding

31:13

Son is a curiosity podcast brought to

31:15

you by iHeart Podcasts and School

31:17

of Humans. For help

31:19

with this series, we want to thank James Traub,

31:22

author of John Quincy adams Militant

31:24

Spirit, Mary Elliott, creator

31:26

of American Slavery at the Smithsonians

31:29

National Museum of African American

31:31

History and Culture. Shaan Willentz,

31:34

author of the Rise of American Democracy,

31:37

Jefferson to Lincoln. Louisa

31:39

Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker and

31:42

author of Louisa, The Extraordinary

31:44

Life of Missus Adams. David

31:47

S. Brown, author of The

31:49

First Populist, The Defiant Life

31:52

of Andrew Jackson. Richard

31:54

Newman, professor of history at

31:56

Rochester Institute of Technology,

31:59

Lindsay Shravinsky, author of

32:01

The Cabinet, George Washington and

32:03

the Creation of an American Institution.

32:06

And Matthew Carp Professor of History

32:09

at Princeton University and author

32:11

of this Vast Southern Empire

32:13

Slaveholders at the Helm of American Farm

32:16

Policy. Our lead producer,

32:18

story editor, and sound designer is

32:20

James Morrison. Our senior

32:22

producer is Jessica Metzker. Our

32:25

production manager is Daisy Church.

32:28

Fact checking by Adam Bisno.

32:30

This episode was mixed and mastered

32:32

by George Hicks. Executive

32:35

producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon

32:37

Barr, el C. Crowley, and

32:40

Jason English. Original

32:42

music by me Bob Crawford. Additional

32:45

scoring by Blue Dot Sessions. John

32:48

Quincy Adams is voiced by Patrick Warburton,

32:51

Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick

32:53

Offerman. Luisa Adams

32:56

is voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional

32:58

voices in this episode provided by

33:01

Scott Avid, Michael Smerconish,

33:04

and James Moore. Show

33:06

art designed by Darren Shock. Special

33:09

thanks to John Higgins, Julia

33:11

Chriscau, the Massachusetts

33:13

Historical Society, and the National

33:16

Park Service. If you enjoyed

33:18

this podcast, please give it a five

33:20

star rating in your podcast app. You

33:23

can also check out other Curiosity podcasts

33:25

to learn about history, pop

33:27

culture, true crime, and more. This

33:31

podcast was recorded under a SAG

33:33

after a collective bargaining agreement. I'm

33:36

your host, Bob Crawford. Thanks

33:38

for listening. This was the last

33:41

episode of the series and

33:43

I am composed

33:59

School of Humans