Literature and history. I keep a low profile, hidden away in maine as i read and write. I dont have the opportunity to be engaged in current political and military things. But i have written biographies about Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens and henry james and mark twain. Somehow i got directed more towards some history and the interconnection between literature and politics in recent years. The figure that brought me there was our wonderful 16th president , Abraham Lincoln. My most recent book prior to John Quincy Adams american visionary was lincoln, the biography of a writer. It appeared to me that lincoln was not only an extra ordinary politician and a deeply humane and beautiful man, he also was a great writer in his own way and contributed very importantly to american literature. That book focused on the development of literary genius. Lincoln brought me to John Quincy Adams because on various levels, items kept coming to my adams kept coming to my mind in terms of lincoln as a political philosopher, lincoln as a man reacting to contemporary issues, and lincoln as a writer. Suddenly it occurred to me, what am i going to do next . Should i do a biography of John Quincy Adams . Only a madman will do this. It took me six years, but it also provided me with the pleasure of being here tonight with this distinguished moderator. Thank you, fred. Talking about quincy adams and lincoln, one of the Amazing Things about John Quincy Adams is he knew George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This biography gives us a full orchard of the public and private John Quincy Adams. I want to read something that John Quincy Adams wrote. He said, we are sent into this world for some end. It is our duty to discover what this end is and when we once discover it, to pursue it with unconquerable perseverance. You would think that John Quincy Adams said that at the end of his life. He wrote that when he was 11 years old. What kind of a child are we talking about here . When i was 11 years old i was writing other kinds of sayings. I deeply identify with that expression of dedication of John Quincy Adams. I gradually over a lifetime became just obsessed with accomplishing something. I really have the sense that at 11 years of age, John Quincy Adams is the heir to a certain kind of modern new england puritanism with a mission that was inseparable from society, family, place he lived, community, etc. I have this strong sense that he was someone i could identify with. He came from a political and literary background. I come from a very different world, jewish world, secondgeneration immigrants. These were people of the book. Adams is very much from the start, as was his entire family, his father john adams and his mother abigail they were also people of the book. Writing was an obsession in the adams family. They were just they could just as much and well write as breathe. There were many ups and downs in his career. But he inherited from his parents a sense of his potential. He embraced it. He went through many difficulties, both professional and personal, or and in the end, when the presence of Abraham Lincoln, the one Term Congress the one Term Congressman from illinois on february 18 48, he collapsed on the floor of the house of representatives and died at the age of 80. He was a man who this is the last of earth. I am content. One of the great advantages of this new england england family was the richness of sources. His diary, which he kept from around the age of 13 to the very end of his life. One of the stunning moments here is towards the ends of his life, he writes an entry that he labels, posthumously more. Memoir. As a literary scholar, you make a lot of that diary not just as a record, but the importance of it for adams trying to come to terms with his own identity in some ways. What is it about that diary and what is the larger argument here about the role that diary keeping cap keeping meant for adams life . He kept that diary most days of his life, with certain interruptions, but they were not lengthy. As he came into his adulthood and his maturity, the diary which he defined as a record of his times and as a statement that i too am here, and as an intimate companion for his feelings, his thoughts, his ideas, his intellectual musings, his religious concerns, the ups and downs of his daily life and so on, all that was for John Quincy Adams probably the most continuous daily immersed months of his life, his selfexpression, and selfexploration. He was a very good writer. Not a great writer. A very good writer. As an immensely educated man, i would argue that he was the most educated of all our president s, even more so than Thomas Jefferson. Lets say for those of us who are jeffersonians, he was a close second. It became a living, organic, ongoing expression of everything that was important to him. It was also what he called when he advocated to his sons that they also keep diaries. It was also a way of holding himself up to an ethical guideline of standard so that he could say i have behaved well today or i have not behaved well. Im feeling good about what i did. Im not feeling good, and why. It is an extraordinary document, among other reasons for historians especially, is because here is a man who is actively engaged in the diplomatic and Political Activities of almost a 60 to 70 year period. In early adulthood, George Washington appoints him minister, same as ambassador, to the netherlands. Then he gets appointed to other ministerial posts, but he starts with George Washington writing to his father, john adams, do not think that i am appointing your son to this office because of some favoritism. No, on the contrary, i have the strong belief that he will turn out historically to be an ornament to american diplomacy. At the end of john quincys life, with Abraham Lincoln there and being appointed an honorary pallbearer for his funeral. One could probably argue that he invents american diplomacy, that he is the greatest american diplomat of all time. Just to read some of his appointments with which people may not be familiar, he was minister to berlin, and mr. To prussia, the first United States minister to russia, and of course, secretary of state. Some people would argue that the munro doctrine should probably be called the adams doctrine. If we were to assess his importance in American History just for his to romantic Service Diplomatic service, what judgment would you render about what ways he contributed to ideas of american diplomacy . My judgment is the greatest american secretary of state, but im partial. In the early years of the republic, he represented the United States in europe and then from 1817 to march 1825. Some of the major negotiations and advances of american president s as this fledgling nation went from its negligible position in World Affairs to become, by the 1830s, a major power. Not the power it was to be after the civil war, but a major power. One of the great accomplishments as secretary of state, the greatest accomplishment is the adams onus treaty, which brought us florida and which extended the western boundary of the United States, which was hazy and undefined after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Nobody knew where the purchase ended. Different powers have different positions. John quincy adams and the adams onus treaty, 1819 to 1821, obtained more territory for the United States than anyone other than Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase here it a diplomatic achievement of John Quincy Adams was most proud of and said was his crowning achievement was the ghent peace treaty of december 1814, which ended the unnecessary and almost fruitless war of 1812, even though we in the United States did not learn about the war being over until january 1815, after the battle of new orleans, fought after the peace treaty had been signed, had been fought. The british said, the war is over. Even the fastest ship we have cannot get to new orleans in time to stop our British Forces from badly beating these americans. The battle was fought. If that battle had not been fought, who would have heard of venture jackson . Andrew jackson . For all of his Great Success as a diplomat, the general assessment is his presidency was hampered from the start. Here is a biography of one of our president s, and i think you can go about 40 pages through his presidency. What is it about his presidency, what hampers it, and do you have any kind of an assessment over whether some accomplishments during his presidency [indiscernible] to the first part of your question, the presidency was hampered by the fact that he was the second president to be elected by the house of representatives. Each state gets only one vote, not five. The first president to be elected by the house of representatives was Thomas Jefferson. However, there were special circumstances there. He was clearly the victim of ehrenberg. And John Quincy Adams case, in 1825, having obtained the majority of votes in the house of representatives, Andrew Jackson had obtained more popular votes and more Electoral College votes. In that circumstance, the jackson people were furious. They were particularly furious at henry clay as well as at adams, because henry clay had turned over his house of representatives affiliates, if you will, three states that would do whatever henry clay wanted. Henry clay hated jackson. Like adams, like jefferson was on the record on this, all three of those men thought Andrew Jackson was totally unqualified to be president of the United States by temperament and by experience. So, [indiscernible] thereafter the jackson forces decided they would do Everything Possible to make sure the John Quincy Adams accomplished nothing as president. That can happen. [laughter] however, there were some accomplishments. But there are a lot of interesting things that happened too. One of those things is John Quincy Adams as president , appointing a delegation to a south americancentral american conference to be held in panama, at which the black republic of haiti was to be represented. This produced an extraordinary series of conflicts between the slave forces of the south and the house of representatives in the senate, and all those in another camp, if you will. John quincy adams was looking forward to this panamerican unity. Because of haiti being a black republic, that conference was undermined if not destroyed. My emphasis is is John Quincy Adams presidency is not what on he accomplished, but what he expressed in his inaugural address and annual messages to congress, and in terms of the way in which he was able to articulate a view of americas huger that from my point of view and i think for many of us today was the right direction for america and the direction in which we eventually came. The subtitle of your biography is american visionary. What is that vision . The elements of that vision are an america which is a country unified by a federal government which has solidarity and power to bring out the best in all the states in the country under federal leadership that will bind the nation together in which there will be a progressive balance between the powers of the state and the powers of the federal government, pointing towards a nation that is unified by public projects, by infrastructure, by roads and highways, by canals that are dredged, in h in a nation unified by a common currency, but especially by a Banking Structure that would be national and modern, that would divide credit for businesses, that would allow a way in which the country could finance its self that would be constructive and move towards the future. In addition, he put tremendous emphasis on technology and science. He wanted federal funds to be used for that. He put tremendous emphasis on technology. He himself was an amateur astronomer test, but when John Quincy Adams was an amateur or anything, he knew that subject inside and out. Two years before he died, he actually traveled to cincinnati, ohio when he was ill to provide the inaugural address at the opening of the cincinnati astronomical observatory. This is a man with a vision for the future. He was also a man who said, looking back at jefferson and jackson and particularly at southern restrictionists, that the constitution of the United States is a living, growing, organic documents. We must remain true to it when it is explicit about what it tells us, but there is broad room for interpretation to make it suitable for the modern world. It is a classic vision of American Society and growth that will morph into the republican vision that lincoln and others will pick up. Here is a man, greatest diplomat of his age, was also a senator, president of the United States. He is 64 years old. Time to pack it in for most people. Instead what we get is perhaps the greatest last act in public life. Why does he agree to go to congress in the first place . Then we will talk about what he accomplishes in congress. Diplomat president and then congressman, notorious congressman, the bestknown congressman in the country. Why does he do it . His whole family is against it very his sons are against it. His wife, the wonderful and talented Louisa Catherine a wonderful marriage, tortured and difficult, happy and wonderful, long, but the entire family against this. Accepting the invitation by his local constituency in the massachusetts state restrict district [indiscernible] that he would become their candidate on what was emerging as the whig ticket. We will leave that out of it and just say we would like you to represent us. John quincy adams lived all his life by the maxim that i will never ask to be nominated for anything. I will never ask for anybodys vote. I am not a soundbite man. I will serve if asked. I will never say no if asked, and i think i can do the job. He said yes, so he represented the massachusetts district from 1831, 80 through 1842 until his death in 1848. Gradually he became the most notorious, the most caustic, the most volatile, the most eloquent exponent. The focus was on the gag rule. The country was ruled by the slave of percy slaveocracy, as it began to be called. They got more electoral votes and so forth. They dominated the house and senate. The institute is something called the gag rule. You can talk about anything you want. Everyone has a right to present a petition to congress. Except on one subject, slavery. Amoco this is a moment where antislavery agitation in particular in the north is rising and peeking from 1831 on. Hes in his position at the perfect moment, and he becomes radicalized. They have always worried privately that slavery will be the rock on which the union will founder. There was worry. They are not publicly outspoken about it. And then there are other issues. In 1819, 18 20, 1821, in the missouri compromise, will they be slave states, will they be free states John Quincy Adams becomes more occupied, preoccupied, but still mostly privately with the slavery question, and begins to really express himself strongly about it in his diary and privately to people. It is not until he gets into congress that he becomes publicly vocal about it. Initially being very concerned that he will never get reelected to congress if he makes such a stink about all of this. They felipe south alone if we possibly can. He begins to get into big fights in congress. He has other support. The abolitionist forces in the country become very powerful and dominant. Frederick douglass and so many others become major voices. There is John Quincy Adams, really aging and wizened and tired. He could always get up the energy. Old man, sinking in his seat in the house. When they call on him, he jumps. When they dont call on him, he jumps up and says are you trying to gag me . It wasnt until 1844 that finally as certain kinds of Political Forces changed in the country and some of the battles between north and south changed the John Quincy Adams and his colleagues were successful, triumphant, and the gag rule which had become a continuing rule was finally withdrawn forever. It had been on a continuing resolution, so they did not have o vote on it. You tell wonderful stories of adams. The idea that the right to petition should be denied, and the things that he did if im not mistaken, they try to censor him spurs him for speaking out of turn. He held the floor for five consecutive days. They gave him the platform they hoped to prevent them from having in the first place. He was a magnificent tactician. He was a magnificent tactician. He was very clever. He