num_pages: 640
description: John Quincy Adams was the last of his kinda Puritan from the age of the Founders who despised party and compromise yet dedicated himself to politics and government. The son of John Adams he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state a frustrated president at a historic turning point in American politics and a dedicated congressman for eighteen years who collapsed on the floor of the House of Representatives in the midst of an impassioned political debate. He died two days later at the age of 80. In John Quincy Adams scholar and journalist James Traub draws on Adams diary letters and writings to evoke a diplomat and president whose ideas remain with us today. Adams was a fierce nationalist who as secretary of state championed the idea of American expansion. Yet at the same time he warned against moralistic and militaristic policies abroada chastening wisdom that makes him the father of what we now call realism in foreign policy. As president he was a bold proponent of the idea of activist government later brought to fruition by Abraham Lincoln and others.Adams numerous achievementsand equally numerous failuresstand as testaments to his unwavering moral convictions. A man who refused to take refuge in the politically prudent course of action Adams was repudiated by his own Federalist party and as president by the nation that voted him out of office. And yet in the final decade of his life Adams regained the countrys regard and even reverence for as a congressman he often stood alone against the forces of slavery twice beating back motions of censure. John Quincy Adams tells the story of this brilliant flinty and unyielding man whose life exemplified political couragea life against which each of us might measure our own.
language: English
title: John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit
publisher: Basic Books