John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 2 1821-1848 (LOA #294)
- ISBN-10
- 1598535242
- ISBN-13
- 9781598535242
- Series
- John Quincy Adams
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 775
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-06-20
- Publisher
- Library of America
- Author
- John Quincy Adams
Description
For the 250th anniversary of John Quincy Adams's birth, a landmark new selected edition of an American masterpiece: the incomparable self-portrait of a man and his times from the Revolution to the coming of the Civil War. The diary of John Quincy Adams is one of the most extraordinary works in American literature. Begun in 1779 at the age of twelve and kept more or less faithfully until his death almost 70 years later, and totaling some fifteen thousand closely-written manuscript pages, it is both an unrivaled record of historical events and personalities from the nation's founding to the antebellum era and a masterpiece of American self-portraiture, tracing the spiritual, literary, and scientific interests of an exceptionally lively mind. Now, for the 250th anniversary of Adams's birth, Library of America and historian David Waldstreicher present a two-volume reader's edition of diary selections based for the first time on the original manuscripts, restoring personal and revealing passages suppressed in earlier editions. Volume 2 opens with Adams serving as Secretary of State, amid political maneuverings within and outside James Monroe's cabinet to become his successor, a process that culminates in Adams's election to the presidency by the House of Representatives after the deadlocked four-way contest of 1824. Even as Adams takes the oath of office, rivals Henry Clay, his Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, his vice president, and an embittered Andrew Jackson, eye the election of 1828. The diary records in candid detail his frustration as his far-sighted agenda for national improvement founders on the rocks of internecine political factionalism, conflict that results in his becoming only the second president, with his father, to fail to secure reelection. After a short-lived retirement, Adams returns to public service as a Congressman from Massachusetts, and for the last seventeen years of his life he leads efforts to resist the extension of slavery and to end the notorious "gag rule" that stifles debate on the issue in Congress. In 1841 he further burnishes his reputation as a scourge of the Slave Power by successfully defending African mutineers of the slave ship Amistad before the Supreme Court. The diary achieves perhaps its greatest force in its prescient anticipation of the Civil War and Emancipation, an "object," as Adams described it during the Missouri Crisis, "vast in its compass, awful in its prospects, sublime and beautiful in its issue."
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2017-06-20
- 741 pages
- Ebook
- Library of America
Similar books
-
John Quincy Adams
By Lynn Hudson ParsonsIn this concise biography, Lynn Hudson Parsons masterfully chronicles the life of one of America's most absorbing figures.
-
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life
By Paul C. NagelFebruary 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber.
-
John Quincy Adams
By Harlow Giles UngerA magisterial biography and a sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, Unger's John Quincy Adams follows one of America's most important yet least-known figures.
-
John Quincy Adams: The American Presidents Series: The 6th President, 1825-1829
By Robert V. Remini“about the monstrous union between Clay & Adams." Martin Van Buren was thunderstruck. If you do this, he told a Kentucky representative, “you sign Mr. Clay's political death warrant. He will never become President be your motives as ...
-
Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress
By Joseph WheelanHis funeral evoked the greatest public outpouring since Benjamin Franklin's death. Mr. Adams's Last Crusade will enlighten and delight anyone interested in American history.
-
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary
By Fred Kaplan“There is much to praise in this extensively researched book, which is certainly one of the finest biographies of a sadly underrated man. . . . [Kaplan is] a master historian and biographer.
-
The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams
By Phyllis Lee LevinThomas Jefferson to George Washington, May 8, 1791, Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 9, 1791, Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., Jul. 3, 1791, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton University, ed.
-
John Quincy Adams
By Heidi M.D. ElstonEach president's term influences events in America and around the world for years to come. This biography introduces young readers to the life of John Quincy Adams, beginning with his childhood in Quincy, Massachusetts.
-
John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit
By James TraubJohn Quincy Adams would not question the stars; he always accepted, perhaps all too readily, the tyranny of “must.” In mid-May he boarded a carriage for the Breton seaport of L'Orient, “with such feelings as no one that has not been ...
-
John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union
By Jr., James E. LewisOf particular importance are the works of Peter S. Onuf, including: The Origins of the Federal Republic: ... The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980); and John R. Nelson Jr., ...