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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
[Library of Congress]
1767-1848
6th President (1825 - 1829)
Education: Harvard
Occupation: lawyer
Political Affiliation: Democratic-Republican
Religious Affiliation: Unitarian
Summary of Religious Views:
Views on Religion & Politics:
Quotations:
"At this day, religious indulgence is one of our clearest duties, because it is one of our undisputed rights. While we rejoice that the principles of genuine Christianity have so far triumphed over the prejudices of a former generation, let us fervently hope for the day when it will prove equally victorious over the malignant passions of our own." -- Oration at Plymouth, 22 December 1802
"Our political creed is, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, that the will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth; . . . that the freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be inviolate; . . ." -- Inaugural Address, 4 March 1825
"There is yet another subject upon which, without entering into any treaty, the moral influence of the United States may perhaps be exerted with beneficial consequences at such a meeting--the advancement of religious liberty. Some of the southern nations are even yet so far under the dominion of prejudice that they have incorporated with their political constitutions an exclusive church, without toleration of any other than the dominant sect. The abandonment of this last badge of religious bigotry and oppression may be pressed more effectually by the united exertions of those who concur in the principles of freedom of conscience upon those who are yet to be convinced of their justice and wisdom than by the solitary efforts of a minister to any one of the separate Governments." -- Special Message, 26 December 1825
"The neglect of public worship in this city is an increasing evil, and the indifference to all religion throughout the whole country portends no good. There is in the clergy of all the Christian denominations a time-serving, cringing, subservient morality, as wide from the spirit of the Gospel as it is from the intrepid assertion and vindication of truth. The counterfeit character of of a very large portion of the Christian ministry of this country is disclosed in the dissensions growing up in all the Protestant churches on the subject of slavery. The abolitionists assume as the first principle of all their movements that slavery is sin. Their opponents, halting between the alternative of denying directly this position and of admtting the duty binding upon them to bear their own testimony against it, are prevaricating with their own consciences, and taxing their learning and ingenuity to prove that the Bible sanctions slavery; that Abraham, Isaac, and Paul were slave-holders; and that St. Paul is the apostle of man-stealers, because he sent Onesimus back to his master Philemon. These preachers of the Gospel might just as well call our extermination of the Indians an obedience to Divine commands because Jehova commanded the children of Israel to exterminate the Canaanitish nations." -- Diary, 27 May1838
Misquotations:
"The highest glory of the American Revolution is this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." -- These words appear to be a summary by John Wingate Thornton of what he believed Adams' views to be. (See: Did John Quincy Adams ever say that the American Revolution "connected in one indissoluable bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity?", by Jim Allison)
References, Links, & Further Reading: Books, Articles, Links
Books
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Articles
Works by John Quincy Adams
"2 Poems," Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. 7, Iss. 10, October 1841, p. 705
"Society and Civilization," American Whig Review, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, July 1845, pp. 80-90
Biographies
Sean Mattie, "John Quincy Adams and American Conservatism," Modern Age, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2003, pp. 305-314
Marlana Portolano, "John Quincy Adams's Rhetorical Crusade for Astronomy," Isis, Vol. 91, No. 3, 2000, pp. 480-503
Lyon Rathbun, "The Ciceronian Rhetoric of John Quincy Adams," Rhetorica, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2000, pp. 175-215
Links
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