The Jubilee of the Constitution; A Discourse Delivered at the Request of the New York Historical Society, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30t

by John Quincy Adams

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 edition. Excerpt: ... THE CELEBRATION. The semi-centennial anniversary of the first inauguration of George Washington, as President of the United States, and the organization of the general government under the Federal Constitution, was celebrated in the city of New York, on Tuesday, April 30th, 1839, by a public Oration and Dinner, under the direction of a committee of the New York Historical Society. The Honorable John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was selected as the Orator on this interesting occasion; and letters of invitation were addressed to distinguished survivors of the Revolutionary period, to the Historical Societies of other states, and to various public functionaries, requesting their attendance. Mh. Adams, having accepted the appointment, arrived in town from Washington on Monday, April 29th, and in the evening met a large number of the members of the Society at their rooms in the Stuyvesant Institute. From thence the company repaired by invitation to the house of Mr. Stuyvesant, the President of the Society, where a sumptuous entertainment was provided for the occasion. On Tuesday, at eleven o'clock, A. M., the Society with their guests assembled at the City Hotel, where a large number of citizens joined them in paying their personal respects to the venerable Orator of the day, and to the Revolutionary veterans, who, disregarding the infirmities of age, had once more rallied in honour of their beloved Chief. Among the guests were Colonel John Trumbull, General Morgan Lewis, Mr. Justice Thompson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, His Excellency William Pennington, Governor of New Jersey, Hon. Samuel L. Southard, of the United States Senate, Major-General Winfield Scott, and Suite, of the U. S. Army, Commodore...

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Quincy^^Adams

John Quincy Adams as secretary of state from 1817 to 1825 helped to formulate the Monroe Doctrine of James Monroe; he served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829 and after his presidency from 1831 to 1848 in the House of Representatives advocated anti-slavery measures.

This diplomat and politician affiliated with Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Abigail Smith Adams bore John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, later the second president of United States. Many international negotiations most famously involved him as a diplomat.

He proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement but lacked ability to get it through Congress. Late in life as a congressman, he led opponents of the slave power and argued that if a civil war ever broke, then war powers of the president ably abolished slavery; Abraham Lincoln followed this policy in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

To date, only this president of the United States subsequently served as a congressman.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. Adams is adept at articulating his doctrine, with glowing words propounding the virtues and moral nobility of the founders, but...he can't quite mask his humanistic presuppositions. Oh, they've been scrubbed and scoured to make them all shiny and attractive, but at the end of the day, it's still human exaltation. Not quite as far as Locke and Jefferson and other contemporaries, but a deceptive bridge to lead the masses from Biblical morality to humanistic ethical foundations (very shifty, those foundations).

Worthwhile Excerpts:
"A wiser and more useful philosophy, however, directs us to consider man according to the nature in which he was formed; subject to infirmities, which no wisdom can remedy; to weaknesses, which no institution can strengthen; to vices, which no legislation can correct. Hence it becomes obvious that separate property is the natural and indisputable right of separate exertion; that community of goods without community of toil is oppressive and unjust; that it counteracts the laws of nature, which prescribe that only he who sows the seed shall reap the harvest; that it discourages all energy, by destroying its rewards; and makes the most virtuous and active members of society the slaves and drudges of the worst."

"To found principles of government upon too advantageous an estimate of the human character is an error of inexperience, the source of which is so amiable that it is impossible to censure it with severity."