Heritage
As our nation’s Founders designed their plan for a more perfect union, they understood that the success of a modern republic would require more than a political document like the Constitution. From their study of history, the Founders had learned of the pitfalls of republics before this one. They concluded that even the Constitution alone could not curb individual selfishness. They believed that virtues were necessary for sustaining the American experiment. Their fervent prayers were an integral part of the birth of our nation.
Our Nation’s Godly Heritage
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
When I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I wanted to keep nothing of Egypt on me, and so I went to the Lord and asked him to give me a new name …
Sojourner Truth is the self-given (or God-given) name of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, born into slavery in New York, but who escaped with her infant daughter to freedom. After later going to court to recover her son, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
She had suffered many hardships at the hands of her slave owners, whom she later described as cruel and harsh and who once beat her with a bundle of rods. After her escape, she found her way to the home of Isaac and Martha Van Wagener, who took her in. She lived there until the New York State Emancipation Act. It was during her stay with the Van Wageners that she became a devout Christian.
I set up my banner, and then I sing, and then folks always comes up ‘round me, and then…I tells them about Jesus.
Presidential Quote of the Week
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), 5th President of the United States
“May I never cease to be grateful for the numberless blessings received through life at His hands, never repine at what He has denied, never murmur at the dispensations of Providence, and implore His forgiveness for all the errors and delinquencies of my life! … I shall look for whatever success may attend my public service, and knowing that “except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain,” with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence, I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country.”
- From his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1825
John Quincy Adams was born to John and Abigail Adams in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1767. Much of his youth was spent accompanying his father overseas, when John Adams was serving as America’s envoy to France and the Netherlands. He acquired an education at institutions such as Leiden University. He spent time in St. Petersburg, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. During his travels he mastered French, Dutch and German.
He later graduated from Harvard University and apprenticed with a lawyer in Newburyport, Massachusetts, ultimately being accepted to the bar, after which he entered the private practice of law in Boston.
President George Washington named Adams as minister to the Netherlands and then to Portugal. When the elder Adams became president, he appointed his son as minister to Prussia. On his return to the U.S., he was appointed a commissioner of bankruptcy in Boston, tried his hand as a lawyer, and ultimately entered the U.S. Senate representing Massachusetts. While a senator, Adams also served as a professor of rhetoric at Harvard University.
President James Madison appointed Adams as the first ever U.S. Minister to Russia in 1809, but when Napoleon invaded Russia, Adams was recalled to the U.S., and then sent to be minister to the Court of St. James (Great Britain).
When James Monroe became president, Adams served as Secretary of State, as was instrumental in the writing of the Monroe Doctrine. In 1824, he ran for and ultimately secured the office of President, although Andrew Jackson had won a plurality of both popular and electoral votes, throwing the matter to the U. S. House of Representatives under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment, who voted Adams to victory.
He served as the sixth President of the United States from March 1825 to March 1829. He lost a bid for reelection to Andrew Jackson. He did not retire after leaving office, but instead ran for and was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving for 17 years until his death. Although there is no indication that the two were close, Adams met Abraham Lincoln during the latter’s sole term as a member of the House. It has been suggested that Adams was the only major figure in American history who knew both the Founding Fathers and Lincoln.
He died after collapsing on the floor of the House from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. He is buried in the Hancock Cemetery across from the First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.
John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the first father and son to each serve as president (the others being George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush).
Adams was married to Louisa Catherine Johnson, the only first lady not to have been born in America. They had three sons and a daughter. The Adams were Unitarians.
