Recently I enjoyed biographies of two men I have admired all my life: C. S. Lewis and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Both very good. But Harlow Unger's biography of someone I didn't know well, John Quincy Adams, has given me a new hero.
Indeed, I am now convinced Adams was one of the greatest Americans who has lived to date. He certainly renders all our politicians puny, narrow, and small-minded by comparison. Indeed, I might even be prepared to
call him a prophet of God.
Even though his presidency was an abject failure.
His list of achievements is long indeed, from making peace with Britain, to gaining the alliance of Russia, to winning territories in Florida and the Northwest, to standing for Freedom of Speech, founding the Smithsonian Institute, freeing the Amistad passengers, and leading the fight against slavery in Congress, among other things. He was also probably America's greatest spy / intelligence gatherer.
Some of his habits are also interesting:
- Abigail Adams made her son promise to recite the Lord's Prayer every morning -- and he did, throughout his life.
- Adams read Shakespeare at ten, but had more trouble with Milton. He sat and smoked and read Milton, trying to acquire two of his father's pleasures at once, and learned to smoke after getting sick four or five times, but didn't enjoy Milton until age 30.
- He spoke or read French, German, Russian, Latin, and Greek, at least.
- Adams could have taught history, but taught law at Harvard. However, he refused appointment to the Supreme Court at one point, in part because he didn't feel he had mastered the law. (He was still young then.)
- He loved to swim, not bothering with suits, in the Potomac. In his later years, his boat sank one time, so he had to cross the river in all his clothes.
- At some point, perhaps after losing his re-election bid, Adams contemplated taking up farming. In the end, he confessed that he was addicted to politics.
I can't see into the hearts or souls of any modern politicians, or even confirm that they have such instruments. But America needs statesmen like John Q: men or women with a passion for justice, who yet love their country over any political party, who can really speak for the entire nation, even if they scorch portions of it with the eloquence of their divinely-inspired call for righteousness.