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Aug. 7, 2019

2.26 – Adams Q&A

2.26 – Adams Q&A

Year(s) Discussed: 1735-1848

I asked for your questions to wrap up our series on the second POTUS, and you sent in some great ones! In this episode, we discuss everything from Adams’s tenure as US Minister to the Netherlands to his relationship with his family members to his and JQA’s legacies to what kind of food he liked. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions! For those listening through a podcatcher, my apologies for the audio quality – I recorded it as a video and had to add in alternate audio later as I referenced what would be shown on the screen.

If you’d like to watch the video instead, it’s available at https://vimeo.com/presidencies/2-26-adams-qa.

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Sources referenced for this episode:

  • Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 17 February 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-18-02-0083. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 18, December 1785–January 1787, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Sara Martin, C. James Taylor, Sara Georgini, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Amanda M. Norton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 165–167.] [Last Accessed: 6 Aug 2019]
  • Cappon, Lester J, ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1987 [1959].
  • Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 [1992].
  • Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007 [2005].
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2018-2019. http://presidencies.blubrry.com.
  • McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
  • Nagel, Paul C. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1997.

Images used for this episode:

  • “The Ajax, a Man of War, sailing into Portsmouth Harbour, with a View of South Sea Castle” by Carington Bowles [1783] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Ajax,_a_Man_of_War,_sailing_into_Portsmouth_Harbour,_with_a_View_of_South_Sea_Castle_NMM_PU7566_(cropped).jpg
  • “Interior of the Great Hall on the Binnenhof in The Hague, during the Great Assembly of the States-General in 1651,” attributed to Bartholomeus van Bassen and Anthonie Palamedes [c. 1651-1652] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Assembly_of_the_States-General_in_1651_01.jpg
  • “American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Agreement with Great Britain (unfinished oil sketch)” by Benjamin West [c. 1783-1784] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treaty_of_Paris_by_Benjamin_West_1783.jpg
  • “Dam square, Amsterdam” by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde [c. late 17th century] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmsterdamDamsquar.jpg
  • “George Washington” by Gilbert Stuart [c. 1795-1796] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Washington_by_Gilbert_Stuart,_1795-96.png
  • “Barbaria” by Jan Janssonius [c. 1650] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atlas_Van_der_Hagen-KW1049B13_057-BARBARIA.jpeg
  • “Official Presidential Portrait of Thomas Jefferson” by Rembrandt Peale [c. 1800] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Official_Presidential_portrait_of_Thomas_Jefferson_(by_Rembrandt_Peale,_1800).jpg
  • “John Adams” by Gilbert Stuart [c. 1800-1815] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Adams,_Gilbert_Stuart,_c1800_1815.jpg
  • “Official Presidential Portrait of John Adams” by John Trumbull [c. 1792-1793] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Official_Presidential_portrait_of_John_Adams_(by_John_Trumbull,_circa_1792).jpg
  • “Thomas Jefferson” by John Trumbull [c. 1788] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Jefferson_by_John_Trumbull_1788.jpg
  • “John Adams” by Charles Willson Peale [c. 1791-1794] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Adams_-_by_Charles_Willson_Peale.jpg
  • “Thomas Pinckney” by John Trumbull (original); WC Armstrong (engraving) [] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Pinckney.jpg
  • “Portrait of John Adams” by Eliphalet Frazer Andrews [1881] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Adams_reverse_image_by_Andrews.jpg
  • “Portrait of John Adams” by Gilbert Stuart [c. 1815] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:jadams.jpg
  • “Oliver Wolcott Jr” by Gilbert Stuart [c. 1820] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Oliver_Wolcott_Jr_by_Gilbert_Stuart_circa_1820.jpeg
  • “Alexander Hamilton” by William J Weaver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Hamilton_By_William_J_Weaver.jpg
  • “Portrait of President John Adams” by Gilbert Stuart [c. 1821] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Adams_-_by_Gilbert_Stuart_-_c_1821_-_Natl_Portrait_Gallery_Washington_DC.jpg
  • “Portrait of George Washington Adams, son of John Quincy Adams” by Charles Bird King [c. 1820] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Washington_Adams.jpg
  • “John Quincy Adams” by George Peter Alexander Healy [1858] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Quincy_Adams_by_GPA_Healy,_1858.jpg
  • “John Adams II, son of President John Quincy Adams” by unknown [c. 1820] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Adams_II.jpg
  • “John Quincy Adams” by Gilbert Stuart [1818] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:635px-Gilbert_Stuart_-_John_Quincy_Adams_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Featured Image: “Bust of John Adams from the Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection” by Daniel Chester French [c. 1890], courtesy of Wikipedia