Founding Son: John Quincy's America

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Coming into Curiosity podcast. America loves its founding fathers, but
that's a tough act to follow as a founding son.
If you do not rise to the head not only
of your profession but of your country, you will be
owing to your own laziness, slovenliness, and obstinacy. John Quincy

(00:21):
Adams never escaped the long shadow of his father, John Adams.
He failed as a one term president, but became an
extraordinary ex president. He could see the coming Civil war
and was trying desperately to stop it. I'm Bob Crawford
as the basis for the Ava Brothers. I've spent a
lot of time in tour buses reading American history, and

(00:43):
John Quincy Adams deserves a second look. Join me, Patrick
Warburton and Nick Offerman as we bring the sixth President
to life. We'll travel back to the start of this
fledgling nation, torn between slave and freest to a bitter
presidential campaign against Andrew Jackson. Was there ever witnessed such

(01:06):
a barefaced corruption in any country before? Letter from Philadelphia
threatening organized opposition and civil war If Jackson has not chosen,
and we'll follow John Quincy Adams to the halls of Congress,
but he did want to reclaim his greatness after he
had been knocked down, after his presidency actually had been

(01:27):
something of a failure. We'll learn about his reluctance to
join the abolitionists, only to later champion liberty for enslaved
people by arguing a landmark case before the Supreme Court.
I yielded and told them that if, by the blessing
of God, my health and strength should permit, I would
argue the case. We'll bring you inside the uprisings, legal battles,

(01:52):
and political brinksmanship that threatened to shatter the fragile Union,
and the toll Adams's ambition took on his family the
grave of my lost child, the grasping ambition, which is
an insatiable passion, swallowing and consuming all in its ever
devouring more as the nation reckons with its history. Don't

(02:12):
sleep on John Quincy Adams. He held the Union together
across two pivotal errors and two visions for America, though
it cost the blood of millions of white men. Let
justice be done. Though the heavens fall, Adams stretches his
hand forward to Lincoln, and in so many ways makes

(02:34):
Lincoln possible you'll learn about the life and legacy of
our sixth President, John Quincy Adams voiced by me Patrick Warpington.
But you'll also be learning about our seventh President, Andrew Jackson,
voiced by me Nick Offerman. Oh right, Jackson. That's the

(02:55):
guy John Quincy Adams called the murderer in his diary.
Oh yeah, Jackson did say he wished Adams would become
paralyzed by a stroke, So yeah, they were not vibing
each other. Listen to Founding Sun, a curiosity podcast, every
Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(03:16):
get your podcasts. Starting April thirteenth,