but one can also look at bush's decision on that and a lot of john quincy adams efforts john quincy was was adamant that he was not really concerned about getting reelected, was not concerned about being popular. he was concerned about a four year term with effect benefits for the country. and that shows up in cases where he has to make decisions. for example, in york, adams refuses to deliver to the senate a very controversial, fraudulent signed with the seneca knowing full well that that opposition and the investigation the adams administration's runs into that treaty. it's going to hurt him in new york in the 1828 election and it does during the creagh georgia conflict, which i write about in the book, where adams is preventing georgia from surveying lands that have yet to be ceded by great nation. georgia to go in in violation of a federal treaty. and there's a tremendous up that adams and others think might actually lead to civil war in the 1820s because the u.s. army is positioned between the creeks and georgia surveyors and georgia to go in the on adams to let georgia in is exten

but one can also look at bush's decision on that and a lot of john quincy adams efforts john quincy was was adamant that he was not really concerned about getting reelected, was not concerned about being popular. he was concerned about a four year term with effect benefits for the country. and that shows up in cases where he has to make decisions. for example, in york, adams refuses to deliver to the senate a very controversial, fraudulent signed with the seneca knowing full well that that opposition and the investigation the adams administration's runs into that treaty. it's going to hurt him in new york in the 1828 election and it does during the creagh georgia conflict, which i write about in the book, where adams is preventing georgia from surveying lands that have yet to be ceded by great nation. georgia to go in in violation of a federal treaty. and there's a tremendous up that adams and others think might actually lead to civil war in the 1820s because the u.s. army is positioned between the creeks and georgia surveyors and georgia to go in the on adams to let georgia in is exten

i'm a huge john quincy adams fan. my dog's name is john quincy■[ adams. love the man.o interesting when ask me who are your favorite presidents? i say, well, the best presidents, in my opinion, are washington, lincoln. but the most interesting men are theodore roosevelt and john quincy adams. but even i was susceptiblesort s political service career. and it certainly flashy than, you know,which he gets a lot of credit, especially fighting the gag rule or, you know, his secretary of state tenure, which i think is probably among the, best of all secretaries of states. so i definitely sort of added additional ammunition to my enjoyment of john quincy adams, admiration for his public service career. but i generally thought that taft was kind of boring and thought that taft had personalio be a justice that made sense and he actually got a fairmount of done, you know, in terms of the progressive agenda but doesn't get credit for it. but this book, i think really shifted my appreciation for jés+■hng is actually good and boring get stuff done. so i assume there will be no dogs

ulysses middle of those two john quincy adams son, one of john quincy adams sons, and william howardather, are in grant's administration. and so with three presidents, we get a that runs from the earliest days of the revolution right through the 1920s more over each of these presidents was witness to exercises of presidential authority by. so adams is in congress for the louisiana purchase and jefferson's embargo. adams, of course, writes nroe doctrine for james monroe. ulysses grant is a player notably in the civil war, but also a direct act fight between president andrew johnson and congress after the civil war. and taftt's secretary of war and right hand man and. it's important to remember that taft earlier on in his career is civilian governor of the there's a tendency to think of taft primarily as judge, but his work in the philippines suggests a deep experiencen executive authority that then translates into the presidency and to put this all together, i think the new understanding of what the state was doing gives us a host of issue areas to look for presidential power and look

when i think of john quincy adams, of course, i of john adams. and the role he had in his son's life. and of course, people would come up to john and they would say, well, you must be so proud. your son and john adams would say he a mother, too. so i to think of him as actually the son of abigail adams. there is a resemblance to abigail and there is. well, one of the treasures that is in this room is right here. what is this? this is the desk on which the treaty of paris was signed, which ended the american revolution. the american revolution? who signed it. well, if we look, we can see john adams. benjamin franklin and john jay. is that the original of paris that we're looking at? this is a copy. but the desk is real. the desk is the absolute that everyone sat and signed. now this desk was also used in a new miniseries. yes. executive produced by author stacy schiff. that's correct. and we were certainly interested in this series because it explores a life of benjamin franklin in paris right at the time that he became a diplomat and some extraor

so this is john quincy adams room nam for secretaries of state who became president and who is this? is a likeness that was done in 1816 when he was an american foreign minister in england. and this is after he had served president before before he had served as president. he would come back and become secretary of state. and then after, of course, president. i don't think i've ever seen that image of john quincy adams. it's one of my favorite. when i thinkams, of course, i on adams. and the role he had in his son's life. and of course, people would come up to john and they would say, well, you must be so proud. your son and john adams would say he a mother, too. so i to think of him asn of abi. there is a resemblance to abigail and there is. well, one of the treasures that is in this room is right here. what is this? this is the desk on which the treaty of paris was signed, which ended the american signed it. well, if we look, we can see john adams. benjamin franklin and john jay. is that the original of paris that we're looking at? this is a copy. but the desk is real. the desk is t

it sounds like folks are wondering more specific about john quincy adams, given, you know, the feelings of his parents and things like that. allen is asking could it be that if john quincy adams had paid enslaved people, he would have faced more political controversy? or did he respects the craftsmen ship of the enslaved people he hired? that i don't know. but, you know, once again, i would have to dig through some of the adams papers so that i think the thing that's interesting about him more than anything else was just the fact that it was such a departure from his family and also from later when, if you ever saw the movie on a side, you know, john quincy adams was involved with that slave ship situation and so it was it was really a contradiction for him in terms of his family background. but some of this became a practicality issue for some of these presidential families. all right. i can't believe it. but we're almost up at our time. so i'm going to ask you one final question here. so this question is from melissa and i assume you maybe don't know the answer, but i'm wondering if y

at a high level of enthusiasm, which is a virtue, i think an earnest enthusiasm but in your john quincy adams sections, i was feeling your admiration for him. and i'm wondering, you know, how we always talk about even post hbo miniseries. we talk how john adams, the father, is is always thought of a little bit lesser or than thomas jefferson or george washington. and adams understood that in life. i almost feel like john quincy adams like yet another level that there a member of the or a of the founding generation who was really an person who we think about and talk about enough. but why don't you just give like a couple of minutes on how quint john quincy adams for you personified, you know a person really devoted to trying to better himself and through bettering himself, finding the meaning of happiness, but also bringing enlightenment. others absolutely he summed up by this letter he wrote in his twenties and he's just been appointed to and unanimously confirmed to the supreme court. he turns down the appointment because he wants to stay as minister to russia. and he's writing in his diary

he is published biographies of thomas carlyle, mark twain, henry james, charles dickens, john quincy adams, abraham lincoln gore vidal, and now thomas jefferson in his masterly pen. kaplan offers us a biography of thomas jefferson by giving an english professor's kind attention to jefferson's written words. jefferson only published one book in his lifetime notes on the state of virginia. but, of course, jefferson wrote consul treatises like a summary view of the rights of british north america legal briefs, memoranda the declaration of independence, and above all letters, thousands of them, which kaplan calls among his most powerful and revealing writings throughout his masterly pen, kaplan brings a skilled biographers attention to how jefferson reveals himself through his writing, often without without intending to, as kaplan says of notes on the state of virginia. it's a book about jefferson partly because jefferson did not want it to, a book about himself. the jefferson we meet here is not surprisingly learned and forceful. but kaplan also shows this jefferson as a writer who's often ev

john quincy adams, learned, would wake up in the white house, read cicero, watch the sunrise, and rightthat was what the project involved. it was completelyransformative because it both changed my understanding of the pursuit of happiness and help me see the founders understanding of personal self-govemet the most e away if i can share it right now was rediscovering the liberating , radically empowering practice of deep reading. i had gotten out of the practice of reading outside of my job or my immediate deadlines, and just taking the time to dig in deep, created wonders that i had forgotten, and i'm so grateful to have rediscovered this practice. >> you survey a wide range of founding figures and next-generation thinkers like lincoln and frederick douglass. lincoln, hamilton, washington, franklin, her, they span the spectrum of backgrounds, upbringings, education. yeth this. how was it that they all were brought to this? given that they came from su bar educated in such different ways. jeffrey: it must be the shining power of the liberal idea, embodied in isn't it remarkable? think of

john quincy adams, who wrote his diary, he's secretary of state in 1820 at the time in the missouri compromise and he's similar to pierce said look i'm happy we got this then he writes this in his diary he says it might actually be better if we called a convention of the states article in the constitution and actually to separate, because if we're going to separate sometime, it's going to be because of slavery and maybe we should do it again in a nonviolent. and that was the provision that he that he offered as maybe a way to go. and then you've got john tyler. john tyler, the most ardent states rights president that we've ever had. he was from virginia. he's still in virginia here in 1861. he's of the secession movement, actually, with virginia leaving the union, which they after all, lincoln is is. in fact, he's elected to the confederate house of representatives. he never seats as sits the house of representatives because he dies just before he had his chance to but ardently in favor of this notion of secession. if if the right circumstances come to pass. we're completely all over the map a