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

franklin there and otherwise i think i would just say that the triumvirate who negotiate peace john adams, john jay and franklin get deserve the credit we could possibly hope to give them. and would you say that john jay and john adams and ben franklin agreed on the goals initially? not at all for different reasons. adams and john jay are very to make a peace without the involvement of the french franklin because of his years at versailles has very very close relationships with especially the french minister whom he has promised that he will never negotiate without the involvement of france in negotiating a kind of without the involvement of france and. ultimately, john jay and john adams will prevail over franklin and the pieces negotiated any conference with the french the task of explaining that afterward will fall to franklin who has to make a somewhat humiliating trip to versailles to explain what he has with the assistance of his colleagues just done so. stacy schiff, as we mentioned, we're here in the ben franklin room at the department of state. there is a table here, the treaty o

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, which is one of the greatest diaries ever written by an american. i'm 27 years old. my life has been dissipated in indolence, and i have accomplished nothing that and he's just beating himself up for not having accomplished enough at phase and it it's because of his parents overwhelming pressure he got from john

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

the english monarchy really was a republic in saint john adams says john adams says that but other do what askew says that he says it's got a because it has a house of commons and of course there's no place else in the world that has a house of commons or a representative body representing people. so it's a very ambiguous term, but there are different kinds of republics and differently organized, but they have to have some of democratic element in it. and there's no doubt nobody ever denied that even in england, that all power ultimately came from the people. it's that's not the same as saying that people can. so having deriving your authority from the people and no good whig in england, whatever that the people are the source all authority. there are very few people left who are arguing that divine right of kings. so you can have authority from people. but having the people rule another thing altogether and you can have a republic has a democratic element it but also has an aristocracy, a house of lords or a senate. i should say, or a governor so republic could be organized in differ

enacted the sedition act, which made it a crime punishable by incarceration for anyone criticize john adams or federalist policy. fortunately, that act expired by its own terms at the end of adams, but jefferson became president in a world where people had been thrown in jail for having conflicting opinions, he knew that this country wasn't going to last long. if we were operating on that basis. and so in his first inaugural address, among his opening words were, look, folks, we are all we are all republicans we are all americans, and we better start acting that way or this isn't going to last. but to your knowing, he wasn't a great, but he was a dazzling in small groups and he knew it. and so his presidency, two and three times a week, every he would have dinner parties where he would have federalists would have republicans, and they be arguing about the hottest political issues the day they'd be building relationships, they'd be talking about literature, history, music, philosophy, and of course, eating wonderful food, drinking strong wine. there were wonderful such that by the end of the

they've just asked me to play john adams, for instance.t doing ajob in... when i was first in ray donovan, my agent called me. she said, "they're doing richard iii, the bbc, "and they're going to offer you a part." now, i played richard iii onstage, i toured and played richard iii. so, i thought, ok, i won't play richard, but i'll probably play a good part. and the offer came through from the bbc and it was a thief with two lines. stephen snorts and i'm working every day with, i you know, on a big hollywood show. and i thought, why do they have this very fixed idea of me? and i didn't go back and work for a little while. and david... sorry to interrupt. that's all right. but you're saying it really, foryou, in britain, comes back to class. yeah. and i think class is something that's very immersed in all our psyches, even people who want to transcend it, it's still something that we still see. we still see the country in those parameters, in those definitions. you've actually opened up for me a whole area that i think is very interesting fo

and if anything, i would make the case that john adams was the much more significant intellectual architect of the document. you trace adams writings throughout the course of the year. he is developing the case for the language of happiness as an orienting ideal to shape how a community can talk about a shared vision for south. populate premium access to the idea that the and well-being of the people should be the supreme law. he is drawing on that tradition, using the concept of happiness to articulate it. he makes an articulation of the relevant principles that is quite like the declaration of independence in shape in january of 1776. in massachusetts and of course, during 1775 and 1776, he and richard henry lee are the prime motive force linking virginia and massachusetts, moving the politics of independence forward. so it's really adams and lee, who architect the politics of, the period from mid-april through july 4th in april. adams releases his essays and thoughts government. he makes the case that the the end or purpose of government is the same as the end or purpose man. and that's

john adams was a passionate participant in the floor and the challenge writer. he, however, felt overburdened with important committee work. the other two appointments livingston from new york and sherman from canada. kent had no special interest in or talent writers. all five, though, are of the same mind so as congress they wanted another document, this one a conclusive statement for almost every delegate already signed on to a declaration. the colonies were now independence states was to be a document justifying to the world their reasons for this extraordinary assertion was to be a collective statement intended to be signed by every delegate they all had read. jefferson's summary view of british america. his writing talent was recognized. it helped that he was from virginia, one of the two tales that, wag the colonies dog. every member of congress understood he would have a chance some later stage in the process to participate in revising the committee's document at a later date. adams wrote that he and jefferson had had a conversation about which one of the

john: adam, i know this is not your first total eclipse. i believe it's at least your second. you going to be doing tomorrow? adam kemp: i'm actually going to head down to the choctaw nation. i want to experience that myself. i'm going to be at one of the historic sites, listening to the story of fvni lusa and really experience that. the weather right now is projected to be really nice. not a lot of cloud cover in the area, so i might have to bring my pots and pansith me. john: okay. have fun. adam kemp in oklahoma, thank you very much. adam kemp: thanks. ♪ john: finally tonight, an annual gathering of global cruciverlists -- people who love to solve crossword puzzles. nearly 1000 of them gathered in connecticut this weekend for the 46th american crossword puzzle tournament. will shortz has been the new york times crossword editor for more than 30 years. he started the event in 1978. this year's competition drew the biggest crowd yet. over two days, solvers raced to complete eight specially created puzzles. the fastest and most accurate among them took home a grand prize of $7

a student were to recall from their reading of the textbook or from their teachers lessons that john adams actually defended some of the british soldiers in an attempt to point out that the british colonies were capable of approaching the the various laws and oppressions of the british in in a in a fair minded and legalistic way, they would get some credit for bringing in some out side information and it would be outside information brought to mind by this primary source. well, through our c-span in the classroom teachers, we solicited questions from high school students. and here's one professor stacy, i'll address this to you. this is from ma yo at le bosco stem academy. wayne, new jersey. what are some of the key things we should remember from around the time of the ratification of the cons stitution? wow, that's a great question. and i think what's important to remember is that the new constitution came out of conflict itself, as you probably remember, mario, the the article of confederation by 1786 was not doing very well. it proved to be a relatively weak government and that caused a

you mentioned the first secretary of the navy appointed by john adams was in 1798. what would he think of our navy today? what advice would? he provide in that context, how do you juggle all of the priorities you have? sec. del toro: i have a loving wife, we have been married 40 years and she is extraordinary. the last question, perhaps, but look, i think the cemetery would be proud of what we have built today. -- secretary would be part of what we have built today. we look at the u.s. constitution, when it was built, it was at the bleeding edge of innovation and technology, old ironside, cannonballs, it was constructed in such a way because it was a naval architecture and the materials we used to construct a ship, the cannonballs were ineffective basically. there lies the beauty of even innovation and technology then. it is all about innovation and technology. asymmetrically, how can we make our fleet that much more capable, that much more modern, we may not be able to just build an endless number of ships but the ones we are building, let us make them so powerful

colonel james might were in lead boat the john adams. and after the sentinel runs aground the men who on that boat are transferred on to the harriet a we'd. in reenacting the cumbie raid on our first trip we at night. so we left at 9:00 at night on a full moon and i learned on this trip was is that the moon shimmers off the water this time and this was the first time no, no lights. we traveled very slowly least 6 to 7 miles per hour, which is the speed that the u.s. army boats would have traveled. no gadgets. and we literally navigated by the light of the moon and could see that the rice fields and the marsh on side of the shimmering water were just dark, undifferentiated masses. i drove the boat back and. i worked with a group of scientists who kind of concocted all this stuff. i would say, oh, wouldn't it be great if? and they would plan it, right? so, you know, they got the boat, they got the whole thing. they even got the snacks. and we're going up the river. so my friend travis says, okay, you have to drive back. and i'm like, has h

adams and who else. john j. all right. so they're trying to convince everybody that it was necessary it was necessary to start over and come up this new document. now, george washington was a southerner from virginia. but. leaned towards this strong central government. so the interpretation of the constitution is where we see the beginning of this political process. two political parties we got the federalist and the anti-federalists or, the known as democratic republicans or republicans. the federalist wanted this strong central government. the democratic republicans wanted stronger state government. they were fearful that the federal government would get to too powerful. but watch some the characteristics here. look at that. their bull appeal to biness businesses. man manufacturing. and they opposed the french revolution. so geographically where might these folks come from? the north biness, manufacturing. these guys in the north, they trying to model this close towards this engli system because who's still buying their

this event was cohosted by the alexander hamilton society and john quincy adams society at george washingtonniversity. >> hello, everyone. welcome. my name is alexander wilson, on the president of the john quincy adams society here at gw when i am so honored to be starting off our event, facing the next step for u.s. foreign policy in iran. it is a great honor to host this event which has been nine months in the making. thank you all for coming. [indiscernible] >> thank you all for coming out. it is a pleasure to see you all excited about this event being offered today. a special thanks to sam who did a lot of the great work in presenting and creating this event. >> thank you for the kind invitation. it is great to be here. i will start with introducing our speakers. [indiscernible] as we move on the questions will be more difficult. especially the last one. michael singh is a managing director at the washington institute and a former senior director of the national security council. [indiscernible] with a focus on iran and the middle east. michael is on the board of the u.s. institute of pe