about painting that it would, you know, he'd be a painter longer tn he was a politician. - john quincy adams, the son of john adams, the second president, is the only former president who went on to serve in the house of representatives. he served nine terms, almost two decades. explain the circumstances of adam's trajectory. - well, first of all, it's worth noting, so john quincy adams, who gets his first job appointed by george washington in his administration, dies in his ninth term in the house of representatives as an ex-president in 1848, serving alongside abraham lincoln, a freshman congressman from illinois. so talk about- - and he dies at his desk in capitol. - so the story of john adams is a story of somebody who had a great second act. he leaves office in 1829 after being defeated in a very humiliating way by andrew jason and doesn't know what to do. and so he takes a much lower station, and in that much lower station, a much higher cause ends up finding him. he'd always been opposed to slavery, but he becomes this champion of a cause that at the time was seen quite fringy, which

that was jefferson madison, monroe, john quincy adams, which is going to be a surprise when we hear what is mother abigail thought about slavery. andrew jackson, martin van buren, tyler polk and taylor. 12 presidents at some time in their lives, foreign slave workers, washington, jefferson, madison wrote. jackson. van buren. harrison. tyler polk. taylor johnson and grant and grant's probably a surprise that he married into a missouri slave owning family, and he was given some enslaved workers by his father in law that he worked side by side with them, and he did eventually give them their freedom at the white house. these enslaved workers performed a variety of jobs. they were chefs, gardeners, stable hands, maids, butlers, valets, ladies, ladies and. and did all sorts of other cleaning and other work around the white house. so we had this long history up until the lincolns of having a lot of enslaved workers in the white house itself. but things changed with first ladies, beginning with this with abigail adams, who had a very, very different opinion of slavery from her predecessor, mart

cliques quincy adams was the first it was after he was president. to be a member of the u.s. house of representatives. he traveled to massachusetts we got to baltimore, the railroad had just started because to go by horses. he had where they put up on a flat car and hauled in about 7 miles from baltimore and then they lowered his horse and wagon off the flat car and with the rest of the way on the road. since the first piggyback operation that piggyback means placed on flat cars and when they get where they are going they fix them up and take them off the flat car. very few people know that first piggyback operation took place in 1840. it was the first sitting president to ride a train. he went to maryland by horseback and when he started back he had a crossing and they had railroad cars the call steam cars because the steam locomotive was part of the train. he got in the steam car and road several miles back. and he was astonished the train was traveling so fast. >> i can imagine that new technology back then was certainly impressive and quite frightening to a lot of people

his son john quincy adams was our first non-founding father who became a president. who in his father's legacy wanted to abolish slavery. he didn't quite get around to doing as a president. he tried every thing it is cooking is postpresidential career. he served one term, let, was entirely successful as as a president. tried a lot of different things that he was called back into what holden into public service in the first place. he got elected as a congressman. thinkco about that happening today. the only got this happened in u.s. history where after serving as president of the united states he went back to serve as a mere congressman in u.s. congress. served for multiple terms and he went there with one objective, to abolish slavery. so back when he was serving in congress they had something called the gag rule. the restrictions on speech today that restrictions on speech back then, too. actually that agreements, some of the conference from the south reader of the listed you cannot say the word slavery on the congress floor. this guy spent the u.s. president alread

. >> the other person you argue really had a successful postpresidency, is john quincy adams.hat is striking about carter and adams to me is, they had a deep sense of mission and a sense of purpose. neither was interested at all in making money after -- you know, that seems to have been a pattern that postpresidencies have. that sense of having something that animates you seems to be very powerful. >> after he served every job in the public sector except the house of representatives, he gets elected as an ex-president to the house because there's no other public sector jobs. he doesn't know what his purpose is there. in his nine terms of a lower station, he finds a higher calling and becomes a leader of what was a fringe abolitionist movement and he mainstreams it. adams dies in 1848. this was a man appointed in his first public sector job for george washington. dies in 1848, serving alongside a freshman congressman named abraham lincoln. >> and lincoln revered him? >> i'm convinced that had lincoln been exposed to john quincy adams in the house, i'm convinced it would have de

and so between you and j, who maybe will that hostile response about what about john quincy adams? what about his role what about monroe's role in articulating statement? monroe depended heavily on the advice his friends and advisors when he received the message from england about the british propos, he immediately wrote to his friends his, advisors, his close associates. thomas jefferson, james madison said, what do you think about this? and got their opinions on it, wrote two others. and then began to discuss it in the cabinet meetings as well. at that point, monroe was moving away from a joint statement thinking about an statement and adams more or less reinforced. he said that the united should make a unilateral statement and not do something in in conjunction with with with with with great britain. adams envisioned the response to be a diplomatic that he as secretary of state would write to the four to to the secretary of for the foreign ministers of the various countries explaining the u.s. position on this. and if that had been the case we'd never heard of any of this. that

his son john quincy adams was our first non-founding father who became a resident.s was a guy who in his father's legacy wanted to abolish slavery. he tried everything he could in his post-presidential career,, served one term w -- career, served one term. he was called back into what pulled him into public service in the first place. he got elected as a congressman actually. think about that happening today. after serving as president of the united states, he went back to serve as a mere congressman in u.s. congress. served for multiple terms and he went there with one objective. to abolish slavery. so back when he was serving in congress, they had something called the gag rule. the restrictions on speech today, they had restrictions on speech back then. some congressman from the south said you cannot say the word slavery on the congress floor. this guy has been president already, he does not care about getting kicked out of congress. he said the word, slavery. so he got himself -- he was trying to get himself expelled. they put him on trial for his expulsion from

and quincy adams, signaled that he was indeed free because of his rights under the under article four. and you also tell the story of how the article for the privileges and immunities clause was invoked by african-american sailors in southern ports in the 1830 is the amazing story of the -- seamen's act, which really was a constitutional into these debates. tell us about these incredible stories and thank you for that prompt. i mean, one of the things i was really wrestling with and thinking about in my book until justice be done, it was where are these struggle and arguments over the rights of free african-americans happening? at what jurisdictional level? and so a of the movement get these kind of races laws in the free states like the kind that they had in ohio and illinois for example a lot of the struggle to get those repealed was at the state level and actually did not invoke the constitution because there sort of it was difficult to claim at that time before the reason struction amendments that explicitly anti-black laws actually violated the u.s. constitution. but when people

john adams whom i don't treat in this book you know lives long enough to see that his son john quincy adamsident. he writes days that's a good moment for him. and of course you have the you have the death on july 4th of 1826. exactly 50 years from the first 4th of july, both thomas jefferson and john adams, who had been conducting who had been political enemies in the 1790s, hadn't spoken. and by about 1810, when jefferson, a retired from the presidency, richard rush acting of state, i think at that time a member of the next generation suggests adams. the white house and he write jefferson and they can be friends again and they carry on this correspondence from braintree, massachusetts, in charlottesville, virginia. they so they they continue on if they vary jefferson isolate himself from from the world pretty much up on top of his little mountain, which is what monticello means in an italian. they madison stays more involved in public affairs. and as a matter of fact is writing. in 1832 as an old man writing against the nullification doctrine that john c calhoun was advancing, that the sta

>> it's john quincy adams. the strange looking man serving nine terms in the house of representatives as an ex-president but discovering a higher calling and a much lower station and essentially mainstreaming and abolitionist movement. >> howard taft i'll take. >> dana: i'll take 43. maybe biden could, when he leaves office, maybe run for the house. >> this isn't just an election between donald trump and joe biden who will be the next president. who will be the next ex president and you won't have carter's 42 years and hoover's 32 years. >> he is in good condition according to his doctors. he will remain in the icu ward for the duration of his stay in order to provide appropriate privacy and will continue to receive critical care support. >> bill: there is the pentagon press secretary providing an update on lloyd austin. he is back in the hospital. we are learning that austin has undergoon -- he was diagnosed with pros prostate cancer in december. he is expected to resume a lot of his duties today. good news fo

president john quincy adams once said "if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more become more, you are a leader." since the days of george washington, american presidents have led americans into doing great things. washington mobilized his men at valley forge to defeat the british. abraham lincoln stood on the blood-soaked grounds of gettysburg, where he inspired americans to look at the civil war not as a political struggle, but as a fight for human freedom. fdr's fireside chats inspire the nation during the depression and the second world war. jfk inspired the country to go to the moon. >> by some say the moon? why choose this as our goal. they my ask -- they may ask why climb the highest mountain, why 35 years ago fly the atlantic? why does rice play texas? we choose to go to the moon and to do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. >> jesse: those presidents were the main characters of their time, but in today's times, we have joe biden. >> he is an uninspiring candidate. there is nothing about joe biden that makes you want to li

john quincy adams who minister in holland, was writing to his father and to others that he was the themost important diplomat we had abroad. and he was telling everyone that the french were going to invade, come up through the south and. napoleon, after all, was invading countries all over europe and turning them into puppet regimes under french control. and there were so many french sympathizers in america, they figured that the french figured that they might just be able to take over the united states and make it another puppet regime, as they had with holland and switzerland and northern europe and northern italy. so the fear was real. and we need to understand and that our knowledge was not shared by them back then. let me let me pick up on that that our time is ending and maybe it's it's nice to end with a a request, some broad guidance as we approach 250th anniversary about how to think about that founding generation. obviously, founding now is controversial for some good reasons and some bad reasons. it's controversial because people question the morality of some of the founders

they include thomas jefferson, who went on to found the university of virginia, john jo quincy adams,nd of course jimmy carter, who's had the longest post presidency in american history, advancing g humanitarian causes, human rights, cand peace. and joining us now, the author of that book, jared cohen. jared, let's start right there. congratulations on the book, but let's start with jimmy carter, who would seem every step of the way in his post presidency, he has been an example to the world. >> that's absolutely right, and mika, thank you for having me. alexander hamilton back in february 72, he asked that question what should we do with our ex presidents? and he wondered if it's a good idea for us to have ana dozen m who could been elevated to the presidency, walking around us like discontented ghost. and more than 200 years later, with jimmy carter, we kind of have an answer to that question, which is former presidents can either be tremendous partners esto their successes, or a huge nuisance. jimmy carter has been both to democrats and republicans alike. >> so, jared, congrats on

the one that spoke to me the most was john quincy adams, he went on to serve nine terms in the houser station, he wanders around, doesn't know what we wants to do, but becomes passionate about petitions. he finds it in a much lower station and achieves a much higher calling, and mainstreams at the sometime what was a fringe and radical abolition movement. >> i read this part of the book. the question that i had about him is, is there any part of you that says that he should have just walked away, he should have stepped away. the reason he was there because he just couldn't give up, even though he was at a lower station, he couldn't give up the power of being in washington, being at the center of it all. >> presidents don't like giving up power. look at our 2024 election. this will be likely the first and only time since 1892 that you have a rematch between two presidents of the united states as the nominees of the two major parties, right? why? you have the two oldest candidates in history eclipsed only by themselves four years ago. you have two presidents that don't want to give up

for example, john adams and john quincy adams were pretty anti-slavery and never owned anyone. right that we do have to tell the full story. that is why i encourage people to think about, is president's day really the way we want to celebrate it, or do we want to celebrate the emancipation proclamation, which was a really important stepping stone our history? we want to celebrate the civil rights act? do we want to celebrate washington retiring or returning his commission, and therefore checking the impulse toward monarchy? i think those things are worth celebrating more than the entire lives of all of the presidents, because they were very flawed individuals. i think history books that have been written, especially in the last several decades, have reflected that complexity. we were talking about andrew jackson earlier and his real collapse in public opinion. one of the reasons he has collapsed is because of his role of indian removal from the southeast, and the horrific death and violence that brought upon native peoples. similarly, he bought and sold individuals while he was

for example, john adams and john quincy adams were pretty anti-slavery and never owned anyone.re right that we do have to tell the full story. that is why i encourage people to think about, is president's day really the way we want to celebrate it, or do we want to celebrate the emancipation proclamation, which was a really important stepping stone our history? we want to celebrate the civil rights act? do we want to celebrate washington retiring or returning his commission, and therefore checking the impulse toward monarchy? i think those things are worth celebrating more than the entire lives of all of the presidents, because they were very flawed individuals. i think history books that have been written, especially in the last several decades, have reflected that complexity. we were talking about andrew jackson earlier and his real collapse in public opinion. one of the reasons he has collapsed is because of his role of indian removal from the southeast, and the horrific death and violence that brought upon native peoples. similarly, he bought and sold individuals while he w