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Author Wood, Gary V

Title Heir to the fathers : John Quincy Adams and the spirit of constitutional government / Gary V. Wood
Published Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, ©2004

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 249 pages)
Contents Adams, the constitution, and the contemporary scholarly debate -- John Quincy Adams, the founders, and slavery -- Jubilee of the constitution -- The Africans of the Amistad -- The Amistad case -- The legacy of John Quincy Adams
Summary "In Heir to the Fathers, author Gary V. Wood examines the ideas that guided John Quincy Adams throughout his political career. For Wood, it is Adams's understanding of the Constitution of the United States that foregrounds a crucial link between the principles laid forth in the Declaration of Independence and the original intent of the Framers of the Constitution. Heir to the Fathers traces this link through an examination of Adams's celebrated essay, Jubilee of the Constitution, and most significantly, through his defense of a group of Africans who mutinied aboard the slave ship the Amistad. The contradictory relationship between what is stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the treatment of African slaves has been a persistent problem in any attempt to understand the legacy of freedom in the United States. Adams's argument before the Supreme Court, based on his interpretation of constitutional law, is an example of how this unique political mind comes to terms with this contradiction without abandoning the spirit of America's founding principles. Wood's discussion of Adams's political and intellectual life invites readers to reexamine the principles upon which the United States of America was founded. Heir to the Fathers is a salient addition to the study of constitutional law, history, and American political thought."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-244) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 -- Political and social views
Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 -- Quotations
SUBJECT Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 fast
Subject Amistad (Schooner)
SUBJECT Amistad (Schooner) fast
Subject Constitutional history -- United States.
Slave rebellions -- United States
Presidents -- United States -- Biography.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Political Ideologies -- General.
Constitutional history
Political and social views
Politics and government
Presidents
Slave rebellions
SUBJECT United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140427
Subject United States
Genre/Form Biographies
Quotations
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1417503300
9781417503308