The Learning Curve Randall Woods
[00:00:00] Albert Cheng: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Learning Curve podcast. I’m one of your co-hosts this week, Albert Cheng, and co-hosting with me this week is none other than Alisha Searcy. Alisha, what’s going on? Hey Albert. All is well. How are you? Doing well. Doing well, and I’m looking forward to our show.
[00:00:42] It’s actually, I’m gonna have another University of Arkansas colleague show up, although I have to admit I’m not as familiar with his work. Professor Randall Woods, distinguished professor of history, he’s gonna come and join us, talk about John Quincy Adams. So should be fun. Yes.
[00:00:57] Alisha Searcy: Looking forward to that.
[00:00:59] Albert Cheng: Before we get to that part though, let’s talk some education news. Felicia, what caught your eye this week?
[00:01:06] Alisha Searcy: So I came across this very lengthy article, but I absolutely loved it. Really encapsulates, I think everything that we’ve been talking about, or I’ve been talking, some would say maybe ranting about in terms of what’s happening with illiteracy in our country.
[00:01:23] And it’s from the argument and it’s an opinion piece by Kelsey Piper. It’s called Illiteracy is a policy choice. Why aren’t we gathering behind Mississippi’s banner? And so the article begins talking about nap scores. We all know where they are. We know that we’ve had a decline, all of the things. Hmm. But what makes this article really interesting is talking about the things that we need to do, things that we know we need to do to make sure kids can read.
[00:01:52] And it talks about Mississippi, as we all know, going from. 49th in the country in reading to ninth in the country because of the things that they did. And it started with having the right curriculum in place, making sure teachers had the support. And then they also had those retention policies and or accountability systems in place.
[00:02:15] And so again, these are three key things that have to be done. We know that. But the truth is it’s not actually happening in all of the states. And so she’s making the argument here that maybe some of this has to do with politics. This is not a political show. I’m not about to make a political argument, but the author does point out that maybe we should consider the fact that where we’ve seen gains in places like Mississippi, other states like Louisiana have also done well.
[00:02:45] These are red states, and sometimes politics gets conflated with education policy and what’s right for kids, and so she, I think, raises the question. Whether or not perhaps states are not adopting and she lives in California, if perhaps states are not adopting these literacy practices that we know work that we clearly, Mississippi has demonstrated, they call it the Mississippi Miracle, but it was no miracle.
[00:03:12] They’re doing really, really good work and really hard work. But perhaps the reason that other states are not adopting this particularly blue states is because it’s red states where they’re seeing these gains. So I would like to believe that that is not even a thing, but given the work that I do at Center for Strong Public Schools and I work with elected officials, I will say that there’s a little bit of skepticism when the right does something, when the left does something the other side is skeptical about.
[00:03:42] And so I think that there may be a good point here. And so obviously what I’m going to say next is. Why are we allowing politics to be involved with teaching kids to read? Why are we even considering that? So why don’t you answer that question already?
[00:04:00] Albert Cheng: Well, I, I don’t know. But you know, I mean, that’s a very good question and you know, it reminds me of, I think many people have characterized our time as this, you know, we, we often like to define ourselves.
[00:04:13] In opposition to somebody else. Mm-hmm. Um, and unfortunately that kind of marks our, not just our political culture, but our, just our just general social culture. You know? Yeah. I am X, Y, Z and what X, Y, Z means. It’s not A, B, C, and yeah. You know, it’s not just with education policy and literacy instruction and all that, where that does undermine a lot of the potential good we might do if we stopped kind of.
[00:04:40] Identifying ourselves simply in opposition to somebody else. Yeah. Well, you know, maybe on a more hopeful note, you know, anything’s possible. I mean, who, who would’ve ever thought that Mississippi would have realized these gains? And so, look, if something like that can happen in that state, maybe in other states where there’s a little bit more opposition to, to this kind of curriculum, you know, maybe something will happen and hopefully in the near future than, than the distant future.
[00:05:05] Alisha Searcy: I hope so too. And I will point out one last thing that the article talks about is just the importance of state and national leadership.
[00:05:13] And I’ll just leave our listeners with this thought about, you know, when you go to the polls and when you’re listening to candidates, I think we need, uh, president.
[00:05:24] Who’s an education president, governors who are education governors. There was a time where that was a thing, right? Where states would compete with each other about who would be best in education. I would love to return to those days where we have more leadership, where we’re setting policy and expectations for what needs to happen in local school districts.
[00:05:43] I believe in flexibility and you know, districts being able to do what they think is best for kids. But I also think we need to set a vision, right, for our country. And for our state and I It starts with leadership.
[00:05:54] Albert Cheng: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, well said. Uh, Alisha, and actually, you know, on your, your last note about flexibility, I think that’s kind of a segue to the article that I saw this week.
[00:06:04] This one’s an article written by Michael Horn and Raphael Gang. I showed up at Education Next, a title caught my eye. Startup culture comes to K 12 accreditation. And you know, the reason that that caught my eye, ’cause you know, Alisha, we, we talk a lot about innovation on this show, educational innovation, creating opportunity for students.
[00:06:24] We often talk about this in terms of kinds of schools we need, we have policies that make it possible for parents to choose among options. But, you know, one of the key pieces in the whole kind of educational ecosystem that doesn’t get. Talked about as much, but really needs attention is accreditation ’cause.
[00:06:40] Mm-hmm. You know, these kinds of organizations, in some sense, they act as gatekeepers for schools being able to operate and function. I mean, here, Alisha, you know, I, I think listeners know I’m, I’m on the board of a private school here and we’re participating in the Education savings accounts program that we have here at the state.
[00:06:57] And one of the requirements is to be accredited. And you know, I think fortunately. Arkansas has taken this kind of broader, less restrictive view on accreditation, where they let schools kind of choose among a variety of state approved accreditors. And so, you know, here in Arkansas, at least the school that I’m a part of involved with, we’re, we’re able to choose one that we think will really serve our needs.
[00:07:22] You know, it’s kinda aligned with the kind of curriculum and instruction we wanna provide. And this one in particular, you know, it feels more like. Consulting than it does like professional kind of box checking, which unfortunately a lot of accreditors mm-hmm. Are, and you know, I, I think the points that I’m making here are essentially a specific case of the points that the authors in this article are, are making.
[00:07:45] You know, they. Give a nice history of accreditation and talk about, hey, what’s the state of things? Where do we need to go in terms of accreditation to offer that kind of flexibility? And while at the same time trying to have some kind of quality control, but beyond just quality control really, you know, how do these organizations come alongside schools to help them improve their practice?
[00:08:05] So I think it’s a very different disposition than the kind of box checking, you know, so. I wanna commend this article to the readers. But anyway, I don’t know if you’ve, you’ve ever thought about accreditation that much? I know it’s not a topic we think about too much, but Right. We need to think about it.
[00:08:21] Alisha Searcy: Yeah. And a little bit I have, and I, I read some of that article too. It is interesting what the role of accreditation agencies have been. And like you, I consult with a small little private school here in metro Atlanta and have gone through a little bit of the process. And I think you’re right. There’s a a lot of box checking and I think about this Albert, in the context of charter schools, which are not private for the record, always gotta clear that up.
[00:08:48] You know when you can. Yes, yes you do. Yes you do. But I’m thinking about authorizers of charters, right? Yeah. That for a long time they were. The compliance box checkers, and I think that’s an important role to play. But I’m also seeing that more authorizers are becoming sort of consultants where they feel a level of responsibility, if you will, to make sure these schools are successful.
[00:09:11] And so when you’re talking about private schools, when you’re talking about, I would even argue many public schools. Imagine how powerful it would be if there was an agency working alongside them. Yeah. To make sure they were successful. Right, right, right. Looking to give principals and other leaders that kind of technical support to really help them grow student achievement and so it’s a very interesting article.
[00:09:35] I would agree and concept about what the role of accreditation agencies are.
[00:09:40] Albert Cheng: Yeah. Well, you know, lots to be said and there’s a lot to think through when it comes to accreditation, but like always, we don’t have time to get into all that. But we do have time coming up after this break to talk to Randall Woods about John Quincy Adams.
[00:09:53] So stick around for that as we, uh, transition to that segment.
[00:10:10] Randall Woods is the John A. Cooper distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas. His prize-winning books include John Quincy Adams, A Man for the Whole People, LBJ, architect of American Ambition, shadow Warrior William Egan Kolby, and the CIA Jay William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the search for Cold War Foreign Policy, A Changing of the Guard, Anglo-American Relations, 1941 through 1946.
[00:10:36] And a Black Odyssey, John Lewis Waller and the Promise of American Life, 1878 to 1900. He has also served as both associate Dean and Dean of Fulbright College at the University of Arkansas, president of the Arkansas Humanities Council in the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and has been a visiting distinguished professor at Williams College, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford.
[00:11:00] Woods earned his ba, ma, and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s a veteran of the United States Army. Dr. Woods, welcome to the show. It’s a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for having me. You know the book, John Quincy Adams, A Man for the whole People that you authored is a 700 page biography.
[00:11:19] So why don’t we start with a brief sketch of who John Quincy Adams was and why is he regarded as one of the best educated and most accomplished statesmen that the American Republic has ever produced?
[00:11:31] Randall Woods: I suppose his first claim to fame is the son, John and Abigail Adams. That was a most influential.
[00:11:38] Couple in the revolutionary period in the early republic, John Adams was one of the architects of the article of Confederation. He was at both continental Congresses. It. He’s responsible for the notion of separation of powers. And checks and balances, of course, the second president of the United States, but Quincy Adams was their son and their avatar, they, he was the eldest son.
[00:12:03] And, uh, Abigail in that period, uh, powerful women had to live through their offspring and she put all her hopes on Quincy Adams, and he more than exceeded them. He was born in 17. 67. He held his mother’s hand as they watched the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was the child of the, of the revolution. He went with his father when he was 11 in 1778 to France where his father presided over.
[00:12:29] The creation of the Franco American Alliance, which actually was key to the winning of the Revolutionary War. He stayed with him, came back briefly, went back with his father, and his father served as the revolutionary government’s minister. Minister to the Netherlands. Quincy Adams was educated by his parents, provided a reading list when he was five, and learned to speak French fluently by the time he would.
[00:12:55] 11. He and his brother Charles, were educated at the University of Leiden, one of the finest universities in Europe. He stayed with his father through the. Peace of 1783 became his secretary remained there and did not return to the United States until 1885. He went to Imperial Russia as the secretary to Francis Dana.
[00:13:18] Our first representatives, when he was about 14 years old, he returned to the United States in 1785. Graduated from Harvard, earned a law degree. Hated the law and wanted to be a public figure. His parents wanted him to be a public figure. He took an interest in international relations. He knew Europe better than he knew the United States.
[00:13:38] No America knew Europe better than Quincy Adams when he was 21 years old. So he wrote a couple of essays, which brought him to the attention of George Washington. He served as a minister to the Netherlands and to Prussia during the war, the French Revolution. He was our principal reporter on the ous event of the Revolutionary War.
[00:14:00] When his father was elected, his father was elected president and and then Lofted Thomas Jefferson. In 1801 Quincy Adams returned, ran successfully for the Senate. He switched parties from Federalist Party, which he believed was outdated and joined the Republican Party in Jefferson and Monroe because he believed in their foreign policy.
[00:14:21] He was the only federalist to vote for the embargo. Madison named him ambassador to Imperial Russia, where he became very close to Alexander the first, which was important to the preservation of the Republic. Later when it appeared the Holy Alliance was getting ready to invade South America, he became James and Rose Secretary of State and is known as one of America’s top diplomats.
[00:14:46] Among his other achievements with the Transcontinental Treaty. Of 1819, which brought the Floridas into the union and the Monroe Doctrine, which influences American foreign policy still, which proclaimed the, the notion of two spheres, the old world, the new, the Americas versus Europe. He was elected minority president, 1824.
[00:15:07] He turned out to be a rather poor politician. He and his father liked to write and study politics, but they weren’t very good at. Practicing and he fell the victim to Andrew Jackson and, and the new Democratic Republican Party he lost in 1828 and then spent 17 years in household representatives fighting the, the slave power.
[00:15:28] It was then that he represented the slaves in the Amistad rebellion before the Supreme Court. That’s his public career. But he was also a, a major intellectual. He spoke a, wrote six languages. He was the father of German studies in the United States. He was the Boyton professor of rhetoric at Harvard, and he was the father of the Smithsonian.
[00:15:48] So those are, um. Among his major achievement,
[00:15:52] Albert Cheng: not, not a short list by baggage. Sorry. Sorry about that. No, no, no, no. I’m just, IM impressed at, at, at his pedigree. Um, let’s talk about some of these things in, in more detail. So let, let’s start at the beginning. I, you already talked a bit about his family, son of John and Abigail Adams.
[00:16:09] You know, his parents were deeply involved in his education, so. What else should we know about his parents, his family, and particular about his educational experiences that really made possible the accomplishments that he had to in, in, you know, public service later on in life.
[00:16:25] Randall Woods: His father and, and John Quincy believed in what Enlightenment philosophers called the virtuous Republic.
[00:16:32] Hmm. And that is a, a representative government made up of citizens educated to the point where they could comprehend public issues and vote not only in their own interests, but in the greater interest. Hmm. And they believe that edu education. It was absolutely the key to the creation and survival of a Republican form of government.
[00:16:52] And so his parents committed to education. Really. They provided him with the, with tutors and reading lists beginning when he was five years old. He, when he was in France, he sent his two younger brothers a detailed bibliography of French grammar and usage. And at that point he was 11 years old and his brothers were eight and five.
[00:17:16] So you can, you can see one of the reasons Adams liked foreign service, being a diplomat was that he had a lot of time in his hands. So he, he bought every book he could. He and his father were great book collectors. He read, he studied Italian, he studied, he’d already learned French, he learned German. His father, he was.
[00:17:36] His, his mother was very hard on him, and she actually undermined two of his early romances if it had been hi. Her desire, he never would’ve gotten married. She thought he ought to be married to his country. He was closer emotionally to his father, but Quincy Adams was not a duplication of his father, but kind of an, an extension of, of his father.
[00:17:56] So that relationship there is their relationship, the, the three of them intellectually, emotionally. Sometimes tragically is unique in American history.
[00:18:08] Albert Cheng: There is so much to say, let’s kind of move on and, and try to hit as many highlights of his, of his life and accomplishments as we can. So I wanna move on to some of his early diplomatic achievements.
[00:18:18] And so as you mentioned earlier, president Madison recalled John Quincy Adams Herman from his ambassadorial post and Russia. And this was to negotiate the treaty of against, to end the war of 1812. And one historian noted quote, what the Americans lost on the battlefield they made up for at the negotiating table.
[00:18:36] And so in other words, in in military defeat, Quincy Adams was able to somehow skillfully retain the war’s biggest prize, which was, you know, status quo, antebellum, right. The, the state of things before the war. So, talk about that achievement and some other diplomatic achievements that, that are of not.
[00:18:53] Randall Woods: By that time, Adam Adams had been ambassador to the Netherlands.
[00:18:56] He’d been ambassador to Prussia and he’d spent at that point, six years as ambassador to Russia. And no American knew the ins and outs of European diplomacy better than Quincy Adams, including Great Britain. And so he, he understood how British diplomacy worked. He understood. That while the British had won most of the battles in the war of 1812 and occupied at one time, Washington occupied parts of the South areas around the Great Lakes that they had other fish to fry.
[00:19:28] They were involved in conflict elsewhere throughout the world, and he understood that the British, by 1814 needed peace with the United States. More than they did war. And so he took advantage of that and ridden had demanded the retention of territory, controlled the Great Lakes, the right to navigate to Mississippi, and they lost all of that.
[00:19:50] He could see the larger picture.
[00:19:53] Albert Cheng: I mean, fascinating. Just his ability to kind of come out that way. After those negotiations. Let’s talk about perhaps one of the most remembered speeches of his career. And again, we just have to keep hitting these highlights and there’s so much to say. So on July 4th, 1821, he gave this speech and this oration, including famous lines, that America quote goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
[00:20:17] She might become the Dictas of the world. She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit end quote. So talk about this historical speech and how it attempted to establish a more restrained independence, American foreign policy.
[00:20:33] Randall Woods: People need to understand how weak the United States was during the first 50 years of its existence.
[00:20:39] Weak, militarily, weak and navy. Still a growing nation, but compared to the great powers of Europe, Imperial Russia, and Napoleonic France, great Britain, we were, we were a midget and they were constantly at war. From 1793 through, through Napoleon’s defeat. Final defeat in 1815, and we as a neutral trading nation were caught between the two lowering powers.
[00:21:05] They tried to prevent us from trading with the, with their enemy. They seized hundreds of of ships quit. The Adams goal was not to make the United States an imperial power, but make it strong enough to resist aggression and intimidation by the great powers. And so he started of as an expansionist because of Theran Continental Treaty, because of his advocacy and manifests destiny, the notion that we ought to control the American continent from from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
[00:21:35] But his goal was self-sufficiency. He did not envision us becoming an imperial power. Indeed, he thought imperialism and republicanism were really kind of mutually exclusive. So as you said that he, he is an architect of a foreign policy that is really rooted in independence and self-sufficiency.
[00:21:55] Albert Cheng: Well, so this can maybe segues to my next question.
[00:21:58] Monroe Doctrine. And so this was actually as, I mean listeners may not know written when John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State for President Monroe. And so essentially this is the US foreign policy, as you alluded to earlier, that opposed the European colonialism in the Western hemisphere and stated that any intervention in political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the us.
[00:22:21] So. Talk about his, you know, the underlying philosophy behind that, but also more generally, look, this is when he was Secretary of State, perhaps, is he the greatest Secretary of State in in US history?
[00:22:33] Randall Woods: That’s hard to say. I think he’s, he probably had a greater impact on American foreign policy, more lasting impact than any other Secretary of State, but that primarily was the Monroe Doctrine.
[00:22:42] The background of this was that Portugal and Spain’s colonies in Central, central and South America took advantage of the Napoleonic Wars to revolt against Spain and Portugal. Spain was growing weaker and weaker year by year, unable to control these revolutions. There was a lot of sympathy in the US for these revolutions, pressure for the Monroe administration to extend diplomatic recognition and to sort of stake our claim as the hegemon of the Western hemisphere.
[00:23:16] Quincy Adams waited. He delayed the recognition until we had signed the Transcontinental Treaty and bullied Spain and deeding the Floridas to us. But once that was done, his major concern was the Holy Alliance, the coalition of powers that had defeated Napoleon and wanted to to return the world to the 18th century and century of colonies and of the Catholic church and nobility.
[00:23:42] And the rumors were that the Holy Alliance was gonna send an armada. To save Spain’s colonies to come to the rescue of their fellow monarch. And initially, great Britain, who, who had separated itself from the Holy Alliance, invited us to make a joint statement warning the other members of the Holy Alliance not to intervene in the Western hemisphere.
[00:24:05] Adams and former presidents, Jefferson and Madison were for that. But Adams insisted on a unilateral statement that we ought to, which included a warning to Great Britain. And so the Monroe Doctrine was both isolationist and expansionist because it, it declared that Europe and the Americas were two different spheres, two different societies, two different cultures with two different interests, and they ought to remain separate.
[00:24:31] And the Monroe Doctrine warned the holy alliance not to, we wouldn’t interfere with. Colonies already established, but warn them not to try to establish additional colonies and not to try to interfere or control the movements for independence in in Latin America, the Menno doctrine continued to prevail, still continues to affect American foreign policy.
[00:24:53] And so it was an expansionist statement too, because implicit in this was that we would formal perhaps, but we would dominate to the other republics of the hemisphere economically and if necessary politically.
[00:25:07] Alisha Searcy: Very interesting. So Professor Woods, here’s something that I found fascinating. John Quincy Adams was elected US President by the House of Representatives in 1824 after Andrew Jackson, who won the most popular and electoral votes, but failed to receive a majority.
[00:25:24] Can you discuss this? I’m sure was a very contentious election. And then the supposed corrupt bargain, quote unquote, with us Speaker Henry Clay and then John Quincy Adams failed reelection in 1828.
[00:25:39] Randall Woods: The Federalist Party really ceased to exist after the turn of the century, during the so-called era of good feelings.
[00:25:45] From 18 eight to 1824, there was just, there was just one party, the the Republican Party, and that was true during Quincy Adams eight year tenure, secretary of State during the the Mo Monroe administration. But that couldn’t last. There were sectional interests. There were, as interest of class economic differences.
[00:26:05] So the Republican Party began to break apart. And in the, in the election of 1824, there were five prominent Republicans who were candidates. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy, Adams, and Jackson won a majority of the votes, but not a clear majority. He won the most, but not a clear majority, and so the election was thrown into the House of Representatives with each state having one vote.
[00:26:34] And Clay Henry Clay from Kentucky. He, he controlled the votes of Kentucky and Ohio, a couple of other states, and he, through his support to Quincy Adams, which enabled him to win the election in the house, he captured 13 of 24 possible votes. Certainly after the campaign, the Jackson people began campaigning for the election of 1828.
[00:26:58] And their charge was that John Quincy Adams had paid off Henry Clay by naming him Secretary of State, and that that was the so-called corrupt bargain. Indeed, that was not, that happens all the time in American politics, and it so happened that Clay and Adams view of public policy, what the nation ought to look like, what it’s foreign and eco and domestic policy should look like matched each other.
[00:27:21] So it was a natural choice.
[00:27:24] Alisha Searcy: So I wanna talk about May, 1836. The US House of Representatives passed a resolution that automatically tabled all petitions relating to slavery without even hearing them. And US representative John Quincy Adams forcefully opposed this gag rule using a variety of parliamentary tactics to try to read slavery petitions on the floor of the house, but was repeatedly defeated.
[00:27:48] And so in 1844, the house rescinded the gag rule on a motion made by John Quincy Adams. Can you talk to us about this famous or infamous chapter of John Quincy Adams Congressional career?
[00:28:01] Randall Woods: Sure the Adams family, Abigail’s father had owned, I think two slaves, but the Adams family, like most people in Massachusetts opposed slavery.
[00:28:11] The family had opposed slavery. The and Quincy Adams decided when he came in the House of Representatives that his principle objective was going to be. To try to undermine the slave power to break its control over national policy, its domination of Congress, and to bring it about, if possible, voluntary emancipation and if not.
[00:28:33] Forced emancipation. And so he was one of the great ORs of the 19th century, which featured great orators. So he would chastain in speech after speech on the floor of the house. He would chastise the slave power. He would try to shame it into abandoning the so-called peculiar institution. And he became a fellow traveler with the abolitionists.
[00:28:56] He could never agree with them. He, he could only tolerate emancipation if it was done through constitutional means. But one of the techniques that he and other opponents of slavery used was to deluge the House of Representatives with petitions. Thousands of petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of people opposing slavery.
[00:29:16] And so the Southern Power passed the gag rule declaring that any petition referring to slavery or having to do with slavery had to be laid on the table and could not be debated. Oh, well, he, he, he, he kept this, turned out to be, I suppose, very important because Quincy Adams then focused on freedom of the speech, of freedom of speech and freedom of petition, and began to make a pitch to northern and Mid-Atlantic white citizens claiming that their rights were being infringed, and that really began to turn the table.
[00:29:48] And so in 1844, he was able to secure the legislation defeating the gag rule.
[00:29:54] Alisha Searcy: Wow. You mentioned something that I’ve actually never heard before, which is that thousands of people signed petitions in opposition of slavery. I don’t think I ever knew that, so thank you for sharing that.
[00:30:05] Randall Woods: I thought you sure.
[00:30:07] It was a major, it was, I mean, hundreds of thousands. Quincy Adams and his family, the women in his family devoted themselves to receiving these hundreds and hundreds of petitions, cataloging them, arranging them, and then enabling him and other opponents of slavery to utilize them on the floor of the house.
[00:30:26] Wow.
[00:30:27] Alisha Searcy: It’s good to know. Professor, can you briefly summarize the 1839 African Slave Revolt on board the Spanish slave Schooner La Amistad, led by Joseph Cinque, a West African Mende Tribesman, as well as the 73-year-old former president and US representative John Quincy Adams, successful nine hour oratorical defense of the Africans and attack on the immorality of the slave trade and the US Supreme Court case, us versus Schooner Amistad.
[00:30:57] Randall Woods: Sure. In 1839, the some Portuguese slavers bought slaves in West Africa, transship them to Cuba, sold them to Spanish plantation owners, the Mende, the Africans being transported from Habana to one of the plantations, revolted. They killed several. The captain, several of the crew kept two of the owners alive ’cause they could navigate the ship.
[00:31:22] The rebels, the Mendes thought they were being returned to Africa, but they were tricks and the Cubans sailed the Amistad into the United States. The ship was seized by American custom cutters, and the slaves were imprisoned. Now, at this point, the Portuguese and the Spanish and the British had signed treaties, outlawing the international slave trade.
[00:31:45] So the abolitionists came to the defense of the Amistad rebels. Joseph, uh, and his folks, and they hired John Quincy Adams to represent them before the Supreme Court. And Quincy Adams argued that the mende were part of a, a foreign nation ought to be treated as foreign nationals. That they had been sold into slavery illegally, that they were free persons, and that under United States law and under the law of God.
[00:32:14] They were entitled to be free, and although there were a majority of slave owners on the Supreme Court, Quincy Adams carried the day and the Africans were free. Wow.
[00:32:24] Alisha Searcy: Thank you for that. Uh. So in February of 1848, US representative and former president John Quincy Adams, sadly suffered a fatal stroke on the US House floor.
[00:32:36] The diaries of John Quincy Adams is one of the most extraordinary works in American literature, and begun in 1779 at the age of 12 and kept more or less faithfully until his death almost 70 years later, and totaling some 15,000 closely written manuscript pages. We know that it extends more than 25 miles in microfilm.
[00:32:57] Can you give us a brief overview of the historical importance of his diaries?
[00:33:03] Randall Woods: Well, it’s regarded as one of the two greatest diaries in English language. The other boxer, Samuel Peeps, Quincy Adams and his family wrote at least three hours a day, they wrote letters and Quincy Adams wrote in his diary and it was well, he, he extremely literate, insightful person.
[00:33:21] Fortunately for biographers, Quincy Adams didn’t have a thought or a feeling or an attitude or experienced an event without writing it down. So it’s this unbelievable travel log. It’s its unbelievable description of domestic and foreign policymaking analysis of every major political public figure of the era.
[00:33:44] It includes his philosophy of government, long prejudices on religion. As it evolved during his and his family’s life, he understood how important it was at the end of his life. He said, my diary may be the my most important contribution to American history and to history in general.
[00:34:03] Alisha Searcy: Wow. I bet that’s debatable, isn’t it?
[00:34:06] He’s done so much. It’s incredible. Yeah. In the education of Henry Adams from 1907, a John Quincy Adams grandson and future historian, recounted an episode as a young boy protesting to his mother about going to school. And Henry Adams wrote, quote, the door of the presidents talking about John Quincy Adams Library opened.
[00:34:28] Mm-hmm. And the old man slowly came down the stairs, putting on his hat. He took the boy’s hand without a word and walked with him in paralyzed. Awe. Up to the town end quote. Can you discuss John Quincy Adams pivotal role in shaping the education of generations of the Adams Dynasty, as well as his enduring legacy of public service to our nation?
[00:34:53] Randall Woods: Well, I mean the, the family was tragic in many ways. Suffered from alcoholism. Two of John Quincy Adams sons, one of them. Committed suicide. The other drank himself to death. The only surviving son was Charles Francis. Charles Francis was the father of Henry and Brooks Adams, the famous historians and philosophers who sat had such an impact on public and, and academic lives and, and the late 19th and early 20th century.
[00:35:19] So these are incredibly bright, interested, well educated. Public spirited individual. So Quincy Adams legacy, as I think you imply extended far past the date of his death in 1848.
[00:35:34] Alisha Searcy: Professor, before we close, we would love for you to read an excerpt from your book.
[00:35:40] Randall Woods: Sure. When in 1812, the younger Adams was serving as US minister to Imperial Russia, he experienced profound doubt about a life in politics and diplomacy.
[00:35:52] He and his family were an extremist suffering physically from the Russian winter and emotionally from separation from their two eldest sons and an advis and potentially disastrous war between the United States and Greg Ritland. Perhaps John Quincy wrote his father, it would be best for him to return home to a life of law and literature.
[00:36:14] Do not deceive yourself. John, his father, wrote back, you are a patriot, both architect and servant of the republic of which you are a citizen. Often I wish it were not so the father confided, but it is undeniable that your very soul is intertwined with that of Americas. Your country will never leave you be.
[00:36:35] It will continue to seduce you, disappoint you, thrill you, but above all, demand everything that you have until your dying day.
[00:36:45] Albert Cheng: Wow. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. Indeed. He, he, he has given us a lot more than we can encapsulate in, in the time we have here on a show. Um, incredible. And certainly more than, you know, you probably had a great challenge to condense all this in 700 pages, you know, now knowing that he’s 15,000 page diary,
[00:37:06] Randall Woods: it took me about eight years about what an adventure it was.
[00:37:09] Yeah. Amazing.
[00:37:11] Albert Cheng: Yeah. Yeah. Well, professors, thank you so much for your work and documenting John Quincy Adams life and for you to take your time to share with us about this man. Thank you for having me.
[00:37:33] Well, Alisha, that was fun. You know, I, I was just kind of sitting here listening and realizing that I don’t always get the opportunity to read deeply about a lot of these historical figures that are so significant to our history. So it’s really special to be able to hear about John Quincy Adams in particular today.
[00:37:49] Alisha Searcy: It was same here and thinking about this period of time, right? There’s so much to learn. Mm-hmm. And so much history there. And Professor Woods did a great job of kind of unpacking that. And you’re right, we don’t get to, I don’t get to read a lot of these kinds of books. And so hearing his accounts were super informative.
[00:38:06] Albert Cheng: Yeah. We hope they were at least as informative. If you’re listening out there and now, this is gonna bring us to the end of our show, though. So Alisha, I wanna thank you for co-hosting with me as usual. Well, thank you. And lemme leave you with the tweet of the week and the teaser for next week’s episode.
[00:38:21] This week’s tweet comes from Neil McCluskey, who flagged an article, or I should say, tweeted an article, I guess, about the value of sports for democracies. Now that’s an interesting argument. Yes. Um, and in his tweet he also says they’re not just, they’re not simply entertainment. So go check out that article.
[00:38:40] I, I found it fascinating to think through and read as someone who loves sports myself. Last but not least, for next week’s episode, we’re gonna have another University of Arkansas colleague, Dr. Robert Marto, who’s the 21st century chair in leadership at my department, the Department of Education Reform, and then his friend Sean Ek, who is the Associate Vice President of Academics and Instructions for Basis Education in Texas.
[00:39:05] And so we’re gonna get a chance to talk about. Academically intensive charter schools with our guests. So make sure to tune back in next week, but until then, have a great day. Hey, it’s Albert Cheng here, and I just wanna thank you for listening to the Learning Curve podcast. If you’d like to support the podcast further, we’d invite you to donate to the Pioneer Institute at pioneerinstitute.org/donations.
