Heir to the fathers : John Quincy Adams and the spirit of constitutional government
"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
Biographies
pages cm
9780739106013, 0739106015
226067205
Ch. I. Introduction
Ch. II. Adams, the Constitution, and the Contemporary Scholarly Debate
Ch. III. John Quincy Adams, the Founders, and Slavery
Ch. IV. Jubilee of the Constitution
Ch. V. The Africans of the Amistad
Ch. VI. The Amistad Case
Ch. VII. The Legacy of John Quincy Adams