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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC03891 |
| From Archive Folder | Documents Relating to 1845 |
| Title | John Quincy Adams to Lewis Tappan discussing his bill for compensated abolition |
| Date | 15 July 1845 |
| Author | Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848) |
| Recipient | Tappan, Lewis |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Content Description | Written as congressman. A beautiful and deeply felt letter. Concerning the opposition of abolitionists to his bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Adams writes that with opposition from both abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates, he resorts to silence and inaction. He further writes that, consulting the "sortes biblicae" (randomly opening a bible to learn one's fortune or course of action), he found the passage where the Prophet [Nathan] advised King David that the Lord had not chosen him to build the Temple (2 Samuel 7: 2-13). He ends the letter here. (Adams died three years later. Compensated emancipation was enacted in April 1862.) |
| Subjects | President Congress Slavery African American History Government and Civics Law Abolition Washington, D.C. Superstition Religion Politics |
| People | Tappan, Lewis (1788-1873) Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848) |
| Place written | Washington, D.C. |
| Theme | Government & Politics; The Presidency; Slavery & Abolition; African Americans; Religion |
| Sub-collection | The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1493-1859 |
| Additional Information | Five years after the Amistad affair, and a year after the House of Representatives ended the Gag Rule, Adams expresses his resignation about the possibility of further actions against slavery, such as the abolition of slavery within the District of Columbia. Not until April 1862, long after Adams's death, did Congress pass an act providing for compensated emancipation of "persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia." In 1836, Adams had warned the South that if a war was fought in the South, the government would abolish slavery. "From the instant your slave-holding states become a theater of war--civil, servile, or foreign," he predicted, "--from that instant the war powers of the Constitution extend interference with the institution of slavery in every way that it can be interfered with." In 1846, a year after he wrote the following letter, Adams suffered a paralytic stroke. Although he recovered sufficiently to return to Congress, he suffered another stroke in February 1848 at his House desk. The stricken former President was moved to the Speaker of the House's office, where he died two days later. With his death, the last tangible political link with the world of the founders was broken. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859 |
| Transcript | Show/hide |