Young John Quincy Adams, Spy

John Quincy Adams [JQA] was a remarkable man who dedicated his life to public service. His training started early under his patriot parents John and Abigail Adams.

I have read multiple biographies of the family and somehow was not surprised to win The Adventures of Young John Quincy Adams: Sea Chase on Goodreads, even though it is written for young readers.

The author John Braddock was a case officer with the CIA and is a strategy consultant. His previous book is A Spy's Guide to Thinking.

The history behind the story in Sea Chase concerns the eventful journey across the Atlantic in 1778, when an eleven-year-old JQA accompanied his father to France to ask for French support of the American Revolution.

Reading Sea Chase, I had to keep in mind two things: my understanding of JQA and my memories of the historical fiction read in childhood that encouraged a lifelong interest in the American Revolution and history. When a teacher read Ben and Me by Robert Lawson to the class, I loved it and read it several times.  Of course, a mouse living in Benjamin Franklin's hat did not give him all his ideas. It was a device to catch a child's attention and interest. It worked.

In Sea Chase, the brilliant mind of JQA has yet to show itself. Instead, at least one person thinks he must have been adopted because he is so naive and clueless. The story is of the Education of John Quincy Adams (not to be confused with the autobiography of his grandson the Education of Henry Adams) in which JQA not only learns French from Dr. Noel, but the art of spycraft as well, involving critical thinking skills and discernment.

While his old man seems busy with papers and oblivious to what is going on around him, another unlikely characterization, JQA makes friends with other young travelers on the ship, including a cabin boy with a secret, suffers seasickness, and learns--literally--to climb the ropes. One night he overhears sailors talking, for there are British spies on board, and his inquisitive mind leads him into troubled waters. There is adventure ahead for the children.

As the good Doctor mentors JQA, he also is lectured about political philosophy and the superiority of Democratic and Christian values.

As a child, I loved adventure stories and stories on the high seas. I believe I would have liked this novel.

As an adult, I cringe at the characterization of JQA, for it is hard to believe he would have been such a dunce. And yet...what about that mouse who gave Ben Franklin his best ideas? I remind myself. It is fiction. For kids. And if that means that twenty years later they pick up a solid biography of the man who dedicated his life to his country, and who after a lackluster presidency returned to the House and argued for an end to slavery, I'm in.

Learn More About JQA:

Read about the quilt I made for John Quncy Adams at
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/08/john-quincy-adams-champion-of-human.html

President's Quilt for John Quincy Adams made by Nancy A. Bekofske
for traveling exhibition by Sue Reich and appears in her book
Quilts Political and Presidential

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/12/in-his-own-words-john-quincy-adams-on.html

The Remarkable Life of Young John Quincy Adams
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/09/portrait-of-president-as-young-man.html

Mr Adam's Last Crusade
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/08/mr-adams-last-crusade-by-joseph-wheelan.html

And a book I have been reading, John Quincy Adams Militant Spirit
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/books/review/john-quincy-adams-militant-spirit-by-james-traub.html

In His Own Words, John Quincy Adams on Slavery

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery, Selections from the Diary by David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason traces Adams' evolving understanding of slavery, drawing from Adams diary.

After serving as president Adams' home state of Massachusetts elected him to the House of Representatives. Adams remained in the House until his death. Adams never shirked the call to serve his country. He was a diplomat, Senator, Secretary of State, and President. Adams literately died on the floor of the House.

Adams, like his parents, believed slaves must be freed, but how that was to be accomplished, and the intensity of his personal commitment to ending slavery, evolved over his lifetime. It was not until late in his life that he took up the cause in earnest, battling a government controlled by the South and the Gag Rule that banned any petition for abolition to be presented in the House.

The book consists of diary extracts with commentary from the authors providing a framework to understand their context.

The issue of slavery was problematic since the inception of America. Removing Jefferson's clause on slavery from the Constitution may have allowed the States to unite, but the "United States" only came after the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Adams' career was spanned these two pivotal events.

The diary reveals both his aversion to slavery and his aversion to pressing the issue. He believed that the Abolitionists demand was too radical. He agonized that the divide over slavery would bring an end to the American experiment through war; he thought that the disbanding of the country and reforming under a new Constitution a better option. Slaves were property, and the Constitution defended personal property--a huge stumbling block. The flaw, he felt, was in the Constitution itself.

How would the slave owners be compensated? And what did the country do with the freedmen? He discredited the idea of buying up land in Africa and deporting all people of color back to their 'homeland.' Did America want to have colonies, after it had rejected being a colony? And he felt it was wrong to deport free blacks who were citizens of this country. (Although many wanted to get rid of freedmen, they were such a problem.)

Adams fought against allowing new slave states without a balance of non-slave states and contended against Britain's desire to search American ships for contraband slaves as allowing foreign countries legal authority over Americans.

The Electoral College was established to balance power between the populous Northern industrial states and the rural South with its large slave population. During Adams tenure in the House, the South, and slave owners, was in control of government.

It was impressed on me how the issues Adams grappled with have never been really solved in America. We still have racism and prejudice, our country still is threatened to be torn apart over sectional, regional and class differences. I hope to God that a Gag Rule is never again enacted against free speech.

Adams was in his upper seventies and still working day and night, praying for self control, searching to understand how to bridge the gap between Constitutional law and God's will for the freedom of the enslaved. I felt his pain, his anguish, and the burden of the legacy of behind being an Adams--a man appointed by God, his parents, and his own self imposed high standards to make a mark in history. He knew he would not live to see the end of slavery, but like John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness, believed he was preparing the road for the work of those who would come after him.

The Introduction was wonderful, and I was excited to get reading. It took me some time to get used to the book's format and to get a feel for Adams' style. For a while I wasn't sure I would finish the book. But as events precipitated during the 2016 election I felt the subject's relevance and was motivated to finish the book. So very glad I did not give up. I commend the authors for the huge undertaking of tackling Adams' massive diary to pull together this narrative that illumines Adams, his time, and an important part of American history.

Read John Quincy Adams diary at http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php/

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery
by David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason
Oxford University Press
Publication Dec. 1, 2016
$29.95 hard cover
ISBN: 9780199947959

*****

If you follow my blog you know I have a special interest in John Quincy Adams. My education on American presidents started with my reading over a dozen books on the presidents while making The President's Quilt.

Louise Catherine Adams
Remember the Ladies
by Nancy A Bekofske

I read more books on their wives while designing and creating Remember the Ladies, my Redwork quilt on the First Ladies. I was very interested in learning more about Louisa Catherine Adams, John Quincy's wife, and jumped at the change to read and review her biography The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron, which I reviewed here.

And as I was finishing Heffron's book I accepted the challenge of making a John Quincy quilt for The Presidents Quilt project organized by Sue Reich. As I designed the quilt I read another half dozen books on Adams! My John Quincy Adams and Remember the Ladies quilts appears in Reich's book Presidential and Patriotic Quilts and it has been touring the country for over a year now! Read about the book at http://ow.ly/6LtZ306lP1u.

John Quincy Adams by Nancy A Bekofske

Read my review of The Remarkable Life of John Quincy Adams at http://ow.ly/qqzW306lONb
Read about JQA push for the Smithsonian Institute in my review of The Stranger and the Statesman at http://ow.ly/7wgd306lOTg
Read about the annexation of Texas and the Gag Rule in America 1844 at http://ow.ly/xXdF306lP7H

Stranger Than Fiction: James Smithson's Legacy

The Stranger and The Statesmen by Nina Burleigh has a subtitle "James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the making of America's Greatest Museum, The Smithsonian." So when I saw it at the book sale at the West Branch library I had to pick it up.

"Not another John Quincy Adams book" groaned my husband.

There is precious little John Quincy Adams in the book. JQA saw the Smithson bequest as an opportunity to fulfill one of his presidential goals: to build an observatory. Or at least a center for scientific research and public education, something badly needed in America at the time. It was an uphill battle. No one really cared. The money was spent in buying bad bonds and was nearly lost. The intellectual Adams understood the need. Being the champion of lost, but "right", causes was his forte. He took on the role of defender of Smithson's intention.

There is not a whole lot about James Smithson (born James Macie) because little is known about him. All of his papers were destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian before they were cataloged and studied. The man was an enigma in his lifetime. He was the illegitimate son of the man who became Duke of Northumberland and a wealthy widow named Macie. James was small, a loner, in poor health, intelligent, and intensely focused on his narrow interest in the chemistry of rocks. No records of relations with women exist. He loved gambling. He spent most of his life on the continent.

No one has ever understood his decision to give his inheritance to a country with which he had no connections. Young America was no haven of the arts and science. The people were pragmatic and more interested in practical and applied science.

The books offers a detailed view of Smithson's times. There are plenty of strange characters and lots of amazing insights into society of his time. I cringed and guffawed, truly glad I did not live in such a barbaric time when children were thrust into cold baths to "harden" them, women went nine weeks between hair arranging, tuberculosis left men medical eunuchs, and the White House had an outdoor privy.

Burleigh's writing is lively and she keeps things interesting. But the book is limited in scope, and incomplete in its history of the museum. We learn more about Smithson's society than about his legacy.

For a CSPAN interview with the author see http://www.c-span.org/video/?178941-1/book-discussion-stranger-statesman
For an excerpt that appeared in Smithsonian Magazine see http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-stranger-and-the-statesman-148893159/?no-ist

The Stranger and The Statesman
Nina Burleigh
William Morrow 2003
ISBN 0060002417

Mr. Adam's Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

I have become a huge John Quincy fan, and the more I learn about him the more impressed I become. When I found Mr Adam's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adam's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress  I had to read it.  And I did, in three sittings. Wheelan has written an inspiring book, offering a concise overview of JQ's early career and a moving study of his time in the House.

After a failed presidency he expected a  peaceful retirement at Big House, the home of his parents, reunited with his library of 6,000 books.

Then he was elected to the House of Representatives. "My election as President of the United States was not so half so gratifying to my inmost soul" he wrote. And he quoted his hero Cicero, "I will not desert in my old age the Republic that I defended in my youth."

JQ was a throw back to another world, the world of the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence, when duty and freedom of speech and sacrifice were not just ideas. He eschewed political favoritism and party politics. It made him unpopular. His intelligence and prodigious memory, paired with a sharp wit and verbal prowess, made him a formidable enemy.

"Slavery is a slow poison to the morals of any community infected with it. Ours is infected with it to the vitals."JQA

64 years old in 1831, JQ took up arms to battle what he believed was the greatest threat to America: slavery. The House had enacted a 'gag' on all discussion of slavery and JQ was determined to end it. It took eight years. He was vilified, his life threatened, the House tried to silence him. Every day he walked to work and brought up petitions that brought the wrath of the House and the South upon his head.

He became friends with abolitionists Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke' Weld. JQ had been anti-slavery since 1820, but now became a self-avowed abolitionist.

"...the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of Southern slavery that ever existed." Representative Wise of Virginia

He voted against the main on other issues. He was no believer in expansionism, especially if it meant expanding slavery into new states and if it meant taking lands away from rightful owners. He was against the removal and extermination of Native Americans. He fought for the James Smithson legacy to be used as it was meant, resulting in the Smithsonian Institute. He voted to ban dueling. He even defended women's right to petition.

"They call Adams a man of one idea, but I tell you what it is, he had got more ideas than all of us put together." South Carolina Congressman Isaac Holmes

Then there was the Amistad trial. Don't rely on the Spielberg movie to learn about JQ's involvement or the importance of the trail. Read this book.

JQ was getting old, his hand was palsied, his eyes wept, he had rheumatism. He would not give up because there was no one to take his place. His eyes still  burned with passion and vitality. His mind was as sharp as ever. And he was at the height of his popularity.

He suffered a series of mild strokes, clung to his faith, and waited for the inevitable. On February 21, 1848 he was in the House when he suffered a stroke. All Washington closed down as "America's last living link between the present day and the fading Revolutionary War era of Washington lay dying in the U. S. Capitol" (from Mr Adam's Last Crusade).  On February 23 he died in the House Speaker's chamber.

In his day he was already an anachronism, a man without party loyalty, an original thinker, an independent voter without consideration of his own political or personal capital. His soul was rooted in the days of the Revolution when he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill with his mom and accompanied his father John Adams to Paris. He had known Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Dolley Madison. He lived into an America growing from the Industrial Revolution and clamoring for more land and more wealth. His questioning but firm faith was old fashioned in a time of Transcendentalism. JQ was America's better angel, a voice for the core values of it's foundation.

Has there ever been another like him?

John Quincy Adams, Champion of Human Rights, Gets a Quilt

When Sue Reich called for quilters to make a small presidential quilt I jumped at the chance to ask for John Quincy Adams. I had just read a biography on Louisa Catherine Adams. I had read about JQ in Bunker Hill, the John Adams by David McCullough, and in other books on American history.

People don't have a very clear image of JQ. He was raised for public service by his parents, Founding Father and president John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams. They expected superhuman achievements and JQ endeavored to meet the task.

When John Adams became Minister to France, 12-year-old JQ accompanied him. He was beloved by Thomas Jefferson. JQ traveled across Europe, studying under his father and at the finest universities. Back in the US he attended Harvard and followed his father into law.

George Washington chose JQ to be Minister to Holland. After his father left office he returned home and became a US Senator. Party politics intervened, and he left to teach at Harvard.

Then he was chosen to be Minister to Russia. He had married the London born Louisa and together they learned to navigate the Czarist court. Louisa became the pet of many a grand lady. He was called to France at the end of the Napoleonic Wars to represent America in forging the Treaty of Ghent. Louisa stayed behind to sell off their household, pack up, and travel with her child,  a dangerous winter journey of 3,000 miles to join him.

James Monroe asked JQ to be his Secretary of State, and he accomplished his greatest achievements. He forged the Monroe Doctrine and treaties incorporating Florida and Oregon into US territories.

The disintegration of the Federalist party left only the National Republicans, which had four candidates. None received a majority electoral college vote and the vote went to the House. JQ won because of Henry Clay's vote.

As President JQ focused on infrastructure to facilitate trade, education, and scientific research which he deemed needed to support a growing nation. He made sure the Smithson money went to create the Smithsonian Institute and was involved in the creation of what became the US Naval Observatory.

A one term president, JQ did not leave public service for long. He was called by Massachusetts to the House of Representatives. Never popular, a fierce independent and true to his own values, JQ was an eloquent spokesman for lost causes. He did not support President Jackson's removal of Native American peoples. He fought the "gag rule" against discussing slavery and finally ended it, as described in America 1844.

"Old Man Eloquent" was an abolitionist, as were his parents. When a ship of captured Africans mutinied and took over the Spanish ship Amistad, JQ was approached to represent the Africans at trial. He accepted, pro bono. In a seven hour presentation he argued that the Africans were not merchandise, but free men taken by pirates. JQ won the case and the grateful Mendhi men wrote letters of thanks.

It was reading these letters that was my "ah hah" moment. I had been struggling on how to present JQ, using quilt methods of his time, broderie perse in particular. What about JQ would reach and move a viewer of the quilt? I knew it had to be the Amistad case, representing JQ's deep dedication to liberty and Civil Rights.

The same day I had my breakthrough I learned that Sue Reich was offered a contract by Schiffert Publishing for "Patriotic and President Quilts" and it would include the Presidential Quilts Project!

All afternoon yesterday I worked on the quilt in a creative heat.

We had pizza for dinner.

Learn more about Sue Reich at
http://www.coveringquilthistory.com

When the Yankees Realized They Had Declared Independence

Nathaniel Philbrick's latest book Bunker Hill:a City, a Siege, a Revolution begins  with an seven-year-old John Quincy Adams standing with his mother Abigail on a hill near their home in Braintree. They were looking down at Boston where the British army and American militia were in battle. Boston was almost an island, with only a slender isthmus connecting to the mainland. The bay around the city was filled with British ships, their cannons bombarding the the hills where the militia had made their stand.

John Adams was in Philadelphia representing Massachusetts a the Continental Congress. His family were unprotected and feared the British would  reach their hamlet. But the worst memory for John Quincy was when he learned that their family friend and physician, John Warren, was killed in that battle.

The battle of Bunker Hill predated General Washington's command of the militia, before he made the local militias into an American army. New England was supported by other colonies,sending food and supplies, but the idea of a United States separate from Britain was not yet formulated. The leaders who opposed the Stamp Act and tea tax still believed that King George III was an okay guy. It was just his governors and bureaucracy that was at fault.

Philbrick does not present British rule as unduly harsh. They had sent armies to defend the colonies during the French and Indian War. They needed to pay off a war debt of over $800,000. Plus they had this little thing going on with Napoleon. They really needed the cash. That tea that was dumped into the big saltwater teapot? They had a surplus and were selling it at a deep discount, and thought, wrongly, that a few pence tax on the tea would not be objectionable seeing it was being sold so cheaply.

Those Yankees were headstrong and independent from the get-go. Philbrick's earlier book Mayflower was about the Puritan settlers in Massachusetts. They wanted religious freedom. The colonists felt they had bought their freedom with their own sweat, toil, and blood. They didn't like anyone telling them what to do.

Almost a comedy of errors, misunderstandings, chance and bad decisions, the outcome of the battle of Bunker Hill changed the world when the British troops, and loyalist citizens, sailed out of Boston harbor.

The hero of Philbrick's story is the almost unknown John Warren. He had saved John Quincy Adam's forefinger when it was badly fractured. At that time the usual practice would have been amputation. John Quincy never forgot how Dr. Warren saved his finger. Warren was as important as Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and other leaders of his time. But Warren could not resist joining the fray, and lost his life at Bunker Hill.

Philbrick ends the book in 1843 with John Quincy Adams refusing to attend celebratory remembrances of Bunker Hill. He was seventy-five years old and serving in congress where he fought for abolition. The Adams family revered Warren so much that when Abigail first saw John Trumbull's painting Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill she wrote "...in looking at it, my whole frame contracted, my blood shivered, and I felt a faintness in my heart." She felt the painting would "transmit to posterity characters and actions which will command the admiration of future ages and prevent the period which gave birth to them from ever passing away into the dark abyss of time..."

John Trumbull's Death of General Warren at Bunker Hill

Previously I have read Phlbrick's Mayflower, In the Heart of the Sea, and have Sea of Glory on my to read shelf. I have enjoyed his books. This book, being about a battle, was not as engrossing for me but his portrayal of the personages involved kept my interest.

Bunker Hill
Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for providing the -ebook for my review.

Louisa Catherine Adams:The Other Mrs Adams by Margery M. Heffron

"...many undertakings which appear very difficult and arduous to my Sex, are by no means so trying as imagination forever depicts them--energy and discretion, follow the necessity of their exertion, to protect the fancied weakness of feminine imbecility."

When I was researching the First Ladies for my Redwork quilt Remember the Ladies I was fascinated by Louisa Catherine Adams. So when I heard about the first biography written on her I knew I had to read it.


Louisa reminds me of an 19th c version of Eleanor Roosevelt in that she was intelligent but spent her younger years battling self doubt. Both faced a domineering mother-in-law. And both women blossomed late in life. Each had troubled marriages, but was a political helpmate to their husband. Both advanced women's rights.

One huge difference: while Franklin Roosevelt cheated on Eleanor, John Quincy, following his father's example, was a true and life-long lover to Louisa. Their tempestuous romance is a story that rivals Elizabeth and Darcy in misunderstandings, stubborn willfulness of spirit, and intellectual duels.

Remember the Ladies designed by Nancy Bekofske

Louisa was born in England to an American merchant father and a British mother...who married after the birth of several children. She was raised in luxury, was well educated and cosmopolitan, speaking fluent French. Louisa played the harp and sang beautifully. Her family were long time friends of the Adams clan. John Quincy was a frequent guest, and fell in love with Louisa. But took his sweet time proposing to her, as he felt the heavy burden placed upon him to ACHIEVE, and marriage would keep him away from applying himself to achievement. Their courtship and engagement was full of misunderstandings. John kept Louisa uncertain when he would set a marriage date. It could have easily ended their future together. But passion prevailed, and the 30 year old John Quincy married the 22 year old Louisa just before he left for his assignment in Russia.

John Quincy Adams as a young man in 1796

Louisa and John Quincy shared many intellectual interests and a deep passion, but each suffered from feelings of inadequacy. They were perfectionists who fell short of both their own and the other's expectations.

John and Abigail Adams raised John Quincy for public service. Their expectations were extremely high. This perfectionism was passed down even to their grandchildren's generation. It was not a healthy Adams trait.

Louisa Catherine Adams at marriage

Whenever they were separated, or Louisa was ill, John showed a great affection towards Louisa. But he was also often self-absorbed in his career and his drive for continual self-improvement kept him isolated from his family, physically and emotionally.

Rarely in good health, the petite Louisa suffered nine miscarriages, a still born child, the death of her beloved little girl, separation from her sons for six years, and the suicide of a son. The medical attention available was blistering and bleeding, laudanum and other 'cures' we shudder at today. She also suffered from a reoccurring painful and disfiguring bacterial skin condition, erysipelas.

As the wife of an ambassador, she was exposed to the courts of Europe with all the glitz and glamor of royalty, yet was unable to afford the wardrobe to suit her position. Louisa made friends easily and was readily taken under wing by American Ex-pats. Her husband was oblivious to her gifts as a social ambassador early in their marriage. At a time when it was considered ill mannered to campaign for political office, Louisa did all the footwork, managing his presidential campaign through social affairs, the 'parlor politics' used so successfully by Dolley Madison.

One of the most thrilling adventures ever undergone by any First Lady was Louisa's 40 day, 3,000 mile trip across post-war Europe in 1815. John had been called to Paris to aid in the Treaty of Ghent, leaving Catherine and their son Charles in St. Petersburg. After nine months apart he learned he would not return to Russia, assigned to London. He wrote for his family to join him at once. Louisa had to arrange the sale of their home and goods, plan their travel and arrange for protection as they traversed Russia, Prussia, and France. It was the middle of winter. The roads were terrible, unmarked rutted dirt or deep mud. Robber and murders haunted the open roads and the hamlets along the way. All her money was secreted on her person. She lost her male guard and had to make do with a fourteen year old boy. As she neared France, traveling in a Russian carriage with Russian and Prussian sidekicks, a new concern arose. Napoleon had escaped from Elba. Russia and Prussia were bitter enemies of Napoleon. The travelers feared attack by the crowds in the streets.

Louisa in mid-life had blossomed into the strong and capable person she was meant to be. Her husband came to respect and trust her as an equal partner and she became his personal secretary for a while.

As many First Ladies have experienced, life in Washington was stressful and isolated. Etiquette Wars over who called on who first had started with Elizabeth Monroe. When Louisa followed the precedent of not calling first on everyone in Washington no one was pleased and her socials were boycotted. Her health often kept her from attending events or accompanying her husband socially.

John Quincy Adams was a scholar of great intellect with a remarkable career, starting as a teenager who accompanied his father on his diplomatic missions. After graduating from Harvard and a brief career in Law, John Quincy was minister to the Netherlands; Secretary of State of Massachusetts; taught at Harvard; was minister to Russia; represented America at the Ghent peace talks; served as plenipotentiary to Great Britain; and was Secretary of State under President Monroe. After serving as President he served as Senator, arguing for abolition. He died on the floor of the Senate.

John Quincy spent years researching and writings the most thorough, and un-readably dry, exploration of weights and measures. He was compulsive about keeping a diary, and  alphabetized his personal letters. During a more peaceful and contented time, he indulged in composing poetry and  thought had he been able to choose his own path he would have made a great poet

After John Quincy's death Louisa wrote several books about her life, "Adventures of a Nobody," "Record of My Life" and "Narrative of a Journey from Russia to France 1815". She corresponded with Sarah and Angelina Grimke' and was interested in the nascent movement for women's rights.

Margery M. Heffron saw Louisa's portrait at the Adams National Historical Park in the 1970s and wrote,"Her level, appraising glance challenged me to pay her respect." This book is her response. The author passed away while writing this biography and was unable to finish Louisa's life. Sadly the story ends at John Quincy's bid for reelection to the presidency.

"The Other Mrs. Adams" was a fascinating and complex woman.

I thank Yale University Press for e-book access through NetGalley.



Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams
Margery M. Heffron
Yale University Press
 ISBN: 9780300197969
Cloth: $40.00