Existing comment:
THIS BUILDING IS DEDICATED IN HONOR OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1767-1848) SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Classicist, Poet, Harvard Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Lawyer, Polemicist, Public Servant, Antislavery Champion, Special Friend of Columbian College- Later Renamed The George Washington University
Columbian College (now The George Washington University) during its early trying years had no more constant friend than John Quincy Adams. In 1820, then Secretary of State, he was one of several patrons in high government positions who contributed to funds raised for the purchase of land and the erection of buildings that made possible the establishment in 1821 of Columbian College. He subsequently became the College's principal creditor. From his first association with the College until his death almost thirty years later, he gave generously of his means, his advice, and his presence. He attended commencements and public exercises of the College with great regularity and was a friend and adviser of President Chapin, the second president of the College.
Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree, Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, Second President of the United States.
In 1825 he was elected sixth President of the United States. This is the first time in U.S. history that a former President's son has become President. In his inaugural address he recommended the construction of a national university. He believed also in government funding for higher education and scientific research.
Prior to his Presidency he held several important diplomatic posts, including that of Minister to the Netherlands, Minister to Russia, and Minister to Great Britain. In 1796 President George Washington called him "the most valuable public character abroad." In 1814-15 he helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 with the British. He also served in the Massachusetts Senate as well as the United States Senate. In 1817 he was appointed Secretary of State. One of his most important achievements in that post was to draft the Monroe Doctrine.
After his one term as President, he was in 1830 elected to the United States House of Representatives where he served for seventeen years and became a popular hero for his fierce opposition to slavery. To date he is the only ex-President ever to be elected to the House. In the celebrated Amistad case of 1841 he successfully defended before the Supreme Court the rights of thirty-nine mutinous African captives. In 1844, after an eight-year battle, he finally persuaded the House to repeal the Gag Rule that had been adopted to prevent antislavery petitions from being read on the floor. He became the first congressman to assert the right of the government to free slaves during time of war. Upon the arguments of Adams, Abraham Lincoln subsequently based the
In 1846 Adams suffered a paralytic stroke but recovered and returned to Congress. On February 21, 1848, however, he suffered a second stroke and collapsed at his House desk while rising to speak. Too ill to be moved from the building, he was carried to the Speaker's Chamber where he died two days later on February 23. The public mourning that followed was unprecedented. At the state funeral of John Quincy Adams on February 25, 1848, the faculty and student body of Columbian College marched in the civic procession from the Capitol to the Congressional Cemetery.
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg President of the University
Charles T. Manatt Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees
Lilien F. Robinson Chair, Faculty Senate Executive Committee
John D. Zeglis Chairman, Board of Trustees
Sheldon S. Cohen Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees
Kuyomars "Q" Golparvar President, Student Association
May 1998 |