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John Quincy Adams

Medium: Half-plate daguerreotype
Dimensions: Image/Sight: 13.7 × 10.2 cm (5 3/8 × 4"); Frame: 20.8 × 17.3 × 1.3 cm (8 3/16 × 6 13/16 × 1/2")

Topic: Interior; Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Chair; Home Furnishings\Furniture\Carpet; Home Furnishings\Lighting Devices\Lamp; Architecture\Fireplace; John Quincy Adams: Male; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Massachusetts; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\Diplomat\Ambassador; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\President of US; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\Cabinet member\Secretary of State; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\US Senator\Massachusetts; John Quincy Adams: Politics and Government\Son of US President; Portrait

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Acquired through the generosity of the Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Smithsonian National Board; The Burnett Family Fund; Carl and Marilynn Thoma; Connie and Dennis Keller; Tim Lindholm and Lucy Gaylord Lindholm; Mr. and Mrs. John W. McCarter, Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Gidwitz; Ellen G. Miles and Neil R. Greene; Ronnyjane Goldsmith; David D. Hiller; Richard and Janet Horwood; and Mary Martell.

Exhibition Label: Born Braintree, Massachusetts; John Quincy Adams had not argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court since 1802. Yet in 1840, with the fate of the Amistad captives in the hands of the nation’s highest court, Adams agreed to join the Africans’ legal counsel. Aged seventy-three, the former president and current congressman fretted privately that he might not be up to the task—one made doubly difficult by the knowledge that a majority of the sitting justices were enslavers. Despite such formidable odds, Adams prevailed, securing the Africans’ freedom with eloquent and impassioned arguments based on legal as well as moral principles.; Nacido en Braintree, Massachusetts; John Quincy Adams no había litigado ante el Tribunal Supremo de EE.UU. desde 1802. Sin embargo, en 1840, cuando el destino de los cautivos del barco Amistad quedó en manos del más alto foro judicial de la nación, Adams aceptó unirse a los abogados de la defensa. Cumplidos sus 73 años, el expresidente y entonces congresista temía no dar la talla, sobre todo ante la doble dificultad de que la mayoría de los jueces eran esclavistas. Pese a las enormes probabilidades en su contra, Adams logró la libertad de los africanos con argumentos elocuentes y efusivos, basados en principios tanto legales como morales.