The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics

Why has John Quincy Adams been largely written out of American history when he is, in fact, our lost Founding Father?

Long relegated to the sidelines of history as the hyperintellectual son of John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), has never basked in the historical spotlight. Remembered, if at all, as an ineffective president during an especially rancorous time, Adams was humiliated in office after the contested election of 1824, viciously assailed by populist opponents for ...