American Minute with Bill Federer
On February 21, 1848, John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke at his desk in the House chamber, shortly after making an impassioned speech against the Democrat plan of extending slavery to the Western territories won in the Mexican-American War. He died 2 days later without regaining consciousness.
A bronze marker on the floor indicates where Adams’s desk once stood, known at the “whispering spot” in Statuary Hall.
John Quincy Adams was the only President to serve in Congress after having been President.
Nicknamed Old Man Eloquent for speaking out against slavery, he offered a plan for its elimination. In 1841, John Qunicy Adams defended 53 Africans before the Supreme Court who had mutinied aboard the slave ship Amistad, gaining them their freedom.
As the African slaves were purchased at Muslim slave markets, John Quincy Adams wrote in his “Essay on Turks” (1829):
The natural hatred of the Mussulmen towards the infidels is in just accordance with the precepts of the Koran … The fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion is the extirpation of hatred from the human heart. It forbids the exercise of it, even towards enemies … In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab … spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth … He declared undistinguishing and exterminating war as a part of his religion … The essence of his doctrine was violence and lust, to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.
The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.
