General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This great president has never been recognized at its fair value [View all]Journeyman
(15,023 posts)After leaving the Presidency, he was elected U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and served the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president.
Animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. He predicted the Union's dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, felt the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers.
Adams was also a critic of the annexation of Texas and of the MexicanAmerican War, which he saw as an aggressive war for territory.Both these events, he believed, contributed to the inevitability of civil war.
He argued, successfully, before the US Supreme Court in 1841 on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship Amistad. They were declared free and returned to their homes in Africa.
He was also a leading voice throughout his life for the advancement of science. It was through his intercession, and dogged determination, that the bequest from British scientist James Smithson be accepted and used to build a national institution of science and learning. The Smithsonian Institution graces our lives to this day.