Sometimes people are more successful in some phases of their life than others. John Quincy Adams (hereafter JQA), the 6th US President and the son of John Adams (the 2nd US President), had a remarkable life as a public servant and politician, but this book makes a solid case that he really hit his stride late in life, after leaving the highest office of the still youthful United States. JQA traveled to Europe as a boy along with his father, later served as diplomat and statesman, including Massachusetts State Senator, US Senator, Secretary of State, and US President. Unlike most American Presidents, JQA continued his political and public life career after the presidency, this time incarnated as a Massachusetts Congressman, serving his freshman term starting at age 64 and ending at his death in the Capitol at 81 in 1848. In Mr. Adams' Last Crusade, Joseph Wheelan brings us up to speed with JQA rather quickly, summarizing his pre-Social-Security-age life (had Social Security existed then) in a page per year (on average). Wheelan masterfully introduces us to 'Old Man Eloquent' by focusing on these later years in public life, rather than conforming to conventional biographies that hold those presidential four or eight years as the professional and personal pinnacle.

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade argues that while JQA’s post-presidential congressional career began rather modestly, JQA ultimately became a lightning rod for the rights to free speech and to petition the government, based upon the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Further, Wheelan posits that JQA’s ultimately successful arguments against the Gag Rule (which denied congressional debate on and later even introduction of petitions or anything else relevant to slavery) enabled the inevitable vehement national dispute on slavery that climaxed with the Civil War. I would argue based on this book that furthermore, JQA’s congressional career helped guide the United States to maturity by bridging the Revolutionary generation of his father with the Civil War generation. After all, JQA knew many if not all of the Founding Fathers, and served with Congressmen Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Wheelan makes much of JQA’s iconic status, and popularity, especially towards the end of his life, but argues successfully that this became much deserved and frequently draws upon the primary accounts of contemporaries, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and others, to give a broad sense of how JQA was perceived by both allies and enemies.

Some of my more favorite parts of the book are the thunderous arguments JQA made in front of the Supreme Court for the Africans who mutinied aboard the Amistad, and for his rebuttal against censure which ripped his opponents a new one when they were angered by his dogged demand for the right to petition. In both these instances, Wheelan demonstrates JQA’s incredible intellect, perceptiveness, tenacity, and learned pugnacity. Regarding the Amistad, “When Adams’ turn came to address the court, he began by modestly observing that he might well ‘exhibit at once the infirmities of age and the inexperience of youth.’ He then proceeded to demonstrate over the next four and a half hours that he was operating under neither handicap.”

Good story telling also involves showing how characters change and respond to events, and a good biography not only points out influencing factors, but shows evolution and maturation in thinking and action. Wheelan demonstrates this through JQA’s shift on the issue of slavery, from a general disdain, to supporting freedom through the right to petition, to outright abolitionism. This is an important point because while JQA worked with and promoted the cause of several abolitionists, he was not one of them until very late in life.

Ultimately, this is a biography I like and I highly recommend it. It focuses on an interesting portion of an interesting person’s life and reassesses a largely unsung and disregarded early national figure. The reasoning for this selection is stated up front, and Wheelan provides an interesting analysis and synthesis at the end as well, which I appreciate. Too many biographies end with the death and skimp on the analysis and assessing the thesis at the end. Furthermore, the story is told convincingly, with plenty of references to primary resources, especially JQA’s extensive memoirs and diary. There is plenty in this book to learn more about a man too often forgotten, who was in a situation faced by fewer than 50 people, a situation that still has no job description. ( )