21 essential works trace a great statesman’s lifelong engagement with the promise of America and the legacy of the Founding Fathers

“Few presidents ever thought about words as carefully as John Quincy Adams. Thankfully, we can now hear his words again, in this instantly essential volume.”—Ted Widmer, historian and former presidential speechwriter

John Quincy Adams was one of the most accomplished American statesmen of his or any era. He brought all his eloquence, erudition, and fierce energy to bear on the politics of the nation over the course of a remarkable career that spanned from the founding era to the sectional crisis that preceded the Civil War.

Despite a persistent interest in this pivotal figure, there has never been a single-volume collection of Adams’s essential political writings, until now. Here, for the first time in an edition for general readers and students alike, are the profound insights of a far-seeing political leader who was also a consummate American stylist. 

From his prophetic college commencement address in 1787 to his vigorous denunciation of slavery in 1843, this Library of America volume offers a compact and compelling record of America’s fractious evolution as a democratic republic, presenting some of the most important political writings in our history.

These writings are more urgently needed than ever. In the words of biographer Fred Kaplan: “His values, his definition of leadership, and his vision for the nation’s future—particularly the difficulty of transforming vision into reality in a country that often appears ungovernable—are as much about twenty-first century America as about Adams’ life and times.