Criticism of John Quincy Adams

December 29, 1843

In an article which expresses a strong hope that the gag law will be repealed in the present session of Congress, and praising the Massachusetts Legislature for its resolves which have had positive affect toward that end, the article comments that a speech by Mr. Adams was “exceedingly defective in several particulars, and far from being creditable to his heart …. He is no modern abolitionist  — not he – but only such an one as was Thomas Jefferson, who lived and died a slaveholder!”