John Quincy Adams POV - Town Hall Posts

     My name is John Quincy Adams, and I am standing in front of you all today to persuade you all to join me and my efforts to end slavery. 

  I come from a very educated background, after graduating from Harvard University, not only did I become a lawyer, but I am also a proudly and respected statesman, politician, diplomat, and diarist. If my credibility couldn't be more convincing, I was also the secretary of state before becoming the sixth president of the United States. 

    I do not consider myself as an abolitionist, but I have many justifications to prove my stance on how much "I abhorred slavery". I am one of two presidents who do not own slaves, I created rules, I fought with the slaves, and vouched for their freedom whenever I could. 

    Most of my time being president, I did not speak much on the subject of slavery, and I will admit, I did not take many active steps in fighting to share my thoughts on the issue. It has been some time since my presidency has ended, and since then, I have taken more active steps in the participation of the fight to end slavery. 

    I have been fighting against congress, even after receiving many death threats, which shows how much I have strived to pave the way towards the right direction of the ending of slavery. The main way I accomplished this is by my gag rule. I made it prohibited to discuss debates of the anti-slavery petitions. This worked very well because the new rule also drew a lot of attention to the issue. 

    After the proposal for my rule, and it started getting a lot of publicity, my next step was to help the slaves by help vouch for them in a petition. I presented a petition for twenty two enslaved people. I threatened my opponents with census to show my disapproval.

    I'm not done yet, my next step was presenting a new resolution to the constitution. This proposal stated that any child born after July fourth, must be born free. This proposal was passed almost thoroughly, Florida being an exception from the proposed idea. 

    Another way I worked towards the ending of slavery was by fighting in favor or the African Americans involved in the US vs the Amistad case. This case needed to be addressed because the African Americans were unrightfully charged for a rebellion on a Spanish ship. Their reasoning for the rebellion was that fifty of African American kids were kidnapped and taken to Cuba where they were intended on being sold into slavery there. They killed the people on board, took over the ship, then intended on sailing back to Africa, but their plans were ruined when they were eventually sent to New England where they were jailed. My side won, and the African Americans were sent back to Africa. 

    I believe that everyone has the right to be free and I will fight on this issue until the day that I die. I stood on the side with the African Americans. I just hope I can "bring about a day prophesied when slavery and war shall be banished from the face of this earth". 

    Finally, in eighteen forty four, the majority of the votes switched to my side in regards to my proposed gag rule. This is the result of all of my active participation in the fight to end slavery. I hope this had convinced everyone enough to join my side in ending slavery once and for all.