John Quincy Adams, the Declaration, and America’s Christian Essence

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, it is incumbent on Americans to reflect diligently about the enduring meaning of that august document that set us on the path of becoming a truly free, independent, and self-governing people and nation. That task should be considerably aided by the recent publication of An Oration: John Quincy Adams’s Christian America, a beautifully designed volume that reproduces a 68-page speech that a seventy-year-old Adams delivered in Newburyport, Massachusetts on July 4, 1837. Adams’s remarkable speech is accompanied by expert commentary from the distinguished political theorist William B. Allen and American Policy Roundtable Chairman David Zanotti. This volume, published by American Policy Roundtable, provides nothing less than an intellectual feast for those who want to reflect seriously about what it means to be an American in this our nation’s Semiquincentennial year.