05 December 2008

Culture Spot 15: On This Day . . . December 5

On this day in 1831, President John Quincy Adams took his seat in the House of Representatives which he won in the 1830 Elections. He would be only the first of two American presidents to serve in the Congress after their term as President. John Quincy Adams, the sixth US President, was also the son of the second American president, John Adams. The only other father and son who were both president. John Quincy Adams would serve in the US House of Representatives for 17 years from 1831 until his death in 1848. While there, he was a staunch antislavery advocate presenting many petitions for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery.
He continued to practice law and he had the case of a lifetime when he defended the Africans slaves of the Amistad before the US Supreme Court. In that case, United States vs. The Amistad Africans, Adams argued that the Africans who seized control of a Spanish ship were being transported illegally as slaves and should not be deported to Spanish Cuba but should be considered as freemen and allowed to return to Africa. President Martin Van Buren's Justice Department argued that the Africans should be deported to Cuba for having mutinied and killing officers. John Quincy Adams won the case!
The other former US President to serve in the Congress was President Andrew Johnson who was elected in 1874 by the Tennessee legislature to serve as a senator from the state which he did until his death in 1875.
VOCABULARY
staunch - loyal, fervent
advocate - militant, défenseur, champion
Note: The 1997 Steven Spielberg film Amistad is based on the above court case for which Anthony Hopkins received an Academy nomination for his role as John Quincy Adams.

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