Chapter 2 Summary

John Quincy Adams, a Federalist and a Puritan, as well as the son of former president John Adams, had many advantages in life in terms of a good education, a politically successful family and doting parents who groomed him to be, as his mother said, a public servant upholding the country's legal system. Adams had the support of a "presidential family," who believed, as John Quincy Adams is quoted in the first page of this chapter as saying: "The magistrate is the servant not...of the people but of his God."

John Quincy Adams was a Massachusetts senator. He was very sure of himself as a Federalist, and his good breeding and family gave him less cause for insecurity than did the less exclusive political backgrounds of other elected officials. He also had a very strong allegiance to God as his guide in...