As a member of the United States House of Representatives
in the 1830s, former President John Quincy Adams
performed some of his noblest service to his country
as a staunch and oftentimes courageous spokesman
for the abolition of slavery. Yet he wisely knew
and accepted the limitations placed upon him. In
October 1837, he addressed his situation in his
diary: “I have gone as far upon this article,
the abolition of slavery, as the public opinion
of the free portion of the Union will bear, and
so far that scarcely a slave-holding member of the
House dares to vote with me upon any question.”
At this same time Adams became personally involved
in buying the freedom of a slave woman and her
two children, whose fates were in the hands of
a notorious Alexandria, Virginia, slave trader
named James H. Birch. Toward a subscription to
purchase their freedom, Adams contributed what
little he could spare, fifty dollars.
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