fortunate incidents of my life." In moments such as these, Adams's speaking, shorn of invective and open rather than defensive, approached the level it was to attain far more frequently in later years.
In general, however, by the end of his term in office, Adams was an orator without an audience, a leader without his followers. His presidential oratory had grown increasingly defensive, and his stylized utterances failed to cajole a nation overwhelmingly ready for change. And yet, as his Chesapeake Address reveals, even in the end he remained true to his vision of a federal government with expansive powers for social improvement. Indeed, even as it failed to save his administration from the forces of Jacksonian democracy, Adams's Ciceronian rhetoric set forth a vision of American government that, nearly two hundred years later, has been fully realized. If the presidency of John Quincy Adams has a rhetorical legacy, internal improvements is it.
Adams John Quincy. The Diary of John Quincy Adams. 2 Vols. Edited by David Grayson Allen , et al. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1981.
-----. Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory. 2 Vols. Cambridge, MA: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1810.
Adams Family Papers. Microfilm. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Historical Society.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1902. (CMP). Edited by James D. Richardson. Vol. 2. New York: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1904.
Parsons Lynn H. John Quincy Adams: A Bibliography. Bibliographies of the Presidents of the United States 6. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Auer J. Jeffery, and Jerald L. Banninga. "The Genesis of John Quincy Adams' Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory." Quarterly Journal of Speech 49 ( 1963): 119-32.
Banninga Jerald L. "John Quincy Adams: A Critic in the Golden Age of American Oratory." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1963.
-----. "John Quincy Adams' Address of July 4, 1821." Quarterly Journal of Speech 53 ( 1967): 44-49.
-----. "John Quincy Adams' Doctrine of Internal Improvement." Central States Speech Journal 20 ( 1969): 286-93.
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