Sunday, January 22, 2023

John Quincy Adams, Prophet

An interesting rabbit-hole run at American Conservative to a column by Bill Kauffman...

...for foresight it’s tough to beat JQA’s 1844 prophecy that the annexation of Texas would be “the turning-point of a revolution which transforms the North American Confederation into a conquering and warlike nation. Aggrandizement will be its passion and its policy. A military government, a large army, a costly navy, distant colonies, and associate islands in every sea, will follow of course in rapid succession.”...

Clearly, Texas can be blamed for a lot of things, and the worst among them is George W. Bush. Guess Who put Adams' prophesy into high gear?

(Side note:

...David [author of the book Freedom, Independence, Peace: John Quincy Adams and American Foreign Policy] and I overlapped for a time in the employ of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the precious few recent members of that august body who would be interested in reading and capable of appreciating this brief and luminous volume.

Senator Moynihan grew wiser as the end drew nigh. In that invigorating American Spring following the fall of the Soviet Union, he questioned U.S. involvement in NATO and called for abolishing the CIA...

The more one learns about Daniel Patrick Moynihan--who ran as a Democrat--the more one admires the "Old" Democrat Party's leaders. )

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