President Bush Signs Legislation to Create Adams Memorial
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush, the second son of a President to become one himself, signed legislation Monday creating a memorial to the first such presidential dynasty: second and sixth Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
The project will now go to the National Park Service’s Fine Arts Commission and Memorial and Capitol Planning Commission which will make recommendations on the location and design of the memorial, a process which is expected to take years.
But the historians and lawmakers who worked to win passage of the legislation creating the memorial, have their own ideas of how to honor the Adams family.
David McCullough, the author of a recent best-selling biography of John Adams, said he favors a library and a small garden, perhaps near the Jefferson Memorial or the Library of Congress, which might display letters and historic documents from the Adams family to each other and to other historic figures of the time.
“It would be very different from the marble temples and obelisks of the other presidents,” McCullough said. “My idea of heaven is a library in a small garden, and obviously the Adamses agreed, because there is one at their home in Quincy.”
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., co-sponsor of the House version of the bill authorizing the memorial, hopes the monument teaches the magnitude and sheer range of the Adamses’ contributions. “At each stage of this – from committee hearings to debates on the House floor and on – members of Congress have actually learned history,” said Steven Schwadron, Delahunt’s chief of staff. “What we are clearly hoping for is that this can be yet another factor along with the biography to educate.รก We hope this also is a real shot in the arm in terms of cultural tourism locally.”
Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., the bill’s sponsor, said that he is “very excited and pleased” that the legislation has succeeded, and added that the memorial “needs to go in a prominent place in our nation’s Capitol.”
“This memorial recognizes the value of families, and this is not just a President, but a family that contributed so much to this country,” Roemer said.
The Rev. Sheldon Bennett, minister of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, where the two presidents and their wives are buried, agreed that the family should be central to the monument’s design. The legislation provides for the monument to include First Ladies Abigail Smith Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams. “It’s about time that we honor the Adams family,” he said.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he was pleased that the legislation passed and said Adams “ranks with Washington and Jefferson as among the greatest of America’s founders.” The senator has not thought of specific designs, said spokesman Matt Ferraguto: “All he would love to see is a suitable place for the memorial that fits the community.”
Roemer said the most important feature of the monument must be to educate the public about John Adams and his family. “One of the reasons John Adams has been overlooked is because one-term presidents early in American history were considered failures. His integrity, honesty and independence cost John Adams a second term,” Roemer said, “but especially in times of crisis, we need to return to that kind of strength.”
