Howdy from Boston! Today was an historical day! Juliette and I had the great fortune to witness Senator Scott Brown lay a wreath on John Quincy Adams crypt, marking our 6th President’s 243rd birthday. It was the first time a sitting Senator has ever done so.

Senator Scott Brown delivered a very inspiring speech and his wife Gail is a beautiful, dedicated American patriot.

It was an honor to meet Peter Boylston Adams! He is a seventh generation Adams. It was a momentous event for me. I handed him a copy of my book, “Holding Her Head High,” because I have a chapter dedicated to Abigail Adams! I told Mr. Adams that I had met with Senator Scott Brown about honoring the Adams legacy and that my next mission was to help facilitate the building of a monument dedicated to John Adams in Washington, D.C. and to have a portrait of Abigail Adams hung in the National Portrait Gallery!

There were many great patriots present at the event today. Patriots who volunteer their time and energies to preserving the legacy of John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams.

Arthur W. Ducharme, the director of the Visitor’s Program of the United First Parish Church, (the Church of the Presidents) is one of the great patriots who were present today. He is a passionate American and is a shining example of one who understands the importance of history. He carries the torch of the Adam’s legacy with dignity and grace.

John and Abigail are smiling from heaven on Arthur Duscharme.

The church has a rich history. The Reverend Sheldon W. Bennett serves as the church’s minister. He is also a descendent of the Adam’s family – from Henry Adams, John Adam’s great, great grandfather. His presentation and prayers were wonderful and afterwards he showed us the cemetery where many of the Adams family are buried, including Henry Adams!

On the tombstone of Henry Adams, John Adams wrote the following words:

“This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great, great grandson from a veneration of the piety, humility, simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry and perseverance of his Ancestors, in hopes of recommending an imitation of their virtues to their posterity.”

Reverend Bennett said that he finds the words, “personally inspiring.” I find them to be not only inspiring but representative of a legacy that changed America.

Without John Adams we would have not had a Declaration of Independence. Our country’s birth stemmed from John Adam’s perseverance and it was his prudent and industrious habits that guided our country to victory and fruition.

He laid the foundation for our United States Constitution with his brilliant construction of the Constitution for the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the understanding of the importance of, as mentioned in Federalist Paper No. 53, “a Constitution established by the people and unalterable by the government.”

His frugality, temperance and piety as our nation’s first Vice President and second President, tempered a rising nation through its infancy. Without his patience and virtue America would have not prevailed.

His son, John Quincy Adams, mirrored all of these virtues with his astonishing and tireless dedication to his country. He served as a young diplomat beside his father, then as U.S. Minister to Holland, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain, U.S. Senator, negotiator of the Peace Treaty of Ghent, (War of 1812), Secretary of State under President Monroe, promulgator of the Monroe Doctrine, the 6th President of the United States and finally as Congressman in the U.S. House of Representative.

God Bless Henry Adams for the great example he set for his posterity and for John Adams and John Quincy Adams who recognized it and honored it with their lives and legacy.

Today, Peter Boylston Adams and Reverend Bennett are a rich reflection of their heroic heritage.

Never may we take for granted the impact we may have on our country and our children. Daily we are the servants to a great cause, America, our country and Americans our children.

God Bless,

Janine Turner

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

 

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