| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Heir to the Fathers: John Quincy Adams and the Spirit of Constitutional Government. By Gary V. Wood. (Lanham: Lexington, 2004. viii, 249 pp. $70.00, ISBN 0-7391-0601-5.)
Gary V. Wood, a political scientist, has written a book on John Quincy Adams in which he hopes to answer three questions: (1) What was the original intent of the framers of the Constitution regarding its relationship to the Declaration of Independence? (2) What was the relationship between the Constitution and slavery? and (3) How has our understanding of the Constitution changed over time? Wood believes an analysis of John Quincy Adams's speeches and writings will help.	1
One cannot escape the belief, however, that Adams is only the means to an end, and the end has little to do with the sixth president. Wood seeks to challenge two present-day schools of constitutional jurisprudence. The first is that of the "living Constitution," as defined by Supreme Court justices Earl Warren and William Brennan. The second is that of "original intent," as defined by Justice William Rehnquist and former solicitor general Robert Bork. Indeed, there are whole pages in this book where John Quincy Adams sinks from sight.	. . .

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