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they succeeded
in siring
three further generations
of what you could call great people
that's a like american
it's probably the greatest family in american history I mean the james' are pretty
pretty powerful
uh... and i guess that people can argue the bushes can can claim
uh... this but uh...
the bushes
uh well there is a
there is the first father son president
john and john quincy and then george and george w
uh...
but uh she was the
she was the conscious founder of a dynasty
you know they invested so much in john quincy from the time he was
out of the womb they were expecting him to become the first magistrate of the
republic they didn't have the presidency yet so they couldn't think that way
uh... every kid in america
now women as well as girls as well as boys
are told you know they they
could be president
john quincy was told if you don't you're a failure
uh...
complete
and uh...
probably the best educated best read person ever to enter the presidency
which he was a total failure at
and um but you're right
uh but in each generation of the adams'
first in
abigail and john's kids and then their kids their grandkids there's one person
who excels and often quite
quite impressively and the rest of them end up failures
some cases uh... alcoholics drug addicts
they have miserable lives they marry the wrong person
abigail and john's case nab by the oldest and the only daughter ends up marrying this
guy
who's a former
officer in the continental army on washington's staff graduate of princeton
dashingly handsome perfect choice right
it only shows you never know
'cause this guy ends up being a bum
and um...
and couldn't hold down a job loses all his money charles is the
the charmer
and it's difficult when you're reading
the letters
and you're encountering the young kids and what people are saying about them charles
everybody loves charlie like
charlie's even dogs just you know follow him wherever he goes
and uh...
and you know what's going to happen to charlie
charlie is going to die at thirty years of age as an alcoholic and a drug
addict and
living in *** houses in new york city
despite the fact that he has a wife and two kids
right uh the other kid tommy who's almost invisible in the correspondence thomas
the youngest
uh he looks good he goes to harvard he works for john quincy as his assistant in
uh…in prussia
but like it never works out for him
and he becomes an alcoholic
and he moves back to live near his his parents
and he meets a local girl and they have like eleven kids
that's the only thing he seems to be able to do
and uh...
but he's a failure
uh but after that generation
there was the generation of charles francis adams
right becomes american ambassador to england during the civil war
and he keeps he keeps england off the side of the south right which is a huge
achievement right
and his son writes about that
in the education of henry adams
that's the third generation yeah
and henry adams of course was uh he was
a great uh... a great friend of theodore roosevelt theodore roosevelt
and uh...
who was the secretary of state hay john hay
and they also have lodge
and and that that whole crowd they they helped they got us into the
spanish-american war right though he didn't like that i mean henry adams was
not in favor of that
yeah but roosevelt got us in
it's like a miracle the way that happened you know like
roosevelt the assistant secretary of the navy the secretary of the navy is playing golf and
white he's playing golf
roosevelt starts a war in the phillipines it's like you know he does it all himself yeah right
it's unbelievable
proceed immediately right right um…to manilla bay
yeah unbelievable so he he was and then of course
he wrote that book the education of henry adams so
that generation
and henry adams brother charles francis adams junior i think was president of
the union pacific railroad was he not um hm
and that's kinda where it ended
yeah but but that's four generations yeah
uh... that's pretty good yeah not bad that's pretty good this uh we were talking at lunch
there's about
all these people that claim to be descendants of adams but none of them
yeah seems to be there's a man who's a corporate president that's probably a
direct descendant
uh but it petered out yeah it petered out and and henry adams never held office
never ran for office yeah and the education of henry adams is about
failure
it's about being displaced by time and history
you know it's an eloquent ironic tragic story
about his life
and he you know he marries this woman who
commits suicide
and uh... she's buried in
rock creek park there's a big statue
yeah and uh...
by the way gore vidal
purchased the plot right next to that for himself
this excerpt is brought by the massachusetts school of law