“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.”

John Quincy Adams (1767 to 1848)

John Quincy Adams, byname Old Man Eloquent, was the sixth president of the United States (1825-29) and eldest son of President John Adams.

In his pre-presidential years he was one of America’s greatest diplomats (formulating, among other things, what came to be called the Monroe Doctrine), and in his post-presidential years (as a US congressman, 1831-48) he conducted a consistent and often dramatic fight against the expansion of slavery.