PUBLIC LAW 107-62—NOV. 5, 2001 115 STAT. 411 Public Law 107-62 107th Congress An Act To authorize the Adams Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work on Federal land in the District of Columbia and its environs to honor former Nov. 5, 2001 President John Adams and his legacy. [H.R. 1668] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 40 USC 1003 note. SECTION 1. COMMEMORATIVE WORK TO HONOR JOHN ADAMS AND HIS LEGACY. (a) FINDINGS. — The Congress finds the following: (1) Few families have contributed as profoundly to the United States as the family that gave the Nation its second president, John Adams; its sixth president, John Quincy Adams; first ladies Abigail Smith Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams; and succeeding generations of statesmen, diplomats, advocates, and authors. (2) John Adams (1735-1826), a lawyer, a statesman, and a patriot, was the author of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (the oldest written constitution still in force), the leader of the Second Continental Congress, a driving force for independence, a negotiator of the Treaty of Paris (which brought the Revolutionary War to an end), the first Vice President, the second President, and an unwavering exponent of freedom of conscience and the rule of law. (3) Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) was one of the most remarkable women of her time. Wife of former President John Adams and mother of former President John Quincy Adams, she was an early advocate for the rights of women and served the cause of liberty as a prolific writer, fierce patriot, and staunch abolitionist. (4) John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), the son of John and Abigail Adams, was a distinguished lawyer, legislator, and diplomat and a master of 7 languages, who served as Senator, Minister to the Netherlands under President George Washington, Minister to Prussia under the first President Adams, Minister to Great Britain under President James Madison, chief negotiator of the Treaty of Ghent (which ended the War of 1812), Secretary of State under President James Monroe, author of the Monroe Doctrine (which declared the Western Hemisphere off limits to European imperial expansion), sixth President, and the only former President to be elected to the House of Representatives, where he was known as "Old Man Eloquent" and served with great distinction as a leader in the fight against slavery and a champion of unpopular causes.
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