President's Day, 2016

A lot has happened since last week. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both claimed primary victories in New Hampshire. The Republican field has gotten significantly smaller with the dropping out of Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie. The Democrat field hasn’t changed at all, still two socialists trying to move left of each other.

Among all the election mania, one would think that the rest of the world has been put on hold since the 2016 election is the focus of the media 24/7. However, life goes on, the world continues to spin.

Here at Paineful Truth we attempt to inject some common sense into the discussion of politics along with new information and a call to action. Commentary is often read and forgot. If this is the case, then what is the point? With this in mind, I want to take a different tack today. I want to take a look back and give you something practical and tangible that you can do for America.

If you’re reading this, it’s most likely for one reason: because you love America. The freedom that we enjoy everyday is unimaginable to the majority of the world. We see it slipping away, day by day, election by election, and we each have a desire to do something about it. However, with all the craziness we witness, it can be easy to get discouraged, to ask, “What am I doing? I’m wasting time because nothing has been accomplished.”

Many people look at history as dry and boring, however without our history we’re lost. Not only is it an inspiration, showing what can be done, it also serves as a guide, showing us how to do it.

There was a man named John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams. You want to talk about a go-getter, this guy defined the term. Let me give you a quick run-down: , at eleven, John Quincy traveled to France with his father who was serving as a diplomatic envoy, then to the Netherlands, then St. Petersburg at age fourteen where his fluency in French allowed him to serve as secretary and translator. After a time in Paris as secretary to his father, John Quincy returned home for a break...Just kidding. He actually started studies at Harvard, got his bachelor's, went and studied law, then got his masters from Harvard and after being admitted to the bar started practicing law in Boston. After that he served in different minister positions under three different presidents, served in the Massachusetts legislature, was appointed to the U.S. Senate, headed the delegation that secured the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812, then went on to be Secretary of State under Monroe, after which he went on to become the 6th president of the United States.

Now to most, this would be the crowning achievement. But after over fifty years of serving his country, John Quincy was not finished. He ran for a second term and lost to Andrew Jackson. Undaunted, at the age of 64, Adams was elected to nine consecutive terms as a Representative in the U.S. Congress for the state of Massachusetts.

Imagine, going from number one as President, to one of hundreds in the House. However, it could be argued that Adam’s time in the House was the most important period of his life. He quickly earned two nicknames - “Old Man Eloquent” and “The Hellhound of Abolition”. Alongside Thomas Jefferson, Adam’s father, John Adams, had been on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. And that father had impressed on his son the reality of the words, “All men are created equal.” And nothing could make Adams stop fighting for his dream of ending slavery and seeing that reality recognized.

The pro-slavery forces in Congress at the time (mainly Democrats, look it up), got sick and tired of Adam’s relentless push for abolition. They passed a series of ‘gag laws’ that attempted to prohibit the discussion of the topic, even though they received hundreds upon hundreds of petitions calling for an end to slavery. Through wit and wiles, Adams maneuvered around these gag laws, his goal unrealized, but his focus unmoved.

In 1847, during Adams’ final term in office, a young freshman Representative was elected to Congress. It appears from what little we know, that Adams took this young man under his wing and served as a mentor to some degree for the short period that they knew each other. This friendship was ended on February 23, 1848, when John Quincy Adams suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died in the Capitol building where he had fought so long and hard for America. The young freshman representative, who had only known the “Hellhound of Abolition” for a short three months, served on the Committee of Arrangements for Adams’s funeral as a pallbearer.

This young man served only one term in the House, and then went on to lose two consecutive bids for his state’s Senate seat, before going on, in 1861 to become the 16th President of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, one of the founders of what we know as the Republican Party, was influenced, guided and mentored by the illustrious John Quincy Adams. Although it was a short period of time, Adams’s passion for freeing the slaves rubbed off on this young man. And while Adams fought and died for what he believed in, passing before his goal was achieved, Abraham Lincoln finished what Adams had begun.

Adams had a goal and nothing could make him lose sight of it. He fought, even though the odds were stacked against him. Even though it seemed utterly impossible. Even though he was hated and reviled by the opposition. Even though no one would listen and fewer would act. Not hardships, not personal tragedy, nor fatigue, nor depression, nothing would stop him.

And yet, if on February 22, 1848, the day before his death, Adams had looked back on his life, he might have asked himself, “What am I doing? I’m wasting time because nothing has been accomplished.”

How wrong he would’ve been. Thank God he didn’t have the attitude. Instead he looked ahead, knowing that he could be the stepping stone. If he moved just one step further down the path, perhaps his children, or maybe his grandchildren, or perhaps a young freshman Representative, would eventually realize the dream.

I see us in a similar situation to that of John Quincy Adams. We’ve been fighting, struggling, trying anything and everything to bring America back to her Constitutional, Biblical moorings, and nothing has seemed to work. A Republican House, then the Senate, then governorships across the country, then state houses, now vying for the White House. Have we realized the goal yet? I don’t think so.

And it’s easy to be discouraged, to ask, “What are we doing? We’re wasting time because nothing has been accomplished.”

Adams didn’t think this way. Instead he looked around for options and opportunities that others missed. He expanded his vision beyond what he could accomplish alone and reached out to the next generation, teaching them, preparing them, arming them to finish what he started.

It’s not about committee chairmanships, it’s not about putting a Republican or Democrat in office, it’s not about defeating opposition or even winning an argument. It’s about standing on self-evident truth and winning the hearts and minds of the people around us. The people that will be the leaders of tomorrow. If we can do that, I see very bright days ahead for America.

Who is the Lincoln in your world? I want you to stop and think. Who is the Lincoln in your world? That young man or woman, eager to learn, with a heart for serving this country. Will you be their Adams? That mentor who guides them to a vision, a dream that they cannot see on their own.

I challenge you, find your Lincoln, be an Adams.

Jonathan Paine

@painefultruth76

painefultruth1776@gmail.com