Congress signed off on legislation to create a memorial to John Adams in 2001, but with each passing year, the Founding Father’s prediction that “monuments will never be erected to me” looks more and more prescient.
Jackie Gingrich Cushman is determined to prove him wrong. A year ago, Ms. Cushman was named chair of the Adams Memorial Commission, making her the face of the campaign to honor the nation’s second president and his distinguished family.
With the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence just around the corner, Ms. Cushman said she believes the timing couldn’t be better.
“It has to be the right time, and I think this is a perfect time because we are about to hit up against the 250th anniversary next year,” she told The Washington Times. “I do think people are more interested in how we were founded.”
First on the commission’s to-do list is securing congressional reauthorization. Congress originally created a foundation to create a “commemorative work” to honor the Adamses in the District of Columbia, but the foundation was changed in 2019 to a commission — and its authorization expires this year.
Ms. Cushman, who was appointed to the commission by President Trump in 2020, said the panel was unable to begin work until recently.
“We didn’t begin work until a year ago because the way the legislation was written, we couldn’t begin working until we had a majority of our commissioners appointed,” she said. “That didn’t happen until basically a year ago. So we’re trying to get reauthorization and get a specific site added to our potential site selection process.”
Rep. John Moolenaar, Michigan Republican and a commission member, introduced legislation last month to extend the panel’s authorization to 2032. The bill would also add President’s Park South, located near the White House and the Ellipse, as a potential site for the memorial.
“We’re not trying to slap it in front of the Washington Monument,” Ms. Cushman said with a laugh. “And it has to go through a long, arduous process. At this point, we’re trying to educate people about who the Adamses were and why they should be recognized.”
She also serves as president of the Adams Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that raises donations to finance the project.
Washington has a monument. Jefferson has a memorial.
But John Adams—who fought for independence and helped create our constitutional republic—has no national tribute.
It’s time to change that.
The Adams Memorial will honor a family whose values still matter: service,… pic.twitter.com/2H0s9X0tre
— AdamsMemorialFoundation (@AdamsMemorial) April 2, 2025
Not long ago, John Adams was all the rage, the subject of a 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by historian David McCullough and a much-heralded 2008 HBO series starring Paul Giamatti.
Since then, the spotlight has largely dimmed on the Massachusetts lawyer described as the voice of the Declaration of Independence, a historic figure who appears fated to be overshadowed by the illustrious company he kept.
Adams served as the first vice president under George Washington, but his lone presidential term was sandwiched between those of Washington and another larger-than-life figure, Thomas Jefferson.
The Washington Monument was erected in 1848, while the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in 1943.
“Adams has been really overlooked,” Ms. Cushman said. “Washington was tall and commanding, and Jefferson was very debonair. And in the middle of it, you’ve got this New Englander who could come across as a little gruff.”
Mr. McCullough was less diplomatic, calling Adams “vain” and “abrasive” but also “brilliant” in a 2022 interview.
“I do think that his humanness and that gruff exterior and the fact that he was a little short — he wasn’t dashing, put it that way — hurt him with being recognized for his service,” Ms. Cushman said. “But we would not have a country without his service during the revolution.”
Not everything about his presidency has aged well. Adams has been dogged by his signing of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, which sought to keep the new country out of a war with France by criminalizing “scandalous” or “malicious” statements about the government.
What has aged well: Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, the nation’s sixth president, were the only two of the first 12 presidents who didn’t own slaves.
The memorial would honor not only John Adams, but five other members of his family: wife Abigail Adams; son John Quincy Adams; daughter-in-law Louisa Adams; grandson, diplomat Charles Francis Adams; and great-grandson, historian Henry Brooks Adams.
The Adamses were descended from the first generation of Puritan settlers in Massachusetts. Their family farm is now part of the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy.
“It’s several generations of the Adamses, and they are well deserving of recognition,” Ms. Cushman said. “They’re just a fascinating family.”
Ms. Cushman knows a thing or two about prominent families: She’s the daughter of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
She’s also an author and columnist with a wide-ranging background in the business, political and nonprofit sectors. One thing she would never be accused of being is a Northerner, given her unmistakable Georgia accent.
At a time of deep political divisions, she said, building support to recognize the Founding Father can help strengthen the country’s frayed bonds.
“I do believe we as a country need projects that we can work together on,” said Ms. Cushman, “and I think this is a really great one.”
