The plan to finally honor John Adams and the Adams family with a memorial in the nation’s capital has gotten off to a roaring start.

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

The plan to finally honor John Adams and the Adams family with a memorial in the nation’s capital has gotten off to a roaring start.

This is definitely an idea whose time has come. Not only is there no apparent opposition to the memorial, but Washington agencies and commissions whose approval is necessary have sprung forward to endorse the memorial proposal with alacrity. An Adams memorial also was discussed in George Will’s column in Sunday’s Austin Daily Herald.

The hope is that Congress can pass a memorial bill by July 4, which will be the 175th anniversary of John Adams’ death.

A tribute to the Adamses will be the first Washington memorial to recognize one of the New Englanders who was so central to the founding or our Republic. The main attractions devoted to great presidents are the sites honoring George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both Virginians, and Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.

A site near the Supreme Court – to recognize Adams’ contributions on behalf of an independent judiciary, has been recommended. Since Adams drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, which greatly influenced the U.S. Constitution, this suggestion seems eminently appropriate.