The Public Square® · The American Policy Roundtable

TPS 60: "An Oration" in the New Year

·55 min

The Public Square opens the year with Alan C. Duncan welcoming listeners back after the holiday season. Dave Zanotti, Rob Walgate, and Melanie Elsie join him in studio. The conversation turns quickly to *An Oration*, the new book by Dave Zanotti and Dr. W.B. Allen. The panel keeps coming back to the fact that many people had never heard the speech before. They also note that Dr. Allen himself did not know it existed until it was brought to his attention. That surprise becomes one of the episode’s central threads. The hosts remember his appearance at Christmas in America as a high point, and they describe the reaction in the room when he stepped on stage. From there, the episode broadens into a discussion of John Quincy Adams as a communicator. The hosts emphasize that Adams had the training and life experience to lay out a mission clearly. They contrast that with the modern ease of being heard through microphones and the internet. The conversation also reaches into the Adams family’s wider influence in Massachusetts and on early constitutional thinking. That history becomes part of the case for why Adams’s words deserve fresh attention. The subtitle of the book then becomes its own topic. The hosts explain why they chose *John Quincy Adams' Christian America*. They distinguish the phrase from modern arguments about Christian nationalism. They say the book uses Adams’s own language instead of imposing a later label. The panel stresses that Adams was not confusing salvation with citizenship. Instead, he was trying to explain the origins of the country accurately. The show then pauses for a break and returns to the same thread with renewed emphasis, including the note that the book is being offered for $30 and that the proceeds go to the American Policy Roundtable. The episode ends by inviting listeners to order the book through The Public Square store. The overall tone stays warm, reflective, and persuasive. The conversation treats the speech as more than a historical curiosity. It presents it as a useful window into how Adams thought about America, language, and public purpose.

As heard by us

A thoughtful civic history conversation that connects a little known speech to America's origins.

A New Year opener makes a steady case for why this little known John Quincy Adams speech still deserves attention. The discussion around An Oration works best when it ties Adams's public language to the book's larger effort to explain the country's origins, and it keeps that…

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Why you'd press play

Hear why a little-known Adams speech got a new book treatment.

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