In this episode of Creating America: The Documents and Speeches That Shaped the United States, host and narrator Will Sarris presents a powerful historical reading of a landmark speech delivered by John Quincy Adams on the 45th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Delivered in 1821, Adams’s address is both a sweeping interpretation of the causes, meaning, and legacy of the Declaration and a profound meditation on the origins of legitimate government. In this speech, Adams argues that the United States was the first nation founded on universal principles of natural rights, rather than conquest, inheritance, or divine monarchy—an idea that would later be called American exceptionalism.

Adams traces the intellectual roots of the Declaration to the Protestant Reformation, contending that the restoration of reason in religion made its application to politics inevitable. He connects the ideas of individual conscience, human equality, social compact, and popular sovereignty to the founding of the American republic, while also revealing how these beliefs shaped 19th-century American political culture.

This episode features:

• John Quincy Adams’s explanation of the moral foundation of the Declaration of Independence
• A critique of governments founded on conquest and hereditary power
• Reflections on natural rights, civil society, and popular sovereignty
• Insight into how Americans have interpreted the Declaration across generations

Presented as a dramatic narrated reading, this episode allows listeners to experience the speech as it was meant to be heard—spoken aloud, rich in rhetoric, and alive with ideas that continue to shape debates about what the United States is and what it ought to be.

🎧 Related episode: Hear the Declaration of Independence itself, read aloud, in the previous episode of Creating America.

About the Podcast
Creating America is an American history podcast dedicated to reading and preserving the documents and speeches that shaped the United States, from iconic texts to lesser-known works that influenced the nation’s development.

Host & Narrator: Will Sarris
📩 Contact: CreatingAmericaPod@gmail.com
💬 Support the show: patreon.com/williamsarris
🌐 More about Will: williamsarris.net