What David McCullough Wanted Congress to Hear About History
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, on March 2, 1989, David McCullough stood before a joint session of Congress with a simple message: the past matters now more than ever. He spoke not as a pundit but as a poet of history, urging lawmakers to remember that their actions would one day be judged as part of our national story. In a rich narrative style, McCullough wove together images of a handcrafted clock in the Capitol and the courage of past legislators to remind his audience that history watches.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:13.7 | This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, the show where America is the star |
| 0:19.6 | and the American people coming to you from the star and the American people, coming to you from |
| 0:22.4 | the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. The late David McCullough was a legendary |
| 0:29.3 | historian and author of many award-winning work, such as the Great Bridge, John Adams, the American |
| 0:36.5 | Spirit, the Wright brothers, in 1776, the last two of |
| 0:41.8 | which you can find at our American Stories. He also received numerous honors and awards, |
| 0:48.4 | including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In 1989, McCullough addressed Congress to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first |
| 1:00.8 | meeting of Congress back in 1789 in New York City. |
| 1:05.9 | He talked about many things, none more interesting than his discussion about John Quincy Adams, who, after serving |
| 1:13.8 | as the nation's president, returned to Congress to do his part to end slavery. Let's take a listen. |
| 1:23.1 | On a June afternoon in 1775, before there was ever a Congress of the United States or a United States of America, a small boy stood with his mother on a distant knoll watching the Battle of Bunker Hill. |
| 1:38.9 | That was Adams, John Quincy Adams, diplomat, senator, secretary of state, president of the United States, |
| 1:48.9 | who in his lifetime had seen more and contributed more to the history of his time than almost anyone, |
| 1:55.4 | and who, as no former president ever had, returned here to the hill to take a seat in the House of Representatives |
| 2:03.0 | in the 22nd Congress and was thrilled at the prospect. Most importantly, it was here that this |
| 2:13.3 | extraordinary American had his finest hours. Adams took his seat in the old house in what is now |
| 2:20.7 | statuary hall in 1831. Small, fragile, fearing no one, he spoke his mind and conscience. |
| 2:29.8 | He championed mechanical improvements and scientific inquiry. |
| 2:39.8 | To no one in Congress are we so indebted for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution. |
| 2:47.4 | With Congressman Lincoln of Illinois and Corwin of Ohio, he cried out against the Mexican War, |
| 2:53.4 | and for eight long years, almost alone, he battled the infamous gag rule, |
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