John Quincy Adams, the House’s “Old Man Eloquent,” died in the Speaker’s office, just steps from the House Chamber, in 1848. The former President had become an ardent abolitionist during his 16 years in the House, and Americans mourned him widely. This memorial ribbon was sold in New York, far from Adams’ funeral in the U.S. Capitol. Beneath his portrait, a poem (appropriated from a book of notable epitaphs from British graveyards) remembered him as both “resolute and immovable” and “generous & of exceeding good nature.”
