Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

Adams also predicted the Union's dissolution over the slavery issue but said that if the South became independent there would be a series of bloody slave revolts. Adams enacted a part of his agenda and paid off much of the national debt. John Quincy Adams /ˈkwɪnzi/ (July 11 1767 – February 23 1848) was the sixth President of the United States (1825–1829).