JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Born at Braintree, Mass., 1767. American Ambassador in Holland, 1797-1801. Senator, 18031808. Peace commissioner, 1813-1815. Minister to England, 1815-1817. Secretary of state, 18171825. President, 1825-1829. Candidate for reelection, 1828-defeated. Member of House of Representatives, 1832-1848. Died, 1848.

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CHAPTER II

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

NE of the few really learned legislators in American history is presented in this

study. Every opportunity almost that could in any way tend to prepare him for this work was his. As a boy with his father he became familiar with Europe and its statesmen. His youthful years were passed in the midst of diplomats, and at an extremely early age he became one of the foreign ministers of his country. At home he was senator, secretary of state, president, and congressman.

But during all the years of his public life he was ever the hard and persistent student. System in everything characterizes his methods. The result was that before his death he had accumulated a mass of information that was almost phenomenal. His knowledge of history, especially of his own country, was deep and minute. Adams had some faults of disposition that detracted from his lovableness, but when all has been said, he yet remains one of the great characters in our country's history.

Mr. F. G. Franklin, instructor in American history in the University, has prepared the extracts for this number. They tell much of the life, and indicate clearly the thought, of Adams

on most of the great questions of his day. The necessity of cutting out many chosen passages, in order to reduce the article to its space limits, will explain some gaps in this number as well as in the preceding, and I doubt not in many of the succeeding numbers.

Parts of letters to his father and to his mother show us the boy first at his home, and then at a school in France:

BRAINTREE, June the 2nd, 1777. DEAR SIR, -I love to receive letters very well; much better than I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition, my head is much too fickle, my thoughts are running after birds eggs play and trifles, till I get vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me steady, and I own I am ashamed of myself. * * I wish, Sir, you would give me some instructions, with regard to my time, & advise me how to proportion my Studies & my Play, in writing, & I will keep them by me, & endeavor to follow them.

*

PASSY, September the 27th, 1778. HONOURED MAMMA,-My Pappa enjoins it upon me to keep a journal, or a diary of the Events that happen to me, and of objects that I see, and of Characters that I converse with from day to day; and altho. I am convinced of the utility, importance & necessity of this Exercise, yet I have not patience and perseverance enough to do it so Constantly as I ought. My Pappa, who takes a great deal of Pains to put me in the right way, has also advised me to Preserve copies of all my letters, & has given me a Convenient Blank Book for this end; and altho I shall have the mortification a few years hence to read a great deal of my Childish nonsense, yet I shall have the Pleasure and advantage of Remarking the several steps by which I shall have advanced in taste judgment and knowledge. A journal Book & a letter Book of a Lad of Eleven years old Can not be expected to contain much of Science, Litterature, arts, wisdom, or wit, yet it may serve to perpetu ate many observations that I may make, & may

hereafter help me to recollect both persons & things Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, I, 7–9.

Washington wrote of him in 1797:

I give it as my decided opinion that Mr. Adams is the most valuable public character we have aboard, and there remains no doubt in my mind that he will prove himself to be the ablest of our diplomatic corps.—Ibid., 194.

The following account of his life in Holland (July, 1796) shows how he became so valuable:

The reading of the month has carried me through Luzac's Richesse de la Hollande, and the Traité Général de Commerce; the Life of Dumouriez, Garat's Memoirs, and Pratt's Gleanings. Of all these books I have made mention, and some slight observations at the time of finishing, and also of Pitt's translation of the Aeneid, Rowe's Lucan, which I have gone through, and Garth's compilation of the Metamorphoses, which I have not yet finished. To improve in the Dutch Lan guage I have usually translated a page every day; and after going thus through the Constitution of the National Assembly, which is now in session, I took the Introduction to Rendorp's Memoirs. I shall give the preference to all interesting state papers; because I send the translations to the Secretary of State, and thus answer two good purposes at once. My progress in Italian is slow, and I can only translate two or three stanzas of Tasso at a time. The language itself is enchanting, but, with no opportunity to speak or hear it spoken, my advances are very small, and, with my other occupations, I may perhaps grow tired of that. To keep alive my Latin, I have begun to translate a page of Tacitus every day, and am going through the life of Agricola, which in the year 1784, at this place, I translated into French. My other writing is principally confined to writing and answering letters, or to the journal.—Ibid., 176–7.

While in London he wrote in his diary for July 26, 1797:

Louisa Catharine Johnson, the second daughter of Joshua and Catharine Johnson, by Mr. Hewlett.—Ibid.,

199.

Both lived to celebrate in Quincy, Mass., the semi-centennial of this event.

The political revolution of 1800, bringing into power Jefferson and the Republican party, interrupted John Quincy Adams's diplomatic career abroad. January 28, 1802, he wrote:

I feel strong temptation and have great provocation to plunge into political controversy. But I hope to preserve myself from it by the considerations which have led me to the resolution of renouncing. A politician in this country must be the man of a party. I would fain be the man of my whole country."-Ibid., 249.

In the d ary, October 21, 1803, he wrote:

At eleven this morning I took my seat in the Senate of the United States.

The following extracts from his diary reveal the character and views of Mr. Adams at this period:

I have already seen enough to ascertain that no amendments of my proposing will obtain in the Senate as now filled.-Ibid., 270.

Unanimous consent was necessary [for declaring war with Morocco] and I alone objected. My principle was, that a declaration of war was the last thing in the world to make with unusual precipitation.—Ibid., 273.

The country is so totally given up to the spirit of party, that not to follow blindfold the one or the other is an inexpiable offence.-Ibid., 282.

The cooperation of the Senate in all appointments is at present a mere formality, and a very disgusting formality.-Ibid., 320.

In public affairs, it appears to me, there is no quality more useful and important than good humor, because it operates continually to soften the asperities that are continually rising in the collisions of adverse interests and opinions .-Ibid., 377.