94 A GREA T PUBLIC CHARACTER. 



privilege of Roman citizenship. It is worth noting that, 

 while in Congress, and afterwards in the State Senate, 

 many of his phrases became the catchwords of party 

 politics. He always dared to say what others deemed it 

 more prudent only to think, and whatever he said he 

 intensified with the whole ardour of his temperament. It 

 is ^ this which makes Mr. Quincy s speeches good reading 

 still, even when the topics they discussed were ephemeral. 

 In one respect he is distinguished from the politicians, and 

 must rank with the far-seeing statesmen of his time. He 

 early foresaw and denounced the political danger with 

 which the Slave Power threatened the Union. His fears, 

 it is true, were aroused for the balance of power between 

 the old States, rather than by any moral sensitiveness 

 which would, indeed, have been an anachronism at that 

 time. But the Civil War justified his prescience. 



It was as mayor of his native city that his remarkable 

 qualities as an administrator were first called into requisi 

 tion and adequately displayed. He organised the city 

 government, and put it in working order. To him we owe 

 many reforms in police, in the management of the poor, and 

 other kindred matters, much in the way of cure, still more 

 in that of prevention. The place demanded a man of 

 courage and firmness, and found those qualities almost 

 superabundantly in him. His virtues lost him his office, 

 as such virtues are only too apt to do in peaceful times, 

 where they are felt more as a restraint than a protec 

 tion. His address on laying down the mayoralty is very 

 characteristic. We quote the concluding sentences : 



&quot; And now, gentlemen, standing as I do in this relation 

 for the last time in your presence and that of my fellow- 

 citizens, about to surrender for ever a station full of 

 difficulty, of labour and temptation, in which I have been 

 called to very arduous duties, affecting the rights, property, 

 and at times the liberty of others ; concerning which the 

 perfect line of rectitude though desired was not always 

 to be clearly discerned ; in which great interests have been 

 placed within my control, under circumstances in which it 



