ADAMS 



34 



ADAMS 



War; John Quincy Adams had the same posi- 

 tion after the War of 1812. It is remarkable 

 that Charles Francis Adams, the latter's son, 

 served his country in London during and after 

 the War of Secession. Both John Adams and 

 liis son returned from years of diplomacy to 

 high positions at home, the one to become 

 Vice-President, the other to become Secretary 

 of State. Both then served a single term as 

 -ulent; but here the parallel ends, for the 

 father retired to private life, whereas the son 

 entered a new field of political activity. 



Nothing in his life is more characteristic of 

 John Quincy Adams than his services for the 

 last seventeen years of his life in the House 

 of Representatives. He had held the Presi- 

 dency, the highest office in the gift of the 

 people, but instead of retiring to a premature 

 old age he was only fifty-two at the end of 

 his term he sought election to Congress. In 

 the House of Representatives he never allowed 

 any consideration of personal or party welfare 

 to swerve him from the course he thought 

 right. He opposed Jackson's high-handed pol- 

 icy toward the Bank of the United States, but 

 supported his stand against nullification (which 

 see). For several years his chief work was the 

 presentation to Congress of petitions for the 

 abolition of slavery, and after the House 

 adopted the "Gag Rules" in 1836 to keep such 

 petitions out, he fought for ten years until the 

 restricting measures were repealed. 



These years from 1836 to his death were per- 

 haps the most interesting period of his life. 

 As a parliamentarian and as a debater he was 

 more than a match for any member of the 

 House, and he earned the title of "Old Man 

 Eloquent." Nothing pleased him more than a 

 word-fight with every slaveholder in the House. 

 On the other hand, the English language 

 seemed powerless to express the hatred of his 

 opponents for him. He was even threatened 

 with assassination, yet his ability and his 

 courage won the respect of his enemies. 



His Youth. John Quincy Adams was born 

 on July 11, 1767, in Quincy, Mass. Until his 

 eleventh year he lived here, but in 1778 accom- 

 panied his father to France. He attended 

 school in Paris, Amsterdam and Leyden, and 

 at the age of sixteen went to Petrograd as 

 secretary of the American legation. After a 

 year in Russia, where the American representa- 

 tives tried in vain to secure official recognition, 

 young Adams traveled alone for several months 

 through Sweden, Denmark and Northern Ger- 

 many before rejoining his father in Paris. 



There he was at once set to work as secretary, 

 and helped to draft the treaty of peace between 

 the Unite.: 5 ml (Ireat Britain. 



In 1785, when John Adams was appointed 

 minister to C.reat Britain, his son returned to 

 the United States, because he felt that an 

 American education was thr l>r>t equipment 

 for an American career. He entered Harvard 

 College, was graduated in 1788, then studied 

 law, and in 1791 was admitted to the bar. The 

 law, however, bored him so that he took his 

 relaxation in writing a series of articles on 

 questions of the day. He criticized some of 

 the doctrines of Thomas Paine, defended Wash- 

 ington's policy of neutrality, and discussed the 

 Citizen Genet incident (see GENET, EDMON). 

 So able were these papers that they were at 

 first attributed to his father. 



Diplomat and Legislator. Though the young 

 man was only twenty-seven years old. Presi- 

 dent Washington, in 1794, sent him to Holland 

 as United States minister, and two years latei 

 transferred him to Portugal. He was about to 

 start for Lisbon when he received word that 

 his father, who had meanwhile become Presi- 

 dent, had promoted him to be United States 

 minister at Berlin. George Washington ad- 

 vised the appointment in the strongest terms, 

 and predicted that "the young man would 

 prove to be the ablest diplomat in the American 

 service." He took up his new duties in the 

 autumn of 1797, and remained in Berlin until 

 1801, when his father recalled him. Soon after 

 his return he was elected to the Massachusetts 

 Senate, but in 1803 he exchanged this place for 

 a seat in the United States Senate. 



In the Senate he was a free lance. He was 

 nominally a Federalist, but he frequently 

 voted with the Republicans. The Hamiltonian 

 Federalists, who were strong in the Senate, 

 first hated him because he was the son of his 

 father, and later they insulted him on his own 

 account. Threats and insults were never of 

 much a.vail against Adams; he went his own 

 way. He defended the Louisiana Purchase, and 

 was an ardent supporter of the Embargo and 

 Non-Importation Acts of 1807, although New 

 England stood strongly against them. The 

 abuse heaped on him by his own constituents 

 has scarcely been equalled in the history of 

 the United States. To add insult to injury, the 

 legislature elected his successor several months 

 before the usual time. Adams accepted the 

 insult as it was intended, and immediately 

 resigned. From 1806 to 1809 he was a profes- 

 sor of rhetoric at Harvard College, and in the 



