Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)
[Illustration: Engraved by H. Wright Smith from a Painting by A. B. Durand
I live in the Faith and Hope of the progressive advancement of
Christian Liberty, and expect to abide by the same in death.
J. Q. Adams.]
MEMOIR
OF
THE LIFE OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
BY
JOSIAH QUINCY, LL. D.
Justum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni,
Mente quatit solida.
BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE AND COMPANY.
1860.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
the District of Massachusetts.
Stereotyped by
HOBART & ROBBINS,
New England Type and Stereotype Foundery,
BOSTON.
THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS
OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
This Work,
PREPARED AT THEIR REQUEST,
IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
BY
THEIR ASSOCIATE,
JOSIAH QUINCY.
BOSTON, _June 1, 1858_.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The ensuing Memoir comprises the most important events in the life of
a statesman second to none of his contemporaries in laborious and
faithful devotion to the service of his country.
The light attempted to be thrown on his course has been derived from
personal acquaintance, from his public works, and from authentic
unpublished materials.
The chief endeavor has been to render him the expositor of his own
motives, principles, and character, without fear or favor,--in the
spirit neither of criticism or eulogy.
JOSIAH QUINCY.
BOSTON, _June 1, 1858_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH.--EDUCATION.--RESIDENCE IN EUROPE.--AT COLLEGE.--AT THE BAR.
--POLITICAL ESSAYS.--MINISTER AT THE HAGUE.--AT BERLIN.--RETURN TO
THE UNITED STATES, 1
CHAPTER II.
RESIDENCE IN BOSTON.--RETURNS TO THE BAR.--ELECTED TO THE SENATE OF
MASSACHUSETTS.--TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.--HIS COURSE
RELATIVE TO THE ATTACK OF THE LEOPARD ON THE CHESAPEAKE.--RESIGNS
HIS SEAT AS SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES.--APPOINTED MINISTER TO
RUSSIA.--FINAL SEPARATION FROM THE FEDERAL PARTY, 25
CHAPTER III.
VOYAGE.--ARRIVAL AT ST. PETERSBURG.--PRESENTATION TO THE EMPEROR.
--RESIDENCE AT THE IMPERIAL COURT.--DIPLOMATIC INTERVIEWS.--PRIVATE
STUDIES.--APPOINTED ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS TO TREAT FOR PEACE WITH
GREAT BRITAIN.--LEAVES RUSSIA, 44
CHAPTER IV.
RESIDENCE AT GHENT.--AT PARIS.--IN LONDON.--PRESENTATION TO THE
PRINCE REGENT.--NEGOTIATION WITH LORD CASTLEREAGH.--APPOINTED
SECRETARY OF STATE.--LEAVES ENGLAND, 59
CHAPTER V.
FIRST TERM OF MR. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.--STATE OF PARTIES.--SEMINOLE
WAR.--TAKING OF PENSACOLA.--NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN.--PURCHASE OF THE
FLORIDAS.--COLONIZATION SOCIETY.--THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE
UNION, 77
CHAPTER VI.
SECOND TERM OF MONROE'S PRESIDENCY.--STATE OF PARTIES.--REPORT ON
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.--PROCEEDINGS AT GHENT VINDICATED.--VOTES
WHEN HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DEFENDED.--
INDEPENDENCE OF GREECE.--CONTESTS OF PARTIES.--ELECTED PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES, 120
CHAPTER VII.
ADMINISTRATION AS PRESIDENT.--POLICY.--RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS.--
PRINCIPLES RELATIVE TO OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS AND REMOVALS.--COURSE
IN ELECTION CONTESTS.--TERMINATION OF HIS PRESIDENCY, 142
CHAPTER VIII.
PURSUITS OF MR. ADAMS IN RETIREMENT.--ELECTED TO CONGRESS.--PARTIES
AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS.--HIS COURSE IN RESPECT OF THEM.--HIS OWN
ADMINISTRATION AND THAT OF HIS SUCCESSOR COMPARED.--REPORT ON
MANUFACTURES AND THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.--REFUSAL TO VOTE,
AND CONSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS.--SPEECH AND REPORT ON THE MODIFICATION
OF THE TARIFF AND SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION, 175
CHAPTER IX.
INFLUENCE OF MILITARY SUCCESS.--POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION.--MR.
ADAMS' SPEECH ON THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE BANK OF THE
UNITED STATES.--HIS OPINIONS ON FREEMASONRY AND TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.
--EULOGY ON WILLIAM WIRT.--ORATION ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
LAFAYETTE.--HIS COURSE ON ABOLITION PETITIONS.--ON INTERFERENCE WITH
THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY.--ON THE POLICY RELATIVE TO THE PUBLIC
LANDS.--SPEECH ON DISTRIBUTING RATIONS TO FUGITIVES FROM INDIAN
HOSTILITIES.--ON WAR WITH MEXICO.--EULOGY ON JAMES MADISON.--HIS
COURSE ON A PETITION PURPORTING TO BE FROM SLAVES.--FIRST REPORT
ON JAMES SMITHSON'S BEQUEST, 219
CHAPTER X.
MARTIN VAN BUREN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.--MR. ADAMS' SPEECH
ON THE CLAIMS OF THE DEPOSIT BANKS.--HIS LETTER ON BOOKS FOR UNIVERSAL
READING.--ORATION AT NEWBURYPORT.--SPEECH ON THE RIGHT OF PETITION.--
LETTER TO THE MASSACHUSETTS ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.--ADDRESS TO THE
INHABITANTS OF HIS DISTRICT.--HIS VIEWS AS TO THE APPLICATION OF THE
SMITHSONIAN FUND.--HIS INTEREST IN THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY.--LETTER
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON AN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY.--LETTER ON
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--RESOLUTIONS
FOR THE LIMITING OF HEREDITARY SLAVERY.--DISCOURSE BEFORE THE NEW
YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.--ADDRESS ON THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION.--
REMARKS ON PHRENOLOGY.--ON THE LICENSE LAW OF MASSACHUSETTS.--HE
ORGANIZES THE OUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 268
CHAPTER XI.
SECOND REPORT ON THE SMITHSONIAN FUND.--HIS SPEECH ON A BILL FOR
INSURING A MORE FAITHFUL EXECUTION OF THE LAWS RELATING TO THE
COLLECTION OF DUTIES ON IMPORTS.--REMARKS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN
EXTENSIVE SERIES OF MAGNETICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.--ON
ITINERANT ELECTIONEERING.--ON ABUSES IN RESPECT TO THE NAVY FUND.--ON
THE POLITICAL INFLUENCES OF THE TIME.--ON THE ORIGIN AND RESULTS OF
THE FLORIDA WAR.--HIS DENUNCIATION OF DUELLING.--HIS ARGUMENT IN THE
SUPREME COURT ON BEHALF OF AFRICANS CAPTURED IN THE AMISTAD, 302
CHAPTER XII.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.--HIS
DEATH.--VICE-PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER SUCCEEDS.--REMARKS OF MR. ADAMS
ON THE OCCASION.--HIS SPEECH ON THE CASE OF ALEXANDER M'LEOD.--HIS
VIEWS CONCERNING COMMONPLACE BOOKS.--HIS LECTURE ON CHINA AND CHINESE
COMMERCE.--REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY, AND HIS DUTY IN
RELATION TO IT.--HIS PRESENTATION OF A PETITION FOR THE DISSOLUTION
OF THE UNION, AND THE VOTE TO CENSURE HIM FOR DOING IT.--HIS THIRD
REPORT ON MR. SMITHSON'S BEQUEST.--HIS SPEECH ON THE MISSION TO
MEXICO, 328
CHAPTER XIII.
REPORT ON PRESIDENT TYLER'S APPROVAL, WITH OBJECTIONS, OF THE BILL
FOR THE APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES.--REPORT ON HIS VETO OF
THE BILL TO PROVIDE A REVENUE FROM IMPORTS.--LECTURE ON THE SOCIAL
COMPACT, AND THE THEORIES OF FILMER, HOBBES, SYDNEY, AND LOCKE.--
ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS ON THE POLICY OF PRESIDENT TYLER'S
ADMINISTRATION.--ADDRESS TO THE NORFOLK COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.
--DISCOURSE ON THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY OF 1643.--LETTER TO
THE CITIZENS OF BANGOR ON WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION.--ORATION ON
LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY, 364
CHAPTER XIV.
REPORT ON THE RESOLVES OF THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS PROPOSING
AN AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN EFFECT TO
ABOLISH A REPRESENTATION FOR SLAVES.--FOURTH REPORT ON JAMES
SMITHSON'S BEQUEST.--INFLUENCE OF MR. ADAMS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY AND THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.--GENERAL
JACKSON'S CHARGE THAT THE RIO GRANDE MIGHT HAVE BEEN OBTAINED, UNDER
THE SPANISH TREATY, AS A BOUNDARY FOR THE UNITED STATES, REFUTED.--
ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS AT WEYMOUTH.--REMARKS ON THE RETROCESSION
OF ALEXANDRIA TO VIRGINIA.--HIS PARALYSIS.--RECEPTION BY THE HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES.--HIS DEATH.--FUNERAL HONORS.--TRIBUTE TO HIS
MEMORY, 409
MEMOIR
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH.--EDUCATION.--RESIDENCE IN EUROPE.--AT COLLEGE.--AT THE BAR.
--POLITICAL ESSAYS.--MINISTER AT THE HAGUE.--AT BERLIN.--RETURN TO
THE UNITED STATES.
John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, was born on the 11th
of July, 1767, in the North Parish of Braintree, Massachusetts--since
incorporated as the town of Quincy. The lives and characters of his
parents, intimately associated with the history of the American
Revolution, have been already ably and faithfully illustrated.[1]
[1] See "Letters of Mrs. Adams, with an Introductory Memoir,"
and "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United
States, with a Life of the Author," by their grandson, Charles
Francis Adams.
The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: "My great-grandfather,
John Quincy,[2] was dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my
grandmother, requested I might receive his name. This fact, recorded
by my father at the time, is not without a moral to my heart, and has
connected with that portion of my name a charm of mingled sensibility
and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name--it was the
name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been,
through life, perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it."
[2] John Quincy represented the town of Braintree in the
colonial legislature forty years, and long held the office of
speaker.
At Braintree his mother watched over his childhood. At the village
school he learned the rudiments of the English language. In after life
he often playfully boasted that the dame who taught him to spell
flattered him into learning his letters by telling him he would prove a
scholar. The notes and habits of the birds and wild animals of the
vicinity early excited his attention, and led him to look on nature
with a lover's eye, creating an attachment to the home of his
childhood, which time strengthened. Many years afterwards, when
residing in Europe, he wrote: "Penn's Hill and Braintree North Common
Rocks never looked and never felt to me like any other hill or any
other rocks; because every rock and every pebble upon them associates
itself with the first consciousness of my existence. If there is a
Bostonian who ever sailed from his own harbor for distant lands, or
returned to it from them, without feelings, at the sight of the Blue
Hills, which he is unable to express, his heart is differently
constituted from mine."
These local attachments were indissolubly associated with the events
of the American Revolution, and with the patriotic principles
instilled by his mother. Standing with her on the summit of Penn's
Hill, he heard the cannon booming from the battle of Bunker's Hill,
and saw the smoke and flames of burning Charlestown. During the siege
of Boston he often climbed the same eminence alone, to watch the
shells and rockets thrown by the American army.
With a mind prematurely developed and cultivated by the influence of
the characters of his parents and the stirring events of that period,
he embarked, at the age of eleven years, in February, 1778, from the
shore of his native town, with his father, in a small boat, which
conveyed them to a ship in Nantasket Roads, bound for Europe. John
Adams had been associated in a commission with Benjamin Franklin and
Arthur Lee, as plenipotentiary to the Court of France. After residing
in Paris until June, 1779, he returned to America, accompanied by his
son. Being immediately appointed, by Congress, minister plenipotentiary
to negotiate a treaty of peace and commerce with Great Britain, they
both returned together to France in November, taking passage in a
French frigate. On this his second voyage to Europe, young Adams began
a diary, which, with few intermissions, he continued through life.
While in Paris he resumed the study of the ancient and modern
languages, which had been interrupted by his return to America.
In July, 1780, John Adams having been appointed ambassador to the
Netherlands, his son was removed from the schools of Paris to those of
Amsterdam, and subsequently to the University of Leyden. There he
pursued his studies until July, 1781, when, in his fourteenth year, he
was selected by Francis Dana, minister plenipotentiary from the United
States to the Russian court, as his private secretary, and accompanied
him through Germany to St. Petersburg. Having satisfactorily discharged
his official duties, and pursued his Latin, German, and French studies,
with a general course of English history, until September, 1782, he
left St. Petersburg for Stockholm, where he passed the winter. In the
ensuing spring, after travelling through the interior of Sweden, and
visiting Copenhagen and Hamburg, he joined his father at the Hague,
and accompanied him to Paris. They travelled leisurely, forming an
acquaintance with eminent men on their route, and examining architectural
remains, the paintings of the great Flemish masters, and all the
treasures of the fine arts, in the countries through which they passed.
In Paris, young Adams was present at the signing of the treaty of peace
in 1783, and was admitted into the society of Franklin, Jefferson, Jay,
Barclay, Hartley, the Abbé Mably, and many other eminent statesmen and
literary men. After passing a few months in England, with his father,
he returned to Paris, and resumed his studies, which he continued until
May, 1785, when he embarked for the United States. This return to his
own country caused a mental struggle, in which his judgment controlled
his inclination. His father had just been appointed minister at the
Court of Great Britain, and, as one of his family, it would have been
to him a high gratification to reside in England. His feelings and
views on the occasion he thus expressed:
"I have been seven years travelling in Europe, seeing the world, and in
its society. If I return to the United States, I must be subject, one
or two years, to the rules of a college, pass three more in the tedious
study of the law, before I can hope to bring myself into professional
notice. The prospect is discouraging. If I accompany my father to
London, my satisfaction would possibly be greater than by returning to
the United States; but I shall loiter away my precious time, and not
go home until I am forced to it. My father has been all his lifetime
occupied by the interests of the public. His own fortune has suffered.
His children must provide for themselves. I am determined to get my own
living, and to be dependent upon no one. With a tolerable share of
common sense, I hope, in America, to be independent and free. Rather
than live otherwise, I would wish to die before my time."
In this spirit the tempting prospects in Europe were abandoned, and he
returned to the United States, to submit to the rules, and to join,
with a submissive temper, the comparatively uninteresting associations,
of college life. After reviewing his studies under an instructor, he
entered, in March, 1786, the junior class of Harvard University.
Diligence and punctual fulfilment of every prescribed duty, the
advantages he had previously enjoyed, and his exemplary compliance with
the rules of the seminary, secured to him a high standing in his class,
which none were disposed to controvert. Here his active and thoughtful
mind was prepared for those scenes in future life in which he could not
but feel he was destined to take part. Entering into all the literary
and social circles of the college, he became popular among his
classmates. By the government his conduct and attainments were duly
appreciated, which they manifested by bestowing upon him the second
honor of his class at commencement; a high distinction, considering the
short period he had been a member of the university. The oration he
delivered when he graduated, in 1787, on the Importance of Public Faith
to the Well-Being of a Community, was printed and published; a rare
proof of general interest in a college exercise, which the adaptation
of the subject to the times, and the talent it evinced, justified.
After leaving the university, Mr. Adams passed three years in Newburyport
as a student at law under the guidance of Theophilus Parsons, afterwards
chief justice of Massachusetts. He was admitted to the bar in 1790, and
immediately opened an office in Boston. The ranks of his profession were
crowded, the emoluments were small, and his competitors able. His
letters feelingly express his anxiety to relieve his parents from
contributing to his support. In November, 1843, in an address to the bar
of Cincinnati, Mr. Adams thus described the progress and termination of
his practice as a lawyer--
"I have been a member of your profession upwards of half a century.
In the early period of my life, having a father abroad, it was my
fortune to travel in foreign countries; still, under the impression
which I first received from my mother, that in this country every
man should have some trade, that trade which, by the advice of my
parents and my own inclination, I chose, was the profession of the
Law. After having completed an education in which, perhaps, more
than any other citizen of that time I had advantages, and which of
course brought with it the incumbent duty of manifesting by my life
that those extraordinary advantages of education, secured to me by
my father, had not been worthlessly bestowed,--on coming into life
after such great advantages, and having the duty of selecting a
profession, I chose that of the Bar. I closed my education as a
lawyer with one of the most eminent jurists of the age,--Theophilus
Parsons, of Newburyport, at that time a practising lawyer, but
subsequently chief justice of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Under his instruction and advice I closed my education, and
commenced what I can hardly call the practice of the law in the
city of Boston.
"At that time, though I cannot say I was friendless, yet my
circumstances were not independent. My father was then in a
situation of great responsibility and notoriety in the government
of the United States. But he had been long absent from his own
country, and still continued absent from that part of it to which
he belonged, and of which I was a native. I went, therefore, as a
volunteer, an adventurer, to Boston, as possibly many of you whom I
now see before me may consider yourselves as having come to
Cincinnati. I was without support of any kind. I may say I was a
stranger in that city, although almost a native of that spot. I say
I can hardly call it practice, because for the space of one year
from that time it would be difficult for me to name any practice
which I had to do. For two years, indeed, I can recall nothing in
which I was engaged that may be termed practice, though during the
second year there were some symptoms that by persevering patience
practice might come in time. The third year I continued this
patience and perseverance, and, having little to do, occupied my
time as well as I could in the study of those laws and institutions
which I have since been called to administer. At the end of the
third year I had obtained something which might be called practice.
"The fourth year I found it swelling to such an extent that I felt
no longer any concern as to my future destiny as a member of that
profession. But in the midst of the fourth year, by the will of the
first President of the United States, with which the Senate was
pleased to concur, I was selected for a station, not, perhaps, of
more usefulness, but of greater consequence in the estimation of
mankind, and sent from home on a mission to foreign parts.
"From that time, the fourth year after my admission to the bar of my
native state, and the first year of my admission to the bar of the
Supreme Court of the United States, I was deprived of the exercise
of any further industry or labor at the bar by this distinction; a
distinction for which a previous education at the bar, if not an
indispensable qualification, was at least a most useful
appendage."[3]
[3] See _Niles' Weekly Register_, New Series, vol. xv., pp. 218,
219.
While waiting for professional employment, he was instinctively drawn
into political discussions. Thomas Paine had just then published his
"Rights of Man," for which Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State,
took upon himself to be sponsor, by publishing a letter expressing his
extreme pleasure "that it is to be reprinted here, and that something is
at length to be publicly said against the _political heresies_ which
have sprung up among us. I have no doubt our citizens will rally a
second time round the standard of _Common Sense_."
Notwithstanding the weight of Jefferson's character, and the strength of
his recommendation, in June, 1791, young Adams entered the lists against
Paine and his pamphlet, which was in truth an encomium on the National
Assembly of France, and a commentary on the rights of man, inferring
questionable deductions from unquestionable principles. In a series of
essays, signed Publicola, published in the _Columbian Centinel_, he
states and controverts successively the fundamental doctrines of Paine's
work; denies that "whatever a whole nation chooses to do it has a right
to do," and maintains, in opposition, that "nations, no less than
individuals, are subject to the eternal and immutable laws of justice
and morality;" declaring that Paine's doctrine annihilated the security
of every man for his inalienable rights, and would lead in practice to a
hideous despotism, concealed under the parti-colored garments of
democracy. The truth of the views in these essays was soon made manifest
by the destruction of the French constitution, so lauded by Paine and
Jefferson, the succeeding anarchy, the murder of the French monarch, and
the establishment of a military despotism.
In April, 1793, Great Britain declared war against France, then in the
most violent frenzy of her revolution. In this war, the feelings of the
people of the United States were far from being neutral. The seeds of
friendship for the one, and of enmity towards the other belligerent,
which the Revolutionary War had plentifully scattered through the whole
country, began everywhere to vegetate. Private cupidity openly advocated
privateering upon the commerce of Great Britain, in aid of which
commissions were issued under the authority of France. To counteract the
apparent tendency of these popular passions, Mr. Adams published, also
in the _Centinel_, a series of essays, signed Marcellus, exposing the
lawlessness, injustice, and criminality, of such interference in favor
of one of the belligerents. "For if," he wrote, "as the poet, with more
than poetical truth, has said, 'war is murder,' the plunder of private
property, the pillage of all the regular rewards of honest industry and
laudable enterprise, upon the mere pretence of a national contest, in
the eye of justice can appear in no other light than highway robbery.
If, however, some apology for the practice is to be derived from the
incontrollable law of necessity, or from the imperious law of war,
certainly there can be no possible excuse for those who incur the guilt
without being able to plead the palliation; for those who violate the
rights of nations in order to obtain a license for rapine manifestly
show that patriotism is but the cloak for such enterprises; that the
true objects are plunder and pillage; and that to those engaged in them
it was only the lash of the executioner which kept them in the
observance of their civil and political duties."
After developing the folly and madness of such conduct in a nation whose
commerce was expanded over the globe, and which was "destitute of even
the defensive apparatus of war," and showing that it would lead to
general bankruptcy, and endanger even the existence of the nation, he
maintained that "impartial and unequivocal neutrality was the imperious
duty of the United States." Their pretended obligation to take part in
the war resulting from "the guarantee of the possessions of France in
America," he denied, on the ground that either circumstances had wholly
dissolved those obligations, or they were suspended and made
impracticable by the acts of the French government.
The ability displayed in these essays attracted the attention of
Washington and his cabinet, and the coïncidence of these views with
their own was immediately manifested by the proclamation of neutrality.
Their thoughts were again, soon after, attracted to the author, by a
third series of essays, published in November, 1793, in the _Columbian
Centinel_, under the signature of Columbus, in which he entered the
lists in defence of the constituted authorities of the United States,
exposing and reprobating the language and conduct of Genet, the minister
from the French republic, whose repeated insults upon the first
magistrate of the American Union, and upon the national government, had
been as public and as shameless as they had been unprecedented. For,
after Washington, supported by the highest judicial authority of the
country, had, as President of the United States, denied publicly Genet's
authority to establish consular courts within them, and to issue letters
of marque and reprisal to their citizens, against the enemies of France,
he had the insolence to appeal from the President, and to deny his power
to revoke the exequatur of a French consul, who, by a process issued
from his own court, rescued, with an armed force, a vessel out of the
custody of justice.
In these essays Genet is denounced as a dangerous enemy; his appeal "as
an insolent outrage to _the man_ who was deservedly the object of the
grateful affection of the whole people of America;" "as a rude attempt
of a beardless foreign stripling, whose commission from a friendly power
was his only title to respect, not supported by a shadow of right on his
part, and not less hostile to the constitution than to the government."
The violence of the times, and the existence of a powerful party in the
United States ready to support the French minister in his hostility to
the national government, are also illustrated by the following facts:
"That an American jury had been compelled by the clamor of a collected
multitude to acquit a prisoner without the unanimity required by law;"
"by the circulation of caricatures representing President Washington and
a judge of the Supreme Court with a guillotine suspended over their
heads;" "by posting upon the mast of a French vessel of war, in the
harbor of Boston, the names of twenty citizens, all of them inoffensive,
and some of them personally respectable, as objects of detestation to
the crew;" "by the threatening, by an anonymous assassin, to visit with
inevitable death a member of the Legislature of New York, for
expressing, with the freedom of an American citizen, his opinion of the
proceedings of the French minister;" and "by the formation of a
lengthened chain of democratic societies, assuming to themselves, under
the semblance of a warmer zeal for the cause of liberty, to control the
operations of the government, and to dictate laws to the country."
The talent and knowledge of diplomatic relations, thus displayed,
powerfully impressed the administration, and the nomination of Mr. Adams
as minister from the United States resident at the Netherlands, by
Washington and his cabinet, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate, in
June, 1794. At the request of the Secretary of State, he immediately
repaired to Philadelphia. His commission was delivered to him on the
11th of July, the day he entered his twenty-eighth year. He embarked in
September from Boston, and in October arrived in London, where Messrs.
Jay and Pinckney were then negotiating a treaty between Great Britain
and the United States, who immediately admitted him to their
deliberations. Concerning this treaty, which occasioned, soon after,
such unexampled fury of opposition in the United States, Mr. Adams, at
the time, thus expressed his opinion: "The treaty is far from being
satisfactory to either Mr. Jay or Mr. Pinckney. It is far below the
standard which would be advantageous to the country. It is probable,
however, the negotiators will consent to it, as it is, in their opinion,
preferable to a war. The satisfaction proposed to be made to the United
States for the recent depredations on their commerce, the principal
object of Jay's mission, is provided for in as ample a manner as we
could expect. The delivery of the posts is protracted to a more distant
day than is desirable. But, I think, the compensation made for the
present and future detention of them will be a sufficient equivalent.
The commerce with their West India islands, partially opened to us, will
be of great importance, and indemnifies for the deprivation of the
fur-trade since the treaty of peace, as well as for the negroes carried
away contrary to the engagements of the treaty, at least as far as it
respects the nation. As to the satisfaction we are to make, I think it
is no more than is in justice due from us. The article which provides
against the future confiscation of debts, and of property in the funds,
is useful, because it is honest. If its operation should turn out more
advantageous to them, it will be more honorable for us; and I never can
object to entering formally into an obligation to do that which, upon
every virtuous principle, ought to be done without it. As a treaty of
commerce it will be indeed of little use to us, and we shall never
obtain anything more favorable so long as the principles of the
navigation act are obstinately adhered to by Great Britain. This system
is so much a favorite with the nation that no minister would dare to
depart from it. Indeed, I have no idea we shall ever obtain, by compact,
a better footing for our commerce with this country than that on which
it now stands; and therefore the shortness of time, limited for the
operation of this part of the compact, is, I think, beneficial to us."
After remaining fifteen days in London, Mr. Adams sailed, on the 30th of
October, for Holland, landed at Hellevoetsluis, and proceeded without
delay to the Hague.
His reception as the representative of the United States had scarcely
been acknowledged by the President of the States General, before Holland
was taken possession of by the French, under Pichegru. The Stadtholder
fled, the tree of liberty was planted, and the French national flag
displayed before the Stadthouse. The people were kept quiet by seventy
thousand French soldiers. The Stadtholder, the nobility, and the
regencies of the cities, were all abolished, a provincial municipality
appointed, and the country received as an ally of France, under the name
of the Batavian Republic; the streets being filled with tri-colored
cockades, and resounding with the Carmagnole, or the Marseilles Hymn.
Mr. Adams was visited by the representatives of the French people, and
recognized as the minister of a nation free like themselves, with whom
the most fraternal relations should be maintained. In response, he
assured them of the attachment of his fellow-citizens for the French
people, who felt grateful for the obligations they were under to the
French nation, and closed with demanding safety and protection for all
American persons and property in the country.
Popular societies in Holland were among the most efficient means of the
success of the revolution, as they had been in France. Mr. Adams, being
solicited to join one of them, declined, considering it improper in a
stranger to take part personally in the politics of the country. "It
was," he wrote, "unnecessary for me to look out for motives to justify
my refusal. I have an aversion to political popular societies in
general. To destroy an established power, they are undoubtedly an
efficacious instrument, but in their nature they are fit for nothing
else. The reign of Robespierre has shown what use they make of power
when they obtain it."
The station of Mr. Adams at the Hague gave him opportunities to acquaint
himself with parties and persons, their motives and principles, of which
he availed himself with characteristic industry.
In October, 1795, he was directed by the Secretary of State to repair to
England, and arriving there in November ensuing, he found he was
appointed to exchange ratifications of Mr. Jay's treaty with the British
government. This mission was far from pleasant to him. In effect it was
merely ministerial, and so far as it might result in negotiation, he did
not anticipate any good. "I am convinced," he wrote, "that Mr. Jay did
everything that was to be done; that he did so much affords me a proof
of the wisdom with which he conducted the business, that grows stronger
the more I see. But circumstances will do more than any negotiation. The
pride of Britain itself must bend to the course of events. The rigor of
her system already begins to relax, and one year of war to her and peace
to us will be more favorable to our interests, and to the final
establishment of our principles, than could possibly be effected by
twenty years of negotiation or war."
While in England, the duties of his appointment brought him into
frequent intercourse with Lord Grenville and other leading British
statesmen of the period. After the objects of his mission had been
acceptably fulfilled, he received authority from his government to
return to his station, at the Hague, in May, 1796. His time was there
devoted to official duties, to the claims of general society, to an
extensive correspondence, the study of works on diplomacy, the English
and Latin classics, and the Dutch and Italian languages.
In August, 1796, he received from the Secretary of State an appointment
as minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Portugal, with directions
not to quit the Hague until he received further instructions. These did
not reach him until the arrival of Mr. Murray, his successor, in July,
1797, when he took his departure for England. Truthfulness to himself,
not less than to the public, characterized Mr. Adams. Every day had its
assigned object, which every hour successively, as far as possible,
fulfilled. Daily he called himself to account for what he had done or
omitted. At the close of every month and year he submitted himself to
retrospection concerning fulfilled or neglected duties, judging himself
by a severe standard.
On arriving in London, he found his appointment to the Court of Portugal
superseded by another to the Court of Berlin, with directions not to
proceed on the mission until he had received the necessary instructions.
While waiting for these, an engagement he had formed during a former
visit to England was fulfilled, by his marriage, on the 26th of July,
1797, with Louisa Catharine Johnson, the daughter of Joshua Johnson,
American consul at London; a lady highly qualified to support and to
ornament the various elevated stations he was destined to fill. Mr.
Adams was reluctant to accept the appointment to Berlin, as it had been
made by his father, who had succeeded Washington as President of the
United States. "I have submitted to take it," he immediately wrote to
his mother, "notwithstanding my former declaration to you and my father,
made a short time ago. I have broken a resolution I had deliberately
formed, and that I still think right; but I never acted more
reluctantly. The tenure by which I am for the future to hold an office
of such a nature will take from me the satisfaction I have enjoyed,
hitherto, in considering myself a public servant." To his father he
wrote: "I cannot, and ought not, to discuss with you _the propriety_ of
the measure. I have undertaken the duty, and will discharge it to the
best of my ability, and will complain no further. But I most earnestly
entreat that whenever there shall be deemed no further occasion for a
minister at Berlin I may be recalled, and that no nomination of me to
any other public office whatever may ever again proceed from the present
chief magistrate." His continuance in a diplomatic career had been
repeatedly urged by President Washington. In August, 1795, he wrote to
John Adams, then Vice-President: "Your son must not think of retiring
from the walk he is now in (minister from the United States to Holland).
His prospects, if he pursues it, are fair; and I shall be much mistaken
if, in as short a time as can well be expected, he is not found at the
head of the diplomatic corps, let the government be administered by
whomsoever the people may choose." In a letter dated 20th February,
1797, addressed to Mr. Adams, just before his entrance on the
Presidency, Washington again wrote: "I have a strong hope that you will
not withhold merited promotion to Mr. John Quincy Adams because he is
your son. For, without intending to compliment the father or the mother,
or to censure any others, I give it as my decided opinion that Mr. Adams
is the most valuable public character we have abroad, and that he will
prove himself to be the ablest of all our diplomatic corps. If he was
now to be brought into that line, or into any other public walk, I would
not, on the principles which have regulated my own conduct, disapprove
the caution hinted at in the letter. But he is already entered; the
public, more and more, as he is known, are appreciating his talents and
worth; and his country would sustain a loss if these are checked by over
delicacy on your part."[4]
[4] Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington, XI., p. 56, and p.
188.
This letter, communicated to Mr. Adams by his mother, induced him
reluctantly to acquiesce in this appointment. In reply, he wrote: "I
know with what delight your truly maternal heart has received every
testimonial of Washington's favorable voice. It is among the most
precious gratifications of my life to reflect upon the pleasure which my
conduct has given to my parents. The terms, indeed, in which such a
character as Washington has repeatedly expressed himself concerning me,
have left me nothing to wish, if they did not alarm me by their very
strength. How much, my dear mother, is required of me, to support and
justify such a judgment as that which you have copied into your letter!"
Mr. and Mrs. Adams embarked from Gravesend, and landed at Hamburg on the
26th of October, and reached Berlin early in November. He was received,
with gratifying expressions of regard for the United States, by Count
Finkenstein, the prime minister; but, owing to the king's illness, an
audience could not be granted. After his death Mr. Adams was admitted to
presentation and audience by his successor. New credentials, which were
required, did not arrive until July, 1798, when Mr. Adams was fully
accredited.
The absence of the king from Berlin prevented the renewal of the treaty,
which was not commenced until the ensuing autumn, nor completed, in
consequence of incidental delays, until the 11th of July, 1799, when it
was signed by all the king's ministers and Mr. Adams, and was afterwards
unanimously approved by the Senate of the United States. The object of
his mission being fulfilled, Mr. Adams immediately wrote to his father
that he should, at any time, acquiesce in his recall. While waiting for
the decision of his government, he travelled, with his family, in Saxony
and Bohemia, and, in the ensuing summer, into Silesia. His observations
during this tour were embodied in letters to his brother, Thomas B.
Adams, and were published, without his authority, in Philadelphia, and
subsequently in England. The work contains interesting sketches of
Silesian life and manners, and important accounts of manufactures,
mines, and localities; concluding with elaborate historical,
geographical, and statistical statements of the province.
The following passages are characteristic, and indicate the general
spirit of the work. "Count Finkenstein resides in this vicinity. He was
formerly president of the judicial tribunal at Custrin, but was
dismissed by Frederic II., on the occasion of the miller Arnold's famous
lawsuit; an instance in which the great king, from mere love of justice,
committed the greatest injustice that ever cast a shade upon his
character. His anxiety, upon that occasion, to prove to the world that
in his courts of justice the beggar should be upon the same footing as
the prince, made him forget that in substantial justice the maxim ought
to bear alike on both sides, and that the prince should obtain his right
as much as the beggar. Count Finkenstein and several other judges of the
court at Custrin, together with the High Chancellor Fürst, were all
dismissed from their places, for doing their duty, and persisting in it,
contrary to the will of the king, who, substituting his ideas of natural
equity in place of the prescriptions of positive law, treated them with
the utmost severity, for conduct which ought to have received his
fullest approbation."
"Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Watts, has bestowed a just and exalted
encomium upon him for not disdaining to descend from the pride of genius
and the dignity of science to write for the wants and the capacities of
children. 'Every man acquainted,' says he, 'with the common principles
of human action, will look with veneration on the writer who is at one
time combating Locke, and at another making _a catechism_ for children
in their fourth year.' But how much greater still is the tribute of
admiration, irresistibly drawn from us, when we behold an absolute
monarch, the greatest general of his age, eminent as a writer in the
highest departments of literature, descending, in a manner, to teach the
alphabet to the children of his kingdom; bestowing his care, his
persevering assiduity, his influence and his power, in diffusing plain
and useful knowledge among his subjects, in opening to their minds the
first and most important page of the book of science, in filling the
whole atmosphere they breathed with that intellectual fragrance which
had before been imprisoned in the vials of learning, or enclosed within
the gardens of wealth! Immortal Frederic! when seated on the throne of
Prussia, with kneeling millions at thy feet, thou wert only a king; on
the fields of Lutzen, of Torndoff, of Rosbach, of so many other scenes
of human blood and anguish, thou wert only a hero; even in thy rare and
glorious converse with the muses and with science thou wert only a
philosopher, a historian, a poet; but in this generous ardor, this
active, enlightened zeal for the education of thy people, thou wert
_truly great_--the father of thy country--the benefactor of mankind!"
In 1801, Mr. Adams received from his government permission to return
home. After taking leave with the customary formalities, he left Berlin,
sailed from Hamburg, and on the 4th of September, 1801, arrived in the
United States. During his residence in Berlin his time was devoted to
official labor and intellectual improvement; yet his letters show that
he was seldom, if ever, self-satisfied, being filled with aspirations
after something higher and better than he could accomplish. His
translations, at this period, embraced many satires of Juvenal, and
Wieland's Oberon from the original, into English verse; the last he
intended for the press, had it not been superseded by the version of
Sotheby. He also translated from the German a treatise, by Gentz, on the
origin and principles of the American Revolution, which he finished and
transmitted to the United States for publication, eulogizing it "as one
of the clearest accounts that exist of the rise and progress of the
American Revolution, in so small a compass; rescuing it from the
disgraceful imputation of its having proceeded from the same principles,
and of its being conducted in the same spirit, as that of France. This
error has nowhere been more frequently repeated, nowhere been of more
pernicious tendency, than in America itself."
The last years of Mr. Adams' residence at the Court of Berlin were
painfully affected by the bitter party animadversions which assailed his
father's administration, and which did not fail to bring within the
sphere of their asperities the missions he had himself held in Europe.
These feelings became intense on the publication of Alexander Hamilton's
letter "On the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, President of
the United States." This letter, with the divisions in the cabinet at
Washington, occasioned by the political friends of Hamilton, excited in
the breast of Mr. Adams a spirit, which, from affection for his father,
and a sense of the injustice done to him, could not be otherwise than
indignant. Though concealed, it was not the less understood. He regarded
Mr. Hamilton's letter as the efficient cause of his father's loss of
power, and attributed its influence to its being circulated at the eve
of the presidential election, and to its adaptation to awaken prejudices
and excite party jealousies; although it contained nothing that could
justly shake confidence in a statesman of long-tried experience and
fidelity. He pronounced that letter as not only a full vindication, but
the best eulogium on his father's administration.