precepts and instructions of your father, as you value the happiness of
your mother and your own welfare. His care and attention to you render
many things unnecessary for me to write, which I might otherwise do; but
the inadvertency and heedlessness of youth require line upon line and
precept upon precept, and, when enforced by the joint efforts of both
parents, will, I hope, have a due influence upon your conduct; for, dear
as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave
in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you in
your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless
child.
"You have entered early in life upon the great theatre of the world,
which is full of temptations and vice of every kind. You are not wholly
unacquainted with history, in which you have read of crimes which your
inexperienced mind could scarcely believe credible. You have been taught
to think of them with horror, and to view vice as
'a monster of so frightful mien,
That, to be hated, needs but to be seen.'
"Yet you must keep a strict guard upon yourself, or the odious monster
will soon lose its terror by becoming familiar to you. The modern
history of our own times, furnishes as black a list of crimes, as can be
paralleled in ancient times, even if we go back to Nero, Caligula, or
Caesar Borgia. Young as you are, the cruel war into which we have been
compelled by the haughty tyrant of Britain and the bloody emissaries of
his vengeance, may stamp upon your mind this certain truth, that the
welfare and prosperity of all countries, communities, and, I may add,
individuals, depend upon their morals. That nation to which we were once
united, as it has departed from justice, eluded and subverted the wise
laws which formerly governed it, and suffered the worst of crimes to go
unpunished, has lost its valor, wisdom and humanity, and, from being the
dread and terror of Europe, has sunk into derision and infamy....
"Some author, that I have met with, compares a judicious traveler to a
river, that increases its stream the further it flows from its source;
or to certain springs, which, running through rich veins of minerals,
improve their qualities as they pass along. It will be expected of you,
my son, that, as you are favored with superior advantages under the
instructive eye of a tender parent, your improvement should bear some
proportion to your advantages. Nothing is wanting with you but
attention, diligence, and steady application. Nature has not been
deficient.
"These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the
still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great
characters are formed. Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an
orator if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny
of Catiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony? The habits of a vigorous mind are
formed in contending with difficulties. All history will convince you of
this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not
the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great
virtues. When a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the
heart, then those qualities, which would otherwise lie dormant, wake
into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman. War,
tyranny, and desolation are the scourges of the Almighty, and ought no
doubt to be deprecated. Yet it is your lot, my son, to be an eye witness
of these calamities in your own native land, and, at the same time, to
owe your existence among a people who have made a glorious defence of
their invaded liberties, and who, aided by a generous and powerful ally,
with the blessing of Heaven, will transmit this inheritance to ages yet
unborn.
"Nor ought it to be one of the least of your incitements towards
exerting every power and faculty of your mind, that you have a parent
who has taken so large and active a share in this contest, and
discharged the trust reposed in him with so much satisfaction as to be
honored with the important embassy which at present calls him abroad.
"The strict and inviolable regard you have ever paid to truth, gives me
pleasing hopes that you will not swerve from her dictates, but add
justice, fortitude, and every manly virtue which can adorn a good
citizen, do honor to your country, and render your parents supremely
happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother.
... "The only sure and permanent foundation of virtue is religion. Let
this important truth be engraven upon your heart. And also, that the
foundation of religion is the belief of the one only God, and a just
sense of his attributes, as a being infinitely wise, just, and good, to
whom you owe the highest reverence, gratitude, and adoration; who
superintends and governs all nature, even to clothing the lilies of the
field, and hearing the young ravens when they cry; but more particularly
regards man, whom he created after his own image, and breathed into him
an immortal spirit, capable of a happiness beyond the grave; for the
attainment of which he is bound to the performance of certain duties,
which all tend to the happiness and welfare of society, and are
comprised in one short sentence, expressive of universal benevolence,
'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'...
"Justice, humanity, and benevolence, are the duties you owe to society
in general. To your country the same duties are incumbent upon you, with
the additional obligation of sacrificing ease, pleasure, wealth, and
life itself for its defence and security. To your parents you owe love,
reverence, and obedience to all just and equitable commands. To
yourself,--here, indeed, is a wide field to expatiate upon. To become
what you ought to be, and what a fond mother wishes to see you, attend
to some precepts and instructions from the pen of one, who can have no
motive but your welfare and happiness, and who wishes in this way to
supply to you the personal watchfulness and care, which a separation
from you deprived you of at a period of life, when habits are easiest
acquired and fixed; and though the advice may not be new, yet suffer it
to obtain a place in your memory, for occasions may offer, and perhaps
some concurring circumstances unite, to give it weight and force.
"Suffer me to recommend to you one of the most useful lessons of life,
the knowledge and study of yourself. There you run the greatest hazard
of being deceived. Self-love and partiality cast a mist before the eyes,
and there is no knowledge so hard to be acquired, nor of more benefit
when once thoroughly understood. Ungoverned passions have aptly been
compared to the boisterous ocean, which is known to produce the most
terrible effects. 'Passions are the elements of life,' but elements
which are subject to the control of reason. Whoever will candidly
examine themselves, will find some degree of passion, peevishness, or
obstinacy in their natural tempers. You will seldom find these
disagreeable ingredients all united in one; but the uncontrolled
indulgence of either is sufficient to render the possessor unhappy in
himself, and disagreeable to all who are so unhappy as to be witnesses
of it, or suffer from its effects.
"You, my dear son, are formed with a constitution feelingly alive; your
passions are strong and impetuous; and, though I have sometimes seen
them hurry you into excesses, yet with pleasure I have observed a
frankness and generosity accompany your efforts to govern and subdue
them. Few persons are so subject to passion, but that they can command
themselves, when they have a motive sufficiently strong; and those who
are most apt to transgress will restrain themselves through respect and
reverence to superiors, and even, where they wish to recommend
themselves, to their equals. The due government of the passions, has
been considered in all ages as a most valuable acquisition. Hence an
inspired writer observes, 'He that is slow to anger is better than the
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.' This
passion, cooperating with power, and unrestrained by reason, has
produced the subversion of cities, the desolation of countries, the
massacre of nations, and filled the world with injustice and oppression.
Behold your own country, your native land, suffering from the effects of
lawless power and malignant passions, and learn betimes, from your own
observation and experience, to govern and control yourself. Having once
obtained this self-government, you will find a foundation laid for
happiness to yourself and usefulness to mankind. 'Virtue alone is
happiness below;' and consists in cultivating and improving every good
inclination, and in checking and subduing every propensity to evil. I
have been particular upon the passion of anger, as it is generally the
most predominant passion at your age, the soonest excited, and the least
pains are taken to subdue it;
----'what composes man, can man destroy.'"
With such a mother to counsel him, one is led to ask, how could John
Quincy Adams _help_ becoming a noble-minded and great man? Who wonders
that, with good natural endowments and his excellent privileges, coupled
with maternal training, he fitted himself to fill the highest office in
the gift of a free people?
In June, 1784, Mrs. Adams sailed for London to join her husband, who was
then our Minister at the Court of St. James. While absent, she visited
France and Netherlands; resided for a time in the former country; and
returned with her knowledge of human nature, of men, manners, &c.,
enlarged; disgusted with the splendor and sophistications of royalty,
and well prepared to appreciate the republican simplicity and frankness
of which she was herself a model. While Mr. Adams was Vice-President and
President, she never laid aside her singleness of heart, and that
sincerity and unaffected dignity which had won for her many friends
before her elevation, and which, in spite of national animosity,
conquered the prejudices and gained the hearts of the aristocracy of
Great Britain. But her crowning virtue was her Christian humility, which
is beautifully exemplified in a letter which she wrote to Mr. Adams, on
the 8th of February, 1797, "the day on which the votes for President
were counted, and Mr. Adams, as Vice-President, was required by law to
announce himself the President elect for the ensuing term:"
"'The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
To give thy honors to the day.'
"And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season. You
have this day to declare yourself head of a nation. 'And now, O Lord, my
God, thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people. Give unto him an
understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before
this great people; that he may discern between good and bad. For who is
able to judge this thy so great a people?' were the words of a royal
sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is invested with the chief
magistracy of a nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of
royalty.
"My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally absent;
and my petitions to Heaven are, that 'the things which make for peace
may not be hidden from your eyes.' My feelings are not those of pride or
ostentation, upon the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the
obligations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected with
it. That you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself,
with justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to
this great people, shall be the daily prayer of your
"A. A."
From her husband's retirement from the Presidency, in 1801, to the close
of her life, in 1818, Mrs. Adams remained constantly at Quincy.
Cheerful, contented, and happy, she devoted her last years, in that
rural seclusion, to the reciprocities of friendship and love, to offices
of kindness and charity, and, in short, to all those duties which tend
to ripen the Christian for an exchange of worlds.
But it would be doing injustice to her character and leaving one of her
noblest deeds unrecorded, to close without mentioning the influence for
good which she exerted over Mr. Adams, and her part in the work of
making him what he was. That he was sensible of the benignant influence
of wives, may be gathered from the following letter which was addressed
to Mrs. Adams from Philadelphia, on the eleventh of August, 1777:
"I think I have some times observed to you in conversation, that upon
examining the biography of illustrious men, you will generally find some
female about them, in the relation of mother, or wife, or sister, to
whose instigation a great part of their merit is to be ascribed. You
will find a curious example of this in the case of Aspasia, the wife of
Pericles. She was a woman of the greatest beauty, and the first genius.
She taught him, it is said, his refined maxims of policy, his lofty
imperial eloquence, nay, even composed the speeches on which so great a
share of his reputation was founded.
"I wish some of our great men had such wives. By the account in your
last letter, it seems the women in Boston begin to think themselves able
to serve their country. What a pity it is that our generals in the
northern districts had not Aspasias to their wives.
"I believe the two Howes have not very great women to their wives. If
they had, we should suffer more from their exertions than we do. This is
our good fortune. A smart wife would have put Howe in possession of
Philadelphia a long time ago."
While Mr. Adams was wishing that some of our great men had such wives as
Aspasia, he had such a wife, was himself such a man, and owed half his
greatness to _his_ Aspasia. The exalted patriotism and the cheerful
piety infused into the letters she addressed to him during the long
night of political uncertainty that hung over these Colonies,
strengthened his courage, fired his nobler feelings, nerved his higher
purposes and, doubtless, greatly contributed to make him the right hand
man of Washington.
The diligent and faithful Andromaches, the gifted and patriotic
_Aspasias_ of the Revolution, did their portion of the great work
silently and unseen. Secretly they urged their husbands and sons to the
battle-field, secretly spoke to them by letter in the camp or
convention, and secretly prayed for wisdom to guide our statesmen and
victory to crown our arms. Thus privately acting, how little of their
labor or their worth is known. How few of their names are treasured in
our annals. With rare exceptions, like the builders of the pyramids,
their initials are lost. Then, while we have the name and the noble
example of Mrs. Adams, with a few of her patriotic compeers, let us
pledge our unswerving devotion to Freedom over the _unknown_ names of
the wives and mothers who secretly assisted in nerving the arm that
broke the sceptre of British dominion on these shores, and gave the
eagle of Liberty a safe and abiding home on our mountain tops.
ANN H. JUDSON.
God has a bright example made of thee,
To show that womankind may be
Above that sex which her superior seems.
COWLEY.
About the commencement of the present century, a new field was opened
for the display of Christian heroism. The despairing wail of the pagan
millions of the East, had reached the ears of a few of the most devoted
people of God on these Western shores, and the question arisen, Who
shall lead the way to heathen realms, who among us first encounter the
perils of an attempt to plant the standard of the Cross beside the
pagodas of Buddhism? He who would then go forth, must leave his native
land with the parting benediction of but few friends; must be
accompanied with few and faint prayers; must make his own path through
the tiger-haunted jungles, and face alone the untried dangers of a
dubious assault on the strong-holds of pagan superstition. But,
notwithstanding the discouragements inwoven with the contemplation of
the undertaking, and the great peril that must attend its completion, it
was magnanimous and sublime, and there were hearts in the land
philanthropic enough to embark in it and brave enough to face its
terrors without fainting.
Among the foremost Americans who offered their services in this work,
were the Rev. Adoniram Judson and his wife. They embarked from Salem,
Massachusetts, for Calcutta, with Samuel Newell and lady, on the
nineteenth of February, 1812: and five days afterwards Messrs. Hall and
Nott, with their wives, and Mr. Rice, sailed from Philadelphia for the
same place. The names of these pioneer missionaries are sacred to the
memory of all living Christians, and, being embodied in the history of
the grandest enterprise of the age, are to be handed down to all future
generations.
While all the female portion of this little band, exhibited many
excellent traits of character, and worked well while their day lasted,
no other one endured so many and so great hardships and trials,
encountered such fearful perils, and had such an opportunity to test the
strength of the higher virtues, as Mrs. Judson.
Ann Hasseltine was born at Bradford, in Essex county, Massachusetts, on
the twenty-second day of December, 1789. She was an active and
enthusiastic child; of a gay disposition, yet thoughtful at times; and
before she was seventeen, gave religion that attention which its
importance demands.
She became acquainted with Mr. Judson in 1810. He was then a student in
the Andover Theological Seminary, preparing for the work of foreign
missions. A mutual and strong attachment sprang up, and they were
married in February, 1812, two weeks before their embarkation for India.
Mr. and Mrs. Judson first halted at Serampore. There, soon after their
arrival, they were immersed by an English missionary, having changed
their views of the ordinance of baptism on the long voyage across the
Atlantic and Indian oceans. From that place they were soon driven by the
Directors and Agents of the British East India Company, who were at that
time opposed to the introduction of the Christian religion into those
parts. They sailed from Madras for Rangoon, on the twenty-second of
June, 1813, and settled at the latter place.
From the commencement of missionary toil, Mrs. Judson had many
inconveniences to encounter, but they were met with patience and served
to strengthen that energy which, it will be seen, was afterwards so much
needed and so strikingly displayed. Four or five years after settling at
Rangoon, Mr. Judson went to Chittagong, in a neighboring province, to
secure help, some Arracanese converts being there, who spoke the Burman
language. He expected to return within three months. "At the expiration
of this period, however, when his return was daily expected, a vessel
from Chittagong arrived at Rangoon, bringing the distressing
intelligence that neither he nor the vessel in which he had embarked had
been heard of at that port. Similar tidings were also contained in
letters which Mrs. Judson received from Bengal.
"While the missionaries were in this state of fearful suspense, an
incident occurred which was well calculated to increase the perplexity
and dismay in which they were plunged. Mr. Hough,[4] who had continued
quietly studying the language, at the mission house, was suddenly
summoned to appear immediately at the court house, and it was rumored
among the affrighted domestics and neighbors who followed the officers
that came for Mr. Hough, that the king had issued a decree for the
banishment of all the foreign teachers. It was late in the afternoon
when he made his appearance before the despotic tribunal that was
charged with the execution of the imperial decree, and he was merely
required to give security for his appearance the following morning;
when, as the unfeeling magistrates declared, 'if he did not tell all the
truth relative to his situation in the country, they would write with
his heart's blood.' Mr. Hough was detained from day to day on the most
flimsy pretences, himself unable to speak the language, and with no one
near him who would attempt to explain his situation or vindicate his
objects and his conduct. The viceroy whom Mr. and Mrs. Judson had known,
had recently been recalled to Ava, and he who now held the reins of the
government was a stranger, and, as his family were not with him, Mrs.
Judson, according to the etiquette of the court, could not be admitted
to his presence. The order which had led to the arrest was found to
relate to some Portuguese priests whom the king had banished, and Mr.
Hough was at first summoned to give assurance that he was not one of the
number, and then detained by the officers in order to extort money for
his ransom. He was at length released by order of the viceroy, to whom
Mrs. Judson boldly carried the cause and presented a petition which she
had caused her teacher to draw up for the purpose.
[4] Mr. Hough was a printer in the employment of the Baptist Board.
AUTHOR.
"The anxiety occasioned by this arrest and its train of petty
annoyances, and still more by the protracted and mysterious absence of
Mr. Judson, was at this time greatly increased by rumors which reached
Rangoon, of an impending war between the English and the Burman
governments. There were but few English vessels lying in the river, and
the English traders who were in the country were closing their business
and preparing to hasten away, at any new indications of hostilities that
should be presented. The condition of the missionaries was rendered
still more distressing by the ravages of the cholera, which now, for the
first time made its appearance in Burmah, and was sending its terrors
throughout the empire. The poor people of Rangoon fell in hundreds
before its frightful progress. The dismal death-drum continually gave
forth its warning sound as new names were added to the melancholy list
of victims to the desolating malady. In these gloomy circumstances, they
saw ship after ship leave the river, bearing away all the foreigners who
were in the province, until at length the only one remaining was on the
eve of sailing. Harassed with doubts concerning the uncertain fate of
Mr. Judson, and surrounded with perils, they saw before them what
appeared the last opportunity of leaving the country, before the
threatened hostilities should begin, and they should be exposed to all
the merciless cruelties of barbarian-warfare.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hough decided to go on board and escape to Bengal, while
escape was still in their power, and they urged Mrs. Judson to accompany
them. She at length reluctantly yielded to their advice, and with a
heart burdened with sorrows she embarked with her companions, on the
fifth of July, in the only ship that remained to carry them from the
country. The ship, however, was delayed for several days in the river,
and was likely to be subjected to still further detention. Mrs. Judson,
who had gone on board rather in obedience to the entreaties of her
associates, and the dictates of prudence, than from the suggestions of
that truer instinct which often serves to guide the noblest natures in
great emergencies, now decided to leave the ship and return alone to the
mission house, there to await either the return of her husband, or the
confirmation of her worst fears respecting his fate. It was a noble
exhibition of heroic courage, and gave assurance of all the
distinguished qualities which, at a later period and amid dangers still
more appalling, shone with unfailing brightness around the character of
this remarkable woman. The event justified her determination; and,
within a week after her decision was taken, Mr. Judson arrived at
Rangoon, having been driven from place to place by contrary winds, and
having entirely failed of the object for which he undertook the
voyage."[5]
[5] Gammell's History of American Baptist Missions.