Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.

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"In my former letter I proposed that, to preserve entire and
unimpaired the Smithsonian fund, as the principal of a perpetual
annuity, the annual appropriations from its proceeds should be
strictly confined to its annual income; that, assuming the amount of
the fund to be five hundred thousand dollars, it should be so
invested as to secure a permanent yearly income of thirty thousand;
and that it should be committed to an incorporated board of
trustees, with a secretary and treasurer, the only person of the
board to receive a pecuniary compensation from the fund."

Mr. Adams then refers to a report made by C. F. Mercer, chairman of a
committee of the House of Representatives, on the 18th of March, 1826
(during his own administration), relative to the expenses of an
Observatory, for much valuable information, and thus proceeds:

"But, as it is desirable that the principal building, the
Observatory itself, should be, for the purposes of observation,
unsurpassed by any other edifice constructed for the same purposes,
I would devote one year's interest from the fund to the construction
of the buildings; a second and a third to constitute a fund, from
the income of which the salaries of the astronomer, his assistants
and attendants, should be paid; a fourth and fifth for the necessary
instruments and books; a sixth and seventh for a fund, from the
income of which the expense should be defrayed of publishing the
ephemeris of observation, and a yearly nautical almanac. These
appropriations may be so distributed as to apply a part of the
appropriation of each year to each of those necessary expenditures;
but for an establishment so complete as may do honor in all time
alike to the testator and his trustees, the United States of
America, I cannot reduce my estimate of the necessary expense below
two hundred thousand dollars.

"My principles for this disposal of funds are these:

"1st. That the most complete establishment of an Astronomical
Observatory in the world should be founded by the United States of
America; the whole expense of which, both its first cost and its
perpetual maintenance, should be amply provided for, without
costing one dollar either to the people or to the _principal_ sum
of the Smithsonian bequest.

"2d. That, by providing from the income alone of the fund a
supplementary fund, from the interest of which all the salaries
shall be paid, and all the annual expenses of publication shall be
defrayed, the fund itself would, instead of being impaired,
accumulate with the lapse of years. I do most fervently wish that
this principle might be made the fundamental law, now and hereafter,
so far as may be practicable, of all the appropriations of the
Smithsonian bequest.

"3d. That, by the establishment of an Observatory upon the largest
and most liberal scale, and providing for the publication of a
yearly nautical almanac, knowledge will be dispersed among men, the
reputation of our country will rise to honor and reverence among the
civilized nations of the earth, and our navigators and mariners on
every ocean be no longer dependent on English or French observers or
calculators for tables indispensable to conduct their path upon the
deep."

Mr. Adams, about this period, expressed himself with deep
dissatisfaction at the course pursued by the President relative to the
Smithsonian bequest, combining the general expression of a disposition
to aid his views with apparently a total indifference as to the
expenditure of the money. "The subject," said he, "weighs deeply upon my
mind. The private interests and sordid passions into which that fund has
already fallen fill me with anxiety and apprehensions that it will be
squandered upon cormorants, or wasted in electioneering bribery. Almost
all the heads of department are indifferent to its application according
to the testator's bequest; distinguished senators open or disguised
enemies to the establishment of the institution in any form. The utter
prostration of public spirit in the Senate, proved by the selfish
project to apply it to the establishment of a university; the investment
of the whole fund, more than half a million of dollars, in Arkansas and
Michigan state stocks; the mean trick of filching ten thousand dollars,
last winter, to pay for the charges of procuring it, are all so utterly
discouraging that I despair of effecting anything for the honor of the
country, or even to accomplish the purpose of the bequest, the increase
and diffusion of knowledge among men. It is hard to toil through life
for a great purpose, with a conviction that it will be in vain; but
possibly seed now sown may bring forth some good fruits. In my report,
in January, 1836, I laid down all the general principles on which the
fund should have been accepted and administered. I was then wholly
successful. My bill passed without opposition, and under its provisions
the money was procured and deposited in the treasury in gold. If I
cannot prevent the disgrace of the country by the failure of the
testator's intention, I can leave a record to future time of what I have
done, and what I would have done, to accomplish the great design, if
executed well. And let not the supplication to the Author of Good be
wanting."

In November, 1838, the anti-slavery party made the immediate abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia a test question, on which Mr.
Adams remarked: "This is absurd, because notoriously impracticable. The
house would refuse to consider the question two to one." Writing on the
same subject, in December of the same year, "I doubt," said he, "if
there are five members in the house who would vote to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia at this time. The conflict between the
principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an
issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the
approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the
councils of Omnipotence I cannot doubt. It is a part of the great moral
improvement in the condition of man attested by all the records of
history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of
improvement retrograde, before its final progress to consummation."

In January, 1839, Mr. Adams, in presenting a large number of petitions
for the abolition of slavery, asked leave to explain to the house his
reasons for the course he had adopted in relation to petitions of this
character. He asked it as a courtesy. He had received a mass of letters
threatening him with assassination for this course. His real position
was not understood by his country. The house having granted the leave,
he proceeded to state that, although he had zealously advocated the
right to petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, he was not himself then, prepared to grant their prayer; that,
if the question should be presented at once, he should vote against it.
He knew not what change might be produced on his mind by a full and fair
discussion, but he had not yet seen any reason to change his opinion,
although he had read all that abolitionists themselves had written and
published on the subject. He then presented the petitions, and moved
appropriate resolutions.

On the 21st of February, 1839, Mr. Adams presented to the house several
resolutions, proposing, in the form prescribed by the constitution of
the United States, 1st. That after the 4th day of July, 1842, there
shall be no hereditary slavery in the United States, and that every
child born on and after that day, within the United States and their
territories, shall be born free. 2d. That, with exception of Florida,
there shall henceforth never be admitted into this Union any state the
constitution of which shall tolerate within the same the existence of
slavery. 3d That from and after the 4th of July, 1848, there shall be
neither slavery nor slave-trade at the seat of government of the United
States.

Mr. Adams proceeded to state that he had in his possession a paper,
which he desired to present, and on which these resolutions were
founded. It was a petition from John Jay, and forty-three most
respectable citizens of the city of New York. Being here interrupted by
violent cries of "Order!" he at that time refrained from further
pressing the subject.

On the 30th of April, 1839, Mr. Adams delivered before the Historical
Society of New York a discourse entitled "The Jubilee of the
Constitution;" it being the fiftieth year after the inauguration of
George Washington as President of the United States. Of all his
occasional productions, this was, probably, the most labored. In it he
traces the history of the constitution of the United States from the
period antecedent to the American Revolution, through the events of that
war, to the circumstances which led to its adoption, concluding with a
solemn admonition to adhere to the principles of the Declaration of
Independence, practically interwoven into the constitution of the United
States.

In October, 1839, in an address to the inhabitants of Braintree, of
which "Education" was the topic, he traces that of New England to the
Christian religion, of which the Bible was the text-book and foundation,
and the revelation of eternal life. He then illustrated the history of
that religion by recapitulating the difficulties it had to encounter
through ages of persecution; commented upon the ecclesiastical hierarchy
established under Constantine, and the abuses arising from the policy of
the Church of Rome, until their final exposure by Martin Luther, out of
which emanated the Protestant faith. The display of learning, the power
of reasoning, and the suggestive thoughts, in this occasional essay,
exhibit the extent and depth of his studies of the sacred volume, to
which, more than to any other, the strength of his mind had been
devoted.

About this time was published in the newspapers a letter from Mr. Adams
to Dr. Thomas Sewall, concerning his two letters on Phrenology, and
giving his own opinion on that subject in the following characteristic
language: "I have never been able to persuade myself to think of the
_science of Phrenology_ as a _serious_ speculation. I have classed it
with judicial astrology, with alchemy, and with _augury_; and, as
Cicero says he wonders how two Roman augurs could have looked each
other in the face without laughing, I have felt something of the same
surprise that two learned phrenologists can meet without like
temptation. But, as it has been said of Bishop Berkeley's anti-material
system, that he has demonstrated, beyond the possibility of refutation,
what no man in his senses can believe, so, without your assistance, I
should never have been able to encounter the system of thirty-three or
thirty-five faculties of the immortal soul all clustered on the blind
side of the head. I thank you for furnishing me with argument to meet
the doctors who pack up the five senses in thirty-five parcels of the
brain. I hope your lectures will be successful in recalling the sober
sense of the _material_ philosophers to the dignity of an
_imperishable_ mind."

With an urgent request, contained in a letter dated the 28th of June,
1839, for his opinion on the constitutionality and expediency of the
law, then recently sanctioned by two Legislatures of Massachusetts,
called the license law, Mr. Adams declined complying, for reasons stated
at length. He regarded the purpose of the law as "in the highest degree
pure, patriotic, and benevolent." It had, however, given rise to two
evils, which were already manifested. "The first, a spirit of concerted
and determined resistance to its execution. The second, a concerted
effort to turn the dissatisfaction of the people with the law into a
political engine against the administration of the state. There is no
duty more impressive upon the Legislature than that of accommodating the
exercise of its power to the spirit of those over whom it is to operate.
Abstract right, deserving as it is of the profound reverence of every
ruler over men, is yet not the principle which must guide and govern his
conduct; and whoever undertakes to make it exclusively his guide will
soon find in the community a resistance that will overrule him and his
principles. The Supreme Ruler of the universe declares himself, in the
holy Scriptures, that, in dealing with the prevarications of his chosen
people, he sometimes gave them statutes which were _not good_."

On the 2d December, 1839, at the opening of the Twenty-Sixth Congress,
the clerk began to call the roll of the members, according to custom.
When he came to New Jersey, he stated that five seats of the members
from that state were contested, and that, not feeling himself authorized
to decide the question, he should pass over those names, and proceed
with the call. This gave rise to a general and violent debate on the
steps to be pursued under such circumstances. It was declared by Mr.
Adams that the proceeding of the clerk was evidently preconcerted to
exclude the five members from New Jersey from voting at the organization
of the house. Innumerable questions were raised, but the house could not
agree upon the mode of proceeding, and from the 2d to the 5th it
remained in a perfectly disorganized state, and in apparently
inextricable confusion. The remainder of the scene is thus described, in
the newspapers, by one apparently an eye-witness:

"Mr. Adams, from the opening of this scene of confusion and anarchy,
had maintained a profound silence. He appeared to be engaged most of
the time in writing. To a common observer he seemed to be reckless
of everything around him. But nothing, not the slightest incident,
escaped him.

"The fourth day of the struggle had now commenced. Mr. Hugh A.
Garland, the clerk, was directed to call the roll again. He
commenced with Maine, as usual in those days, and was proceeding
towards Massachusetts. I turned and saw that Mr. Adams was ready to
get the floor at the earliest moment possible. His eye was riveted
on the clerk, his hands clasped the front edge of his desk, where he
always placed them to assist him in rising. He looked, in the
language of Otway, like a 'fowler eager for his prey,'

"'New Jersey!' ejaculated Mr. Hugh Garland, 'and--'

"Mr. Adams immediately sprang to the floor.

"'I rise to interrupt the clerk,' was his first exclamation.

"'Silence! Silence!' resounded through the hall. 'Hear him! Hear
him! Hear what he has to say! Hear John Quincy Adams!' was
vociferated on all sides.

"In an instant the most profound stillness reigned throughout the
hall,--you might have heard a leaf of paper fall in any part of
it,--and every eye was riveted on the venerable Nestor of
Massachusetts--the purest of statesmen, and the noblest of men! He
paused for a moment, and, having given Mr. Garland a withering look,
he proceeded to address the multitude.

"'It was not my intention,' said he, 'to take any part in these
extraordinary proceedings. I had hoped this house would succeed in
organizing itself; that a speaker and clerk would be elected, and
that the ordinary business of legislation would be progressed in.
This is not the time or place to discuss the merits of conflicting
claimants from New Jersey. That subject belongs to the House of
Representatives, which, by the constitution, is made the ultimate
arbiter of the qualifications of its members. But what a spectacle
we here present! We degrade and disgrace our constituents and the
country. We do not and cannot organize; and why? Because the clerk
of this house--the mere clerk, whom we create, whom we employ, and
whose existence depends upon our will--usurps the _throne_, and
sets us, the representatives, the vicegerents of the whole American
people, at defiance, and holds us in contempt! And what is this
clerk of yours? Is he to suspend, by his mere negative, the
functions of government, and put an end to this Congress? He
refuses to call the roll! It is in your power to compel him to call
it, if he will not do it voluntarily.' [Here he was interrupted by
a member, who said that he was authorized to say that compulsion
could not reach the clerk, who had avowed that he would resign
rather than call the State of New Jersey.] 'Well, sir, let him
resign,' continued Mr. Adams, 'and we may possibly discover some
way by which we can get along without the aid of his all-powerful
talent, learning, and genius!

"'If we cannot organize in any other way,--if this clerk of yours
will not consent to our discharging the trust confided to us by our
constituents,--then let us imitate the example of the Virginia House
of Burgesses, which, when the colonial Governor Dinwiddie ordered it
to disperse, refused to obey the imperious and insulting mandate,
and, like men--'

"The multitude could not contain or repress their enthusiasm any
longer, but saluted the eloquent and indignant speaker, and
interrupted him with loud and deafening cheers, which seemed to
shake the capitol to its centre. The very genii of applause and
enthusiasm seemed to float in the atmosphere of the hall, and every
heart expanded with an indescribable feeling of pride and
exultation. The turmoil, the darkness, the very 'chaos of anarchy,'
which had for three successive days pervaded the American Congress,
was dispelled by the magic, the talismanic eloquence, of a single
man; and once more the wheels of government and legislation were put
in motion.

"Having, by this powerful appeal, brought the yet unorganized
assembly to a perception of its hazardous position, he submitted a
motion requiring the acting clerk to call the roll. Accordingly Mr.
Adams was interrupted by a burst of voices demanding, 'How shall the
question be put?' 'Who will put the question?' The voice of Mr.
Adams was heard above the tumult: 'I intend to put the question
myself!' That word brought order out of chaos. There was the master
mind.

"As soon as the multitude had recovered itself, and the excitement
of irrepressible enthusiasm had abated, Mr. Richard Barnwell Rhett,
of South Carolina, leaped upon one of the desks, waved his hand, and
exclaimed: 'I move that the Honorable John Quincy Adams take the
chair of the Speaker of the house, and officiate as presiding
officer till the house be organized by the election of its
constitutional officers. As many as are agreed to this will say Ay;
those--'

"He had not an opportunity to complete the sentence, 'those who are
not agreed will say No;' for one universal, deafening, thundering
AY responded to the nomination.

"Hereupon it was moved and ordered that Lewis Williams, of North
Carolina, and Richard Barnwell Rhett, conduct John Quincy Adams to
the chair.

"Well did Mr. Wise, of Virginia, say: 'Sir, I regard it as the
proudest hour of your life; and if, when you shall be gathered to
your fathers, I were asked to select the words which, in my
judgment, are best calculated to give at once the character of the
man, I would inscribe upon your tomb this sentence: _I will put
the question myself_.'"

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 OF 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.

On the 5th of March, 1840, Mr. Adams, as chairman of the select
committee on the Smithsonian bequest, made a report, in which he
recapitulated all the material facts which had previously occurred
relative to the acceptance of this fund, and entered into the motives
which prevailed with the former committee as to its disposal. It
appeared from this report, which was accompanied by a publication of all
the documents connected with the subject up to that period, that the
fund had been received, and paid into the Treasury, and invested in
state stocks, and that the President now invited the attention of
Congress to the obligation devolving upon the United States to fulfil
the object of the bequest. While this message was under consideration
various projects for disposing of the funds had been presented by
individuals, in memorials, concerning which the report states that they
generally contemplated the establishment of a school, college, or
university, proposing expenditures absorbing the whole in the erection
of buildings, and leaving little or nothing for the improvement of
future ages. "In most of these projects," says Mr. Adams, "there might
be perceived purposes of personal accommodation and emolument to the
projectors, more adapted to the promotion of their own interest than to
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

While these memorials and the subject of the disposal of the whole
Smithson fund were before the select committee, a resolution came from
the Senate appointing "a joint committee, consisting of seven members of
the Senate, and such a number as the House of Representatives should
appoint, to consider the expediency of providing an institution of
learning, to be established at the city of Washington, for the
application of the legacy bequeathed by James Smithson, of London, to
the United States, in trust for that purpose." The House, out of
courtesy to the Senate, concurred in their resolution, and added on
their part the members of that of which Mr. Adams was chairman.

The propositions of the committee on the part of the House and that on
the part of the Senate were so widely at variance, that it was found
that no result could be obtained in which both committees would concur.
It was finally agreed that the committee on the part of the House should
report their project to the House for consideration. Mr. Adams,
thereupon, as chairman, reported a series of resolutions, substantially
of the following import: That the whole Smithson fund should be vested
in a corporate body of trustees, to remain, under the pledge of the
faith of the United States, undiminished and unimpaired, at an interest
yielding annually six per cent., appropriated to the declared purpose of
the founder, exclusively from the interest, and not in any part from the
principal,--the first appropriation of interest to be applied for the
erection of an astronomical observatory, and for the various objects
incident to such an establishment;--that the education of youth had not
for its object the _increase_ and diffusion of knowledge among men,
but the endowment of individuals with knowledge already acquired; and
the Smithson fund should not be applied to the purpose of education, or
to any school, college, university, or institution of education.

The chairman of the committee of the Senate, in their behalf, presented
counter resolutions, disapproving the application of any part of the
funds to the establishment of an astronomical observatory, and urging
the appropriation of them to the establishment of a university. The
bill prepared by the House is presented at large in this report,
accompanied with the argument in its support, prepared by Mr. Adams
with a strength and fulness to which no abstract can do justice. In
this argument he illustrates the reasons for preserving the principal
of the fund unimpaired, and confining all expenditures from it to the
annual interest; also those which preclude any portion of it to be
applied to any institution for education; showing, from the peculiar
expressions of the testator, that it could not have been his intention
that the fund should be applied in this manner. He then proceeds to
set forth the reasons why the income of the fund should in the first
instance be applied to an astronomical observatory, without intending
to exclude any branch of human knowledge from its equitable share of
this benefaction. The importance of this object he thus eloquently
illustrates: "The express object of Mr. Smithson's bequest is the
_diffusion of knowledge_ among men. IT IS KNOWLEDGE, the source of
all human wisdom, and of all beneficent power; knowledge, as far
transcending the postulated lever of Archimedes as the universe
transcends this speck of earth upon its face; knowledge, the attribute
of Omnipotence, of which man alone, in the physical and material world,
is permitted to anticipate."

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