Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.

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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 coincidence 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 Fuerst, 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.

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.

Under the circumstances stated in the preceding chapter, Mr. Adams
returned to the United States in no disposition to coaelesce with either
division of the Federal party. He regarded it as fortunate for himself
that events, in producing which he had no agency, had placed him in a
position free from any constructive pledges to a party which in its
original form no longer existed, and at liberty to shape his future
course according to his own independent views of private interest and
public duty. Resuming his residence in Boston, and his place at the bar
of Massachusetts, under circumstances far from being pleasant or
encouraging, after eight years' employment in foreign official stations,
he had old studies to revise, and new statutes and recent decisions to
explore. To the broad field of diplomacy had succeeded the intricate and
narrow windings of special pleading and local laws. His juniors were in
the field; by the failure of European bankers his property had been
diminished; he had a family to support; yet, neither dispirited nor
complaining, he reentered his profession, and, devoting his leisure
hours to literature and science, apparently abandoned the political
arena, without manifesting a design or desire to return to it. But he
was not destined to remain long in private life. At this period the
Federalists had lost the control of national affairs, but they retained
their superiority in Massachusetts. Their union as a party was not
sustained by the same identity of feeling and view by which, in earlier
periods, it had been characterized. It was cemented rather by antipathy
to the prevailing power than by any hope of regaining it. A division,
more real than apparent, separated the friends of the elder Adams from
those who, uniting with Hamilton, had condemned his policy in the
presidency. The former were probably larger in number; the latter had
the advantage in talent, activity, and influence. Both soon united in
placing Mr. Adams in the Senate of the state, without any solicitation
or intimation of political coincidence from him. In this election the
opponents of his father's policy were acquiescent rather than content.
They knew the independence and self-relying spirit of Mr. Adams, his
restiveness in the trammels of party, his disposition to lead rather
than follow; and yielded silently to a result which they could not
prevent. The spirit which they anticipated was soon made evident.

At the annual organization of the state government it had been usual to
choose the members of the Governor's Council from his political friends.
Mr. Adams at once proposed to place in it one or more of his political
opponents. This measure, which he maintained was wise and prudent, was
regarded, according to the usual charity of party spirit, as designed to
gain favor with the Democracy, and was immediately rejected. In other
instances his disposition to think and act independently of the Federal
party was manifested, and was of course not acceptable to its leaders.

In November he was urged to accept a nomination as a member of the House
of Representatives in Congress. This he refused, saying that "he would
not stand in the way of Mr. Quincy,"[1] who had been the candidate at
the preceding election. This objection was immediately removed, by an
assurance of the previous determination of the latter to decline, and of
the satisfaction with which he regarded the nomination of Mr. Adams. The
result was unsuccessful. Out of _thirty-seven hundred votes_, William
Eustis was elected by a majority of _fifty-nine_. The newspapers
assigned as the cause that the day of the election was rainy. Mr. Adams
surmised that it was owing to the indifference to his success of the
leaders of the old Federal party, and remarked on the occasion, "This is
among the thousand proofs how large a portion of Federalism is a mere
fair-weather principle, too weak to overcome a shower of rain. It shows
the degree of dependence that can be placed on such friends. As a party
their adversaries are more sure and more earnest."

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